FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW11 REVIEW – PART 1

Fantasy Premier League, Gameweek analysis

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 first part of the fantasy premier league GW11 review. Last year, Joseph finished with an overall rank of 13k.

FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW11 REVIEW – PART 1

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.




MAN CITY (2.16) 3-1 (0.34) ARSENAL

Another win for City as they continue to steamroll their way through the early part of the season with no signs of them slowing down.

It’s a couple of games since their last clean sheet however and FPL favourite Otamendi picked up his 5th yellow card of the season which means he will miss the next game away at Leicester. It’s not clear who his replacement will be for that game as there still a lack of clarity regarding the return of Kompany.

Compared to his explosive previous home appearances, it was rather quiet day for Sané. However, he could have easily had a tap-in but for a poor final ball from his teammate on the opposite flank, Sterling. The English winger did win the penalty to pick up an assist which takes him into the top 5 for midfielders this year. De Bruyne has now claimed the second placed spot amongst the City midfielders after a fine finish for the opening goal. Silva and Fernandinho completed the remaining fantasy returns for Guardiola’s midfield with an assist each. Rotation is inevitable at the Etihad but 1 or 2 of their midfielders is still looking essential, even with the busy Christmas period on horizon.

Considering that he was placed on the bench in the Champions League, it was surprising to see Jesus there again for this game. He did enter the fray to score the third goal which sealed the victory and could have easily added another. Aguero got his goal from the penalty spot before being withdrawn and it looks to me that Pep is starting to lean towards a system where there is only room for one of his star strikers.

Arsenal’s abysmal record against fellow members of the top 6 continues and they were outclassed on Sunday.

They gave too much space to a dangerous opposition and were guilty of inexplicably stopping for the 3rd goal, admittedly after a poor offside decision from the linesman. Monreal was the man guilty of giving away the penalty.

There was briefly some FPL excitement about Sanchez being positioned up front but that quickly evaporated after a poor performance. The man in FPL form for Arsenal is Ramsey who picked up the assist and also had a shot inside the box saved.

From a pure footballing point of view, I am baffled as to why you would fork out £50 million for a striker only to bench him in, arguably, your biggest game of the year so far. Nonetheless, that was the fate of Lacazette but he took his opportunity when he got his minutes after a fine finish through the keeper’s legs.

TOTTENHAM (1.06) 1-0 (1.10) CRYSTAL PALACE

It was always going to be tricky for Spurs to replicate the atmosphere and performance of the midweek game and so it proved with a slightly fortunate win.

The full backs were both rotated with Davies being given a one-minute cameo which frustrated a number of managers, including our very own FFG, who had points waiting to come off the bench. Vertonghen collected maximum bonus points after a solid display and should be safe from rotation for those looking to invest in the Tottenham defence. The question is whether 6.0mil is too much for very little attacking threat given the value elsewhere.

Alli missed out with a convenient injury given the international break has now arrived and I expect him to return for the North London derby in GW12. With injuries in midfield, Eriksen was positioned deep again and this is becoming a theme; with his expensive price, it looks a good time to search for value elsewhere. Son has now started the last four league games and grabbed the important winner with a curling finish from the edge of the box.

Time to talk about Kane; very much the story of this gameweek as the most captained player. He blanked at home again in an uninspiring performance with just 2 shots. He has only scored in 4/11 games but still no player has scored more than his 8 goals. There is no way that he’ll be leaving my team, however I’m not sure that I’ll be trusting him with the armband in a home game against one of the ‘easier’ teams for now. It’s likely that he will collect the golden boot again this season but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to predict when and where the goals will come from.




Palace were very unlucky not to take something away from Wembley on Sunday and they are in desperate need of an out-and-out goalscorer.

They defended well throughout as they only allowed Spurs to have 2 shots on target and there is some potential in their backline. Dann had a great header that was destined for the bottom corner until it was saved and we all know about his great scoring history.

Townsend and Zaha were the main threats with their pace posing problems behind the opposition’s defence. The latter missed an open goal from an angle after rounding the keeper on the edge of the penalty box. Not much in this game for Loftus-Cheek but I still believe you can occasionally rely on him to start certain games within your team.

