Last day of the season turned out to be a bit of a non-event... I was 30ish points ahead going in and not far off that when the dust settled. But earlier on in the season I had work to do: after GW20 the league leader was 581st in the world and I was 146,238th (!), with a deficit of 127 points. It's more fun chasing down a lead than being a front runner, I think.

I agree.. and I was also very close on giving up on becoming the leader around january/feb but I was on a roll ever since It mostly had to do with good planning, which really made the difference for me. That was also the first time I organized my team like that. You learn

Yes, but that's exactly what you want with a lead. Desperation transfers by rivals that don't work and very few big hauls.

Quite unlike last year for me when I neglected to bring in Drogba for the last week and the 2nd place rival captained him in an 8-0 romp vs. Wigan when he scored a hat trick...Luckily I held on.

How right you are.

Also, in the light of my previous comment about it being fun chasing down a lead etc., I would like to state for the record that I will not be offering a start to anyone in my league at the beginning of next season.