HOW quickly things can change in the world of Dream Team.
Prior to Gameweek 10, Manchester City were imperious Premier League leaders and undefeated in the Champions League.
Suddenly, after consecutive defeats to Tottenham, Bournemouth and Sporting CP, they’re in crisis.
Pep Guardiola’s side aren’t truly in crisis of course; their 2-1 loss to the Cherries ended the fourth-longest unbeaten streak in Premier League history and the decorated tactician will still feel confident of a place in the Champions League knockout stage in the new year.
But everything is relative to the standards expected of the club in question and the nature of City’s Gameweek 10 disappointments will have unnerved more than a few Dream Team managers.
For starters, Erling Haaland (£8.9m) has been usurped at the top of the rankings by Mohamed Salah (£7.3m).
The Norwegian No9’s tally of 150 points remains hugely impressive and he’s still comfortably the top goalscorer in all competitions (14) but gaffers who captained him in Gameweek 10 have been left unsatisfied.
Haaland let fly with plenty of shots against Bournemouth and Sporting but failed to find the net with any of them, including a missed penalty in the Portuguese capital on Tuesday night.
As a result, he notched just six points from the two outings while Liverpool’s Egyptian hero banked 22 points at the expense of Brighton and Bayer Leverkusen to claim top spot.
Those who captained Salah over Haaland have benefited from a huge swing this week!
Elsewhere, Gameweek 10 was also a nightmare for Rico Lewis (£4m).
The talented teenager has been one of the best value-for-money assets in the game throughout the first quarter of the season but, with City having conceded six goals, he mustered just a single point across his two most recent outings.
Lewis remains fourth in the defensive rankings on 86 points but it’s interesting that he’s currently among the five most transferred-out players ahead of Gameweek 11 – a significant chunk of gaffers have quickly lost faith.
Josko Gvardiol (£4.8m) avoided a similarly damaging Gameweek as it was the Croatia left-back who scored City’s only goal at the Vitality Stadium.
Generally speaking, it was a dismal Gameweek for the defending champions but Phil Foden (£6m) managed to earn 16 points amid the chaos via a goal and four bonus points – his resurgence is a minor point of optimism at least.
Dream Team bosses would be more inclined to remain loyal to their Man City assets if it wasn’t for a spate of troublesome injuries.
Guardiola half-prepared fans for these results when he told reporters that he had just 13 players available after his side’s defeat to Spurs in the Carabao Cup in Gameweek 9.
While that turned out to be an exaggeration, there’s no doubt the Citizens are feeling the impact of their absentees at present.
It’s a well established trend by now that City’s results dip when Ballon d’Or winner Rodri (£4m) is unavailable.
On the plus side, Kevin De Bruyne (£6.3m) managed six minutes at the end against the Portuguese champions and may therefore play a more prominent role at Brighton this Saturday.
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But hopes of a clean sheet in Gameweek 11 appear relatively low after 19-year-old centre-back Jahmai Simpson-Pusey was given a baptism of fire by Sporting’s hat-trick hero Viktor Gyokeres.
The Seagulls will be quietly confident of their chances on home soil having seen Guardiola’s men give up a string of big chances in recent outings.
It’s too soon to earnestly discuss whether Haaland still warrants a place in a competitive Dream Team XI as he took Sparta Prague and Southampton for a combined 31 points as recently as late October but another blank this weekend would set a cat among the pigeons.
Dream Team managers have rarely had to worry about the viability of Man City players in relation to the club’s form in recent years but three defeats on the spin has set tongues wagging.
It will be interesting to see to what extent gaffers abandon the likes of Haaland, Lewis and Gvardiol during the international break if Gameweek 11 also ends badly.
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