Candace goes top as Tineka and Rob share the weekly honours

Candace edges two points clear of Clarky, Tineka matches Rob’s Triple Captain-assisted 79 without a chip, and Ryan tumbles five places.

The league table

#	TEAM / MANAGER	GW7 NET	TOTAL	MOVE
1	CVD FC Candace Van Damme	65	454	▲1
2	PC clarkys cloggers Paul Clark	63	452	▼1
3	TB ABCDEFC Tineka Bishop	79	434	▲1
4	sendmetocoventry Ian Goodison-Powell	69	420	▲1
5	This is the Wirtz! Ivo Ferreira	67	418	▲1
6	Boo Tottenham Aubrey Hindle	65	415	▲1
7	Park the Bus Hailey Hindle	72	413	▲1
8	RH Red Djed Redemption Ryan Hindle	37	405	▼5
9	Green Street United Rob Ayres	79	403	▲1
10	Mikel Arteta's Army Peter Mossad	71	389	▲1
11	DA The Balon D'orgus Dela Avle	46	379	▼2
12	AFC Kincardine Steve Fletcher	66	327	—
13	Devastators FC Angelo Pavia	51	238	—
14	PP Vermilion Bird Portia Pavia	32	214	—

GW7 scores and weekly honours are net of transfer hits: Ivo 71 − 4 = 67; Peter 75 − 4 = 71. Overall totals and order follow FPL. Tineka and Rob share the weekly win on 79.

Two points, one chair, no peace and quiet

Candace Van Damme has the summit to herself again. Last week she and Paul Clark were level; this time CVD FC lead clarkys cloggers by two points, 454 to 452. It is hardly enough room to put a drink down, but it is a lead, and those are rather nicer to possess than explanations.

Candace’s captain Groß supplied ten, while Haaland, Konsa and Calvert-Lewin provided the sturdier foundations beneath a 65-point week. Clarky had the bigger captaincy return but finished on 63. De Cuyper’s six arrived through an automatic substitution for Cherki, keeping the damage modest. A title challenge occasionally consists of persuading the reserve bench to stop the ceiling falling in.

Tineka Bishop moves into third, twenty points behind Candace. Below her, Ian, Ivo, Aubrey and Hailey occupy fourth to seventh within seven points of one another. Ryan’s five-place fall has made the middle of the league look like somebody has shaken the table.

Manager Spotlight: the champion needs no extra button

Tineka’s 79 shares Manager of the Week with Rob Ayres. The defending champion used neither a transfer nor a chip. Rob used Triple Captain. Both routes are legal; one leaves rather more machinery in the cupboard for later.

ABCDEFC’s four defenders supplied 22 between them, Verbruggen kept his end respectable, and Calvert-Lewin brought nine alongside Haaland’s doubled thirteen. This was a team performance, rather than eleven names waiting for one expensive Norwegian to answer the telephone.

After 47 in GW06, Tineka has delivered the kind of response a title defence needed. One place gained, the leaders back within reach, and no need for an emergency board meeting. The rest of the league may wish she had stayed quieter.

The armband: the Norwegian tax on optimism

Nine managers captained Haaland. Seven collected 26; Rob and Peter Mossad used Triple Captain for 39 apiece, sharing the Captain Fantastic award. The chip added thirteen over ordinary captaincy in each case. It did not turn the rest of either side into world-beaters.

Ryan Hindle, Angelo Pavia and Portia Pavia instead doubled João Pedro’s two. For Ryan, 37 points meant a descent from third to eighth. Raya and Gabriel supplied seventeen between them, which is useful until you notice how little followed. Last week’s successful captain had become this week’s expensive habit.

Dela Avle’s Bruno Fernandes captaincy returned two. Candace’s Groß returned ten. Ian Goodison-Powell, meanwhile, switched the armband to Haaland and got 26, just as last week’s curious captain Kostoulas finally produced twelve. FPL has a fine sense of timing and absolutely no manners.

Transfers: receipts, not reputations

Hailey Hindle made the sharpest single purchase: Vuskovic scored eleven after replacing Truffert, who scored six. Park the Bus reached 72 and seventh place. Gabriel, De Cuyper and Calvert-Lewin helped make the team name sound less like caution and more like a transport policy with teeth.

Ivo Ferreira paid four points for Henderson and De Cuyper. Their nine compared with four from the outgoing Szoboszlai and N. Williams: a five-point player-score improvement before the hit, one after it. That is a narrow same-week comparison, not proof that every alternative team selection would have worked out identically. His 71 gross becomes 67 net, lifting This is the Wirtz! to fifth.

Aubrey Hindle made four transfers without a hit and finished on 65, moving Boo Tottenham to sixth. Groß supplied five, while Gomez came on for Keane and supplied eight. Peter’s three transfers cost four: his Triple Captain-assisted 75 becomes 71 net and tenth place. A busy week need not be a costly one; a chip week can still carry a bill.

The Chairman’s chip and the empty seats

Green Street United share the weekly win and climb to ninth, two points behind Ryan. Rob’s three transfers brought in Haaland, Slater and Thomas without a hit; Haaland’s 39 was the centrepiece. Raya and Gabriel added seventeen. A good week, certainly, but 79 with Triple Captain is not the same achievement as 79 without it. The Chairman can enjoy the result without commissioning a statue.

Portia wins Bench of Shame with fourteen unused points, including Isak’s nine. Her 32 also takes the Pork Chop. Janelt’s automatic arrival for Cherki contributed minus one; no helpful cavalry charge there. The four defenders who counted included both Tarkowski and Gvardiol on zero. Vermilion Bird remains fourteenth, with quite enough paperwork for one week.

Candace left Tavernier’s ten among twelve unused points. Ryan left Calvert-Lewin’s nine among ten, while Diop came on for Gibbs-White and supplied three. These are the points actually left unused after substitutions, not a claim that every bench point could legally have been fitted into the starting side.

The rest of the room still gets a say

Ian’s 69 lifts sendmetocoventry to fourth, two points above Ivo. Raya, De Cuyper and Kostoulas gave the Haaland captaincy some proper company. Dela, by contrast, falls to eleventh on 46 despite eighteen points arriving through Konsa and Calvert-Lewin as automatic substitutes. The rescue service attended; the captaincy damage had already been done.

Steve Fletcher stays twelfth with 66. Raya and Rice supplied nine each, Cash eight, and Haaland the customary doubled thirteen. AFC Kincardine outscored both leaders for the week, which is useful evidence that the lower half can still cause a nuisance.

Angelo stays thirteenth on 51. Isak came in for Rashford with nine, and Rice and Tielemans supplied another sixteen between them. Devastators FC found some respectable contributions around that four-point captain. No manager at the foot of this table needs a fictional disaster added to the real ones.

GW07 honours board

Next: a lead small enough to lose down the sofa

Candace has a two-point advantage; Clarky needs very little to erase it. Tineka has supplied the warning shot, while fourth through ninth are separated by seventeen points. There is room for a good decision to matter and, as ever, ample room for a bad one to become the next headline. Sort the bench, check the armband and try not to confuse activity with improvement.