The Headlines

Another Haaland hat-trick

Watching him miss those sitters in the Community Shield feels like a long time ago, eh? He certainly looked like the best captain on paper this week, but there was a lot of talk about whether Pep would rest him this game to prepare for a busy upcoming schedule. The collective gulp of Salah and Jesus captainers could be heard around the world when he showed up on the team sheet, followed by wracking sobs when he scored yet another hattie!

The consensus is that he’ll be rested against Villa, but why would Pep sub him off at 68 minutes in that case? With the kind of form he’s in, I don’t think I can resist throwing him the armband again. If he does play, even if it’s for a 15 minute cameo, I wouldn’t bet against him scoring.

If you have him, keep him. If you don’t, get him in at all costs.

Rodrigo’s injury

If you were one of the many managers who got the Brazilian in for GW4, you must be feeling a bit hard done by. His first blank of the season and then going off after 31 mins with a dislocated shoulder a week later. Jesse Marsch has said that he’s aiming to get Rodrigo back in action after the international break, so selling him is a no-brainer. Consider Groß, Gibbs-White or Harrison if you’re stuck for a replacement.

So how did I get on this week?

GW5 points: 64pts

Overall Rank: 588,890 -> 1,115,121

Feels Good Man

Haaland

His minutes certainly weren’t guaranteed, but I’m glad I took the risk on captaining him. Making the right captain choices is such a huge part of this game and, while both Salah and Jesus also got returns this week, the extra points from Haaland will have made a big difference to my rank.

Feels Bad Man

The template trundles on

I feel like a broken record at this point. The highly owned Cancelo and Martinelli once again tried their best to bury me, while my differential players like Gündogan and Eze got nothing going. My stubbornness might well be my undoing.

Pereira stays on my bench

I brought Eze in as a slightly more interesting upgrade from Dewsbury-Hall, so I could be ready for any rotation. Had I just played Pereira, I’d be three points and one transfer better off.

A pretty deflating gameweek all round. On paper though, my team looks fairly well equipped for GW6, so I’m going to resist the urge to do anything silly.

The Watchlist

Gibbs-White (£5.5)

As I mentioned earlier, you could do worse than bringing in the Forest midfielder as a cheap Rodrigo replacement. While his underlying stats are nothing to write home about, he does have the best xG of any Forest mid (0.49). With a very pleasant upcoming run of fixtures ( BOU | lee | FUL | lei | AVL ) there’s every chance that he’ll get up and running sooner rather than later.

Isak (£7.0)

The Swede signed with Newcastle exactly one week ago and immediately made a statement with a debut goal against Liverpool. With Wilson still sidelined with injury, Isak could find himself securing a starting spot going forward. If he can compete with Toney and Mitrovic in the budget forward stakes, then we might have some decisions to make on those upcoming wildcards.

Stats taken from Fantasy Football Hub