Bruno Bonanza

With only five weeks to go, the title race is as close as it has ever been. The volatility of Lower Mid-Table continues to enthral, while the Gentlemen's Trophy Semi-Finals saw the first legs end with both ties in the balance.

​And then there were seven. From over a hundred points behind, King Ding has clawed it back to within a captain's goal of the summit, making it his fifth victory over the Butcher in five weeks. Big Steve, who once looked so impregnable at the top of the league, is now on the ropes. His head is scrambled, his legs are shaky, and he's praying to be saved by the bell. A triumph that looked so inevitable for so long looks to be slipping away, right at the death.
 
With his Wildcard now played, both managers only retain a Free Hit to gain an advantage and, in a title race so tight, how and when they use it could determine who sits on the throne come season's end. With thirty-five transfers made since the season went on hiatus, and no less than two transfers a week since the restart, the Butcher looks nervous. He's scrabbling around to find a solution, desperate to put the pieces of the jigsaw together and see out the next five weeks. In contrast, the King is Mr. No Hits, a measure of composure and experience, closing the gap week on week and making it feel almost inevitable he will become the first man to retain the title. Experience of a run-in is what gave Ferguson the edge over Keegan in '96. It looks like being the reason, 24 years later, the King goes back-to-back.
 
Of course, a lot can happen in the last five gameweeks. Players can get injured and suspended. Teams who were once so reliable can switch off, with titles won and safety assured, causing previously-dependable assets to become liabilities. The intensity of the schedule can lead to captains making one-point cameos, can lead to big-money players being left on the bench, and can lead to sloppiness in defence, causing clean sheets to become a scant resource. One captaincy decision can turn the whole situation on its head. It's that close, the margins are that tight, the pressure is that great.
 
The King is not having it all his own way, however. In the Gentlemen's Trophy, he enters the second leg of his semi-final eleven points adrift, two defender goals or three returns from glory. His gameweek score of 72 would have given him a very comfortable lead over either team in the other semi-final, but against Lord Geord, the highest-scoring team in the League of Gentlemen since his Gameweek 27 Wildcard, 72 points just isn't enough. An 83-point final score gave the Lords the highest gameweek total for the second week running, even with the disappointment of a six-point Bench Boost. In the other semi-final, it was a disaster for Deadly Daz, who saw captain Kevin de Bruyne make only a brief, one-point cameo. Had he captained Bruno, he would enter the second leg with a six-point lead. Instead, he starts from eight points behind. To overcome the Butcher, he simply must get his captaincy correct this week. If the Butcher makes the wrong decision, however, he could see Gameweek 34 as the week his dreams of a double were dismantled.
 
Gentlemen's Trophy,
Semi-Final, Leg One results:
 
Deadly Daz 49 - 57 Big Steve
Lord Geord 83 - 72 King Ding
 
Elsewhere in the League of Gentlemen, we saw one of the most volatile weeks of the year for changing league position. Let's look in detail at how fortunes changed in Gameweek 33.
 

The League of Gentlemen:
Weekly Round-Up

The Also-Rans

The only two questions that remain in the Also-Rans are whether Jie can make it to Lower Mid-Table and if Mikey P can avoid the wooden spoon. It was another lost opportunity for the Suicide Squad, who managed to score a great 71 points but who took a 24-point hit to get them, leaving them four points further off the penultimate place in the division. With fifty-five points now the gap, Mad Mikey needs to gain eleven points a week on Metal Marc. His best chance of doing this would be forgetting his log-in details, with this week's transfers bringing his season's total to 347, an average of more than ten a week. Jie, on the other hand, managed to bridge the gap to Lower Mid-Table by eight points. With a 34-point swing needed over the next five weeks, it could take until the final day for him to escape the darkest depths of the division. Inbetween Mad Mikey and Jie, Metal Marc, Wooden Spoon Helling and Tits Up Thompson remain unchanged, all three seemingly immune to rises or falls at this stage.
​

