Your lot against their lot!
Fantasy football, but more personal! Every gameweek, you’re randomly matched with another manager just two hours before kick-off. Your players’ real-life Premier League performances decide who scores the points, who takes the win, and most importantly, who gets bragging rights.
Start with £650m. Sounds plenty until you clock that Haaland costs £134m on his own. Pick eleven players and four subs, no more than three from any one club, and line them up in any of eight formations.
Hand someone the armband and his points count double. Name a vice-captain as well, because if your captain doesn’t play, the vice takes over. Change your mind as often as you like until teams lock, two hours before the first kick-off of the gameweek.
At the lock every team is drawn against another at random, so nobody can pick around their opponent. If you’ve both gone for the same player, he’s void and counts for neither of you. Your sub in that position comes on instead and scores from then on.
Then the football does the rest. Points land in your meter in the order things happened on the pitch. Get to 30 and that’s a goal. Both meters drop back to zero and the race starts again. Most goals when the last game of the gameweek finishes wins. Level on goals? More total points wins it.
Points can go backwards too. Cards, own goals and missed penalties all cost you, so one daft booking at the wrong moment can hand your rival a goal. Once a goal’s in, though, it stays in, whatever happens to the stats later.