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 GW36 review. Last year, Joseph finished with an overall rank of 13k.
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW36 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
Liverpool
There was a major shock in the lunchtime kick-off as Salah proved he is human by missing an early glorious chance after being sent clean through on goal. He then created a big chance for the OOP Alexander-Arnold, but his effort was saved. In the end though, it was a first blank at home since boxing day for Salah where none of 7 shots were on target, though he did post very good xG and xA scores.
Further forward, Firmino failed to take a single shot on a day where Liverpool weren’t quite at their best; perhaps with the upcoming Champions League game on their minds. The only saving grace for FPL managers was that the defence kept a clean sheet, although they very nearly conceded a goal late on. It will be interesting to see if managers hold onto their Liverpool assets for the double gameweek given the Reds only face a trip to Chelsea during it.
Chelsea
Chelsea ground out their third successive victory in the pouring South Wales rain thanks to an early curling finish from Fabregas. The chance was created by some nice play from Hazard who seemed to thrive from a return to a role playing off the striker. The change in formation meant that Willian was benched which will pose questions ahead of DGW37 for those that own him.
At the back, the clean sheet resulted in bonus points for Azpilicueta as it often does. He is looking the best defensive option at Chelsea now due to the slight worry that Alonso might not start both games following his suspension while Christensen missed out again this week.
Man City
If there were any thoughts that it may be best to steer clear of City players now that the title is won, then their performances in the last couple of games have put a stop to that. It was another convincing victory this weekend as Pep used a strong team once more with only Silva missing out due to personal reasons. The star of the show was Sterling with 3 assists and posted match-leading stats of 6 shots and 4 key passes.
Sané returned to the starting XI and didn’t take long to get on the scoresheet with a deflected effort from distance. He still does lack some goal threat with his wide positioning – his tally of 1 shot was the least out of the starting City attackers. De Bruyne had 5 shots and was unlucky not to pick up an assist for the West Ham own goal after his cross rebounded off multiple defenders before going in. Further forward, Jesus got his goal and was also able to collect maximum bonus.
The upcoming double gameweek is very strong for City with home fixtures against Huddersfield and Brighton, but it will be tricky to work out who will get the most minutes. It may be best to not overthink the game time issues as second guessing Pep won’t be easy.
Man Utd
A late victory for United following a goal from substitute Fellaini in stoppage time, but the only FPL managers who really gained were those with Pogba in their teams. The Frenchman netted the opening goal after a header from Sanchez hit the post and fell kindly to him. There were some worries regarding Lukaku as he was forced off with an ankle injury and the seriousness of the injury will need to be assessed this week.
I’m sure there was much disappointment in the FPL community when United conceded as a clean sheet was expected when seeing the Arsenal team. At least Smalling continues to hold his place in the team and investment in the United defence still looks wise for their double gameweek.
Tottenham
A much-needed win for Spurs on Monday, though they failed to put in a particularly strong performance against a rather poor Watford side. The early goal from Alli could have opened the floodgates, but they were unable to kick on and produce their best attacking football. The opening goal was created by Eriksen following an error by the goalkeeper who failed to deal with a cross in from Trippier. The full back also played his part in the second goal when his cut back was converted to help him to maximum bonus.
That chance was finished off by Kane who still seemed a little sluggish, particularly when failing to react quickly to a loose ball in the box and later straying unnecessarily offside to see a goal ruled out. Having said that, had he been able to score from either of those opportunities, he would have been on for a double-figure haul. Instead, those that captained him had to be satisfied with just 6 points. That was twice as many as Son who failed to take a single shot on goal in a quiet performance.
Both of those mentioned Kane chances would have resulted in Vertonghen assists, with the first opportunity arising after the defender’s header hit the post. In the end, he was lucky to even have his clean sheet as Spurs relied on some good saves from Lloris to keep that in tact.
Other Players
The recent slump for Leicester continued as they were on the receiving end of a thrashing at Palace which be trouble for their manager. Vardy did have an early shot cleared off the line, but that was his only opportunity of the match while Mahrez could only muster a single key pass. It’s seem obvious that the minds of the Leicester players are firmly on the beach, though I would be wary of a new manager bounce if someone does come in to replace Puel.
The inspiration behind the mentioned thumping was Zaha who scored and grabbed an assist; he was also fouled for the red card. Loftus-Cheek also caught my eye with an impressive performance, though it is a little late in FPL terms. Meanwhile, popular asset Milivojevic elected to pass on penalty duties to allow Benteke to finally get on the scoresheet to round off a great day for Palace.
Arsenal played a rather weakened team for their trip to Old Trafford with the Europa League game in mind as only Aubameyang having current FPL interest out of the starters. He had one big chance but was only able to put his header straight at the keeper.
There was a big win for Southampton inspired by a great all-round performance from Tadic who bagged both goals. Austin started but was unable to find the back of net despite a couple of chances coming his way.
It was a bad day at the office for Newcastle as they succumbed to a home defeat against West Brom which will hurt a number of managers looking to bench boost next week. Kenedy did hit the post, but his side were ultimately unable to find a way through.
Burnley finally got a clean sheet in their 0-0 draw against Brighton and I’m not quite sure how one of Barnes, Cork or Long didn’t score during a crazy goalmouth scramble which is the main source of their xG scores.
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GEEK LEAGUES
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