After each gameweek, Joseph Crilley is going to be writing an article reviewing all the Premier League games from a fantasy perspective. He will be providing some stats and a brief summary on the performances and prospects of a few of the players. This is the second part of the fantasy premier league gameweek 11 review. Last year, Joseph finished with an overall rank of 13k.
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GAMEWEEK 11 REVIEW – PART 2
For each game, I will be providing a stats table containing the following: Goals (G), Assists (A), Shots (S), On Target (OT), Key Passes (KP), Bonus points (BP) and fantasy points (FP). Any statistic highlighted in yellow signifies that the player leads that category for his team. Blue highlight shows the players that registered a fantasy return (goal, assist or clean sheet) and green shows any player that scored 10+ points.
The tables also include the Expected Goals and Expected Assists for each individual player. This is in addition to the expected goals for each team in brackets within the scoreline. BBC Sport provided a very useful piece to help explain this statistic. Essentially each shot is given a score between 0 and 1 as to how likely it is to go in the net. For example, suppose a shot taken from inside the box is worth 0.56; this will be added to the xG tally of the player who take the shot and added to the xA of the player who passes the ball to him. All underlying stats are from the brilliant website understat.com. References to average position come from the twitter site 11tegen11.
SOUTHAMPTON (0.79) 0-1 (0.14) BURNLEY
Southampton haven’t been able to take advantage of their good fixtures and the schedule is about to turn starting with next week’s trip to Anfield.
One clean sheet from the following fixtures is a rather poor return: stk, NEW, WBA, bha, BUR. I think it’s time to move their defenders on with the upcoming matches as there are definitely better options within their price bracket.
The misleading underlying stats are back for Redmond who had 3 shots and 2 key passes but no fantasy returns.
A team that is struggling for goals continues to bench Austin; surely Pelligrino will have to start him soon. Gabbiadini remains stuck on 3 goals for the season and continues to toil away up front.
Burnley are high-flying at the moment as highlighted by Rob in his monthly article and fantasy managers should hope they keep hold of Sean Dyche.
Every manager should own at least one of their backline in my opinion as they picked up their 5th clean sheet of the season. Their defenders are often in the bonus points due to the low-scoring nature of the team and it was Mee who scored highest in this department again. I’ve got Mee in my team and I will potentially play him in all of the next 7 games.
Surprisingly, Gudmundsson has picked up 3 assists in the last four games and also had 3 shots in this game.
A great header from Vokes was the only shot on target for his side but it was enough to claim all three points for his side. Wood was fit to start again but didn’t have a single shot in his 65-minute runout.
CHELSEA (1.85) 1-0 (0.77) MAN UTD
A big win for Chelsea as demonstrated by the exuberant celebrations of Conte at the final whistle which brings them to within one point of their opposition.
It seems there is a strange situation developing at Stamford Bridge regarding Luiz who was missing from the squad. Back on the pitch, there was a 5th assist for Azpilicueta and many of them have been of a remarkably similar nature. £6.7mil is a high price to pay but ‘Dave’ does offer consistent returns.
The return of Kanté should help bring more clean sheets as well. He played alongside Fabregas in midfield who delivered 6 key passes on his way to a good xA score. The Spaniard also missed a great headed chance after Hazard’s shot fell to him.
Another headed goal for Morata to end a run of 6 games without a goal in all competitions. He was put clean through late in the game, but he completely fluffed his lines. A good all-round performance from Morata though and he looks a great prospect when looking at the upcoming fixtures for Chelsea.
A lacklustre performance from United and return of Pogba couldn’t come any sooner to give them some extra emphasis in attack.
The defence failed to bring home a clean sheet for just the 3rd time all season. Interestingly though, De Gea managed to return 4 points thanks to a number of saves and he is picking up more save points than in previous seasons. The next couple of games look prime clean sheet opportunities and I would strongly recommend having United defensive coverage.
Another blank for Mkhitaryan who continues to perform a disappearing act every time that he enters onto the pitch at the moment. There is talk that Pogba could be back after the international break and I think his return could improve the prospects of every attacking player at United.
Rashford had the best chance for his side when he looped a close-range header over the bar. A quiet game for Lukaku on his return to Stamford Bridge as he failed to register a single touch inside the box. He did have one decent shot on target and, despite his poor form, it’ll take a brave manager to go without him for the home games against Newcastle and Brighton.
