The Pre-Match Preamble – Gameweek 13

So last week’s armband was misplaced although, having dropped just over 500 places in rank, I have to consider that I got away with it.

While the choice between Sergio Aguero and Diego Costa will be made that bit easier by home and away rotation from Gameweek 14, it’s still a quandary ahead of 11.30 for this week. Right now, it looks like I’m going to refuse to make it and ignore both.

With two free transfers banked, I’ve spent the week hopelessly deliberating options. I’ve concluded that, while arming myself with a pair of transfers increases the possibilities, it also intensifies the selection headache and makes decisions all the more difficult.

I had hoped that the injuries that blighted Gameweek 12, leaving me with just ten men, would present a solution. That’s failed to materialise: as it stands, all four of Leighton Baines, Stewart Downing, Nacer Chadli and Danny Welbeck have a chance of pitch time, so there was no obvious route to take.

Welbeck has grown to become a major concern for me – few us of can afford to carry a passenger in the striker slot, and while Alexis Sanchez has papered over the cracks, both for my team and Arsene Wenger’s, there’s no question that Welbeck’s goal output and the threat from Olivier Giroud (no, really) meant he had to go. That decision was made early enough.

Showing Dusan Tadic the door was the other obvious option. Unconvincing at Villa until he moved up behind Graziano Pelle, his performance on Monday night offered me little reason to keep faith. I’d talked about Danny Ings and Eden Hazard in for Welbek and Tadic for a fortnight – that was a clear option but, in the end, I decided against it.

Hazard has struggled to find goals away from home, and with Costa up front, I’ve perhaps enough Chelsea attacking cover for the banana skin trip to Sunderland. As for Ings, I certainly like him against Villa but I’m unconvinced that Burnley can maintain momentum and, with George Boyd as my fifth midfielder, the thought of being reliant on a Claret every week was spooking me.

Then there was the fact that I was left with ten men last weekend, and with a midweek Gameweek and a busy Christmas period looming, I would need a healthy bench. So it was time to rid myself of Leicester’s Liam Moore, grabbing a short-term budget option in Swansea’s Kyle Bartley and making room for the muscular Wilfried Bony to barge his way between Costa and Aguero.

I now have Bartley, Calum Chambers and Boyd to come from my bench to repair any of those yellow flags this weekend and I should have 14 active players to handle the midweek rotation threat. That feels a lot better.

Bony was always my prime target. Incredibly consistent with a goal every other game in the Premier League, I can see him bettering that against Palace and QPR over the next two at the Liberty. Even after these quick-fire Gameweeks, Bony’s fixtures may make it difficult for me to show him the door. He’ll depart in January for the African Nations Cup but I reckon he’ll have four or five more goals by then and I’ll have made a few quid.

Do I fancy him enough to back him with the armband? That’s another call. I certainly think that Bony, Aguero and Costa are all likely to return goals in the Gameweek. Having Bony (along with holding Tadic) is a differential in itself so maybe seeking to double his points is unnecessary.

Having said that, I do wonder how big a risk it is to look beyond Aguero and Costa and whether either will explode given their fixtures at Southampton and Sunderland – I’m expecting a goal apiece at best (bookmark this).

Right now, the armband is on Bony. Many around me will be backing Gylfi Sigurdsson as Swansea cover and sticking with Costa or Aguero – I’m about to roll the dice this week and hope that, if Bony lets me down against Palace, he’ll make up the difference for me in midweek.

I never like to see Neil Warnock smiling on a Saturday evening – if that’s the case tonight, it’s a good bet that I’ll be drowning in Gameweek misery.