All images courtesy of English Fantasy Football
Welcome back to coverage of my Fantasy Footie team -- King's Road Club Bangers -- in the Premier League of English Fantasy Football. For more information about EFF, check out my intro article. Here is the link to the EFF scoring system.
In my last EFF article, I covered my results from EFF Week 2 and my matchup for EFF Week 3 (Week 11 of the English Premier League season). In this article, I'm going to review my results from EFF Week 3 and preview my EFF matchup for Week 4 (Week 12 of the EPL season).
EFF Week 3 Review
King's Road Club Bangers suffered its first loss of the season in EFF Week 3 (EPL Week 11) and crucially, it came against the only other undefeated team in the league, Upper90, who now sits alone in 1st place. The matchup was closer than it appears, and we both had a few key players involved in the wild Monday Night Football match between my beloved Chelsea FC and its London rival Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs suffered two key injuries, one to my defender van de Ven and one to his midfielder Maddison, and they also had two players sent off for red cards. Moreover, the game had FIVE goals disallowed by VAR and for the better part of 90 minutes, it was closely contested. A late hat-trick from Nicolas Jackson secured an emphatic 4-1 road win for Chelsea.
The big moment in our head-to-head contest came from his defender Nathan Collins who scored the decisive goal, the only goal scored by either of our XIs. His midfielder Mathias Jensen assisted on that goal and it secured the 3-point win for his club, Brentford. Had Collins not scored that 3rd goal for The Bees, his team would have scored 11 fewer points and my side would have prevailed. Instead, I suffered defeat and The Bangers fell from the top spot in the EFF Premier League. Here are the standings after three weeks.
EFF Week 4 Preview
After the poor display last week, I knew I had to make some bigger changes for EFF Week 4 (EPL Week 12). I was frustrated by the lackluster performance of the two Wolves players I had picked up, forward Cunha and defender Ait-Nouri, since they had a strong matchup against a weak Sheffield United team. To the players' credit, they weren't short on chances, but they were wasteful with their touches in the box and didn't get it done for me. This week, I also had to contend with the significant injury to my defender van de Ven and the difficult matchup my Chelsea players have against league leaders Manchester City.
I made the maximum three weekly roster moves, with an add/drop at each position. In defense, I dropped Ait-Nouri to pick up the young Brighton defender van Hecke as I tried my luck again against the weak Sheffield attack. In midfield, I couldn't wait any longer for Liverpool's Thiago to regain match fitness and replaced him with Spurs midfielder Pape Sarr. In attack, I decided to roll the dice with the speculative addition of Chelsea's Nkunku, who is ramping up his recovery after a preseason injury and is expected back at the end of November. Here are the full rosters going into the EFF Week 4 contest.
With one forward injured as Nkunku recovers, the two formations I considered were a 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2. I opted for the 4-4-2 formation because I felt like my defensive options are slightly stronger than my midfield options. Looking at my opponent's roster, his midfield is absolutely decimated by injuries. But he does have three strong players at forward and among his goalkeeper and defenders, he has three Arsenal players going against a very weak Burnley attack. IF Arsenal can manage a clean sheet, The Bangers will be in some trouble.
Looking at my roster, the forwards, goalkeeper, and club pick themselves. I'm starting my two healthy attackers and desperately need Hojlund to get off the mat with some EPL goals against newly promoted Luton Town. Emi Martinez has an easier matchup in goal than Jose Sa, and of course, I have Spurs starting over Chelsea, who face league-leading Manchester City.
Again with the Chelsea matchup in mind, I did not want to have to start Enzo in midfield or Reece James in defense, so that limited my options. With van de Ven injured, it meant starting my other four defenders and naming James to the substitute role. In the midfield, I left Enzo out entirely and named Billing to the sub spot due to his tough matchup against Newcastle, so the other four players made the starting XI. I sure could use some offensive production from Gibbs-White, Harrison, and Sarr, because I don't want to see Rodri run it up against my Blues. Here is my XI and subs along with the team my opponent has named six hours before kick-off.
That's a wrap for my Week 4 EFF coverage. Even though my opponent is the lowest-scoring team in the league, I am a bit uncomfortable with the EPL matchups and have some concerns going into EPL Week 12. Hopefully, I will emerge with a win and I look forward to providing you with more EFF coverage when the season picks up after the international break.
Thanks for joining me on my journey in English Fantasy Football this term. If you have any questions about the league, about the scoring, or about how to get involved for next season, give me a shout in the comments section and I'll get you sorted.
Up the Bangers! #carefree ⚽️