Lower Mid-Table

The fall continues for Ginger Ben, whose signing of Maguire did not pay off and whose team only managed three returns for a total of 39 points. With a 34-point cushion over Jie he can focus on closing the two-point gap to the Tiptoppers, but the high of being the only manager to enter the Hundred Club in a single gameweek feels a distant memory. The Tiptoppers rose a place into fifteenth, with three defensive returns and thirteen points from Greenwood giving them a 48-point total. The gap to Who Horner in fourteenth is twelve points, the same twelve points the White Warriors beat Slick Rick by this week. Only three players secured returns for Who Horner, but when those three players include eleven-point Mane and thirty-point captain Bruno, you can afford to carry the rest of the team somewhat.
 
Ahead of Who Horner is Iceman Newton, who saw his lead over the lower reaches cut by seven points this week. Mane, Vardy and Tarkowski were his star men, with van Dijk's seven points supporting their double-figure hauls. It seems inevitable Madelaine Milan will fall over the final five weeks, with only ten players available and the Iceman nowhere to be seen. With a stroke of luck, however, he could find himself overtaking The Ox, just two points ahead in twelfth. A season which once promised so much has faded to abject disappointment for Oxsmorons, who failed to beat the FPL average score of 50 despite having five players produce returns. He appears to be the gatekeeper for the bottom half, with eleventh-placed Private Parvesh 64 points ahead and seemingly out of reach. His captaincy of Vardy was a masterstroke, with the Leicester line-leader securing 26 points. Sadly for Parvesh, only three other players secured returns, meaning a drop back into Lower Mid-Table. With five weeks remaining, his ambition has to be to make up the three points he is behind the Chasing Pack.

The Chasing Pack

A fall in the table for Big Time Birkett, who only saw four players secure returns this week. With Private Parvesh hot on his tail and some tricky fixtures for his team this week, we could see Birkett drop even further by the weekend. Overtaking him was Flash, who saw a stunning return of 55 points from three players to start the gameweek, and must have been desperately disappointed to only secure 24 more from his other eight players. Backing Manchester United's attack paid off, with Martial, Bruno and captain Greenwood leading the way to the second-highest score in the division. With sixty extra points needed over All Star Vogt to rise further, however, this could be the ceiling for Flash.
 
All Star Vogt will only be looking upwards now and, although he finished the gameweek with the same points total as the Masterchef, he moves four points closer by virtue of Hugh G. Rection taking a transfer penalty. Following his flouncing off like Sol Campbell at half-time two weeks ago, Vogt returned with two free transfers and took the surprising move to sell Alexander-Arnold. It did not work out, with the Liverpool man outscoring new signing Wan-Bissaka by five points. His other new signing, Pulisic, did manage to outscore the abandoned McGinn by the same total, and the question now is whether the Masterchef's retention of Alexander-Arnold will prove critical in this personal duel. Masterchef's selection of Almiron continued to pay off, with the Paraguayan playmaker securing his third return in four games since the restart. Both men used their thirty-point captaincy of Bruno to close the gap on Deadly Daz, who watched in horror as his captain, Kevin de Bruyne, made only a one-point cameo. At a stage in the season where captaincy choices can be the difference between failure and success, selecting de Bruyne over Bruno cost the Dazzlers a huge fourteen points and saw them lose their Gentlemen's Trophy semi-final, first leg. Even more brutally, he saw himself fall out of the Title Contenders for the first time in several weeks, replaced by his Bruno-captaining older brother. Both Lord Geord and the Butcher will be wary ahead of Gameweek 34, however; Deadly Daz has proven his team comes alive in the second leg, and with both a Bench Boost available and the Luck of the Lawes on their side, the Dazzlers will enter the new week ready to reclaim their position and secure a cup final spot.

