GW 7 Points	47
GW 7 Rank	51.61 lacs
Overall rank after GW 7	31.15 lacs – down from 28.04 lacs

While GW 6 was a case of so near yet so far, GW 7 was headed for disaster right from the word go. Saiss and Mitchell missed out in the very first game and then Pulisic, who in my opinion was primed for a great game against underperforming Burnley got injured in the warmup for another no show. To add insult to injury Ryan was benched against Spurs and the usual backup keeper, Steele who happens to be my backup keeper too was not in the squad. So even my my entire bench were to play I would have a maximum of 10 players, that is a set up for failure.

Here is my review of the GW:

Positives

• Lamptey the saviour– Lamptey was on my bench for the game against Spurs, and many might argue that it was a fluke that I got his points. While I was definitely lucky, we have a bench in FPL for a reason, and he came on to score fantastic and much needed 9 points for my FPL team. I mentioned in my GW 5 blog, that I am after Lamptey’s attacking returns and it was heartening to get point when he scored a goal.

• Consistent Kane, Salah and DCL – Kane, Salah and DCL have 6, 7 and 8 goals respectively and while none of them got a big haul they contributed with a goal each to keep me going this gameweek. I am slightly disappointed I didn’t captain one of Kane or Salah, but hindsight is always a better decision maker in FPL.
• Chillwell – Another return from Chillwell meant he is continuing to justifying his price tag in FPL, and while my team benefitted from his defensive points this GW, he seems to be taking a lot of attacking positions and that is what excites me about having him in my team. It seems Lampard is setting up his team in a way that fullbacks are very active in attack, that is great news for James and Chillwell.

Negatives

• Another captaincy failure – Salah last week and Son this week, I am choosing the one player between Son, Salah and Kane who blanks and while other 2 get on the scoresheet. This is either poor selection or extremely poor luck. This week I am thinking of captaining the third of these three, Kane as most other FPL players, let’s see if chance of luck goes my way this gameweek.
• Selection drama – Mitchell who anyways had a slight chance of playing missed out, Saiss highest coring FPL defender in the game at start of the GW was benched, Pulisic got injured in the warmup, Ryan was benched for extremely strange reasons and his understudy Steele who happens to be my back up keeper as well was not in the squad – All of this combined to ensure I had just 10 players starting if all my bench players started.

Near-Misses

• Grealish – Grealish featured in the negatives section of my blog last week and that was the reason I took him and Foden out for Rashford and Romeu and funnily enough Grealish decided to turn up with a 13 points return to bite me in the back. Had I not made a change my oveall points would have been in the range of 55-60 which would have been a decent return for this gameweek.

Team for GW 8

It was confirmed on Friday by Lampard that Pulisic will be out for weeks, which ort made it easier for me on who to take out of my FPL team. Prior to that I was contemplating between him, Saiss and Mitchell. I was hoping Pulisic makes an early return because I wanted to make a defensive change to my team. Saiss is arguably not a starter anymore and Mitchell is injured and possibly not a starter as well with Patrick Van Anholt back. But with Pulisic out for a relatively longer time I will take him out of my team.

Ziyech seems a logical switch to continue with Chelsea attacking coverage. The other option in my mind is Zaha, who has good fixtures, can probably score similar amount of points as Ziyech and is cheaper, thus could help fund a move for KDB / Sterling in future as well. Ziyech also seems to be more of a rotation risk. So I will go for Zaha.

Transfers – Pulisic —> Zaha

Captain Pick

Third time in a row for me, Salah, Son and Kane offer captaincy choices for my team. Liverpool vs Manchester City can be a cagey affair and thus Salah is not a very tempting option.

Spurs are playing West Brom and they have one of the worst defense in the league so far. Son and Kane both can be equally dangerous, and while I believe Son offers better potential, it seems Kane is going to be captained by the masses. Hence I will go for Kane this gameweek.

Hope you enjoyed reading, best of luck for Game week 8!