WEST HAM (1.08) 1-4 (3.10) LIVERPOOL
A second successive 3 goal defeat for the Hammers in what prove to Bilic’s last game in charge with David Moyes given the monumental task of improving their fortunes.
The defence seems to be making a habit of conceding goals in quick succession which puts games out of their reach. I imagine that Moyes will prioritise sorting the defence and Cresswell is still the best option to me if dramatic improvements are made.
They do have a quality player in midfield in Lanzini who grabbed the goal with a fine touch and finish. He arguably should have added another but blazed the ball over the bar. The assist came from Ayew who also hit the post early on after what was actually a decent start from West Ham.
Hernandez was the man to play up front on Saturday and it will be interesting to see who Moyes prefers out of the Mexican and Carroll.
There are signs that Liverpool are returning to form with a second consecutive win and the international break should allow time for some key players to return to full fitness.
They couldn’t add another clean slight after a slight mistake from Gomez allowed West Ham in. In the other box, Matip pounced on a loose ball from a corner to score the second goal.
The return of Mané certainly offered another dimension to the Liverpool attack and he registered two assists which were all about his pace. Both assists were for goals from Salah who is rapidly becoming the key fantasy asset to own. He now has 7 goals for the season, seemingly guaranteed to start and the only question is how much we can trust him with the armband.
Some great expected stats from Firmino who missed one big opportunity, but it was another blank for the Brazilian and he continues to be rather overshadowed by his midfield colleagues.
NEWCASTLE (0.68) 0-1 (1.29) BOURNEMOUTH
This game rather summed up the 3pm kick off games; low-scoring and a late clean sheet wipeout which denied points for many managers.
A 92nd minute goal meant that those managers who played Elliot missed out on that clean sheet. Club captain Lascelles went off with an ankle injury after 54 minutes and I do worry about their future defensive prospects if he misses any games.
It was clear that Ritchie was fired up to play against his old club and he fired in a couple of long-range shots early on, one of which clattered the post. He also created 4 chances for his teammates and four out of the next six fixtures look good for the Magpies.
They need to get the strikers firing though and we saw the return of Gayle who had a goal harshly disallowed after slotting in the rebound from Ritchie’s shot.
It was a tale of two halves for Bournemouth who were much improved in the second half after a lacklustre display in the first 45 minutes.
Cook grabbed the late winner from a corner to claim the classic defender haul of 15 points. Some great attacking threat on show from Daniels, who has finally dropped to 4.8mil, with 3 shots and 2 key passes. Eddie Howe has highlighted the next group of fixtures as a key period for his side and a defender looks a good option over the next few weeks.
There is a lack of options in midfield however unfortunately, though Pugh really should have placed himself on the scoresheet.
Are we about to see the return of the Josh King from last season? 3 shots and 6 key passes; he was very unlucky to not pick up a fantasy return. It was pleasing to see Wilson in the starting line-up and he really should have scored after being put through by his strike partner.
SWANSEA (1.38) 0-1 (0.87) BRIGHTON
Swansea just can’t seem to get their home form sorted and it’s now 5 losses out of 6 games in the league this season at the Liberty stadium.
That means it’s just 1 clean sheet at home, compared to 3 away so perhaps it’s a good idea to keep those Swans’ defenders in your teams for the visit to Turf Moor next week.
The first worrying signs for 4.5mil favourite Carroll who was withdrawn before the hour mark. He was replaced by Narsingh who crashed a shot against the bar.
There’s been a lot of transfer traffic for Abraham recently and it was a disappointing blank for those who had invested in him. He did have one good chance and also set up the opportunity for Narsingh. At 5.9mil though, you can’t expect a goal every week and he’s still a good budget striker option.
A second successive away win for Brighton and they are also unbeaten in their last four games.
It’s a couple of clean sheets in their last three games as well and it feels like a 15-point haul is around the corner for one of Duffy or Dunk. I mentioned a few weeks ago that Brighton look a good team to invest in for 4.5mil defenders and this theme continues.
The unlikely scenario happened where Brighton scored, and Gross wasn’t involved after a quieter game for the popular asset. Instead, it was Knockaert who picked up the assist after sending in a delicious delivery and he is averaging 5.5 points per game over the last four.
That’s four goals in his last three games for Murray but I do worry about whether the veteran can keep this rate up given his relatively poor history in the Premier League. Nonetheless, his current form suggests he can be a good budget option.
That concludes part 2 of the GW11 review. Part 1 can be found here. Feel free to post any questions or feedback in the comments section or you can find me on Twitter.
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