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After GW14’s bit of midweek misery, a thanksgiving cornucopia of points were there for the taking on the weekend in GW15 (with plenty of flair to boot). At Anfield, Liverpool’s midfield maestro Philippe Coutinho brilliantly slotted a free kick under the jumping wall to put an onion in the bag. He also added two assists (three in more lenient formats) in the Reds’ 5-1 victory over Brighton. At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s fulcrum Eden Hazard tallied a brace capped by a Panenka penalty in the Blues’ 3-1 comeback win over Newcastle. At the Emirates, Man U’s star shot stopper registered a dizzying 14 saves in the Red Devils’ 3-1 conquest of hard done by Arsenal side.
Official Premier League Fantasy: She Wants the XI (101 points)
It was a brilliant performance from She Wants the XI, who, without benefit of any chip, racked up 101 points to win the NMA Beat the Bloggers crown for the week. Captain Eden Hazard accounted for 30 points, while Coutinho (18) and Nicolas Otamendi (11) were also in double digits. Including the double captaincy, She Wants the XI enjoyed a combined eight goals and four assists in the starting line-up as Manchester City’s David Silva, Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata, Stoke City’s Mame Biram Diouf and Liverpool’s Mohamed Sarah also chipped in with strong scores.
NMA Official FPL TOTW
| Position | Player | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Player | Team | Points |
| G | David De Gea | Manchester United | 8 |
| D | Ben Davies | Tottenham Hotspur | 2 |
| D | Ben Mee | Burnley | 1 |
| D | Nicolas Otamendi | Manchester City | 11 |
| M | Philippe Coutinho | Liverpool | 18 |
| M | Eden Hazard (C) | Chelsea | 30 |
| M | Mohamed Salah (V) | Liverpool | 5 |
| M | David Silva | Manchester City | 9 |
| F | Tammy Abraham | Swansea City | 2 |
| F | Mama Biram Diouf | Stoke City | 7 |
| F | Alvaro Morata | Chelsea | 8 |
| All Positions | All Players | TOTAL | 101 |
David De Gea contributed a strong score with eight points, but amazingly only earned two bonus points; the three extra points went instead to brace scorer Lingard. Again including the captain doubling, She Wants the XI benefited greatly in accumulating 18 extra points. As well, leaving Nacho Montreal, Chancel Mbemba and Jack Cork on the bench was a stroke of genius as none did better than two points. Bravo!
Fantrax NMA League: Magnificent11 (156 points)
Magnificent11 lived up to the name with a boisterous tally of 156 points to win the week in NMA’s Fantrax league. Hazard (39), Coutinho (31) and De Gea (29) led the way, while Man City’s Leroy Sane (14), Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata (13) and Crystal Palace’s Mamadou Sakho (11) also earned double digits.
NMA Fantrax GW15 TOTW
| Position | Player | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Player | Team | Points |
| G | David De Gea | Manchester United | 29 |
| D | Vincent Kompany | Manchester City | 0 |
| D | Mamadou Sakho | Crystal Palace | 11 |
| D | Zanka | Huddersfield Town | 2 |
| M | Philippe Coutinho | Liverpool | 31 |
| M | Eden Hazard | Chelsea | 39 |
| M | Leroy Sane | Manchester City | 14 |
| M | Granit Xhaka | Arsenal | 8 |
| F | Alvaro Morata | Chelsea | 13 |
| F | Momahed Salah | Liverpool | 9 |
| F | Callum Wilson | Bournemouth | 0 |
| All Positions | All Players | TOTAL | 156 |
Notably, it’s quite a remarkable feat to put up 156 points when saddled with three poor performers — Vincent Kompany, Zanka and Callum Wilson — who combined for 2 points total. Well done!
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My Teams
I didn’t have David De Gea, but I did have Coutinho and Hazard in both Official and Fantax. Unfortunately, I made a poor captain choice in Official (Salah instead of Hazard, who was my vice captain) and the rest of my team was rubbish, so I tallied a very disappointing 49 points. That included the eight point deduction for three transfers (Coutinho, Hazard and Vardy in, Eriksen, Sane and Morata out). I usually avoid even a four point hit, but I was obviously feeling extremely rash at the deadline this week.
Fantrax treated me much more kindly: In addition to the spoils from Coutinho and Hazard, I got at least six points each from City’s KDB, West Brom’s Kieran Gibbs, Everton’s Jonjoe Kenny, Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez, Huddersfield’s Christopher Schindler and Palace’s Wilfried Zaha and ended up with a not too shabby 121 points.
Hearty congratulations to She Wants the XI and Magnifcent11 for their chart topping performances in Week 15! How did your teams do? Which players delivered and who instead disappointed? Who do you see as must-have pick-ups?