The Fantasy Premier League (FPL) has potentially reached peak popularity for the 2024/25 Premier League campaign with over 10 million users registering for it.
The first five game-weeks of the new Premier League campaign saw significant point returns for FPL users in which were relatively high-scoring weeks.
But that has dipped as some of the fan-favorites like Erling Haaland have experienced a slight slump in recent weeks.
The users had hoped the first game-week after the October international break would be a high-scoring one to boost their scores, only for a lot of things to go wrong.
The average rating for game-week eight turned out to be only 36, one of the lowest for the entire campaign.
Erling Haaland and Cole Palmer both blanked.
Neither Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur or Manchester United could keep a clean sheet.
Beyond these challenges, the FPL community was further inflamed by a series of controversies.
The Son Heung-Min ‘Ghost Assist’ Controversy
Arguably the biggest controversy from the weekend was the ‘ghost assist’ given to Son Heung-min.
The Tottenham Hotspur captain scored a nice goal in their 4-1 win over West Ham United, but was also given an assist for Alphonse Areola’s own goal.
The FPL administrators gave a vague explanation for granting him the assist (and 3 bonus points as a result) for it initially and stated: “Shots earn an assist if initially blocked or saved before the touch which results in an own goal. For example, a shot can be parried by a goalkeeper and deflect off the back off a defender for the own goal and the assist will stand.”
But this logically made no sense because the ball deflected off Jean-Clair Todibo before touching Areola and going into the back of the net.
Son was basically given five extra points for that strange assist, causing an uproar in the FPL community.
After a lot of protests, the FPL organizers had to reconsider their decision and take back Son’s assist as well as reducing three bonus points to one for an eight-point return.
Who Are The FPL Cartel?
This entire controversy around Son also sparked some users to start the ‘FPL Cartel’ moniker to get trending.
There is a theory that the FPL is actually overseen by an ‘insider group’ of sorts which probably involves some high-profile FPL players who dictate certain decisions of the game.
Some people started complaining that Son was given that assist against West Ham because the FPL Cartel people forced the admins into doing it.
A sinister whisper has been circulating among FPL circles: that a cabal of high-ranking Cartel members, their teams bolstered by the Spurs star, had a vested interest in the low-scoring gameweek.
The suspicion is that these players, privy to insider information on team news and selections, manipulated the game to their advantage.
The FPL Expert Andy, who runs the popular YouTube channel with over 400,000 subscribers, is being accused of being one of the members of this group.
So is Harry Daniels (FPL Harry), an FPL YouTuber with over 130,000 subscribers. FPL Fran, who has over 40,000 subscribers on his YouTube is also suspected as a member of this Cartel.
The ‘Sakagate’ Scandal
Saka was a big miss for Arsenal in their defeat to Bournemouth at the weekend, but his availability was under question right until the lineup was released.
Mikel Arteta refused to totally rule him out for the match and speculation swirled that he had travelled with the squad for the Bournemouth game too.
Saka, who was selected by over 30% of the FPL users for a 54-points return after seven games, is very difficult to replace due to his consistency and price range (£10.1).
That is why many users were left confused on whether to transfer him out or take a gamble at keeping him in the team, hoping that he’d actually start the game.
This caused ‘Sakagate’ to trend as the FPL Cartel are were accused of fooling users to stick with Saka while they replaced with someone like Son Heung-min and reaped the rewards.
Detective Andy Martin
The Sakagate, however, delivered a truly absurd moment courtesy of Andy Martin.
Martin is an FPL expert with over 70,000 followers on X (Twitter) and he was equally confused on whether to transfer out Saka or not.
Rumors swirled about Saka’s starting status against Bournemouth. A leaked photo of players arriving at the team hotel fueled speculation, as a hooded, dark-skinned figure entered the building.
Arsenal and FPL fans were left guessing until kickoff and Martin took things into his own hands to get behind the truth.
Reacting to the photo, he wrote: “It would take me 7 mins to get to this sign. I don’t have a tape measure though. I’m exactly 6ft. Is it beneficial if I stand next to it?”
After being goaded to do the same by many frantic supporters, he decided to take the plunge.
Martin actually visited the hotel and was ultimately held by security after they suspected him of trespassing.
But after somehow being able to describe his hilarious intentions, he reached the exact place where the Arsenal players passed through and posed for a picture.
He tried proving that Saka was in the hotel with the Gunners’ by comparing his height with that of Saka (5’10’) and this somehow convinced Martin and his followers that the English winger would start the game.
Well, it turns out that their intuition turned out to completely wrong.
One player that could’ve been swapped with Saka is Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes, who bagged his second assist of the season in their 2-1 win over Brentford.
Even though he only got a five-point return, it was still decent considering this low-scoring week and some fans are a bit annoyed at ignoring him.
Fortunately for the FPL users, things can only get better after the drab game-week eight.
But the users will be better off without that the drama such as the Son saga or Saka mystery and make better decision-making to stay ahead of the curve.
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