The Title Contenders

The remarkable run continues for Lord Geord, who took a daring hit to bring in Martial and Rashford and saw it pay off to the tune of six extra points. The captaincy of Bruno was an inspired move, and the Lords left Old Trafford with fifty points and, as a result of the Bench Boost, twelve players to play. After that, though, it all started to go wrong. While the Lords dreamed of the Hundred Club, they watched in horror as their four substitutes returned just six points, leaving them ruing the deployment of the chip. The frustration mounted as they entered Sunday afternoon with eight players failing to secure a single further return between them. De Bruyne's benching could've proved critical, but the Liverpool triumvirate of Alexander-Arnold, Gomez and Mane stepped up to the plate, securing 23 points and leaving the Lords with the highest gameweek score - 83 points after the hit - for the second week running. A stunning rise of 1.2m places in the Overall Rankings in the seven weeks since their early Wildcard has turned the season around for the Lords, who now look on course for their highest Overall Ranking ever.
 
For the Juggernauts, however, the early Wildcard has proven disastrous. Playing their chip in the same week as the Lords, they have seen a 113-point lead slashed to just eleven points in seven weeks, including a trouncing off the Lords in the Gentlemen's Trophy. Those seven weeks have also seen the gap to the top increase from 98 points to 138, with this week seeing them also slip to lower in the Overall Rankings than when they played their Wildcard. The pressure is on for Jockin' Jeeves now, with Juggernauts fans hoping the end of his woodland adventures and return to his spiritual home of Penrith West will lead to a change in fortunes. Still only 10k off his highest ever finish and within 14 points of Hitman Hodgson despite a 53-point gameweek, Jockin' Jeeves will be looking to finish the season strongly.
 
The Hitman will feel confident in his ability to hold off the two-time champion and finish his debut League of Gentlemen season in the bronze medal position. A final gameweek score of 63 points moved him ten points further clear of Jockin' Jeeves, despite only four players securing returns. Mane and captain Bruno were the heroes, bringing in 41 points between them, though the fatigue of Saint-Maximin, the underperformance of Ayew and Zinchenko and the continued non-appearance of Williams leaves the Hitman vulnerable to being pipped at the last. Tipped as the dark horse to succeed in pre-season, the Hitman has lived up to those expectations and, whatever happens in the next five weeks, looks set to secure his highest-ever Overall Ranking and will surely be a strong contender next season.
 
In the silver medal position, with his eyes firmly on the gold, remains King Ding. With a 117-point cushion over third, he only needs to focus on catching the Butcher; a task that became ever more possible this week, following his outscoring the leader by fifteen points. The 26 points scored by his A-Team defenders - Alexander-Arnold, Aurier and Azpilicueta - provided the platform for attackers Rashford and captain Bruno to secure a further 36. The gap to the top, once 119 points, is now down to just seven - one defender's goal and a bonus point. With King Ding having made fewer transfers, should he finish level with the Butcher, he will take the title. In a title race this close, it could all come down to that.

The Man Who Would Be King

Having enjoyed such runaway success in the first half of the season, the Butcher will have been prepared for his form to slip. What's concerning is how much it has slipped, and for how long. It has now been seven gameweeks since he beat King Ding, seven weeks which have seen his advantage slip to just seven points. The momentum is slipping away from the Butcher, and he must focus on the positives: In August, he was dreaming of a lead at the top; he has just played a Wildcard, which leaves him better-placed for the run-in; and, despite his form dropping, he is still 7,824 in the world. This is a remarkable season from the Butcher, who has come from nowhere to set the League of Gentlemen alight. With five weeks to go, it all comes down to how long the fire can keep burning.
 
That concludes one of the most dramatic weeks in League of Gentlemen history, which saw King Ding slash the lead at the top, which saw Lord Geord take the advantage in his semi-final with the highest score in the division for the second successive week, and which saw Big Steve clinging on to slender leads in two competitions. With the semi-finals of the Gentlemen's Trophy concluded and the title race intensifying, Gameweek 34 promises to up the ante even further. May all your transfers be successes, may all your arrows be green and, as always, may the FPL Gods forever be in your favour.