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Fortunately, I do have the aid of CYKI's excellent interface with the gameweek history. I have reproduced the game-week history from the website below. As you can see the first 27 weeks or so were pretty average. I was in 156th place after week 27. I had a very good week 28 which was a double game week involving, amongst others, Spurs, Fulham and Blackburn. I had prepared for this by bringing in a couple of Blackburn defenders, Robbie Keane and a couple of Fulham players. I captained Robbie Keane and he promptly delivered with two goals and two assists over the two games. The 83 points pushed me into the top 100 for the first time. I then shifted to a merseyside defence (two Everton+two Liverpool) which served me well for a bit. My next big game week was week 31 where there were big scores for my captain Ronaldo, Lampard, Matt Taylor, Robbie Keane and James Beattie. Those 82 points fired me up to 20th and into contention for a prize.
The run-in
In gameweek 35 I think took a gamble that Ronaldo wouldn't play due to Champions League and brought in Gerrard for a very appetising looking home game against Newcastle and captained him. He only managed one assist, though I recall he hit the woodwork at least once (I seem to remember swearing about this as I listened to the final 10 minutes on the car radio in Sainsbury's car park). Anyway, I climbed into the top 10.
In gameweek 36 Man U had a double and I brought Ronaldo back in for Lampard and went safety first and captained him (I think all bar one of the top 10 did). Only two gameweeks left and I was up to 6th. Getting exciting now!
Gameweek 37 I had one forced transfer to make as Kirkland (who I had brought in for a Wigan double gameweek) was injured. I brought in Jussi as he can generally be relied upon to rack up saves points even where Bolton don't clean sheet and he kept enough cash for me to bring in Anelka (who I fancied would be chasing the golden boot in the last couple of games) for Robbie Keane. Anelka promptly scored and assisted and my captain Gerrard also did the business with 22 points.
The Final Gameweek
Up to 3rd going into the final game week and although the leader was a bit ahead the difference between my team and those below was not great. That left a bit of a decision: do I try and consolidate by captaining Gerrard or do something a bit different. Everyone knew the Man U players weren't going to play ahead of the champs league final so I needed to take out Vidic and Ronaldo. I also wanted to have a sub that might score some points as there was a good chance some other players (e.g. Chelsea and Everton players ahead of the cup final) might be rested. I went for three transfers taking a 4 point hit. Vidic came out to be replaced by Samba (decent clean sheet opp and he was playing up front), Ronaldo replaced by Fabregas and Nugent replaced by Van Persie. The two Arsenal players coming in as I fancied them to score well with a home game against an already safe Stoke team. I decided on Van Persie as a differentiator as other leading teams had Arshavin. I also decided to captain Van Persie.
It was a beautiful sunny day and I listened to the games on the radio in the garden with some beers. Obviously quite pleased with a first half brace from Van Persie and at half time things were looking very good as there were good as most around me had captained Gerrard or Arshavin who were doing nothing and my defenders (Samba, Carragher and Baines were looking good for clean sheets). The tide turned back in favour of the leader however when Big Sam took off Samba in the 59th min (1 min short of clean sheet points), Robbie Keane's goal took away Carragher's clean sheet, Gerrard got an assist (he had him as captain) and Ashley Cole (who he had in his defence) scored a rare goal. I lost the title by 7 points but delighted with runner-up as a bit less luck on the final day could have seen me end up outside the prizes altogether.
Team history
is here:
Code: Select all
GW M R T C V P O Up/Down
Gameweek 1 46 7,486 0 0 100 46 7,486 New
Gameweek 2 47 5,504 2 0 100.3 93 4,354 Up
Gameweek 3 34 15,885 2 0 100.4 127 5,591 Down
Gameweek 4 59 657 2 0 100.3 186 1,443 Up
Gameweek 5 37 9,959 3 4 100.5 219 1,803 Down
Gameweek 6 60 656 0 0 101 279 526 Up
Gameweek 7 48 9,596 2 0 101.5 327 337 Up
Gameweek 8 40 15,016 2 0 102 367 484 Down
Gameweek 9 47 7,735 2 0 102.3 414 410 Up
Gameweek 10 64 1,541 2 0 102.4 478 206 Up
Gameweek 11 47 6,639 2 0 102.8 525 234 Down
Gameweek 12 38 19,046 2 0 102.9 563 391 Down
Gameweek 13 76 2,245 2 0 102.9 639 308 Up
Gameweek 14 46 10,042 2 0 103.1 685 302 Up
Gameweek 15 36 19,531 2 0 103.2 721 296 Up
Gameweek 16 52 6,700 2 0 103.4 773 202 Up
Gameweek 17 42 14,824 2 0 103.8 815 202 Same
Gameweek 18 43 980 2 0 104.1 858 118 Up
Gameweek 19 53 6,639 2 0 104.3 911 107 Up
Gameweek 20 24 37,616 2 0 104 935 297 Down
Gameweek 21 62 2,905 2 0 103.8 997 257 Up
Gameweek 22 43 5,920 2 0 104 1040 259 Down
Gameweek 23 75 277 2 0 104 1115 159 Up
Gameweek 24 45 4,892 2 0 104.4 1160 132 Up
Gameweek 25 62 10,300 2 0 105 1222 155 Down
Gameweek 26 50 2,339 2 0 104.7 1272 133 Up
Gameweek 27 31 7,580 2 0 103.8 1303 156 Down
Gameweek 28 83 109 2 0 104 1386 66 Up
Gameweek 29 56 610 2 0 104.2 1442 48 Up
Gameweek 30 54 3,977 2 0 104 1496 28 Up
Gameweek 31 82 80 2 0 104.2 1578 20 Up
Gameweek 32 58 1,654 2 0 104.2 1636 13 Up
Gameweek 33 44 11,371 2 0 104.2 1680 17 Down
Gameweek 34 59 4,422 2 0 104.4 1739 15 Up
Gameweek 35 55 3,210 2 0 103.9 1794 8 Up
Gameweek 36 63 609 2 0 104 1857 6 Up
Gameweek 37 63 538 2 0 104.2 1920 3 Up
Gameweek 38 62 96 3 4 104.3 1978 2