With one match left, Gameweek 8 has been one of the most memorable I can remember.
Highlights ranged from one Fantasy Premier League manager travelling to the hotel where the Arsenal players were staying ahead of their away match against Bournemouth to try to catch a glimpse of injury-doubt Bukayo Saka (£10.1m), to FPL content creators being accused of being part of a 'cartel' in having inside information and not sharing it with their audience. (Yes, you read that right.) There was also controversy regarding the surprising assist awarded to Son Heung-min (£9.8m) in Tottenham Hotspur's 4-1 win against West Ham United.
The gameweek concludes with Nottingham Forest entertaining Crystal Palace (8pm UK time; 3pm ET) this evening, but here we will discuss the main talking points from the weekend's nine fixtures.
Tottenham's third goal against West Ham on Saturday did not initially have anybody credited with the assist but, after a review, FPL decided to give it to Son, whose shot led to an own goal from Alphonse Areola.
The South Korean's strike was saved by Areola before rebounding off West Ham defender Jean-Clair Todibo and then touching Areola again on its way into the net.
FPL's rules state that "if an opposing player deflects the ball after the final pass before a goal is scored, significantly altering the intended destination of the ball, then no assist in Fantasy is awarded". Which should mean Son's goal-bound shot would not meet the criteria.
This caused a stir among the FPL community because it's an unprecedented situation for a player to receive the three points for an assist after their shot hit two opposition players.
Additionally, at 2.02pm on Saturday, FPL's official X account posted that there was "no assist" for the Areola own goal, despite Son being awarded an assist in the game. A subsequent post confirmed Son had been credited with an assist. But then that got deleted and, at the time of writing, no further update has appeared on social media.
If you're engaged with 'FPL Twitter', you may have seen many content creators taking Saka out for Son before Saturday's deadline.
Due to this move, a lot of them were accused of knowing that Saka was out for the Bournemouth game but chose to withhold the information for personal gain, sparking talk of an 'FPL Cartel' online. Apparently, all the big content creators are in some form of group chat together where they share inside information about FPL updates.
This is, of course, untrue, and the move from Saka to Son made sense for several reasons. There was a widespread video posted on X of the Arsenal players arriving at their team hotel, in which Saka was not seen, and there was also a clip on X from AFTV's The Invincibles Podcast, where co-presenter Lee Judges was confidently speculating that the England forward would miss the game. Although none of that can be called conclusive evidence, the signs were there and, to be honest, the transfer was viable even if Saka was fit.
Arsenal's upcoming games weren't the best as they had three away matches in the next four (including the Bournemouth trip), whereas Spurs had a much kinder run against West Ham (H), Palace (A), Aston Villa (H) and Ipswich (H).
These 'cartel' suggestions just show how much FPL has grown over the years, and its popularity naturally brings with it more competition and rivalry.
Arsenal lost 2-0 to Bournemouth after William Saliba (£6.0m) was sent off in the first half. He will now miss their next game against Liverpool on Sunday. The big FPL talking point, though, was that Saka wasn't even in their squad -- despite a positive update from manager Mikel Arteta in his pre-match press conference.
However, I don't need to tell you that there is no need to panic and that Haaland is worth keeping -- especially for the next game against second-bottom Southampton at home on Saturday. This is arguably City's best fixture of the season. At least on par with Ipswich, where Haaland scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 home win in Gameweek 2.
This is another opportunity to use the triple captain chip here on the Norwegian. We know he isn't going to blank every game and, barring injury, is likely to finish the season as the Premier League's top scorer again.
More than 477,000 FPL managers used their triple captain chip on him in Gameweek 2 and were well rewarded. This is arguably a better time to play it if you are looking to gain on the field as, after those three blanks in a row, many managers won't even consider doing so.
City are at home against Sparta Prague in the Champions League on Wednesday. I will be monitoring Haaland's minutes and fitness carefully.