Here’s my fantasy premier league defensive ”ones to watch” article complete with table so you can see the stats side by side. I’ve also made the narrative simpler by identifying the best attacking defender and the best cheapie defender. I’ve then put some further comments around it
The first part of the table deals with the best overall defences. The next with the budget home rotation defences.
| Rank | Team | Home rank | Away rank | Goals Conceded | Clean Sheets | CS in last 5 games | In top FPL teams | Predicted CS to end of season |
| 1. | Chelsea | 4 | 1 | 23 | 14 | 3 | 7 | 5 |
| 2 | Man City | 3 | 2 | 27 | 13 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 1 | 14 | 36 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Everton | 3 | 4 | 30 | 11 | 2 | 14 | 3 |
| 5 | Man Utd | 6 | 6 | 37 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 5 | 11 | 39 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | Southampton | 8 | 2 | 40 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 2 |
| Rank | Team | Home rank | Away rank | Home GC | Home CS | Home CS in last 5 | In top FPL teams | Predicted Home CS |
| 1 | WBA | 10 | 9 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | Sunderland | 17 | 13 | 21 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| 3 | Swansea | 13 | 15 | 23 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Stoke | 11 | 19 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | Norwich | 9 | 17 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 6 | West Ham | 14 | 8 | 23 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 7 | Newcastle | 16 | 12 | 22 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Key: Home and Away rank: My ranking of the defences. See my rating the defences article from the last gameweek
GC Goals conceded
CS Clean sheets
In Top FPL teams: See my article on following 10 top fantasy premier league teams. The amount the teams are represented.
Predicted clean sheets: Predicted clean sheets in next 6 gameweeks or in home games to end of season for the budget defences
The best overall fantasy premier league defences
1. Chelsea
Best attacking defender: Terry £6.8m
Best budget defender: Azpilicueta £5.6m
Back in fine defensive form home to Arsenal. David Luiz moving into midfield so successfully also gives some hope that the 2 CBs will not be rotated although this may just be temporary until Ramires comes back.
Potential for 5 clean sheets to the end of the season.
Fantasy premier league fixtures to the end of the season:
Crystal Palace (A)
Stoke City (H)
Swansea (A)
Sunderland (H)
Liverpool (A)
Norwich (H)
Cardiff City (A)
2. Manchester City
Best attacking defender: Kolarov £5.1m but with little gametime security. Zabaleta at £6.1m has potential with more security.
Best budget defender; Kolarov £5.1m but with rotation with Clichy
I’ve been saying that the City defence has enough underlying stats to suggest they will improve and it’s now incredibly now 5 consecutive clean sheets. Kompany back from 1 game suspension will also help.
Fantasy premier league fixtures to the end of the season:
Arsenal (A)
Southampton (H)
Liverpool (A) DGW34
Sunderland (H) DGW34
West Brom (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Everton (A) DGW37
Aston Villa (H) DGW37
West Ham (H)
3. Arsenal
Best attacking defender: Mertesacker £6.4m
Best budget defender; Sagna £5.5m
With Koscielny injured, a thrashing from Arsenal and a comical own goal lost to Swansea you think that the Arsenal defensive world was about to end. However after the City and Everton matches the fixtures couldn’t be much better. Unfortunately there’s no doubt that Koscielny’s loss weakens the team. They’ve only kept 1 clean sheet in 4 games without him. However they dominated the game against Swansea and were unlucky to concede on the balance of the game. It still worth keeping the faith for fixtures after the next 2 games.
Everton (A)
West Ham (H)
Hull City (A)
Newcastle (H)
West Brom (H)
Norwich (A)
4. Everton
Best attacking defender: either Coleman £6.8m or Baines £7.4m. Baines has pens and direct free kicks.
Best budget defender; Distin £5.3m
Still no Jagielka who will strengthen the defence. For all the investment in the Everton defence for GW34, which includes a juicy home tie against Palace, they were awful defensively against Swansea who scored 2 and Newcastle had a number of chances. To remid you this is a toothless Newcastle with Cabaye sold and Remy injured. Jagielka will help the defence but theyre looking pretty ordinary at the moment. Thats why if you can afford it invest in Coleman or Baines
Potential for 3 clean sheets to the end of the season DGW34
Fantasy premier league fixtures to the end of the season:
Fulham (A)
Arsenal (H)
Sunderland (A) DGW34
Crystal Palace (H) DGW34
Man Utd (H)
Southampton (A)
Man City (H)
Hull City (A)
5. Man Utd
Newcastle (A)
– Gameweek 34 –
Everton (A)
Norwich (H)
Sunderland (H) DGW37
Hull City (H) DGW37
Southampton (A)
6. Liverpool
Best attacking defender: Skrtel £5.8m
Best Budget defender: Flanagan £4.3m
You’ve got a great choice of budget and attacking defensive choices here but when you cant keep a clean sheet against Cardiff and Sunderland then you’ve really got to question your defensive ability.
Fantasy premier league fixtures to the end of the season:
Tottenham (H)
West Ham (A)
Man City (H)
Norwich (A)
Chelsea (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Newcastle (H)
7. Southampton
Best attacking defender: Fonte £5.5m
Best budget defender: Chambers £3.9m Gametime risk though as Clyne is injured with no return date
Only 1 clean sheet in the last 5 and a pretty dismal defensive performance against Spurs without Adebayor says it all. A few good fixtures though give some scope for clean sheets
Fantasy premier league fixtures to the end of the season:
Newcastle (H)
Man City (A)
Cardiff City (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Everton (H)
Swansea (A)
Man Utd (H)
The best fantasy premier league budget home defences
1. WBA
Best attacking defender: McAuley £5.1m
Best budget defender: Ridgewell £4.8m
With a number of injuries and Olsson suspended then the defence could be in better shape. The ranking is about a leap of faith on good fixtures and some good underlying stats which eventually must show in clean sheets
Tottenham (H)
West Ham (H)
Stoke City (H)
2. Sunderland
Everton (H)
Cardiff City (H)
Swansea (H)
3. Swansea
Best attacking option: Chico £4.9m
Best budget option: Chico £4.9 as very little price difference
Really struggling defensively at the moment but a couple of good fixtures in which to collect clean sheets.
Chelsea (H)
Aston Villa (H)
Southampton (H)
4. Stoke
Best attacking option: Shawcross £5.4m
Best budget option: Wilson £4.3m
Very mixed defensive results but have the potential for clean sheets. Good fixtures make them an option going forward
Newcastle (H)
Tottenham (H)
Fulham (H)
5. Norwich
Best attacking defender: Olsson £4.3m
Best budget defender: Olsson £4.3m
Another excellent defensive performance in the win at home to Sunderland when Houghton reverted back to the previous first choice defence. Last decent home fixture is in GW33 though
Liverpool (H)
Arsenal (H)
6. West Ham
Best attacking defender: Reid £4.7m if he plays
Best budget defender: McCartney £4.0m
Collins out with no return date will see in my mind a better CB in Reid coming into the team. Being dominated at home to Hull with 10 men isn’t a particularly good sign though. Hard to see they wont get a clean sheet home to Palace.
Crystal Palace (H)
Tottenham (H)
7. Newcastle
Best attacking defender: None with Debuchy injured
Best budget defender: Williamson £4.2m
Got killed on the counter against Everton after obliging with a clean sheet against Palace. Injuries to the FBs aren’t helpful and really only 1 clean sheet in the remaining fixtures at home looks possible
Swansea (H)
Cardiff City (H)
