fantasy premier league best fixtures GW3 – the fixture ease schedule

Here’s our fantasy premier league best fixtures GW3 article with the GW3-5 and GW3-8 fixture ease schedule. We look at the teams with the best fixtures from GW3 to GW5 and then from GW3 to the 2nd International break which is after GW8.  GW8 is a natural point to at least think about for the first wildcard if you don’t at the first International break. There’s also some player suggestions with their basic stats and their upcoming fixtures.

fantasy premier league best fixtures GW3 – the fixture ease schedule

If you want to check up how most of the players in the article performed in GW2 see my GW2 underlying stats article

 An introduction

My intention at the moment is to take the fixture difficulty ranking from the Official FPL site with some slight adjustments. That schedule doesn’t differentiate between attack and defence and is an overall ranking. You will see their fixture difficulty when you look at a player in detail on the FPL site.

The schedule below uses the official rankings to rank them from easiest at the top to hardest at the bottom. The order of the teams is for GW3-8. The figure in the right hand column is the ranking from from GW3-5

The schedule

So here are attacking and defensive player suggestions for the following teams. That is Arsenal, C Palace, Everton and Man City.

The stats will be fairly basic and from last season with some commentary about GW1 and GW2 for this season thrown in.

Arsenal

The tricky thing about Arsenal is that 2 of the natural targets in Ramsey didn’t start and Ozil was subbed early after playing poorly.  Iwobi scored and is cheap at £5.5m but how much longevity he has is questionable.

Interestingly Emery chose to play 4-2-3-1 rather than 4-3-3 which could make Mkhitaryan more secure.  He’s still a Lacazette risk but his price may make him worth the gamble

The most secure is Aubameyang but even he has the issue of being moved left when Lacazette comes on or even the whole match if Lacazette started. Given all of that, I’m going to give stats on Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang

£11.0m Fwd Aubameyang started 12 games plus 1 as sub for 10 goals and 4 assists for a PP90 of 7.4 in 17/18. He’s blanked in 2 games albeit against tough opposition.   Although very quiet in the loss to Man City he could have had a hat trick v Chelsea.  He is a proven goalscorer.  It’s just the price

£7.0m Mid Mkhitaryan started 9 games  games plus 2 as sub for Arsenal in 17/18 and 11 starts plus 4 as sub for Man Utd in 17/18.  His total goals were 3 and 9 assists at an overall PP90 of 5.6.  Relatively quiet against Man City but was fantastic v Arsenal with a goal and assist plus missed a golden chance for a 2nd.

The defensive starters are all £5.5m.  My pick would probably be RB Bellerin

West Ham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Newcastle (A)
Everton (H)
Watford (H)
Fulham (A)

Crystal Palace

This was written before the Palace v Liverpool match

There’s an embarrassment of riches to pick from in the Palace defence.

There’s the cheapie £4.1m Wan Bissaka, the £4.5m Schlupp who’s playing in midfield as an LM and then there’s the rampaging attacking loose cannon £5.5m Van Aanholt.  Who you go for depends on how much money you want to invest in attacking potential over and above clean sheet points.

On the attacking front there’s really only 1 option in my mind and that’s £7.0m forward Zaha

£7.0m Fwd Zaha started 28 games plus 1 as sub for 9 goals and 7 assists for a PP90 of 4.8 in 17/18.  In a time of large squads he’s a guy you can rely on as playing 90 minutes without rotation pretty much all of the time.  A good start with an assist in GW1.  His only risk is positional if Palace move away to a strike pair back to a front 3 and he becomes a RW.

Watford (A)
Southampton (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Newcastle (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Wolves (H)

Man City

The problem with Man City is going to be rotation.  With Pep rolling out some sort of weird formation which involved 2 forwards  which was sort of 4-1-3-2 or 3-5-2 depending on whether you thought Bernardo was a RWB or an RM.  I think you pick your players and just accept the rotation risk as no one is nailed.

Defensively there is no question on the pick it’s the rampaging £6.2m LWB Mendy

Here’s some basic stats:

£11.0m Mid Sterling started 29 games plus 4 as sub for 17 goals and 18 assists for a PP90 of 8.0 in 17/18.  Interestingly stayed on the bench for GW2 and it remains to be seen if he is going to be a casualty when Pep plays 2 strikers.  Started the season well with a goal.  It’s just the price.

£7.5m Mid Bernardo started 15 games plus 20 as sub for 6 goals and 5 assists for a PP90 of 6.7. A goal in his first game although apart from that his attacking output was negligible.  GW2 saw him surprisingly start out on the right with Gundogan as a CM and although it wasn’t a bad performance from him ideally you’d want him more central especially with Sterling and Mahrez as right sided players.   That does cause some concerns over longevity but his price is a serious attraction.

£11.1m Fwd Aguero started 22 games plus 3 as sub for 21 goals and 6 assists for a PP90 of 7.8. He should have pens. An unlucky GW1 where he should have had some return followed up by a finishing masterclass in GW2 v Huddersfield for a hat trick and an assist in a 20 point FPL haul.

£9.0m Mid Mahrez started 34 games for Leicester plus 2 as sub for 12 goals and 13 assists at a PP90 of 5.9. Minutes are looking an issue with a 59 minute subbing in GW1 and only 26 minutes off the bench in GW2 for two 1 pointers

£8.4m Mid David Silva started 28 games plus 1 as sub for 9 goals and 11 assists at a PP90 of 6.3.  It was a creative masterclass in 66 minutes on the pitch from the Spaniard after being injured in GW1.  Although Pep has said he will play less minutes this season I’m not sure Pep will be able to fulfil that given De Bruyne is out and Silva is really the main player to bridge that CM creativity gap.

Wolves (A)
Newcastle (H)
Fulham (H)
Cardiff (A)
Brighton (H)
Liverpool (A)

Everton

I’ve said in previous articles that Everton have alot to prove defensively after last season considering they were managed for a large portion by one of the most defensive managers in the country yet were still ranked 15th in xG conceded last season. What’s more they have a far more attacking manager now and nothing we’ve seen so far has changed my perception.  It’s possible that unseen new acquisitions  Mina, Zouma and Digne could completely change the perception of the defence but that remains to be seen as yet.

On the attacking front there are 3 options for me:

£6.7m mid Richarlison last season for Watford scored 5 goals and 8 assists in 32 starts plus 6 as sub for a PP90 of 4.0.  Started the season off explosively with 3 goals backed up by his usual impeccable underlying stats

£7.0m fwd Tosun scored 5 goals in 12 starts plus 2 as sub for a points per 90 mins of 5.0 in 17/18. Despite the assist had an exceptionally quiet game in the 2-2 draw to Wolves although very hard to judge when down to 10 men early. Blanked v Southampton when he was fairly ineffective despite having mainly difficult chances.  Should consistently lead the line but the start could have been better.

£6.5m mid Walcott scored 3 goals and 3 assists in 13 starts plus 1 as sub for a PP90 of 4.6 in 17/18. Last week I said I hoped the real Walcott was in there somewhere after fading last season and an excusable quiet start with 10 men against Wolves.  GW2 saw the old Arsenal Walcott with a goal and an assist for 13 FPL points which should have been so much more.  Backed up by exceptionally good underlying stats.

Bournemouth (A)
Huddersfield (H)
West Ham (H)
Arsenal (A)
Fulham (H)
Leicester (A)

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