Az and the Fantasy Football Manager community secured another win in the latest episode of ‘Football Manager – FPL Style’.
This time the scores were much closer but there was still a 16-point margin of victory.
After an Allan Saint-Maximin (£5.4m) captaincy stole the show in Gameweek 30, our exploits in Blank Gameweek 31 were all about Manchester United.
With the FA Cup taking a different route to real life in our Football Manager save, the fixtures in this Blank Gameweek were a little different to what would have been in real life.
There was no Liverpool to rely on but an in-form Manchester United side offered up a tasty home encounter with Sheffield United – who had to play without Dean Henderson (£5.3m), ineligible against his parent club.
Therefore, both David and Az opted for a triple-up of Red Devils’ assets but there were still contrasting fortunes.
After seeing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men score four times at Spurs in Gameweek 30, the FFS editorial team went for Bruno Fernandes (£8.6m), Anthony Martial (£8.0m) and Marcus Rashford (£8.8m) – but only one of them actually took to the pitch.
Martial recorded a goal and an assist while Fernandes and Rashford watched on from the stands, not even on the substitute’s bench.
While both of those players scored zero points, Az’s triple-up was configured to include Harry Maguire (£5.3m) instead of Fernandes.
So it was no surprise to see the central defender go on to be the top-scoring player for his team, scoring one of the goals in a 4-0 win and keeping a clean sheet in the process.
Scoring 14 points, that helped Az and the community to a 59-point score for the Gameweek, while David and FFS editorial team managed just 43.
As per usual, things got off to a poor start for David’s team as we began with a meeting between Burnley and Watford at Turf Moor.
He had doubled-up on the Clarets’ defence with Nick Pope (£4.9m) and Charlie Taylor (£4.3m) but, setting the trend for the rest of the Gameweek, the latter was a no-show.
In a very uncharacteristic move, the virtual Sean Dyche in question started Ben Mee (£5.0m) at left-back, opting for a centre-back pairing of James Tarkowski (£5.2m) and Ben Gibson (£3.9m).
It then went from bad to worse when Troy Deeney (£6.2m) scored the only goal of the game to wipeout Pope’s clean sheet.
That goal also stung for Az and the community, as they were also invested in Burnley’s goalkeeper, but a vote on the FFS site in the build-up to Blank Gameweek 31 saw Chris Wood (£6.1m) selected over Deeney.
After both competitors benefitted from Richarlison‘s (£8.3m) six points in a 4-0 win at Norwich, everything came to a head in the final three matches of the Gameweek – which all occurred at the same time.
While we watched the Manchester United game, our captains were both in action for Wolves against Bournemouth.
Both the community and the editorial team had opted to put the armband on Raúl Jiménez (£8.1m), while the FFS side paired him with Diogo Jota (£6.4m).
Both forwards ended up blanking as Wolves were handed an unexpected home defeat to the Cherries.
After taking a first-half lead, Nuno Espirito Santo’s men were undone by a Callum Wilson (£7.4m) brace, reducing Matt Doherty‘s (£6.3m) score to just one point.
At the same time, Leicester were 2-0 winners over Brighton. Both Az and David got six and 12 points from Ricardo Pereira (£6.3m) and James Maddison (£7.5m).
What about our ongoing prediction?
While we are using our Football Manager save to satisfy our cravings for FPL action, we are also running a prediction on how the 2019/20 season would have ended had the Premier League not been suspended.
Things mostly changed in the race for the top-four and safety from relegation in this latest round.
Here are the results and table in full:
Blank Gameweek 31 results
- Burnley 0-1 Watford
- Norwich City 0-4 Everton
- Manchester United 4-0 Sheffield United
- Wolves 1-2 Bournemouth
- Leicester 2-0 Brighton
As you can see, things look very good for Watford and Bournemouth after much-needed away wins, each one of them arguably surprising in nature.
The two clubs used this game in hand to pull away from the relegation zone although their results were, obviously, bad news for Brighton, West Ham and Aston Villa.
Manchester United’s win over Sheffield United was huge in the race for European football.
Not only did they thrash a team also in the hunt by seeing off Sheffield United, but they also achieved that on a day when Wolves slipped up against Bournemouth.
Keep an eye out as we preview Gameweek 32 later this week, as our ‘Football Manager – FPL Style’ continues.
