GW25 Thought Process: Triple Arsenal defence or Declan Rice? (+ Mbeumo vs Cunha)

Let’s discuss everything above and Elliot Anderson

You might recall I faced three close decisions last Gameweek.

Bruno Fernandes vs Erling Haaland for the captaincy—a common debate in the community.

Rayan Cherki vs Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall for the final midfield spot.

And then there was a star-studded showdown between Djordje Petrovič and Martin Dúbravka for that GK spot.

In the end, all three panned out well, and yeah, I’m as shocked as you are. Let’s start with the one that resulted in perhaps the most joyful moment of my gameweek:

All is forgotten, Djordje.

What’s worth noting is that, in terms of shot-stopping, this was actually his second good game in the last three: Brighton in GW22 and Wolves last weekend.

As I always say on Data Dribble, goalkeepers are the most unpredictable players of all, and the Serbian is a great example of that, having been the best shot-stopper in the previous Ligue 1 campaign. Now, he’s among the worst in the Premier League. Yes, he was poor at Chelsea two seasons ago, and league quality differs, but you still wouldn’t expect a drop to prompt Bournemouth fans to nickname him ‘a traffic cone‘.

In the midfield, I went with Cherki, but with Bukayo Saka injured, both players I considered ended up in my starting eleven.

My preferred choice produced an 8-pointer, and while KDH blanked, he played as a number 10 and was close to matching the Frenchman’s point tally:

Yeah, Bart Verbruggen is amazing

As for the captaincy, Bruno Fernandes repaid the trust with his 7th double-digit haul of the season, outscoring Haaland by 5 points. Add Enzo Fernández’s late winner and Arsenal’s double clean sheet, and I was propelled to a 13-point green arrow.

Gameweek 25: Two paths to choose from

Tuesday’s EFL Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Chelsea, a decider for who would double in Gameweek 26, killed all that buzz.

The game itself ranked pretty low on a list of exciting things to do, somewhere between assembly-line production and getting a new driver’s licence. The same goes for the resulting DGW: Arsenal will play Brentford and Wolves, and Wolves will face… it doesn’t matter.

Unfortunately, I’m one of those who need to replace Bukayo Saka, so let’s discuss that.