8. Gameweek 3 Preview: Man vs Machine - Neck and neck after a Miserable Week

There is just one point in between my team and the Machine Learning Team after GW 2. And as we start to learn more about the teams and players who are likely to hit form, so does the algorithm. Here's a brief summary of how it did this past week.

Algo Team

• :)
• Ings and Antonio returning the faith despite price falls
• TAA and Robbo with the double clean sheet, although lucked out with Alisson's penalty save
• Harvey Barnes - the real hero in a week that saw some really high individual scores
• Mitchell coming on for Azpilicueta as autosub with 5 valuable points
• :(
• Captaincy blank yet again - perhaps we need a completely different model for the captaincy but I'm sticking to it for now mainly due to a lack of free time
• Doherty and Azpilicueta disappointing for the 2nd week in a row bringing big at the back into question
• Mccarthy looked completely out of rhythm and Southampton just mentally collapsed in the second half against Spurs
• Gameweek 3
• With 2 free transfers and having Azpilicueta not playing enough, 3 transfers have been made for a -4
• Vardy goes out for Calvert Lewin - both of them are expected to get similar returns according to the algo but Calvert Lewin is almost 3 million cheaper
• De Bruyne comes in for Willian - KdB is the second best midfielder for the next 4 weeks and Willian regresses with the upcoming fixtures
• Saiss in for Azpilicueta - looks like Wolves' great run of fixtures helps Saiss make the cut
• Antonio stays despite a harsh fixture run - he still has one of the best underlying stats and the opponents he faces have not been as defensively solid as it seems on paper

My Team

• :)
• Not much to smile about honestly
• Justin and Taylor the budget defensive heroes who allowed the score to cross 40
• Auba with a decent return, although nothing exceptional
• Trent with a clean sheet and bonus point off the mark for the season
• Mitchell coming off the bench with points for the second week in a row
• :(
• Gameweek rank of 5.5 million!
• Dele Alli has been a huge disappointment when compared to his teammate, Son. 
• Mccarthy's and Saint Maximin's existence in my team looks like a burden
• Adams unlucky for the second week in a row to not score, or maybe he's just a bad finisher
• Martial came in for Jimenez as a defensive move. Now Jimenez looks like a great asset with his upcoming fixture run. It's quite hard to make the difficult moves week on week even if in the long term it may seem obvious.
• Gameweek 3
• Alli went out for James Rodriguez on Saturday evening, with a wildcard being a real possibility
• KdB in for Auba on Monday night for a -4. I was briefly considering keeping Auba but after watching de Bruyne against Wolves, it would take a brave man to go without him
• Decided against the wildcard in the end. I'm still not quite sure who I would get if I had to play it now
• Hoping that Vinagre gets some game time with Marcal's injury, otherwise next week can easily be as damaging as this one
• 
  

  

And this is how the table looks after 2 weeks. My team still keeps the lead, but only just about. The machine will surely be glad with how it has managed to close down the gap in just a week. Hopefully both of us have a better GW 3 and beyond.