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Today’s briefing is a ~4 min read:

1. All you need to know about Matchday 21 (Part II) 🤩

2. R1 Transfer Index ✅

3. FPL: how are the best doing? 🤔

MATCHWEEK 21 (Part II) PREVIEW 🤩

🔫 Arsenal vs Crystal Palace 🏰

The first fixture of part two.

Palace hasn’t faired well when coming to the Emirates, winning only one of their last 12.

But Arsenal has been in poor form recently…

• They’ve only taken 4 points from their last 15 available.

• They’ve lost their last three matches in all competitions.

• They’ve lost their last two London derby matches in the Prem.

Palace does have something to play for - though. They will be looking to win a consecutive league game for the first time since April 2023.

After a decent break, now’s the time for the Gunners to kick into gear.

• 💉 Quick hit: Bukayo Saka has been involved in 15 goals in his last 18 league derby matches.

🐝 Brentford vs Nottingham Forest 🌳

🎶 Return of the Mack Toney… 🎶

That’s right. Ivan Toney is back.

Oh boy, the Bees have missed their star striker. Brentford is now 3 points from the relegation zone and has gone seven games without a win all in all competitions.

It’s the perfect time for his return as he’s scored in all three of his previous games against Forest.

Forest’s record hasn’t been great against London clubs either…

• In 2022, they conceded 29 goals in 12 games against London clubs… ouch…

• … that’s an average of 2.4 per game.

• In their last outing, Fulham netted 5 past them.

Yet, there’s been a clear upturn in Forest’s fortunes since Nuno Espirito Santo’s arrival.

And with the potential 10-point deduction looming over their heads, they have a lot to fight for.

• 💉 Quick hit: Brentford lost two of 19 home league games last season - they’ve already doubled that tally this season.

🍒 Bournemouth vs Liverpool 🐉

Bournemouth will be happy that:

• Salah is out.

• Endo it out.

• Trent is out.

Arguably Liverpool’s best players this season.

But… the Cherries struggled against league-leading teams, losing all nine of their games with a -24 goal difference.

Liverpool have enough firepower to continue their good away form.

That said, they’ll need to keep their former player Solanke under wraps to prevent an upset.

• 💉 Quick hit: A Liverpool win would see their fourth straight Premier League away win for the first time in almost two years.

R1 TRANSFER INDEX 📊

Things are starting to hot up on the transfer front - and the R1 Index is moving in the right direction…

Here are some transfers we’ve heard through the grapevine…

• AFC Ajax signed Jordan Henderson until June 2026. ✅

• Luton signed Tom Holmes from Reading. ✅

• Fulham made a £35 million bid for Fluminense midfielder Andre. 📝

• Arsenal and Chelsea are keen to sign Karim Benzema on loan… but L’Equipe denies these claims. 🤔

• Spurs are not giving up on signing Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher. 🤔

• Reports that Newcastle are finding a Bruno Guimaraes replacement has boosted the Gunners’ pursuit. 🤔

FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE 🎯

It’s still Gameweek 21 so there are no transfers to make.

So here’s footage of R1’s FPL writers for the past week…

Whilst we wait for this gameweek 21 to be over, let’s take a look at how the FPL OGs are getting on…

1/ The Reigning Champion - Rank: 1,522,581

2/ The FPL “GOAT” - Ranked: 259,789

Fábio Borges is regarded as the best FPL manager of all time, with six consecutive top 2k finishes.

He’s on fire with six green arrows in the last seven gameweeks…

3/ The Current World Number 1

‘Immaterial Boys’, based in the Philippines, is ranted no.1 globally…

All three managers have…

• … kept Salah in their team…

• … and put faith in Arsenal assets for their captaincy - we’ll see if it pays off this weekend.

EXTRA-TIME ⏱️

If you slip in the Champions League, don’t panic. Just do a keepie uppie and flick it over the opposition’s head… Riccardo Montolivio, ladies and gents.

This story of Clarence Seedorf will never get old. Kevin-Prince Boateng explains the time he had to speak to his teammate through his driver.

Spurs players were asked who the most famous person in their phone contacts is. It’s a shame Robbie Williams didn’t answer Maddison’s Facetime…

So good they named him twice. They don’t make ‘em like Jay Jay Okocha anymore… what a joy to watch.

Jamie Vardy is still as mad as ever. The Premier League winner dresses up as Spiderman to shock his Leicester City teammates… we’re not sure it went to plan.

MEME 😆

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