The Pre-match Preamble – Gameweek 16

For some reason I’ve got it into my head that I always prosper at Christmas. That somehow my decision making, fuelled by sentimental movies and mince pies, clicks into groove and brings in a run of green arrows. I cling to it every year, point to it as a boom period that will see me push up the ranks.

In truth, there’s little or no proof to back up this theory. I seem to remember one season where I found festive fortune with a few armbands which suddenly transformed my campaign; ever since I’ve convinced myself that Christmas is “my time”.

I do wonder if there’s something in it, though – whether Christmas is a period that can suit a certain type of Fantasy manager. After all, with the quick-fire Gameweeks offering little time to ponder and procrastinate, it can favour those who go with their gut; those who ignore player prices and let instant decisions guide their transfer and armband strategies.

If a regular Gameweek is the equivalent of a striker having too much room and time with the goal gaping, the Christmas spell snaps like a centre-back pincer movement – Adams and Keown – breathing down our necks and giving us little option but to act on instinct.

That all means that, in football terms, I’m perhaps more Stephane Sessegnon than Sergio Aguero. Give me time to dwell on things and pick my spot and I’ll spoon it. Let’s face it, I’ve missed some sitters this season – Aaron Ramsey and Luis Suarez, to name just two. However, perhaps I’m now due a thirty-yard volley? An improbable, athletic scissor-kick from nowhere.

Ironically, Sessegnon’s manager has recently backed him for goals and, with bigger priorities elsewhere in my squad, I’ve also been forced to keep the faith. Maybe the Baggies man can still make my Christmas? Or perhaps I’m just heading for the inevitable – the indignity of buying myself a Ramsey and faking a grateful smile when he pops in yet another goal on Boxing Day.