Sometimes you get clear leaders – Watford in 1977/8, Desert Orchid – and you can say, “they are so far ahead they are out of sight.”
This week, unfortunately, we have a team whose points score could be described similarly, provided you substitute the word “ahead” with the word “behind”.

This week’s details, then:

Week 21

Average Score: 67.11 (19 participants) – overall competition average 56
Highest Score: 95 – overall competition high score 145
Lowest Surviving Score: 48

Eliminated this week:

37 Game of Throwins (James Frankland)

Just (hah!) surviving this week:

48 Off To Okavanga (Derek Fabb) – again.
No one else scored  below 50.

Top scorer this week with 95 points : Forza Watford (Tom Guzik).

Remaining Teams 18.

So what happened? Well, this was James’s team:
GK
Bravo (Man City) : 0 points – Bravo indeed, but check the bench.
Def
Walker (Spurs)  : 11 – nothing wrong here
Adam Smith (Bournemouth) : 0 – Ah
McAuley (WBA) : -3 – Ouch. Peyreyra would have been pleased, though.
Mid
Alli (Spurs) : 6 – OK
Capoue (Watford) : 3 – Selected on the bench; Automatically subbed in
Barry (Everton) : 3 – OK
De Bruyne : 2 – Just a bad day for a normally reliable pick? Well, he has only scored more than 3 points twice since week 12 and the last time he managed double figures Hillary Clinton was a certainty.
Fwd
Ibrahimovic (Man Utd) Captain : 7 = 14 – another solid pick, so what can have gone wrong?
Deeney (Watford) : 1 – now selected by just 4.0% of teams, possibly all Watford fans (who probably don’t come to matches)
Costa (Chelsea) : 0 – yeah, that Costa

Bench
GK Pickford (Sunderland) : 0 – Not played for 3 games due to injury, so it had to be Bravo.
Mid Payet (West Ham) : 0 – selected but automatically subbed out because he was “on strike”
Def Cathcart (Watford) : 0 – matching his Watford position
Def Bradley Smith (Bournemouth) : 0 – has appeared 3 times this season for 80, 76 and 1 minute respectively and conceded 2 goals, 2 and 1. Still selected by 2.9% of teams, despite that.

The moral of the story? A sow’s ear of a squad is a sow’s ear – as Sam Allardyce and Paul Clement are probably beginning to realise.

And, for completeness, this was Tom’s team:
GK
Heaton (Burnley) : 10 points – They are good at home, you know.
Def
Alonso (Chelsea)  : 21 – Well, exactly.
Adam Smith (Bournemouth) : 0 – Just like James.
Prodl (Watford) : 6 – Against Middlesbrough – shoo-in.
Mid
Alli (Spurs) : 6 – Same as James
Sanchez (Arsenal) Captain : 11=22 – Why is he a midfielder? Really, though.
Allen (Stoke) : 2 – Doesn’t score that many points, actually.
Eriksen (Spurs) : 10 – his 6th double figure score in the last 9 weeks.  Too late, now, you probably can’t afford him.
Fwd
Ibrahimovic (Man Utd) : 7 – Same as James, but not captain
Giroud (Arsenal) : 5 – One of my regular picks, as it happens
Defoe (Sunderland) : 6 – Reliable scorer. I sold him 2 weeks ago, you know.

Bench
GK Pickford (Sunderland) : 0 – Not played for 3 games due to injury, so it may be a thing.
Mid Capoue (Watford) : 3 – same as James
Def Friend (Middlesbrough) : 6 – Tom’s one false step.  Any defender against us has got to be selected, surely?
Def Evans (WBA) : 0 – Injured, not that he would’ve been selected, not against Spurs.

So there you go.  Fill your squad with regular performers, make sure some of them have great days, pick one of those as Captain – you’re right, it’s all luck isn’t it?

Here’s the link to the sheet:

wml_lms