Gameweek 2 was supposed to be the week where patience paid off. Instead, João Pedro scored at both ends, James Tarkowski carried my defence and I finished the weekend staring at my transfer screen again.
After Gameweek 1, I had promised myself that I wouldn't start making big changes after only one bad week. I went into Gameweek 2 with two free transfers available and absolutely no intention of using either of them. The plan was simple: trust the squad, make a few changes to the starting XI and gather a little more information before deciding anyone needed to go.
That felt sensible.
Then Gameweek 2 happened.
I finished with 63 points, which was 18 points below the Gameweek average of 81. João Pedro did almost everything possible to keep the score respectable, Tarkowski delivered again and Calvert-Lewin finally gave me something back.
The rest of the squad was a little less convincing.
By the time the Gameweek had finished, I was still telling myself not to overreact.
That promise lasted for approximately five minutes.
First, let's talk about Gameweek 2.
The final result was 63 points, which wasn't exactly where I wanted to be. The Gameweek average was 81, my Gameweek rank was 8.2 million and several players managed to return the sort of scores that make you quietly wonder why you spent so much time picking them.
The score wasn't a complete disaster because a few players did some serious heavy lifting. The problem was that I needed them to.
Pedro giveth. Pedro taketh away.
After failing to captain João Pedro in Gameweek 1, I decided I wasn't making the same mistake twice.
He had already returned 11 points in the opening week, looked like one of the better picks in the squad and had done enough to earn my trust. So this time, João Pedro got the armband.
For most of the match, that looked like a very good decision. He scored, created a goal and picked up bonus points, giving me exactly the sort of captain return I had been hoping for.
Then, because apparently a normal captain haul wasn't entertaining enough, he scored an own goal.
João Pedro
18 points for my team
Pedro giveth.
Pedro taketh away.
João Pedro finished with nine points despite scoring at both ends. With the captaincy doubling his score, he gave me 18 points and ended up being responsible for a huge chunk of my Gameweek total.
There is something deeply funny about watching your captain score a goal, set one up and then apparently decide the opposition weren't having enough goals, so he would help them out as well.
Somehow, though, I'm still calling the captaincy decision a success.
After missing out on his Gameweek 1 haul because I didn't give him the armband, getting 18 points from him this week felt like a correction. A slightly chaotic correction, admittedly, but a correction all the same.
Tarkowski did it again.
Tarkowski was another huge positive from the Gameweek. I had brought him into the starting XI for Gabriel, mainly because I liked the fixture and wanted to give him a chance after his decent opening week.
He responded with 12 points, including a goal, a clean sheet and bonus points. For a defender, that's pretty much everything you could ask for.
So I made the right decision, but naturally FPL still found a way to make me question everything. Gabriel was sitting on my bench with eight points, meaning there was still a sizeable score sitting there unused.
I'm choosing to focus on the important part: Tarkowski outscored him.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
The bench was not my friend.
The Gabriel situation wasn't even the bench decision that annoyed me most.
That honour belongs to Anderson.
He started the Gameweek as a fitness doubt and therefore found himself moved out of my starting XI. I replaced him with Le Fée, which seemed like a sensible decision based on the information I had at the time.
Then Manchester City announced their starting XI.
Anderson was starting.
Unfortunately, by that point I had already put him third on my bench.
Third.
On.
My.
Bench.
The fitness doubt made the decision understandable. Putting a player who was actually starting a Premier League match third on my bench was considerably less understandable.
The frustrating part is that I didn't actually want Anderson out of the team. I was reacting to the fitness news, and that's exactly the sort of thing that can happen when you're making decisions before the deadline.
Still, checking the team news properly would have helped. Sometimes FPL really does come down to something as simple as knowing who is actually starting.
Raya was fine. Kelleher was not.
The goalkeeper decision was another one that had me thinking more than it probably deserved.
Kelleher had outscored Raya in Gameweek 1, so there was already a little voice asking whether I had picked the wrong goalkeeper. I decided to stick with Raya, mainly because Kelleher was facing Leeds while I already had Leeds players elsewhere in the squad.
I didn't really fancy spending the afternoon hoping for a Kelleher clean sheet while also wanting my own attackers to return.
Raya
6 pts Aston Villa (A)Kelleher
2 pts Leeds (A)Raya finished with six points while Kelleher managed just two, so for once the goalkeeper decision worked out exactly how I wanted.
Raya wasn't spectacular, but six points is perfectly respectable and, more importantly, I didn't have to spend the whole match arguing with myself about which side I wanted to win.
One defender carried the group.
Tarkowski was easily the standout defender, but the rest of the back line was a lot less exciting.
Guéhi had been one of my biggest positives from Gameweek 1 after scoring 10 points, but he managed only two this time around. I'm not worried about him after one poor score. The opening week showed enough to convince me that the pick still makes sense, and I don't want to start chasing points every time a player blanks.
Virgil is a slightly different story. After two points in Gameweek 1, he managed just one this week. Spending £6.5m on a defender who has given me three points across two Gameweeks isn't exactly what I had pictured.
