The Pre-Match Preamble – Gameweek 30

For all the noise surrounding double Gameweeks and chips, perhaps it’s weekends like this that really decide our season.

There’s no question that Gameweek 30 is a problem child. The usual methods just don’t apply. We have injuries and fatigue, the uncertainty of rotation ahead of a midweek programme and, on top of that, the fixtures conspire to reveal no obvious candidate for the captaincy.

It seems likely that we will see a sizeable split among the Fantasy Premier League managers – the armband is set to be thrown far and wide and, should one potential target break out with a haul, Gameweek 30 could be seismic.

I’m finding this troubling. While my decision making has been sound of late, it’s been founded on a wild, almost scatter gun approach to transfers – bring in 3-4 players and one has delivered big. For all its success, it’s not a particularly clever tactic and, to be honest, I’ve been riding my luck.

My natural instinct for Gameweek 30 is to regress back into the shell, hunker down and let it pass overhead. While some can say that this is a time to take risks, I see it from another perspective.

The “gamble” appears to be tied up in the armband – spending points on transfers alongside it seems somewhat unsound. I have to hope that, even if I get the captaincy wrong, I have the big scorers covered and can cushion the impact should one of them explode.

Maybe that helps make the key decision.

Those assets most capable of delivering double figure hauls are surely the most likely to create a sea change in Gameweek 30. Diego Costa, for all his consistency, has not demonstrated the output to wound his non-owners with a 20-point haul. Alexis Sanchez seems a more likely executioner.

Currently, that’s guiding my thoughts. I have Sanchez and, while I recognise City as a more than capable opponent, I also see a player with an insatiable hunger to impress – a talent that can override Arsenal’s current misery.

Gylfi Sigurdsson is my other contender. A different animal entirely; while he’s not as combustible as Sanchez, he has provided three double-digit returns at home and against “weaker” opponents. Middlesbrough fit that profile nicely.

Swansea City have to target three points and the visitors, under their new regime, have to start to show some ambition rather than revert to Aitor Karanka’s turgid tactics of the past. It will be edgy, but an early goal might open it up for Sigurdsson.

I’m pretty sure that he takes the corners, penalties free-kicks, announces the line-ups over the PA system and takes the nets down at the end of the day. Sigurdsson is Swansea – if there’s goals for Clement’s men, I surely have to get points from it.

Both Sanchez and Sigurdsson have delivered in seven of their last eight Gameweeks, which tells me that rewards are on the cards, regardless of where my dart lands at 11.29.

Owning both, along with the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Sergio Aguero, could just be vital to the damage limitation process.

It’s perhaps not one decision that will see my through Gameweek 30 intact; it’s all those previous moves that have helped me acquire a cast of heavy-hitters than can hopefully cover the weekend’s big scorer.

But if Liverpool go mad, I’m done for. The problem child will have thrown a vicious tantrum to wreck my weekend within the first few hours.