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 fantasy premier league GW24 review. Last year, Joseph finished with an overall rank of 13k.
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW24 REVIEW
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.
STATS TABLES
The stats tables are all available via the following google spreadsheet link and I will speak about a few key players during the gameweek.
KEY PLAYERS
Chelsea
A solid away win for Conte’s side in the early kick-off on Saturday inspired by a change in tactics which should get them back on track. They lined up with two attacking midfielders in a 3-4-2-1 formation which certainly increased the fluency of their forward play. Hazard thrived in particular with a scintillating display to register a brace and frustrate the large number of managers who have sold him in recent weeks. However, it was Willian that grabbed my attention with a goal and an assist, while no Chelsea player registered more shots or key passes than the Brazilian. He comes in at a much friendlier price of 6.7mil and looks a great short-term punt considering the upcoming fixtures. Unfortunately, an injury picked up on Wednesday in the EFL cup semi final v Arsenal night may rule him out for future weeks.
At the back, there was another clean sheet, though Christensen missed out again after having to come off after 57 minutes with a head injury. He did start in the EFL semi so seems to have recovered, but he is certainly testing the faith of his managers after only collecting points in 1 of his team’s last 5 clean sheets. There was also pain for owners of Courtois who missed out with an ankle injury, but he should be fit for their next game as well. It was a quiet game for Alonso in the final third as he failed to register a single shot or key pass; it’s also worth noting that Willian took the only goalscoring free-kick opportunity rather than the LWB.
Man Utd
It was all about the United defence against this week with another clean sheet and it was Jones who once again picked up maximum bonus points. However, there was no Shaw alongside him even with the glowing words of Mourinho during his press conference. Strangely, the defence does continue to give up chances and I was surprised to see that they are rank 7th for total expected goals conceded this season, below West Brom!
Successive blanks for Lingard has placed him top of the transfers out list; at least he avoided a yellow card in this game. The goal was scored by Martial who had the stats to back it up, but the confirmed transfer of Sanchez has caused uncertainty within the starting XI; it will be intriguing to see how well he fits into Mourinho’s side.
Up front, Lukaku did very well for the assist, but there wasn’t much goal threat from him with just one shot.
Tottenham
It was a disappointing draw on the South Coast for Spurs who badly missed the creativity of Eriksen who was absent with illness. That didn’t stop Kane registering his 21st goal season, though he did miss a big chance late on to the aggravation of the vast number of people who captained him this week. There is a decision to be made with Kane as the next three fixtures are very tough and a certain striker from Argentina is back amongst the goals; more on that later.
In midfield, it was a strangely quiet game for Son with no shots or key passes; Pochettino mentioned that a few players other than Eriksen were feeling ill in the lead up to the game and I wonder if the Korean was one of those. Many will be tempted to move on their midfield assets with the upcoming games, though it’s worth remembering that Son has shown some wonderful form at Wembley in recent weeks.
Man City
It’s time to speak about the undoubted star of the gameweek; Sergio Aguero grabbed a hat-trick in a fixture that he always seems to do well in. In the continued absence of Jesus, the City striker has started 2018 in great form and has moved up to second place in the striker rankings. He took 7 shots in this game for an xG score of 1.75, the highest of any player in GW24. The ownership of the Argentine will continue to rise, and he will be a very popular captain option this week, especially in the top 10k. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see some managers making the swap from Kane for the next 3 weeks given the aforementioned fixtures for Spurs in that time.
There were also returns in midfield where Sané is finding some form again after a wonderful dribble for an assist in this game which means it’s one goal and two assists in his last 3 league games. Sterling had a goal ruled out for offside and saw a shot pushed onto the post, but he won his 4th penalty of the season to keep his points score ticking over.
His teammate, De Bruyne, also registered an assist when his cross was flicked in by the hair of Aguero – owners may consider themselves slightly unlucky that he wasn’t awarded the goal. He also had a low shot saved and sent another just wide, and the recent news about the potential lack of blank in GW28 only increases the previously dented appeal of City assets.
It’s no clean sheets in the last three games for their defence despite an xG score of less than 1 in each of those games. It’s a frustrating sequence for those holding their expensive defenders, but the next fixture is against West Brom at the Etihad – no time to be selling.
Mahrez
The Leicester midfielder will be attracting transfer traffic with injuries and poor form in midfield after his goal on Saturday, but he had poor underlying stats once more. He scored with his only shot and created two chances; nonetheless, it was great run and finish for the goal and was the sign of a man with confidence. He also has some set-piece responsibility, though it was confirmed that he is still not on penalties.
The penalty was converted by Vardy who had another clear chance and looks a decent striker option considering the upcoming fixtures. It’s also three clean sheets on the bounce for Leicester and the defence is a good investment as well.
Liverpool Attack
An extremely frustrating evening for Liverpool and those managers who have one or more of their assets in their sides, especially for the 13.8% of managers who placed the armband on Salah, which includes myself. The Egyptian had an xG and xA score of 0.53 and 0.55 respectively to heighten those frustrations, but it’s still only his second blank in his last 14 league starts. It will be interesting to see how many FPL teams contain Salah as captain during the next gameweek when he faces off against Huddersfield.
Firmino hit the post late on and matched Salah’s 3 chances created, but it’s now 3 blanks during in his last 4 games. He had 3 shots in total, but we may see plenty of managers moving the Brazilian out of their teams in order to bring Aguero in. The bandwagon for Chamberlain may be over before it even begun after an early withdrawal following a rather quiet game.
Other players
A bounce back win for Arsenal in convincing style; though they were rather helped out by an awful Palace performance. However, Wenger’s side put in another impressive performance during their League Cup semi-final and we may need to start looking at their players again. Monreal was the star with a goal and two assists in a 33-minute cameo before being withdrawn with injury, though again he started in the EFL semi final.
The first game under their new manager hinted at a revival for Stoke after a vital win and, as expected, Shaqiri was heavily involved with an assist and 3 shots including a saved one on one opportunity. Early season favourite, Choupo-Moting, also assisted and there are some good fixtures on the horizon for those looking to take a punt.
Another cheap midfielder who has caught my eye is Gudmundsson for Burnley who looked very lively against United and has created 14 chances in the last 4 games. 5.0mil and decent fixtures until the end of the season – the Icelander could be worth consideration.
As others prosper, Richarlison continues to falter after another quiet game with only one shot on goal. However, his side play Stoke next, as alluded to by FFG in his latest team article, and could be worth holding for one more week.
Developments from off the pitch at Everton as Coleman is back in training and played in a recent U23 game which is bad news for those holding Kenny; though Everton seem incapable of keeping a clean sheet currently. Walcott grabbed an assist on debut, setting up Niasse who looks like he will no longer be leaving the club.
In the same game, a potential cheap striker continues to show some form; Rodriguez has 2 goals and an assist in his last 4 games, plus he has some OK fixtures after the City game next week.
Meanwhile, Wilson failed to register a single shot during his game against West Ham.
I had planned to write a more detailed summary on West Ham, but injuries to Arnautovic and Lanzini make it seem rather redundant. The former did pick up an assist and had a couple of good chances from his striker role; owners will be hoping that is injury isn’t as serious as the initial reports suggested.
That concludes the GW24 review. Feel free to post any questions or feedback in the comments section or you can find me on Twitter.
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