EVERTON (2.77) 3-2 (1.89) WATFORD

A tale of two penalties in this game and an inspired comeback will give the fans hope that their season can finally get started.

Baines converted the spot kick awarded to his side and also picked up an assist from a corner – have we reverted back to 2012? He had another great chance but there are still issues at the back for Everton. Kenny continues to start at RB under the interim manager.

It’s still a sorry story in midfield where Sigurdsson missed one glorious chance. However, victory in this game could just be the medicine required to kick start their campaign.

A good all-round performance from Niasse who posted some good expected stats as he collected a goal and 3 bps, even if the finish was rather scruffy. Calvert-Lewin came off the bench to score as well and both cheap strikers have potential as the 3rd striker for managers looking to play 3-5-2.

The second consecutive away game that Watford have let a lead slip and headed back to Hertfordshire without any points.

They were actually coping well with the Everton until an unfortunate injury to Gomes in goal disrupted their performance. An assist for Holebas and a goal for Kabasele but there was an intriguing bonus points score from Kiko who was comfortably leading the way until Watford conceded despite no attacking returns.

The strong away form continued for Richarlison who contrived to miss an open goal in the first half but made no mistake when a similar chance presented itself after halftime. Moreover, he would have picked up an assist had Cleverly not sent the penalty wide of the post. I noticed that the Brazilian was extremely keen to take the penalty so there’s chance that he’ll take the next one.

That is only if Deeney isn’t on the pitch after the club captain missed out due to suspension. That meant the return of Gray who created both mentioned chances for Richarlison and they seem to enjoy playing together.

HUDDERSFIELD (0.26) 1-0 (0.29) WEST BROM

This game never looked like being a high scoring thriller on paper and so it proved on the pitch, but Huddersfield will be happy with the victory.

They did it in spite of the sending off of Schindler in the second half for two bookable offences. As seen by the xG, this was a game of few chances and it was a relatively comfortable clean sheet for the Terriers.

The moment of quality that won the game came from the boot of van La Parra with a great strike from distance.

Depoitre continued up front but failed to record a single shot or key pass.

There’s some signs of issues under Pulis at West Brom as his side languish in 16th place in the league table.

It’s just 3 clean sheets all season and none in the last 6 for his defence; the next two games do not look promising either and their defenders should be nowhere near your team at the moment.

The lack of clean sheet was despite them seemingly benching all of their attacking midfielders to play with three more defensive-minded ones.

Pulis at least did start with 2 strikers in Rodriguez and Robson-Kanu but with his current mindset and the state of the defence, West Brom are very much a team to avoid for fantasy managers right now.

STOKE (1.22) 2-2 (1.40) LEICESTER

A battling point for Stoke who twice had to come from behind in order to salvage something from the lunch time kick off.

4.4mil cheapie Wimmer started again but his side have kept just two clean sheets all season so it looks worth spending the 0.1 or 0.2 more for other defences.

Choupo-Moting had one decent chance but he has still only scored during his GW4 match against Man United. Nonetheless, he kept his score ticking over with another assist after a lovely flick into the path of Shaqiri who tucked the ball away nicely. The former Bayern Munich man  picked an assist up for himself as well after sending in the corner for the second equalising goal.

The impact substitute, Crouch, was on the end of that corner with a cracking header and he could be pushing for a first league start of the season.

Another decent result under their new manager for Leicester and we are seeing some surprisingly good attacking football under the guidance of Puel.

A 3rd assist of the season for Maguire along with a goal who continues to pose a strong attacking threat. Potential OOP cheapie Chilwell was missing through injury so we are still waiting to see if he can nail down a spot in the starting XI.

Some great stats from Mahrez who registered 6 shots and scored a classic Mahrez type of goal after cutting inside and finishing low with his left foot. He is playing some great football and is getting close to his title-winning form. Gray started again and posted the highest xA score for his side with 3 key passes.

Just the one big chance for Vardy in this game who sent the ball wide after a lovely turn inside the opposition box.

That concludes part 1 of the GW11 review. Part 2 will be coming shortly. Feel free to post any questions or feedback in the comments section or you can find me on Twitter.

 

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