This Much We Know – Gameweek 5

There’s no separating the Manchester sides as United and City each continue their title surges, but Harry Kane is only able to disappoint his disillusioned devotees.

Gameweek 5 is full of surprises, not all of them pleasant ones…

We need to get over our trust issues with Pep

Five excruciating Gameweeks in and it is all about damage limitation for those of us who eschewed heavy investment in the ephemeral charms of Pep Guardiola’s stars.

Even the briefest of glances at any Minutes Played charts had cemented our knowledge that the Etihad would be rotation central for his Sky Blues and we had reached the elementary conclusion that points would, therefore, be impossible to predict.

How wrong we were.

While an obstinate streak inside me still bleats about the fact that only Fernandinho has started and completed all 450 minutes, all the sand of the Sahara wouldn’t be enough to shield my senses from the truly imperative figures.

Sixteen goals for and only two against (a statistic spookily shared with their Old Trafford adversaries) has caused those of us who complacently avoided Pep’s players to belatedly accept City’s now inescapable message.

The Spaniard seems to be willing to manage minutes rather than stifle starts and does it really matter if your FPL asset harvests a double-figure points haul in 60 minutes rather than the full 90?

And ask a certain Argentinian for his forgiveness

For those of us who ignored the warnings, the only consolation is that we weren’t alone.

After his cameo appearance at Bournemouth, Sergio Aguero shed hundreds of thousands of owners, with nine points against Liverpool the following week only provoking a slight revival in ownership.

Aguero’s sensational 20-point haul against Watford – in which he converted three of his four on-target efforts and gained one assist from the three chances he created – didn’t tell the full story, with the frontman’s display reminiscent of a certain five-goal demolition of Newcastle United that is still the stuff of FPL folklore.

Indeed, with the slaughterhouse at five, the Argentine even had time to lament his magnanimous nature (and Raheem Sterling’s selfish desire to convert the penalty he himself had earned) before referee Andy Taylor finally put brought an end to the Hornets’ suffering.

Kun has been essential before – at two million pounds dearer.

But with home fixtures against Palace, Stoke, and Burnley sandwiching games against Shakhtar Donetsk and Chelsea, over 339,000 managers have decided since the weekend they could stomach some bench-time if he continues wolfing down an FPL point every nine minutes he is on the pitch.

Is Pochettino the new Pep?

As one of nearly a third of a million FPL managers to bring in Ben Davies this week – safe in the near certainty that the four-point hit would be recompensed by an inevitable clean sheet at home to shot-Scrooges Swansea – I chose to disregard what I considered to be only a slight rotation risk for the full-back.

Subsequent revelations that the Welshman may have been preserved to protect a slight injury did little to improve my mood or to satisfy me that some unnecessary tinkering had not taken place following Spurs’ midweek exertions against Borussia Dortmund.

As a luckless owner of Dele Alli and captainer of Harry Kane, I felt doubly, if not trebly, deflated – only Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil had created more than Davies’ 13 chances before Gameweek 5 kicked off.

Granted, I cannot hold Son Heung-min wholly culpable for the England pair’s failings, with the South Korean still creating three chances against Swansea. But Kane’s minutes per chance almost doubled from 12.7 (in Gameweeks 1-4) to 22.5 (in Gameweek 5) and I can’t help but feel that Davies’ absence may well have played a part.

Rotation or not, the growing anxiety over Spurs’ failure to break down defensive sides, and Kane’s own impotence in converting not a single league chance at Wembley, has seen hefty sales. Alli, Kane and Christian Eriksen are being ushered out of sides as FPL managers begin to wake up to the realisation that only the Manchester streets are paved with goals.

Better late than never

With 80 minutes played at Old Trafford yesterday, it looked as though many of the “lol at Harry Kane captainers” posters were about to be met by the equally sophisticated “lol at Romelu Lukaku captainers”.

Instead, United made it 16 goals in five matches, an incredible nine of which have been scored in the final ten minutes. Not exactly “Fergie Time”, but great news nonetheless for those who benefitted from Lukaku’s goal, assist and three bonus points.

Indeed, had a substitute winger not taken the penalty which he had earned – a familiar narrative – Lukaku could have left his owners flying even higher.

As it is, we don’t have conclusive proof as to whether the Belgian will reclaim penalty duties (following his previous miss against Leicester City) if the current designated taker, Juan Mata, is not on the pitch.

Five goals in as many matches, playing for a team which has created more big chances (20) than any other and trailing only Aguero on FPL points, you would imagine Lukaku’s huge ownership will only increase.

The Belgian is still leaking ownership, but his 12 points on Sunday have gradually reversed the trend and switched focus to Kane’s Gameweek 6 credentials.

We stand and fall by our own decisions

With no representation from Manchester City and only the less than prolific Phil Jones in my ranks, My Pretty Pony certainly backed the wrong horses this weekend in trebling up on Spurs’ assets and the marginally more prosperous selection of Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino.

As a result, there are now over one and a half million reasons obstructing my fourth consecutive three-figure finish.

The next 33 Gameweeks will be some battle, particularly with the embers of my precipitously spent Wildcard smouldering back in Gameweek 4.

However, like every one of the other five million players, my mistakes are my own, and the buck should always stop with the person who hits that Confirm Transfer or Confirm Team button.

We have an array of fantastic resources available to us, with more advice, statistics and debate than on the eve of a UK referendum, but when we allow ourselves to be swayed by the views of others, that is still our own decision.

I personally can’t point to any duff counsel upon which I’ve acted this season except my own, so maybe I just can’t empathise with the pain of those who were convinced by others not to bring in and captain Aguero this week, or who gave Jamaal Lascelles the boot because someone mentioned that David Luiz was definitely “due”.

All I can do is to implore people to remember Aristotle’s words that ‘It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it’.