Another gameweek done. Twenty-five goals across six matches, with Manchester United's 4-2 win over Brighton providing the week's most entertaining theatre.

The football itself painted a picture of chaos masquerading as competition. Brighton took the lead twice through Mbeumo's brace, only for United to claw back with Welbeck and Kostoulas finding the net. It was the sort of match that leaves defenders reaching for their phones to check if they're still employed. Elsewhere, Brentford's 3-2 victory over Liverpool proved that the Gtech Community Stadium remains a genuinely uncomfortable place to visit, with O.Dango and Schade doing the damage. Spurs, meanwhile, administered a clinical 3-0 dismantling of Everton, Van de Ven scoring twice to announce himself as a genuine attacking threat from the back. Burnley's 3-2 win at Wolves, Leeds' 2-1 victory over West Ham, and Brentford's triumph over the Reds meant the week delivered the sort of goal-heavy entertainment that makes FPL managers simultaneously delighted and terrified. Across The Premier Pundits, managers averaged 46 points, a respectable return that masked significant variance in how those points were distributed.

The most striking feature of this gameweek was the complete unanimity of captaincy choice paired with its utter futility. All ten managers captained Erling Haaland. Every single one. It's the sort of consensus that usually precedes either a masterclass or a collective reckoning, and this week delivered the latter. Haaland returned 4 points, which is to say he played, he didn't score, and he didn't assist. The captain's armband, which should amplify returns, instead amplified disappointment across the entire league. What made this particularly galling was that Van de Ven, left uncaptained by everyone, scored 23 points. Mbeumo, similarly ignored for the armband, returned 15. Even Casemiro, a midfielder who scored and assisted, managed 15 points without anyone doubling his haul. The lesson wasn't subtle: perfect consensus in captaincy choices delivered the worst possible outcome, leaving ten managers staring at their phones wondering if they'd collectively misread the room.

Bench management, however, told a different story entirely. The spread between highest and lowest bench points was genuinely alarming. Hannah Garcia's bench contributed nothing, a zero that would normally signal catastrophic planning. Except Hannah activated Bench Boost, which meant all 15 players counted, so that zero was entirely expected and, frankly, irrelevant. Her 70-point gameweek was the week's highest score, built on the back of a squad that performed rather than any particular tactical brilliance. Mike Moore, by contrast, left 24 points on his bench, a figure that suggests either poor squad construction or transfer decisions that backfired. Nathan McBannister's 20 bench points fell somewhere between the two extremes. The variance here is instructive: in a gameweek where captaincy proved useless as a differentiator, squad depth became everything. Those who'd built squads where their best players actually played delivered returns. Those who'd transferred out performers or left them on the bench paid the price.

Speaking of transfers, this week's moves proved costly for several managers. One manager transferred Van de Ven out for James, watching his former defender score 23 points whilst his replacement managed 1. Another moved Damsgaard for Saka, a swap that cost 3 points. A third transferred Thiago out for Kroupi Jr, surrendering 3 points in the process. These weren't marginal decisions; they were the sort of moves that, in a league where the point spread between first and last is 42 points, genuinely matter. The irony is that none of these transfers were made on a hit, so the managers absorbed the full cost of their misjudgement. In a gameweek where consensus captaincy delivered nothing and bench points ranged wildly, the real differentiation came from those who'd simply held their nerve and kept their squads intact.

The league standings remain remarkably tight at the summit. Mike Moore leads on 682 total points, level with Nathan McBannister, though Mike's superior gameweek score keeps him ahead on tiebreaker. Hannah Garcia sits sixth on 659 points, having climbed from fifth despite this week's 70-point haul not quite closing the gap to the leaders. The top three are separated by just a handful of points, suggesting that any manager who gets next week's captain choice right could shuffle the entire order.

Gameweek 10 presents a fixture list that demands careful attention. Arsenal travel to Burnley in what shapes as a genuine test, whilst Spurs host Chelsea in a London derby that carries genuine weight. Brighton face Leeds, Fulham host Wolves, and Nottingham Forest welcome Manchester United to the City Ground. The fixture list offers no obvious gimmes, and with Forest sitting 18th, United 14th, and Wolves 20th, the traditional "attack the bottom sides" strategy holds limited appeal. Managers should watch for any squad rotation hints from the top sides, particularly around the international break window. The next week will likely separate those who've learned from this week's captaincy consensus from those who haven't.