The defence wasn't a disaster, but Tarkowski was doing most of the work. The bigger concern was that some of my more expensive players weren't giving me enough back.
I wasn't ready to panic.
I was, however, beginning to stare at the transfer screen.
Midfield didn't exactly explode.
Midfield was probably the quietest part of the squad. Semenyo returned five points, Rice managed five and Le Fée finished on three.
None of those scores are exciting, but none were enough on their own to make me want to rip the midfield apart.
Wilson was the player who stood out for the wrong reasons. After three points in Gameweek 1, he managed just one point in Gameweek 2, leaving him with four points from the opening two Gameweeks.
I still like the player, which is probably why the decision was more frustrating than simply deciding he was a bad pick. Unfortunately, at some point, the FPL points need to start matching the reasons I brought him into the squad in the first place.
The forwards were a mixed bag.
João Pedro obviously carried the forward line, but Calvert-Lewin also gave me something to smile about.
After returning only one point in Gameweek 1, he bounced back with eight this week, which was exactly the sort of response I wanted to see.
Thiago was the opposite. He managed just two points, leaving him on only three from the opening two Gameweeks.
Two Gameweeks aren't enough to prove that a player is a bad pick, but Thiago was definitely making me work harder to justify keeping him than I expected.
So where did the points disappear?
The main problem was simply that too many players failed to return enough.
Wilson and Virgil managed one point each, while Guéhi and Thiago returned two apiece. When several players are producing those sorts of scores in the same Gameweek, the total is always going to suffer.
The bench didn't help either. Gabriel scored eight points while sitting there unused, and Anderson was moved out of the starting XI because of a fitness doubt before eventually starting anyway.
Those are the little decisions that don't necessarily ruin a Gameweek on their own, but they start to matter when the overall score is already struggling.
Patience is good.
Overthinking is not.
Not every poor return means the player needs to go, and not every benching decision needs to become a crisis. The hard part is knowing when something is genuinely wrong and when I'm simply annoyed that FPL didn't do what I wanted.
That was probably the biggest thing I took from Gameweek 2. There were plenty of moments where I could have made a different decision, but hindsight makes every alternative look better than the decision I actually had to make before the deadline.
So naturally, having spent an entire Gameweek telling myself to be patient...
I made two transfers.
The transfer button won.
After Gameweek 2, I had a few players I was starting to feel less confident about. Wilson had managed just four points across the opening two Gameweeks, while Senesi wasn't giving me enough reason to keep him ahead of the alternatives I was looking at.
I could have rolled the transfers and carried on.
In fact, that was probably the sensible thing to do.
Instead, I made two changes.
The transfer button won.
Szoboszlai comes in for Wilson.
This was probably the transfer I felt most comfortable making. Liverpool travel to Ipswich in Gameweek 3, and I wanted some attacking coverage from that fixture.
Wilson has had two quiet Gameweeks to start the season, and while I still like the player, four points isn't enough to keep ignoring other options.
Naturally, this means Wilson will probably score immediately.
Ajayi comes in for Senesi.
The second transfer was a little more about changing the balance of the defence.
Ajayi gets the opportunity to come into the starting XI, with Hull facing Aston Villa at home.
That fixture certainly isn't an obvious clean-sheet pick, but I wanted to make the change and give Ajayi a chance rather than continuing to hold Senesi simply because he was already in the squad.
The move might look questionable by Saturday afternoon.
The funny thing is that neither transfer feels particularly wild. I'm not chasing a player after one huge haul or making five changes because I've suddenly decided my entire squad is terrible.
I'm just making two moves that I think improve the team.
Whether FPL agrees with me is, of course, a completely different question.
Pedro gets the armband again.
After everything João Pedro did for me in Gameweek 2, there was never much doubt about who would captain the team this week.
He scored, assisted, scored an own goal and somehow still finished with nine points.
With the captaincy doubling that to 18 points, João Pedro was responsible for a huge part of my Gameweek 2 score.
So despite Arsenal away in Gameweek 3, I'm sticking with him.
João Pedro
CaptainI know Arsenal away isn't the easiest fixture, but I'm not going to drop a player I trust just because the fixture looks harder on paper.
Hopefully this time he can keep the goals going in the right direction.
And Szoboszlai gets the safety net.
With Liverpool travelling to Ipswich, Szoboszlai gets the vice-captaincy.
This is partly because I like the fixture and partly because I've just transferred him into the squad. There would be something slightly embarrassing about bringing a player in, immediately putting the vice-captaincy on him and then watching him do absolutely nothing.
So naturally, that's probably exactly what's going to happen.
João Pedro captain. Szoboszlai vice-captain.
Then there was the goalkeeper decision.
The goalkeeper decision was actually fairly simple this week once I looked at the fixtures properly.
Kelleher comes in for Raya, and the main reason isn't really about Sunderland being a better fixture.
It's because João Pedro is my captain.
Chelsea travel to Arsenal, and I don't really want to spend the game cheering for my captain to score while also hoping my own Arsenal goalkeeper keeps a clean sheet.
