With attention focussed in the main on today's League Cup Final, there were still two very important Premier League fixtures to be played out. A veritable feast of Sunday afternoon football as the games followed one after the other with the Wembley meeting of Chelsea and Spurs to finish the day off with.

Of course, in FPL terms, the Cup Final is nothing more than an annoyance, with most of us struggling to field a full XI. Along with some of yesterday's bizarre rotation decisions and unexpected benching, even being able to get ten players out was a miracle for some. A low overnight gameweek average of 16 points meant some had enjoyed great gains, and others were left relying on today's matches to claw back some ground. The day kicked off at Anfield.

LIV v MCY

Two teams fresh from European defeat met in a game with a great deal at stake for both. For Liverpool, finishing in the Top 4 is now a must in order to qualify for next seasons Champions League now that they have been unceremoniously dumped out of the Europa League. For Manchester City, this was an opportunity to cut Chelsea's lead at the top of the table to just 

two points. Sturridge found himself on the bench, with Ibe missing out on the match day squad altogether due to a knock. 

For City, Kolarov started his third league game in a row for the first time this season. Clichy seems to be very firmly out of favour at the moment, much to the annoyance of the 13.8% of managers holding onto him. I expected Liverpool to be feeling the effects of their exertions in Turkey on Thursday night, which saw them lose on penalties after extra time. They didn't arrive back in the UK until 4am on Friday, so a midday Sunday kick off would possibly reflect in their performance. Not a bit of it.

Jordan Henderson opened the scoring with a stunning strike from outside the box. After picking the ball up from Raheem Sterling, he checked right and made some room for himself before unleashing a shot past Joe Hart. A goal Steven Gerrard would have been proud of. The equaliser came after a ball from everyone's favourite fantasy captain, Sergio Agüero, found Eden Dzeko who made no mistake for his second goal in two games. In the second half Liverpool threw on Sturridge and City did the same with Bony as both teams searched for a winner. It came from the boot of Phillipe Coutinho who - like Dzeko - scored his second in two games. It was a goal worthy of winning any game, and was similar in many respects to Henderson's opener (even the assist was from Sterling) but better. Two double digit points hauls from Coutinho in successive weeks now. It finished 2-1 and it could be said that Chelsea possibly won the league today, whilst sat in the Wembley dressing room. Bonus points were awarded as follows:

Coutinho - 3pts
Henderson - 2pts
Sterling - 1pt

ARS v EVE

No Mertesacker for Arsenal as Cazorla was made captain for the day and Gabriel made his first start for the club. Welbeck found himself on the bench alongside Walcott. It is becoming increasingly obvious Wenger just doesn't fancy the England man any longer. For Everton, there was no Leighton Baines as Luke Garbutt made his second appearance of the season in the left back berth.

This game should have been relatively easy for Arsenal against a poor Everton team. However, the defeat against Monaco may have dented their gung-ho attacking attitude, because it was the Toffees who looked better in the early exchanges. However, class eventually told and Mesut Özil fed Olivier Giroud for his fourth goal in the last six. Everton tried, but Arsenal's defence were never in any real danger. The Gunners wrapped it up late on with super sub Tomas Rosicky scoring, after a second assist of the game from Özil. That's five assists (and two goals) from the German maestro since his return from injury at the start of February.

This now puts him top of the form chart for midfielders. Nothing for popular captain picks Cazorla and Sanchez, with the Chilean now failing to register anything other than appearance points since his brace against Stoke back in GW21. Interestingly, this coincided with Özil's return to the team. Lukaku owners meanwhile, must realise they are carrying deadwood after he failed to score for the fourth game running. Everton sit firmly in the bottom third of the table after today's showing. 

Bellerin - 3pts
Gibbs - 2pts
Özil - 1pt


A low scoring gameweek then, perhaps no real surprise. As I predicted, those managers who put some thought and effort into their teams this week possibly made some huge gains this week as everyone else focussed on the (not really a) double gameweek that starts on Tuesday evening and finishes with the postponed QPR v Spurs match on Sun 7 Mar.

Most managers will be doubling up or trebling up on Spurs players with a scattering of QPR representatives (Austin being the main man), but I'd suggest a different tactic. Take a look at the fixtures and instead of the template Kane/Austin/Eriksen that most will go with, use the tools available on this site and see if value -and importantly differential points - lie elsewhere.

As I finish this article now, Chelsea have just defeated Spurs 2-0 to win the League Cup. Spurs now have to dust themselves down and get over the defeat in time for Wednesday evening when they play host to a high flying Swansea side who may sense they can kick them when they're down. Some Spurs players will be given the night off, but I for one am not that confident these two fixtures will deliver the kind of points some FPL managers think they will.

FPL_Fly
@meet_the_gadfly