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Hello everyone and welcome to gameweek 5! Waivers this week are due once again on Friday at 3am PDT / 6am EDT! Highlights from this week start with the crazy 52-51 victory by Mack over Chris, followed by Andrew's high scoring 51-45 win against Travis. This week also saw ZachA pick up his first loss in a 33-38 defeat to Alex. Full results are as follows:

• Matthew 50-35 John
• Mack 52-51 Chris
• Alex 38-33 ZachA
• Cara 19-45 Emma
• Andrew 51-45 Travis
• Divya 19-31 Morgs

League Table

Weekly Matchups

This week sees everyone in the league pick up both a win and a loss, as ZachA sits atop the table purely on PF above myself and Alex. 6 teams sit on 6 points, led by Mack and Chris.

Now onto this week's game changers!

• Matthew: Mohamed Salah - 9 pts - Mr. ghosts for 90 minutes then scores a penalty. Well done or whatever.
• Mack: Antoine Semenyo - 13 pts - Apparently he's on penalties now? With how much this guy loves to shoot the ball from anywhere I'm surprised it took him so long.
• Alex: Ibrahima Konaté - 9 pts - Didn't really watch this one but I guess a center back getting 3 bonus in a game where they took 27 shots and only scored on a penalty makes sense. (usually I don't have this much Liverpool slander in me, sorry)
• Emma: Phil Foden - 12 pts - PHIL FODEN BELIEVERS WE ARE BACK! He got a NEW BARBER and doesn't look SIX YEARS OLD anymore and also scored a goal and somehow had the most defensive contributions in the match? We're so back (I have him in League A if you couldn't tell)
• Andrew: Erling Haaland - 13 pts - Ooh look at me, my name's Erling Haaland and I score loads of goals, grow up mate.
• Morgs: Dean Henderson - 6 pts - In theory, I should've given this to Mitchell because technically he has more BPS. In practice, I'm giving this to Dean because he and Morgs share a last name.

Welcome to September! With just 3 gameweeks this month, we're already 1/3 done, with Mack leading by 1 PF over Andrew and 2 PF over me! Plenty of time left though!

Manager of the Month

This week will see some great matchups, headlined by a top 4 clash between Alex and Mack. Elsewhere, we see a couple of interesting matches between managers on 6 points, those being Emma vs Morgs and Chris vs Andrew. Should be some close matchups and an interesting table shake up as a result! Full matchups are as follows:

• Travis vs Matthew
• Emma vs Morgs
• ZachA vs Divya
• Chris vs Andrew
• John vs Cara
• Mack vs Alex

And lastly, shoutout to Alex for putting his week 1 woes behind him and stringing together 3 straight wins! And also further shoutouts to Andrew and myself for back to back victories!

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Stats

Copium Tables

Performance Table (sorted by Points For)

Luck Table (sorted by Points Against)

xP Table (manager vs average)

All Manager Table (manager vs all other managers)

Statistical Breakdowns

Gameweek Breakdown

Manager Breakdown

Timelines

Position Timeline

Points Timeline

Points For Timeline

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The League

Welcome to gameweek 5 of The League(tm) group stage! We are officially at the halfway point! This week saw a slightly more amicable split between the leagues, with perhaps the most interesting result coming in the 35-35 draw between Matt and John! Elsewhere, the top scorers this week from both leagues squared off as Kevin defeats Mack 60-52, Jesse narrowly defeats Emma 51-45, and Zach stumps his counterpart in League B ZachA 42-33. Full results are as follows:

• Matthew 59-45 Travis
• Luke 58-31 Morgs
• MatthewR 57-19 Cara
• Gavin 27-51 Chris
• Darryan 49-38 Alex
• Kevin 60-52 Mack
• Dylan 47-19 Divya
• Jesse 51-45 Emma
• Matt 35-35 John
• Coop 38-51 Andrew
• Scott 24-50 Matthew2
• Zach 42-33 ZachA

Taking a look over at the table, MatthewR and Jesse continue their winning ways and sit atop the table with 12 points! 6 managers sit behind them on 9 points, led by Darryan and Kevin, as the race for the quarter final spots heats up. Further down, Luke and Matthew2 sit at 7 points following their draw last week, also with the same exact PF, so that's interesting.

