FPL Gameweek 5 Review: What Went Right And Wrong — 25 Sep

GW5 Autopsy: Semenyo's 17 Stung — But We're Fine

Antonio Semenyo dropped 17 points on Gameweek 5, and only about 1.5 in 10 of us had him. That was the week's biggest swing — the hindsight captaincy pick, and the haul that actually moved ranks. Everything else mostly kept us where we were.

The average manager scored 48. The top score in the game was 126, and if you're wondering how, it's the names down the ownership ladder: Brobbey of Sunderland with 17 (under 1 in 10 own him), Dasilva of Coventry with 15, Schuster of Brentford with 14, Manzambi of Villa with 13 — those last three owned by basically nobody. If a rival jumped you this week, one of those punts is probably why.

But here's the calmer read. The template did its job too. Groß's 14 was in roughly 3 in 10 squads. Tarkowski's 14 and Hall's 13 sat with around 1.5 in 10 each. If we owned two or three of those — and most sensible squads did — we cleared the average comfortably without needing a Coventry midfielder nobody could name on Friday.

The armband? Just about everyone went Haaland — over 7 in 10 — and he wasn't the answer this week. Semenyo was. That stings, but let's be honest about what it means: nothing. Captaining the most-owned, highest-upside forward in the game is a strategy, not a failure. The manager who captained Semenyo this week is the same manager who captains someone else next week and bleeds rank when it misses. We hold the line.

The temptation now is obvious: chase. Bring in Dasilva or Schuster off one haul, sell a template piece to fund it, and hope lightning strikes twice on players with almost no track record and almost no owners. That's how one bad week becomes three. Semenyo is the only one of this week's haulers with a real case — decent ownership already building, and a big score to his name — so watch him, and if you've got a free transfer and dead weight, he's the sensible version of chasing.

The one move before the deadline: protect, don't panic. Keep Groß, keep Hall, keep Tarkowski if you've got them — they hauled *and* they're template, which is exactly the combination we want. And keep the armband on Haaland. One quiet week doesn't change the maths, and it doesn't change our call.