Review of Game Week 3

GW Points: 100
Overall Points: 254
Overall Rank: 1,850

I was delighted with how the team performed during game week 3. 100 points resulted in a huge jump on the leaderboard, with the team now within the top 2,000. This is a fantastic position to be in after just 3 game weeks but it is still very early days. The main factor that contributed to the rise was my Chelsea players coming good and a punt on Sterling having a good week. I picked Colwill and Jackson for their fixtures after game week 2 and it was worth the wait with 9 points for Colwill and 14 for Jackson. A great return from two players who started at 2.5m. Sterling also far exceeded my expectations with 18 points. I’m probably biased due to having a great start to the season but so far I’m really enjoying the new format to the game.

Here is my breakdown of each player:

Johnstone: 3 points from Johnstone wasn’t ideal considering he played twice, however, perspective is important considering he started the season at 1.5m and is currently matching Alisson and Onana for points. I’d like to hold him for another couple of weeks but in reality, I may look to move him on for someone like Sanchez, who is a slight improvement but also cheap.

Saliba: Not happy with only 2 points from Saliba but I still think he’s good value. Stays in my team for now.

Estupinan: 3 points for Estupinan wasn’t a great return and Brighton were brought back down to earth by West Ham at the weekend. I’m also not overly keen on their fixtures for the next couple of game weeks but I still think he’s a good value pick with good potential for attacking returns so I may ride the storm and keep him. 

Colwill: Very happy with 9 points from Colwill. I believe he had a knock in the cup fixture and came off, I’ll monitor this situation but if he’s not injured, he certainly stays in for now.

Saka: 14 points, can’t ask for much more and crazy to doubt him at this stage. Stays in my team.

Sterling: Instant returns from Sterling. With a price rise on the cards and good short term fixtures, he stays in my team.

Mitoma: Similar to Estupinan, not a good game week but is good value longer term. Not sure I like Brighton’s next two fixtures though so could move on to someone else for the short term.

Fernandes: Very happy with 14 points, he will be one of the top scoring midfielders by the end of the season. Stays in my team.

Haaland: Only 7 points but too risky to take him out. Stays in my team.

Salah: Slightly disappointed with 6 points from Salah this week but he does continue to keep consistently scoring points. Will probably hold onto him for now.

Jackson: Delighted with 14 points from Jackson. He probably won’t last much longer in my team but I’ll hold him for now while Chelsea have good fixtures.

Player watchlist

Sanchez: might be the best time to switch to Sanchez while his value is similar to Johnstone’s. Good fixtures on the horizon.

Rodri: could be a consistent point scorer across the season and hopefully a starter for City in most games. Tempted by him at his value although I don’t see him continuing his goal scoring form.

Cash: I don’t fancy doubling up on Chelsea defenders and Cash could be a good way into a team playing in Europe at a low cost.

Maddison: very impressive start to the season, if he carries on scoring like he has been it won’t matter if Spurs don’t have European fixtures.

Eze: continues to get returns from bonus points, is a very tempting option given his value but I can’t have too many non european players.

Diaby: has made a good start for Villa and will have extra European games.

Bowen: a little more expensive than I’d want to pay for him but West Ham have made an impressive start to the season and he will have European football.

Diaz: might be a good alternative for Salah at some point.

Foden: I felt like I dodged a bullet with Foden having a quiet week. I can see him having a big season though.

Plan for game week 4

I’m still slightly torn about what to do with my game week 3 transfers. I’m half tempted to let them roll over and add an additional transfer to my budget. However, at the same time, I’m tempted to keep tweaking my team while I’m on the front foot. A lot of people will be firefighting and they will have more than 2 problem players in their team, so it makes sense to be aggressive with transfers to keep ahead of managers who haven’t got that luxury.

If I were to use my transfers, I’m likely to switch Johnstone for Sanchez. I’m very happy with the returns I’ve had from Johnstone given his value but he’s unlikely to rise in value this week and if I’m going to go for Sanchez at some point, I may as well make the change now as their values may never be this close again. Chelsea have good fixtures and I’m not worried about them not being in Europe considering how cheap Sanchez is. I don’t like the Chelsea defensive double up though, so I may swap Colwill for someone like Cash who will have European football and the potential for attacking returns.I won’t be bringing Cash in for this weekend though considering Villa play Liverpool.

My second transfer is less straightforward. There’s no one I want to take out in midfield or up front but there are two players I’m tempted to bring in – Maddison or Rodri. I really don’t want to lose Fernandes, Sterling, Saka, Haaland, Salah or Jackson as these players either have good fixtures or are due to go up in value. I’m not overly keen on losing Mitoma either but he’s the only one I could potentially take out. I’m leaning towards Maddison as I think he could potentially score more than Mitoma this week given Spurs face Burnley and Brighton play Newcastle. However, I would be taking out a player who will have European football for a player who doesn’t. This means I would have two transfers but 5 non European players going into the first round of European fixtures. I’m not sure if I see this as a big problem – Maddison could well continue to outscore Mitoma via a single fixture (Sheff Utd) compared to Mitoma (Man Utd, Euro fixture) despite the extra game. 

This would leave me with 0.7m in the bank. I won’t hesitate to take out my Chelsea players if they don’t perform during game week 4. I might be able to stretch to Diaby and Cash for Colwill and Jackson. Or even Rodri and Cash for Sterling and Colwill depending on who performs this weekend. I’m not going to make a decision tonight so I’ll post an update tomorrow to confirm for certain.

If you wanted to check out the upcoming fixtures, you can do that here for the big teams (all collated manually so may not be 100% accurate). I’d also be interested to hear how everyone else has got on so far and happy to answer any questions in the comments below.