When Christian Benteke scores a brace after not scoring in what felt like a decade, you know that we are in for a wild week of Fantasy Premier League. And that is exactly what we got.
A total of 30 goals were scored across the nine Premier League games (with Villa/Newcastle getting axed) this past weekend and all of the big names showed up and contributed. Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane each scored and assisted each others goal. Kevin De Bruyne had a goal and an assist. Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored ANOTHER goal. And our own Wilfried Zaha continued his amazing start to the season notching a brace to go along with an assist against the Baggies.
But wait, there’s more!
Mo Salah got on the scoresheet with a goal and an assist. Raheem Sterling did the same. Kurt Zouma scored his his fourth goal and Jannik Vestergaard scored his third. Not bad for a couple of central defenders. Big names scoring big points to help fantasy owners across the globe. It was not all that uncommon to see teams put up scores in the triple digits this week. In fact, the TEB Fantasy League had NINE such clubs top the 100 point barrier. Speaking of…
Let’s take a look at the standings through week 11
We have a new leader in the clubhouse. Team owner Andy Ridgway and his team, aptly named FFS Roy!, took over the top spot this week with an impressive 94 point haul. Even more impressive is that he scored those 94 points while drawing two blanks from his three defender lineup. A captained Mo Salah, Wilf’s stellar day, coupled with the two headed Spurs monster lead the way for the new table topper.
We had a tie for top score of the week between “Zaha’s the star” managed by Diane Pick and “Batshuayi I’m Eze” managed by Daniel Allan. Both squads scored a robust 106 points and both, not surprisingly, featured one Dazet Wilfried Armel Zaha. What is surprising is that the team named after the Palace talisman did not captain the all time leading scorer in the Premier League for the club. Whereas the team named for Wilf’s teammates did slip the armband on Wilf.
Don’t look now but team Rhythm is a Dancer is climbing the charts and I have my eyes set on the top 175….
Hey, its a start right? You can’t climb up the charts if you don’t start from the bottom. Overall it was a very solid gameweek for your favorite American Palace fan. I cashed in 84 points lead by the majority of the players that I spoke of earlier. Son, Kane, De Bruyne, DCL, all on the squad. For now I like having Son as my captain but that could change soon with the difficult run of fixtures that Tottenham will run up against.
Fantasy advise for Gameweek 12 and beyond…
My biggest piece of advice heading into this weekends fixtures is that you should NOT take any advice that I give on this website. Like, none of it. The only good advice that I’ve given to you was to hold on to Son and Kane because the Spurs goals needed to come from somewhere. What I did not foresee is that literally, if the Spurs score a goal its scored by one and assisted by the other.
I praised Chelsea keeper Mendy last week: clean sheet streak snapped
Speaking of Chelsea players that I recommended: Hakim Ziyech is hurt and not expected back until boxing day.
Also last week I recommended everyone to take a look at Pedro Neto from Wolves: shut out in a 4-0 loss to Liverpool
I suppose one good call and someone that I still believe should be in everyone’s staring lineup is Bruno Fernandes. He didn’t even start the game for Manchester United as they squared off with West Ham. He came onto the pitch at halftime and completely turned the game around for the Red Devils. So much so, that despite not registering a goal nor an assist, the Portuguese international still racked up the highest bonus point total for the match.
My only advice that I have this week, if you choose to follow it (which I don’t recommend), is to LOAD up on Manchester City players. The Manchester derby is the featured bout of the weekend and United are reeling from being eliminated from the Champions League. With the elimination from the greatest club tournament on the planet comes the inevitable sacking rumors for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the fever pitch of a Pochettino coming in to save the day for United. (Personally? I don’t see this happening…
Yet
Palace Quick Hits
- Wilf is back and I hope he never leaves us. It’s quite remarkable how the squad performs with and without him on the pitch. Is he the most important player in the Premier League? Some people are saying (It’s me).
- I am over the moon happy for Christian Benteke. He has had a lot of flack from Palace fans (yours included) and for the most part it has been rightfully earned. To see him get back on the score sheet in the manner he did was amazing. No one wants Tekkers to score more than Palace fans and you could feel the togetherness within the squad as they all went to celebrate after his first goal.
- If there was a 6 hour long video of Ebe Eze skating around players on the pitch, I would watch it multiple times. What a player he is with the ball at his feet. So effortless. So smooth
- 5 goals were the most ever scored by Palace playing away from home in the Premier League. After back to back scoreless games to teams below them on the table, it was nice to see Palace turn the screw on an under matched team for once. Far too often they play up or down to their opposition. Palace did exactly that in the first half against West Brom. They came out in the 2nd half like a team possessed and got the vitally important three points.
- FANS ARE BACK AT SELHURST ON SUNDAY!!!
Another big test looms Sunday as Palace welcome top of the table Spurs to Selhurst.
And for the first time since March, the Palace faithful will be in full voice, even if it is only 2,000 of them. Will it help the mighty Red and Blue get over the line versus The Special One and his in form Spurs? We will see Sunday!
UP THE PALACE!!!!
