Here follows my review of Gamweek 9. This week I focus in on three games, and do a quick overview of the rest before talking about my big mistake team. If you’re only interested in learning about my latest bout of pain, feel free to skip to the end. If you want some actual FPL advice, stick around.
Arsenal 3 – 1 Spurs
A fun game to watch, and a significant result for the Premier League… but not necessarily for PL fantasy.
In FPL terms, we didn’t actually learn too much. Jesus, Martinelli, Saka are still the best Arsenal assets (in that order). Their defence is only bettered by City, which is why Saliba is proving popular with swathes of FPL fans. He’s now risen all the way up to 5.0, and is the highest-scoring defender in FPL.
As for Spurs, Kane remains the only attacking asset we can really trust. Richarlison and Kulusevski are rotation-prone. Son didn’t have a touch in the box and didn’t look he knew how to pass. Also, let’s not forget the terrible run of form he just had. Perisic feels like Mahrez right now. If you have him on the right day he can score double figures, but most of the time you get a one pointer.
Liverpool 3 – 3 Brighton
Liverpool look all out of shape. Brighton, despite a change of manager look incredible.
I’m writing this section on Sunday morning, and am currently on a massive red arrow. So I’m feeling a bit pensive about everything, and I think this game exhibits my biggest failings so far this season.
I’ve had too much faith in Trent Alexander Arnold. In terms of attacking play he still looks as good as he always does, and he was unlucky not to get an assist. But, the whole Liverpool defence is shambolic and the press is not working at all. I really thought the international break would give them an opportunity to to re-group, but I was wrong. Right now, I would love to sell Trent but it doesn’t fit in with my wildcard plans and I hate that.
In terms of the attacking assets, I’m not sure we can even trust any of them to play every week, except for Mo Salah.
My other big mistake was not to put any faith in one of Trossard or Gross. For less than premium assets I would always play fixtures over form, so I have no interest in them right now, but I should have just jumped on one of these bandwagons. If only for the fact that everyone else was jumping on, and sometimes it’s important to recognise the wisdom of the crowd.
The whole thing makes me think you could spend less than your budget and still make the best possible team, or even go three-mium (three premium players, probably Salah, KDB, Haaland). Something to think about for your wildcard.
Manchester City 6 -3 Manchester United
This is not new， but Haaland is our permanent captain.
Aside from him, KDB is one of only two or three premium assets we can trust to deliver. Cancelo is okay, but you can easily live without him. Right now, I’d much rather have Foden, even though I know that sounds very much like points chasing. Of course, it’s probably not worth transferring any of these lot in ahead of the blank in Gameweek 12 (apart from maybe Haaland).
United got battered but put up a surprisingly high xG against City. Something to keep an eye on.
The Rest
| Fulham – 1 | 4 – Newcastle |
| The only way to make Fulham’s defence worse is to have one of them sent off. So, this wasn’t a good game.
Mitrovic might be injured, so wait for news there. | Almiron was amazing and so was Bruno G, but neither appeal to me as FPL assets. Whoever their striker is, it seems like they will score points, as Wilson delivered in this case. But, it’s not super clear who plays when both him and Isak are fit.
Defensively, I was disappointed they couldn’t keep the clean sheet, but I think it was just a momentary lapse of concentration. Tripper in particular is still a solid pick.
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| Palace – 1 | 2 – Chelsea |
| Eze is passing the eye test, but isn’t worth considering for FPL. Zaha remains one of the all-time FPL traps. Nothing else stood out. | Aubameyang scored on his debut. Check if he’s been picked up in your draft league, and if not, pick him up. Wait and see for regular FPL, but it’s a promising start.
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| Southampton – 1 | 2 – Everton |
| Both these teams are a big snore in FPL terms. I don’t like any of their players right now. | |
| West Ham – 2 | 0 – Wolves |
| Bowen fell over and got an assist, but his goal was clinical. | I think their defensive woes were caused by injuries. They’ve got a decent run coming up, and might get a New Manager Bounce, but have Chelsea away next.
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| Bournemouth – 0 | Brentford – 0 |
| Nothing interesting. They aren’t good FPL assets. | A bit disappointed not to have had a return from Toney against one of the worst defences… but that’s FPL.
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| Leeds – 0 | 0 – Aston Villa |
| There’s nobody on Leeds I care about. Villa have kept back-to-back cleans, but I’m not sure I’m trusting them yet. | |
| Leicester – 4 | 0 – Forest |
| Finally a clean sheet for Leicester. But still, zero interest in any of their defensive assets. Maddison is obviously an option, but not sure I want anyone else from here. Barnes gets in great positions, but is so bad at finishing. Probably worth a punt in draft formats. Vardy is way too expensive. | They’re bad. Really, really bad. |
My Team
I did something stupid and hit in Reece James. I think this is the second time I’ve hit in a Chelsea wing back, and we’ve only had eight games so far. It was stupid, but it felt like the right thing to do because it was just so neat! It all seemed so simple to get rid of Odegaard for Zaha, and move Cucurella to James. Of course, the correct thing to do was to move Odegaard to Maddison, but – again – that’s FPL for you.
My original plan going into Gameweek 10 was to move Jesus to Mitrovic, but I have no intention of doing that with the Mitro injury. I think I will just roll my transfer. Selling Jesus before playing Liverpool’s woeful defence seems like a mistake. Maybe I will just get rid of Trent, because they’re just that bad.