The League
Heartbreak for Didds this week when his first gold was rudely snatched from his hands by a trio of neigh-sayers. No positions change hands this week and no one romps home with a huge score, but some more important differentiating occurs in the top section.
Bambino is the first of our three intrepid managers to score 42 this week, largely thanks to an impressive 16 points from John 'friends with black men' Terry. This marks the third week in a row that Bambino has appeared on the weekly podium with two of them being golds. He is currently the second highest scoring manager in April which after winning March's monthly gold means he is moving strongly in the right direction. The gap between himself and 2nd is now 89 points and only 117 points to the coveted gold, but can he make that up in the final 6 weeks?
Bastino in 2nd also scores 42 with 32 of them coming from the Chelsea contingent of his squad. El B made no secret of the fact that he considered Chelsea to have the easiest run-in and it's certainly paying off for him at the moment with them also through to the next round of the UCL thanks to a dramatic turnaround in the tie against PSG, at this stage (at least) two more fixtures for 5 players is nothing to be sniffed at. After losing 14 points to Flipper last week the trend of to-and-fro continues by making back 12 this week. The gap is still 28 but that is a very precarious lead that has been overturned non-nonchalantly in several game weeks.
Reggie has enjoyed the golds since the turn of the new year with this being his 5th in 2014, more golds than anybody else in the same period. Also a beneficiary of an excellent week at Stamford bridge (Cahill 13, Terry 16), Reggie answers his critics in last week's blog with a bit of panache and edges ever closer to the end of the season in safety. Eto'o has returned to the Chelsea squad much earlier than was anticipated by some which could be a vital factor with his own squad and potentially El B's - who saw Torres lose his starting place to both Schurrle and Eto'o in the last two Champions League fixtures.
Next is Didds who, in a cruel twist of fate, manages to narrowly miss out on a weekly podium despite being in a strong position after the weekend. Didds' points are not Chelsea based with the lion's share coming from a star man performance from Gareth McAuley who ended up scoring over a quarter of his entire points tally in one game. His faith in Dzeko has also paid off once again with the Serbian unable to stop scoring at the moment.
LittleChef can consider himself unfortunate as 37 points is only enough to see him into 5th. More points from Lallana justify his transfer dealings with a 30 point advantage already gained from his new signings in only 2 weeks. Moreover, LC is the current leading point scorer for April and sees himself gain another point on his father to further secure his place away from the bottom.
Reports have been coming in all week of Chef's away day antics on the sandy shores of Sheikhy's Dubai palace and whilst he's been eating the sand-dweller out of house and home his team have been secretly eating into his points advantage as well. No one has been more accomplished at taking criticism in the right light than the Chef and he should be congratulated (sniggs) for that, but the situation looks dire at the moment after being cut 46 points adrift. Stranger things have happened..
After going over 4 months without appearing in the bottom two, Flipper has now appeared there twice in 4 weeks. The good news is that he has slightly outscored his closest competitor Bastino this month but the lead is certainly a tenuous one and nowhere near big enough to make Flipper feel comfortable, particularly taking into account his recent form. With 13 uninterrupted weeks at the top, will his reign come to an end in the final few weeks?
If you had to sum up Sheikhy's recent performances, the word would almost certainly be 'inconsistent'. After a spat of silvers in mid-March, the sandman has since registered 7, 4 and 8th places, leaving him languishing somewhat in 4th place. Unable to do anything about Bambino's scintillating form of late, Sheikhy now finds himself watching his back as Diddy 'panning for gold' C is hot on his tail (the gap of 18 is the lowest since early February between 4th and 5th). Good points from Cahill ensure the deficit this week isn't too extraordinary but with players like Lloris struggling for points lately it's not clear where strong points can come from, save maybe Rooney hitting form which may be less likely now Manure are out of the Champions League, but we shall see.
Finally
I just wanted to say that being involved in the Dream Team both this year and last has been an absolute pleasure for me. I thoroughly enjoy every bit of email back-and-forth, keeping the spreadsheet, writing the blog and most importantly all the bragging. I really do think the season would be much more empty without this competition and I hope we do it for years to come. Cheers chaps.
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