🏆 Biddenham Fantasy League 🏆

Summary

Up the road at the Emirates, the big one was settled — Arsenal champions for the first time since the Invincibles, with a game to spare. The Biddenham summit, meanwhile, stays locked: the leader holds a 49-point cushion, and both chasers, Chris Beeden and Mark Horton, spent their final chips this week on eerily identical, muted 63-point Bench Boosts. With the top three settling into formation, the real drama heading into the final gameweek is unfolding everywhere below them.

The fight for "best of the rest" is gloriously tight. Just 32 points separate 4th from 7th, with Olly Barnes (2201), Mike Flynn (2194), David Tonks (2181) and Louis Grimoldby (2169) all still able to reshuffle the order on the final day — Flynn sits a mere 7 behind Olly, so a single captaincy call could swing it. The congestion is even worse in the middle: a good gameweek could fling anyone from Hayley Phelan in 11th to Ed Evans in 15th up four places, with only 38 points covering the five of them.

Further down, the closest duels on the board are the most delicious. Paul Ray trails Georg Coakley by a solitary point in the scrap for 21st; Phil Johnson is just 3 adrift of Callum Bowness; and Alan Eckett-Brown sits 4 behind Emmy Rupasinghe — three separate photo-finishes to be decided on Sunday. And at the very foot of the table, the wooden spoon looks all but engraved: Amy Bliss is marooned 179 points from safety, a season-long loyalty to captaining Mo Salah that has, sadly, run its course. ♟️

Key Moments — GW37

• Redemption Arc of the Season: Ali Smith ("Alex and the Ants") — the man who infamously burned a Triple Captain on Morgan Rogers for 2 points back in GW34 — backed Rogers again as a regular captain and was rewarded with 24 effective. Top score of the week (tied), no chip required. The footballing gods do keep receipts, and occasionally they pay them back. 🎭
• Twin Chip Fizzle: Both title chasers' Bench Boosts produced 63 to the point — the kind of cosmic symmetry that suggests the universe has already made up its mind. 🪞
• Wildcard Wobble: George Foy ("Foys Boys") rolled out his second Wildcard and promptly left 19 points on the bench en route to 54 — a fresh squad, an empty feeling. 🃏
• The Ekitiké Curse Continues: Jamie Mitchell ("Slot Ball") captained Hugo Ekitiké for 0 — by our count not the first time this season the big Frenchman has let him down with the armband on. Some lessons take all 38 weeks. 🙈
• Bench Hoarder's Award: Alan Eckett-Brown ("Que Salah Salah") sat 19 points on the sidelines and captained O'Reilly for 4 — a 61 that should have been so much more. 🪑
• Depth Merchant: Hayley Phelan quietly posted 67 despite a Rayan Cherki captaincy that mustered 2 — proof that a strong supporting cast can rescue a captaincy howler. 🧱
• Loyalty Tax: Amy Bliss captained Mo Salah once more (2 effective) — a devotion that has cost her dearly down the run-in. The heart wants what it wants. 💔
• Wooden Spoon: Dan Birkinshaw ("10PinBowen") with 28, João Pedro (C) blanking and 13 of those points arriving via autosub bailout. A gameweek to forget. 🥄

Arsenal Are Champions — What It Means for the Finale

Here's the twist the title settling hands us: GW38 just became a captaincy minefield. With the league decided, the two most-owned captaincy assets in the game are suddenly the two biggest risks. Arsenal, with a Champions League final against PSG looming on 30 May, have every reason to wrap their stars in cotton wool at Crystal Palace — Saka, Raya, Gabriel and friends could be benched or hooked early. And Manchester City, with nothing left to chase, hand us a final, glorious round of Pep Roulette — the very mechanism that scuppered Mark's Triple Captain in GW36. Captaining Haaland into a dead rubber with Pep at the wheel is the fantasy equivalent of betting your house on a coin Pep gets to flip.

The smart money for the final day shifts to players whose clubs still have skin in the game: sides scrapping for European places, chasing bonuses, or fighting relegation will field their strongest XIs and play with intent. For the chasing pack, with no chips and slim hopes, GW38 is about pride, bench management and one last differential punt. For the leader, it's about not doing anything silly. Eleven players, ninety minutes, and a season's worth of bragging rights on the line. See you on the other side. 🏁