After each gameweek, I am going to be writing an article reviewing all the Premier League games from a fantasy perspective. I 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 my GW4 review.
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW4 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. All underlying stats are from whoscored.com.
In each scoreline, I’ve put the expected goals for each team in brackets which are taken from the excellent Twitter page 11tegen11. BBC Sport provided a very useful piece to help explain this statistic.
MAN CITY (2.57) 5-0 (0.33) LIVERPOOL
A convincing win for the home side in the early kick off which was made much easier by playing against 10 men for most of the game.
Ederson picked up a facial injury during the red card incident but the early diagnosis is positive. Both wing backs got well forward and picked up assists but Mendy was the one who really stood out. His deliveries from the left were very good and he whips the ball early so I’d expect more assists to follow. Kompany missed out with yet another injury, calf this time, and it’s always hard to tell how long he’ll be absent for.
There were a number of managers who were getting fed up with De Bruyne and over 300,000 of them made the decision to sell him ahead of GW4. He punished those sellers with 2 assists in a man of the match performance. However, he was still playing rather deep and I wouldn’t be looking to buy him back just yet. Sane came off the bench to net twice but there still doesn’t seem to be space for him in the starting XI.
A good day for the City strikers as Aguero returned to the starting line up to score the opener. He also unselfishly laid on the assist for Jesus’ second goal. The Brazilian was taken off after just 56 minutes, presumably with the midweek Champions League game in mind.
A tough day for Klopp and his men as an early red card condemned them to a heavy defeat.
Alexander-Arnold was the man to fill in at right back but he had a tough afternoon as the Liverpool defence gave up a lot of chances. That is to be expected when playing with a man less at the Etihad though and if either TAA or Gomez can nail that role, it would still present a good value option for our squads.
The story of the day was the red card for Mane and he will now be banned for the next two league games. This immediately affected the prospects of Salah who was taken off after 45 minutes. However, he did have one golden opportunity before the sending off and should remain a good option in Mane’s absence. We may see the return of a certain Coutinho now for next game at Anfield against Burnley.
A frustrating day for Firmino who was also taken off early after little involvement in the game. He was the most transferred in player this week and is certainly one to hold on to for the foreseeable future.
ARSENAL (2.05) 3-0 (0.54) BOURNEMOUTH
A morale-boosting win for the Gunners, though there will surely be bigger tests to come.
There was a start at LWB for Kolasinac who returned the assist for the first goal. He also had a good volleyed chance from a cross sent in by fellow wing-back Bellerin. It was a first clean sheet of the season for Arsenal and, after their next game against Chelsea, they have some tantalising fixtures on the horizon.
Sanchez was benched this week and with his price tag, it’s best to be patient with him. There were 2 assists for popular option Ramsey but it was another blank for Ozil, despite further impressive underlying stats and he went close from a free-kick.
Lacazette started and returned a well-taken goal for his backers but it was Welbeck who stole the show. He scored twice and registered an assist for a massive points haul; could this be a start of a Welbz bandwagon.
Another poor day at the office for Bournemouth who are yet to pick up a point this season.
They were a shambles defensively at times and it’s hard to see a clean sheet coming soon. However, Brighton at home next week is a prime fixture to turn their fortunes around.
The Cherries struggled to keep possession of the ball with Gosling especially guilty of giving it away in dangerous areas. Fraser was taken off before half-time after picking up an injury.
Another fruitless day for King and Defoe, though the former Sunderland went very close when he hit the post from a header.
BRIGHTON (0.52) 3-1 (1.16) WEST BROM
A historic day at the Amex stadium as Brighton scored their first Premier League goal and also got their first win.
They were unable to hold on for the clean sheet though. Nevertheless, it seems clear that they are more rigid side when playing at home and we should be hopeful of defensive points in the future.
There was plenty of points for Gross who rewarded managers who had kept faith in him with 2 goals and an assist. He continues to play in the No.10 role and is one to monitor with some good upcoming fixtures. Knockaert wasn’t too involved and comes in at 0.5mil than his teammate.