I've been trying to get better at blocking out those unnecessary conflicts in my team. If one of my players is going to benefit from something happening in a fixture, I don't really want another player in my squad actively working against that outcome.
Obviously, I can't avoid every conflict. That's FPL. But if I can remove an unnecessary one without weakening the team, I'll take it.
Kelleher
GW3 Sunderland (H) Starting this weekRaya
GW3 Chelsea (H) Facing my captainSo Kelleher gets the nod.
I'm not saying Raya is suddenly a bad goalkeeper, and I'm not pretending Kelleher is guaranteed a clean sheet. I'm just trying to avoid spending 90 minutes wanting two completely opposite things to happen.
João Pedro scoring is good. Arsenal keeping a clean sheet is not.
I know which one I'm backing this week.
The defence gets a new face.
The defence has had one change this week, with Ajayi coming in for Senesi. The rest of the back line stays exactly as it was.
That means Tarkowski gets Manchester United at home, Guéhi gets Coventry City at home, Van Dijk travels to Ipswich and Gabriel faces Chelsea at home.
Gabriel is the interesting one here because he's another Arsenal player in a fixture where my captain, João Pedro, is playing against him.
The difference is that I'm not going to start removing every possible conflict from the team. Gabriel is there because I believe he has a good chance of returning points, and I'm not going to bench him simply because João Pedro is my captain.
Tarkowski has quickly become one of the more reassuring players in the squad after another strong Gameweek, and I'm very happy to keep him starting.
Guéhi gets another chance despite his two-point return. One quiet Gameweek isn't enough to change my opinion on a player who gave me 10 points in the opening week.
Virgil is the one I'm watching most closely. Three points across the opening two Gameweeks isn't what I wanted from a £6.5m defender, but Liverpool's trip to Ipswich gives him another opportunity to put that right.
And then there's Ajayi.
He's the new addition, so naturally I'm hoping he gives me a reason to feel clever about the transfer rather than immediately reminding me why I should have just rolled the transfer.
For now, I'm backing the defence.
Szoboszlai changes the midfield.
The big difference this week is obviously Szoboszlai replacing Wilson, giving me another attacking option in the squad.
Semenyo stays in midfield and gets Coventry City at home, while Anderson and Rice remain on the bench.
I'm still not completely convinced by every midfield decision, but Semenyo is one player I don't want to give up on after only two Gameweeks.
Rice is another player who is staying around for now. He isn't exactly setting FPL on fire, but I'm not expecting him to be the player carrying my midfield every week either.
Anderson gets a promotion.
Anderson is still on the bench this week.
The difference is where I've put him.
After what happened in Gameweek 2, I don't think I need to explain why. Anderson was a fitness doubt, so I moved him down to third on the bench. Then Manchester City named him in the starting XI.
Which meant I had a player who was actually starting a Premier League match sitting third on my bench.
Not my finest moment.
There isn't really much more to it than that. I still prefer the players I've put ahead of him, but Anderson is now the first player waiting in case something goes wrong.
One small change. Hopefully one less thing to regret.
The forwards stay together.
The forward line hasn't changed.
João Pedro remains the obvious star after his 18-point captain haul in Gameweek 2, while Calvert-Lewin gets another chance after his eight-point return.
Thiago is the one I'm watching most closely.
Three points across the opening two Gameweeks isn't the start I wanted, and he's probably the player I'm closest to losing patience with.
But I've already made two transfers this week. I'm not going to turn that into a third simply because I'm frustrated with a player I've only owned for two Gameweeks.
He gets another week.
After that, we'll see.
Gameweek 3 XI
Two transfers made, the goalkeeper debate finally settled and enough time spent staring at the squad, this is the team I'm taking into Gameweek 3.
So, was making the transfers actually worth it?
Ask me again on Sunday.
That's the beauty of FPL. I can sit here and explain exactly why I've made these changes. Szoboszlai gives me the attacking option I wanted. Ajayi gives me a fresh defensive option. Wilson wasn't giving me enough. Senesi wasn't convincing me.
On paper, it all makes sense.
Then the Gameweek actually happens.
Maybe Wilson immediately scores. Maybe Senesi keeps a clean sheet. Maybe Szoboszlai blanks and I spend Saturday evening wondering why I ever opened the transfer screen.
Or maybe the opposite happens and I get to spend the weekend feeling like a tactical genius.
We all know which version of FPL I'd prefer.
Gameweek 3 verdict
Gameweek 2 taught me to be patient. Gameweek 3 is where I find out whether I've actually learned anything.
Two transfers have been made, João Pedro keeps the armband, Szoboszlai gets the vice-captaincy and Kelleher comes into goal.
The squad isn't perfect, but I've made the changes I wanted without completely losing the plot.
That's the important thing.
I haven't rebuilt the entire squad because of one bad Gameweek, but I also haven't ignored the players who were starting to give me reasons to worry.
Somewhere between patience and pressing the transfer button every five minutes is probably the sensible FPL approach.
Whether I actually manage to find that balance is another question.
For now, the decisions have been made.
João Pedro is my captain.
The transfer button has been pressed.
Now it's over to the players.