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 GW9 review. Last year, Joseph finished with an overall rank of 13k.
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW9 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.
WEST HAM (0.58) 0-3 (1.98) BRIGHTON
An extremely disappointing Friday night for the Hammers which has the put their manager under severe pressure.
Conceding three goals at home to a newly promoted side is less than ideal and suddenly investment in their defence doesn’t look that wise. Cresswell was surprisingly benched and there’s no guarantee that he’ll immediately gain his place back.
There wasn’t much joy for Antonio going forward and Lanzini could only blaze over when an opportunity came his way.
A similar story for Hernandez in the lone striker role during Carroll‘s absence due to suspension. Given the nature of this performance, it seems likely that the big man will quickly be restored to the starting line-up.
A first ever Premier League away win for Brighton in a great performance that could have arguably seen them score more.
A slightly unexpected clean sheet for the defence who dealt with everything thrown at them. If you’re looking for defenders around the 4.5mil mark, there’s not many better options.
Another assist for Gross who continues to be a strong budget choice for fantasy midfields as he is heavily involved in everything Brighton do going forward. Record signing Izquierdo got his first PL goal after a great strike from distance. No fantasy returns for Knockaert but he did lay on one great opportunity after a slaloming run.
A great day at the office for Murray who bagged a brace and he could have had a hat trick after having two chances well saved.
CHELSEA (1.78) 4-2 (1.80) WATFORD
A rollercoaster ride for Chelsea in the lunchtime kick-off and they were slightly fortunate to come away with the 3 points.
Azpilicueta was the man to get the crucial 5th goal during the game after being positioned at RWB in the absence of Moses. He’s consistently looking the best defensive asset at Stamford Bridge as demonstrated by Alonso not having any shots or key passes during this game.
An improved display from Hazard who created 4 chances including the assist for the opening goal. However, he stills look a tad overpriced to me compared to the other midfield options. Even in this game, he was outshone by teammate Pedro who scored a cracking goal and laid on an assist.
A lacklustre performance from Morata who could only pick up a booking during his 64-minute appearance. His replacement, Batshuayi, made a big impact off the bench as he scored a brace to haul his team back into the game.
I’ve have been singing the praises of Watford recently and will continue to do so despite a defeat here where they will be very disappointed to not have come away with more.
I was impressed with Femenia who got up and down well at RWB. He created 3 chances including one low cross that was inexplicably not sent into the back of the net. A player that looks a good buy for the next few weeks.
The same can definitely be said for Richarlison who caused problems for the opposition defence with his pace again. He picked up another assist but should have had scored twice after missing the aforementioned cross and then sending a close-range header wide. Doucouré scored again after a long throw-in caused problems right on half-time but I still question whether he can continue this goalscoring form. There was also a 1st goal of the season for Pererya who is continuing his comeback from injury.
Deeney started after his impact performance from the bench last week but his role is more to create space for the quality that’s now in his team’s midfield.
HUDDERSFIELD (1.34) 2-1 (0.81) MAN UTD
What a performance from Huddersfield in a real turn up for the books and they may not have a better result all season.
We had a second goalkeeper assist in two weeks after Lossl‘s long ball was poorly defended and led to his side’s second goal. There were some excellent displays at the back, typified by Zanka‘s brilliant block in stoppage time.
Mooy got the opener after Ince‘s saved shot fell kindly to him, however there’s probably still better options in that price bracket.
The second goal came from Depoitre thanks to some horrendous defending. Mounie was back on the bench and got his first minutes since GW4.
A poor result for United which leaves them 5 points behind their rivals in the title race and they can ill afford many more days like this.
An early injury to Jones was the start of a bad day and we’re yet to hear how long the popular fantasy asset will be out for. Lindelof came off the bench for him and made an awful error for the second goal. Injury kept Bailly out again and Mourinho will be desperate to have his first-choice centre-halves back soon.
An expected benching for Mkhitaryan whose form has suffered in recent weeks. He did enter the fray at halftime but failed to inspire a comeback. Martial was one of the players replaced after a disappointing first half.
There was a lack of service for Lukaku but he sent in a lovely cross to ensure that his backers at least got an assist. It looks like there’ll be a big question for a lot of managers this week – with games against Spurs and Chelsea to come, is it time to remove the Belgian? Rashford was the recipient of the cross and made a good impact from the bench.
MAN CITY (3.41) 3-0 (0.15) BURNLEY
The FPL story of this game was all about Pep’s rotation but that should not distract from the fact that this was another accomplished Man City performance.
A clean sheet was comfortably achieved this week and there was further benefit for Otamendi owners. He rose highest at a corner to nod the ball into the bottom corner on his way to a 15-point haul.
So much for an early withdrawal in the Champions League meaning Sterling would start; in fact, he didn’t even make it on the pitch at all. De Bruyne was influential again and got forward more than usual, having one decent 1v1 opportunity. He played another beautiful through ball to Sané to pick up an assist. The German also sent in the corner for Otamendi’s goal to help himself to a 4th 10+ points haul which sent him to the top of the midfielder’s standings. A blank for Silva but he did create one big opportunity which is shown in his high xA score.
Aguero made his first start since his car accident and scored from the penalty spot to equal the Man City goal-scoring record. He had two other good chances but was denied by the keeper on both occasions. He was replaced after 79 mins by Jesus who had the time to miss one glorious opportunity that he really should have taken.
This match was the perfect example of the unpredictable nature of Pep’s rotation. Unfortunately, if we are investing in Man City assets, which we certainly want to with their current form, it looks like we’ll have to get used to a nervous wait for the their teamsheets.
Sean Dyche’s men battled well for most of the game but eventually subsided to the brilliance of the opposition.
Pope was a big contributor in their resistance and made several good saves, though he was the man to give away the penalty.
Not much to comment on in the midfield this week for Burnley as they were employed to stop the opposition more than anything else.
Wood almost broke through at one stage but that was it for him really.
NEWCASTLE (0.27) 1-0 (0.57) CRYSTAL PALACE
Benitez continues to work his magic at St James’ Park with a hard-earned 3 points which took Newcastle to 7th.
It was very interesting to see Elliot pick up a bonus point despite not being required to make a single save. This suggests some serious potential to pick up more bonus in future weeks and as Rob alluded to last week, he should continue to be a good pick.
Ritchie picked up his 5th assist of the season after his corner was headed in by Merino. The Scotsman is currently averaging 4 points per game and is proving a solid performer so far.
A quiet game for Joselu who failed to register a single shot during the 90 mins.
A disappointing result for Palace in a game where they were arguably the better team.
Hodgson definitely seems to have got his side more organised and they should start to pick up some clean sheets soon. They have some decent fixtures coming up and present some intriguing differential defensive options.
Zaha had a quieter game compared to his comeback performance last week but had one pretty decent headed chance. He played up front alongside Townsend again who created an impressive 5 chances. Loftus-Cheek only made the bench on his return, but he very nearly picked up an assist during his brief performance.
That concludes part 1 of the GW9 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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