So the social media experiment hit the first bump in the road, with Blurrton Albion dropping one place down the Fantasy Football table after a poor week in which 3 of the back 4 scored 0 points. Our new signing Aleksandar Mitrovic picked up a retrospective ban for an elbow during Newcastle’s 3-0 win against West Ham, meaning we wasted our transfer on a player who couldn’t play, and only two players on the team scored more than 3 points, let alone double figures. Let’s take a look through the candidates for the chop who were spared by what turned out to be a hefty suspension for Mitrovic, as well as who will be replacing the brutal striker. This is the benefit of Fantasy management; you never have to worry about getting rid of bad investments too soon after buying them.
Blurrton Albion’s Week of Woe
0 points were scored by Alberto Moreno, James Milner and Ahmed Hegazi after Liverpool conceded 5 goals and West Brom conceded 3 goals. None of the three players played a full match either, although in the case of the two Liverpool defenders that was actually beneficial; if they’d both played the entire game, they’d have both scored negative points! Hegazi looked like a solid pick for a clean sheet after the Baggies’ impressive start to the season and Brighton’s lacklustre form in front of goal, but somehow a Tony Pulis side ended up conceding 3 goals; that’s almost unheard of!
It was a low scoring week all round the squad, however. Alexandre Lacazette top scored as captain with 12 points, but no other player made it into double digits and Romelu Lukaku was the only other player to contribute a goal or an assist. Mesut Ozil and Dele Alli both added an extra point thanks to Arsenal and Spurs keeping clean sheets, but it was a barren day for the defence as David de Gea and Marcos Alonso were the only players to score points, picking up 2 each. Tim Fosu-Mensah on the bench would have added two points to the total, but it was a terrible day at the office for Blurrton Albion. These things happen, but hopefully the crowdsourced team will return to its pre-international break form and climb back up the table.
Transfer Talk
Tomer Hemed will be joining up with the squad this week after he scored for Brighton on Saturday in their impressive 3-1 win against West Brom. The Seagulls got their campaign really up and running with their first win of the season and Hemed picked up 11 points in the Fantasy world thanks to his goal and assist. He was the most talked about player (1,061 tweets) under our 5.3m budget limit, meaning he goes straight into the squad for next weekend as Blurrton Albion attempt to rise up the table again.
Our team for next week will see Marouane Fellaini (1,392) come in to replace Spurs midfielder Mousa Dembele (109) and new signing Hemed go straight into the starting line-up to replace Baggies defender Hegazi (245). The captain will be Romelu Lukaku (19,728) and Alexandre Lacazette (16,647) drops down to the vice-captaincy despite being the top scorer last week; Lukaku’s terrible miss against Stoke generated more conversation than Lacazette’s goal against Bournemouth…
With the 5th week of the season fast approaching, it will be interesting to see how the team gets on after a tough return from international duty. Will Brighton continue to improve, giving Hemed more chances to score? Will Lukaku manage to tuck away a goal or two in a tough clash with Everton? All will be revealed next weekend as we continue to discover whether thousands of minds are better than one.
Team for Game Week 5
Remember, all the information needed to generate our Fantasy Football team was taken from the incredible Blurrt Sports Hub. If you’d like to find out more about how you could benefit from the analytical wonders of the Hub, contact Ali at alistair@blurrt.co.uk