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The Fantasy Football Suffix - Gameweek 24

8 Feb. 2015

Welcome back to Part Two of the round-up of the weekend's FPL action. With no Monday Night Football this week due to the midweek games, you will know by the time you read this if your week ended with green or red arrows. After a low goal count yesterday, it was down to the three remaining fixtures to see if they could improve the gameweek average.


BUR v WBA

The action started at Turf Moor, with Burnley naming an unchanged starting XI for the tenth game in a row. By contrast, Albion manager left top scorer Saido Berahino on the bench, and named debutant Darren Fletcher as captain. High ownership defender Andre Wisdom also made way for Chris Baird. The game was barely 11 minutes old when Burnley's Ashley Barnes latched onto a ball from Danny Ings and headed home his fifth goal of the season. Berahino did make it off the bench for West Brom shortly after, replacing the injured Anichebe. Burnley doubled their advantage a few minutes later with Danny Ings slotting home George Boyd's cross for goal number 8 of his season; his 4th in the last 5 games. With Boyd being this seasons popular choice of first sub, these points will be very welcome to many this evening if he comes in for one of this weekends “big” names who missed out through injury. With West Brom looking to be out of the contest, it was a huge boost when Chris Brunt stole in at the back post to send his team in at the interval only 2-1 down. The assist was provided by Callum McManaman. Manager Tony Pulis made a tactical switch, swapping Baird for a forward in the form of Brown Ideye. It paid off with Ideye scoring the equaliser, with Brunt this time turning provider. The match ended 2-2 in what was billed beforehand as a relegation six pointer.

  • Brunt - 3pt
  • Ings - 2pts
  • Barnes - 1pt


NEW v STO

Our focus then turned to the North East, where Newcastle welcomed Stoke with both teams full of confidence following wins last week over Hull and QPR respectively. Pre-match reports of hat-trick hero Jon Walters missing for Stoke due to injury proved unfounded, and he took his place in the starting lineup. Both teams went in at the break deadlocked, and early in the second half Geoff Cameron replaced the injured Marc Wilson, in a change that would prove crucial late on. Newcastle scored in the 74th minute with Jack Colback grabbing his third of the season assisted by Moussa Sissoko. Stoke brought Peter Crouch on late in the game, and it was he who combined with Cameron to head home an equaliser deep in injury time. He can steal Alan Shearer's record of “Most Headed Goals” in the Premier League if he scores just three more. 1-1 was probably a fair result on reflection. Newcastle will no doubt feel robbed, as will the 13.2% of FPL managers who have the Toon goalkeeper in their team and who were already counting his clean sheet points into their weekly total. Not so much Tim Krul as Tim Cruel...

  • Colback - 3pts
  • Crouch & Sissoko - 2pts


WHU v MUN

The final fixture of GW24 was between West Ham and Manchester United, with Louis van Gaal continuing his odd strategy of playing Wayne Rooney in midfield, much to the annoyance of the 18.9% of managers who have stuck by him. His last return of anything but appearance points came back in GW18 on Boxing Day. The first half was a drab affair with the score at the interval 0-0. In the second half, West Ham scored, with Chiekhou Kouyaté controlling the ball from Mark Noble and firing home past De Gea. Van Gaal refused to change anything until bringing on Fellaini for Januzaj with 20 minutes remaining. Just as it looked like the 3 points would be going to West Ham, as in the previous game this afternoon, a late equaliser materialised when Daley Blind latched onto a loose ball and volleyed home a stunning goal. Undeserved maybe, but today was the “Day of the Draws”, so perhaps somewhat inevitable. The drama wasn't over though, as Luke Shaw managed to have the last word in GW24 by picking up his second yellow card, and now faces a ban.

  • Blind - 3pts
  • Kouyaté - 2pts
  • Noble - 1pt


And so that brings us to the end of a somewhat odd gameweek. Clean sheets for Palace, Southampton, Everton and Liverpool. Another brace for Harry Kane and another away goal for Eden Hazard. One red card in the last minute of the last match for Luke Shaw. A fourth game in a row with no goal from Sergio Agüero. Yep, it wasn't a week that will live long in the memory, but with less than 48 hours until GW25, who cares?

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