Thanks to Ndiaye and Xhaka respectively, Jacob and Jiayang both enjoyed successful Bench Boosts. Our overall solid gameweeks, however, owed little thanks to our starting midfielders, none of whom got a single return. Which leads to the question: are we in the midst of a midfielder drought? Five out of the top ten highest-scoring midfielders are either box-to-box or defensive midfielders, with Rice looking especially enticing due to Arsenal’s ever-potent set-piece threat. Jacob is also forced to confront some first-world problems: firstly, still having a Free Hit chip without an obvious gameweek to play it in, and secondly, having no idea what to do with any of his four transfers. Speaking of which—more than a year after managers were allowed to have five free transfers in the bank instead of two, Jiayang wistfully reminisces about the days when using three transfers in one go—two free transfers and a hit—felt like a joyous mini-Wildcard.

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