The Tipster: Mike Hammond's team

Matchday two proved almost as profitable for me as matchday one. Although my matchnight points tally was down from 73 to 62, my overall ranking improved. From 627th place after the opening round of matches I moved up to a stupefying 186th – out of 34,134 players. That's well within the top 1%, so please excuse me for a second or two as I bask vaingloriously in the moment.

The key to success last time was to pay credence to that hackneyed old cliche of never changing a winning team. The only transfers I made from matchday one were forced on me through injuries to Seamus Coleman and Yevhen Konoplyanka. I didn't choose too well in my replacement for the former, with ACF Fiorentina's Micah Richards leaving the field before half-time, but AC Sparta Praha's in-form David Lafata did me proud, scoring twice in the 3-1 win over BSC Young Boys.

The decision to stick with FC Salzburg's Jonatan Soriano as my captain paid further dividends as the UEFA Europa League specialist provided a goal and assist in his team's 2-1 win at FC Astra Giurgiu. The other Salzburg goal was scored by Kevin Kampl – another member of my team.

You can't have everything, though, and defensively I was damaged by late goals, which cost me clean sheets for LOSC Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and PSV Eindhoven's Jeffrey Bruma. Only Fiorentina's Manuel Pasqual delivered on that front, though Everton FC's Leighton Baines – as he often does – supplied a handy assist.

With one free transfer permitted for matchday three, I shall again remain loyal. An injury to Trabzonspor AŞ's Onur Kıvrak means I need a new back-up goalkeeper, but while putting the fit-again Coleman back in for Richards looks like a sensible move, it will cost me two points. Decisions, decisions...

Please note that because FC Metalist Kharkiv are playing Legia Warszawa a day in advance of the other matches, the transfer deadline for this matchday is on Wednesday at 17.45 CET. That means you won't be able to wait till Thursday morning to check on squad updates and injuries. That makes things a little trickier than normal, so make sure you get your transfers in on time!