How the FPL community reacted to Gameweek 38
Following Sunday’s Premier League matches, here is a collection of the best FPL community reactions from Twitter.
So the Gameweek 38 deadline has passed, ahead of a potentially very exciting end to the 2021/22 season. Expect the usual whirlwind of goals, clean sheets, red cards and surprise team selections.
Whilst FFScout covers the main 4pm team news, you can use LiveFPL to check rank and mini-league updates. Also, FPL Alerts is a visually-clean place to see the goals, cards and current bonus points of all on-field players. They provide a Vidiprinter page that adds a new line whenever something happens.
FPL community reactions
First half
The buzz amongst the community is almost tangible. Not only for the end of this long, stressful FPL season but for the yet-to-be-decided situations throughout the league table. At the same time, all ten matches take place. That means the usual last day flurry of leaked team news – both real and fake – to help managers make late transfers.
Incredibly, in the third minute, Wolves took a shock lead at Anfield. A relatively simple attack from back to front ended with Raul Jimenez playing the ball across goal for a Pedro Neto tap-in.
Early goals also came for Dejan Kulusevski, Kai Havertz and Callum Wilson. Liverpool soon equalised through Sadio Mane, with a further twist putting Aston Villa 1-0 up at Man City.
Elsewhere, a quick double from Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah was soured by Spurs also going 2-0 up, via Harry Kane.
Second half
After the break, James Maddison scored first – to bring joy to his many managers. Yet a breathtaking, spellbinding half of 27 goals had only just begun.
A quickfire goal and assist from Cedric Soares for Arsenal, then a second Kulusevski goal. Things spiced up at the bottom as a Raphinha penalty put Leeds ahead, right before Wilson scored past Burnley again.
In fact, as is the final day tradition, a bunch of unorthodox goal scorers emerged. For example, Dan Gosling, Ross Barkley, Joel Veltman and the nostalgia of Michail Antonio.
An extraordinary narrative occurred at the Etihad, as Philippe Coutinho made it Man City 0-2 Aston Villa, meaning Liverpool just needed one goal to win the league title. On came Mo Salah, who may have been unaware that Son Heung-min had missed several chances to join him on 22 goals and share the Golden Boot.
Yet luck finally changed for Spurs’ South Korean star. A fine flick from Lucas Moura put him one-on-one with the goalkeeper, duly slotting home to make it 4-0. Within minutes, he scored again to edge ahead.
Suddenly, an incredible five-and-a-half minutes for Man City. Substitute Ilkay Gundogan converted a Raheem Sterling cross before Rodri sent the stadium berserk with an equaliser. To complete the comeback, Gundogan tapped in a Kevin De Bruyne cross and suddenly Pep Guardiola’s side were champions.
Even more goals
From minute 70, goals intensified even further with another 18. They were particularly relentless in Leicester, where a goalless first half ended 4-1 thanks to Maddison, Jamie Vardy and an Ayoze Perez brace. Brentford caused tension by equalising against Leeds just as Burnley pulled one back, searching for survival.
Eventually, Liverpool took the lead and it was – of course – via Mo Salah. Andrew Robertson soon made it 3-1 to please his large ownership, although those with a Chelsea defender were enraged to see the clean sheet slip. Reece James soon made amends by assisting the winner, finishing on seven points.
In the end, Leeds secured their Premier League status with a stoppage-time Jack Harrison winner that relegates Burnley. Meanwhile, Arsenal beat Everton 5-1 and Brighton defeated West Ham 3-1. The latter meant that Man United kept sixth spot, despite losing at Crystal Palace.
Overall, 39 goals and two clean sheets arrived in Sunday’s ten matches.
More from the FPL community
Starting with an earlier read, the post-deadline LiveFPL article reveals top 10k player ownership and overall chip usage. The team reveals of Ryan (Football Chatbox) and FPL Shake n Bake (Brett) are on our site, as are this week’s Fantasy5 picks.
Besides this, check out whether our predictions of players due for a goal came true.
