Nothing can be taken for granted this season.
Pep Guardiola’s teamsheet, Sergio Aguero’s ability to fluctuate from a frustrating liability to an essential goal machine and the Liverpool midfield: blessed with brilliance and then cruelly cursed by misfortune.
It was Manchester City who provided the early rise and fall on today’s rollercoaster, first reassuring some with Aguero’s presence on the teamsheet, while disappointing owners of Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Ilkay Gundogan.
Then Aguero took over.
Like Harry Kane in Gameweek 12, he transformed the most ordinary team performance into a personal haul that revived his stock and forced an immediate re-assessment of plans.
Strategies were re-written with Aguero’s brace, only to be torn up by the events that were to follow at Anfield.
We had such expectations of Jurgen Klopp’s attacking three against Sunderland but, when the whistle blew on Merseyside, we were left mainly with blanks, and the scars of Roberto Firmino hobbling off and Phillipe Coutinho stretchered from the field.
Following minor concerns for the Brazilian and Chelsea’s Eden Hazard over the international break, this latest setback appears far more significant.
We should perhaps wait on a scan and the full prognosis but, already the reaction to Coutinho’s agony has been marked: he tops the Fantasy Premier League “transfers out” column and will surely continue to shed owners before we know the true extent of the damage.
A possible tragedy in Liverpool’s superb season, for some Fantasy managers, the loss of Coutinho will be a game changer that opens up a new and all too convenient strategy.
Gylfi Sigurdsson’s relentless form that continued today in a dramatic 5-4 Swansea City victory lifts the Icelander to the forefront of our transfer thinking.
Along with Chelsea’s Pedro, he will surely vie to replace a potentially stricken Coutinho and, in doing so, free up funds to investigate Diego Costa, or more likely, the Harry Kane option in attack.
Those previously considering an exit for Aguero, myself included, may now be presented with an alternative route.
The 33% owned Romelu Lukaku could now be sacrificed with funds liberated from Coutinho’s sale providing a means to acquire Kane.
Aguero, thanks to his goals and a cruel twist of fate at Anfield, could now be locked in once again.
The City striker, along with the unfortunate Coutinho, were part of a turbulent day that offered a stark reminder to all of just how quickly fortunes can shift.