Hemed continues to start and could be a useful bench striker for those looking to play 3-5-2. A goal and an assist for the Israeli who is seemingly first choice for the time being.
A first loss of the season for West Brom and Pulis will be looking for a quick response to a disappointing performance.
Early season favourite Hegazi started but didn’t make the 60 minute mark. It appears that his time in the team may be over with new signings and players returning from injury. I imagine that the next starting line-up will provide clear insight into who we should expect to play.
Substitutes combined for the West Brom goal as Burke set up Morrison. The latter missed another great opportunity later on in the game.
Rodriguez lined up at LW again but moved further forward after Rondon was taken off. There was a lack of threat from both men throughout the game and FPL managers should just stick with their defenders for now.
EVERTON (1.26) 0-3 (1.92) TOTTENHAM
It seems things aren’t quite clicking at Goodison Park as this was a poor performance from Ronald Koeman’s side.
Their defence gave Spurs way too much space which made it easy for them to create chances. Martina started at RB but did not have his best game and I wouldn’t be surprised if Holgate replaced him in the next game. We still have a couple of weeks to monitor the Everton backline before the fixtures turn for the better.
Everton were very much second best in midfield as they struggled to impose themselves on the game. Sigurdsson had a few shots but his side had difficulty creating any clear-cut chances.
Sandro returned but was withdrawn at half-time after missing one reasonable chance.
A return to 3 at the back resulted in a great Tottenham performance and the first goal of the season for a certain striker.
New signing Sanchez started at the back but he was overshadowed by the wing backs from an FPL point of view. Trippier finally came good on his pre-season promise with an assist but Davies is proving to be a great prospect this year. He delivered 2 assists on Saturday and has created twice as many chances as any other defender (13) so far this season.
Eriksen is in unbelievable form currently and this continued with his first goal of the campaign. He had a couple of other chances and 4 of his shots came from inside of the box. Despite the blank, Alli was lively and missed one good opportunity. It’s worth noting that he lasted the 90 minutes while the Dane came off early which could be a sign of things to come with Champions League coming up. Alli is suspended for 3 UCL games.
September = goals for Harry Kane. His first goal may have been rather fortunate but a clever finish for his second highlighted a return to form. He arguably should have added more to his tally but his owners will be happy enough. Those that don’t own him will surely be seeking to get him urgently as he looks like the primary captain choice for the next few weeks.
LEICESTER (0.65+1pen) 1-2 (0.66) CHELSEA
It’s been a tough start for Leicester but their fixtures are starting to turn and their players could well become decent options for us.
They defended reasonably well in this game though Schmeichel will be disappointed with how he dealt with the second goal. Their defenders are certainly worth consideration from GW5 onwards.
As expected, Mahrez was the main threat from midfield and created two good chances for his strikers. He’s certainly one that managers could look to bring in over the next week or two even though he seems to have relinquished penalty duties.
Vardy was the man to slam home the penalty that he won and had another good chance. Slimani started alongside the Englishman and missed one great opportunity from a fast counter attack.
It was another win for the Champions with a good performance away from home.
Zappacosta played his first Premier League minutes suggesting he could a rotation threat for Moses and Alonso as he can play both positions. The latter managed to pose some good goal threat again and it’s always a worry when he’s not in your FPL team, even at 7.1mil.
Willian was resigned to a place on the Chelsea bench alongside the returning Hazard. They both got some minutes and I would expect to see the Belgian on the pitch from the start against Arsenal next week. Kante scored a goal on his return to the King Power stadium to the great hurt of a certain BBC football presenter.
There was another headed fantasy return for Morata who was the main goal threat for Chelsea. It remains to be seen if he can compete with Lukaku and Kane, however a price tag of 10.1mil makes choosing him over one of the power two a real possibility.
That concludes part 1 of the GW4 review. Part 2 will be uploaded in the near future. Feel free to post any questions or feedback in the comments section or you can find me on Twitter.
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