Next week should have some great matchups, headlined by the Semenyo derby between myself and Mack! Elsewhere, Luke faces off against Alex, MatthewR hopes to pick up his 5th win against Chris, and Jesse faces off against Matthew2 in what could be a pivotal matchup to start the second half of games.

Good luck this week!

The League - Group Stage Table

The League - Group Stage Matchups

And, if anyone was curious, here's what the first few rounds of the knockouts would look like if the group stage were to end today!

The League - Knockout Rounds

Power Rankings

On the bubble (in no order): Alex, Chris, Andrew, Zach Fell off: Zach

10 - Kevin (NEW) - League A - A 60 pointer this week has snuck him onto this list as the Xavi play paid off. Caicedo is an absolute defcon monster and Gyokeres is looking to be the real deal with his 3rd goal of the season.

9 - Dylan (+1) - League A - Somehow still undefeated off the back of a clean sheet heavy week. Gabriel and the other Arsenal defenders continue to prove why they are worth an early round pick and Salah always scores. I do worry about Sels and the state of his FWDs (and am kinda surprised he didn't go for any this past week).

8 - Jesse (+1) - League A - If Doku can replicate what he did against Manchester United every match and Sunderland keeps 34 more clean sheets, Jesse is a lock to keep moving up this ranking. However, he does have a heavy reliance on Manchester City and a hospital ward on his bench, so we'll see how his team progresses.

7 - ZachA (-5) - League B - Okay, so maybe I overrated his team a little last week, but I didn't really have a choice. That said, he also has an ICU for a bench and a reliance on Chelsea players. However, he does have a solid midfield and FWD grouping (if he doesn't have to play Osula week-in-week-out).

6 - Mack (+1) - League B - Her team is knocking on the door of the top 5 and I was really having trouble between mine and hers. Elanga and Barnes prove to be elusive when it comes to minutes, but Eze is already starting and contributing for Arsenal, Gyokeres is scoring, and even Woltemade picked up a goal in his debut. Combine that with Semenyo and some solid defenders and this makes for a very good team.

5 - Matthew (+1) - League A - I mean, biased, but Semenyo is a beast, Newcastle has 3 clean sheets in 4, and Munoz's floor is currently at 5 points, PLUS Phil Foden is back (inb4 he gets benched next week for no reason). The only question marks are Solanke, because who knows if he's out for 1 week or 4 months, and Wissa, because of the skyscraper of a German they just signed, but I think both will get plenty of minutes as the season progresses. Plus, even with a Mateta 2 pointer, Semenyo and Foden can carry my team to a 59 pointer.

4 - MatthewR (+1) - League A - Again, it's a confusing team, and all his points come from defenders, but it works. The Odegaard injury is concerning, however, and Aston Villa looks to be nosediving by the minute, so I am worried for this team if there are any fewer clean sheets than this week.

3 - Luke (+1) - League A - He's the chosen team. He has Cole Palmer and will win the league because the powers behind Fantasy Premier League have decided. I don't make the rules. Anyway, well rounded team, with my only worry being Gakpo's minutes and how long Marmoush is out for.

2 - Darryan (+1) - League A - Haaland looks to be back to his robotic ways this season and obviously Arsenal defenders have been huge for Darryan. He's winning and leaving a couple points on the bench, what more could you ask for.

1 - Matthew2 (-) - League B - A solid 50 pointer this week, along with a shored up bench that now contains Senesi. Really just waiting on Morgan Rogers to do something, anything really would be nice. The theme this week is that every team gets a clean sheet, so following in MatthewR's footsteps I guess.

Good luck this week!