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 GW23 review. Last year, Joseph finished with an overall rank of 13k.
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW23 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
Arnautovic
The big story in GW23 was the performances of players who didn’t live up to expectations during the double gameweek and one of these was Arnautovic. He missed the second match in GW22 with a hamstring niggle which saw some managers removing him from their teams and they were severely punished. He was positioned up front and revelled in the freedom of that role with 2 assists and a great goal after a fantastic take and finish. He’s understandably a popular transfer target for next week and the promising upcoming fixtures along with his OOP prospects suggest that the points could keep rolling in.
Overall, it was a very good West Ham performance which was also inspired by Lanzini who scored a brace. He’s another good option in his side’s midfield, but doesn’t quite have the goal threat of Arnautovic. The defence was a little unlucky to not keep a clean sheet as they only conceded 8 shots and an xG score of 0.68.
Tottenham
The home form continues to go from strength to strength for Spurs who are now unbeaten at Wembley since GW1 and they put in a fantastic team performance in the late kick-off on Saturday. Scoring an early goal certainly helps Pochettino’s side and it sent them on their way to an xG score of an impressive 4.21.
That goal was scored by Son who has now scored in 5 consecutive home games; he also picked up an assist after a wonderful turn to race away from the defence. The Korean had very high expected scores after hitting the post and having one other big chance which he should have taken. Many managers had been looking to move him out of their teams when the fixtures turn in GW25, but he is making that decision very difficult. The worry with Son from a fantasy perspective is usually his security of starts, but it seems unthinkable that Pochettino would bench him in this form.
I actually suspect that if Spurs do revert to three at the back, Alli may be the one to miss out. There was a nice assist for him and he had a couple of close range chances, but he is being overshadowed by his midfield colleagues. Eriksen scored the 4th goal and created 3 chances; the Dane has shown some good fantasy form in recent weeks with 7 returning games in the last 9.
There was another brace for Kane who was the most captained player again so there would have been plenty of happy managers. Both goals were tap-ins which contributed to the high xG score of 1.38 and he had 6 shots in total. He is now 30 points clear in the forwards standing and is worth the high price tag given the lack of striker options around.
Chelsea
It was a rather poor performance from the champions and they were outplayed for most the game, certainly before a red card for the opposition. The enticing options seem to only be in defence at the moment; Morata failed to take a single shot and picked up a late booking. The only positive is that he lasted the 90 minutes which is more than that can be said for Hazard. The Belgian failed to even play an hour which meant that he matched the single point that his teammate returned. The fixture list remains strong, but the pair are really testing the patience of their owners, particularly considering their high price tags.
Chelsea picked up their 5th clean sheet in 6 games, but Christensen missed out after being benched again and was brought on just too late to pick up the fantasy points. Rotation is becoming an issue for him and Luiz returning will only increase those worries, so it may be time to accept that he cannot be used to cover the Blues’ defence. Alonso picked up a couple of bonus points which is unusual for him and just further strengthens his position as the best Chelsea fantasy prospect.
Man City
The first loss of the season finally came for City, though they came close to completing a famous comeback. There weren’t any great returns for their popular assets with Otamendi returning minus points after a booking and 4 goals conceded. He continued to show his attacking threat though when a header hit the crossbar and there was another opportunity at the back post for him.
Aguero claimed an assist, but it was a rather poor game from him and he struggled to get any shots on goal; it wasn’t the best audition from him as a potential captaincy option for the next couple of weeks. There was a lot of crowd pressure for Sterling on his return to Anfield and he seemed to struggle to cope; 1 key pass and a booking was all he had to show for his 73-minute performance. It was the turn of Sané to get on the scoresheet for the first time since GW10, but he has some way to go to restore the faith in him from fantasy managers. A surprisingly poor game for De Bruyne looking at the underlying stats as he failed to create a single chance and only had 1 shot.
Richarlison
He had 3 shots, but it was generally a quiet game for the Brazilian and his fantasy stock continues to plummet. I have been a massive fan of Richarlison this season, but even I must admit that it may be the time for him to leave fantasy teams. The hope is that the late Watford comeback may inspire some better form for his side and for him.
The last-minute equaliser for Watford came from Doucouré, though he certainly used his hand to send the ball into the back of the net. That was his 7th goal of the season and he’s now just 6 points behind his more popular teammate despite coming in at a cheaper price.
Mahrez
Another good performance from Mahrez who may have seen this game as an audition for a future transfer. He flashed one ball across the 6-yard box, could have won a penalty and also saw a deflected shot go just wide. Leicester have got some good fixtures coming up, so he would be a nice transfer to make, presuming that he’s still at the club by the end of January.
Liverpool’s attack
There was an impressive attacking performance from the Liverpool attack in the first game since the 4th member of their front line, Coutinho, departed to Barcelona. The exit should increase the prospects of Mané who fired the third goal in and could present us with another Liverpool option if he returns to the fantasy form of last season.
Salah once again had the most shots with 6 and scored his 18th league goal with an audacious finish from 45 yards. He also registered an assist which meant that he picked up another double-figure haul and has blanked just once in his last 14 starts.
There was a continuation of the fine recent form of Firmino who also picked up a goal and an assist; though an unnecessary booking for excessive celebration denied him collecting any bonus points. He had another good chance and is looking the best option to go alongside Kane in our forward lines.
One to keep an eye on is Chamberlain who staked his claim to be the replacement for Coutinho in the Liverpool midfield with a goal and an assist. He is priced at just 5.6mil and has some decent returns in recent weeks; if he can nail his place in the team, he could be a cheap entry into a potent attack.
Man Utd
There were many managers eagerly awaiting Monday night football with high hopes for their United assets, including our own FFG after his unfortunate free hit situation. A 3-0 win meant that there were points available but there were no returns for Lingard who was the most transferred in player for GW23. He was unlucky to not pick up an assist after registering the highest xA score for his side, but I do worry how the potential imminent transfer of Sanchez will impact his role in the side. He was overshadowed in midfield by Pogba who put in an excellent performance to bring home an 11-point haul. The Frenchman had 2 shots and 4 key passes despite being positioned in a slightly deeper role.
Elsewhere, there was another clean sheet for the defence, though there were some worrying moments which forced De Gea into some good saves. This is shown by an xG conceded total of 1.48, nonetheless it was a 13th clean sheet of the season for Mourinho’s men. Lukaku scored his first goal since GW18 and had 3 shots in total, but still has some way to go to force himself back into the forwards reckoning.
Other players
4.6mil striker Quaner failed to make the Huddersfield squad and I would worry that their new signing, Pritchard, will take his place in the starting XI.
Another cheap striker failed to play after Calvert-Lewin was replaced in the starting XI by their own new player, Tosun. The new man showed some nice touches, but wasn’t given the opportunity to show much else in a tough game for Everton. The post-match interview from Big Sam suggests that he’ll look to tighten up his side after a poor defensive display at Wembley which is good news for those managers with Kenny.
Swansea may be the place to look for cheap strikers where Ayew at 5.1mil scored his third goal in 5 gameweeks and 4.5mil McBurnie started for the second time in 4 weeks.
At Palace, Sako was lively with a goal and is now the top scorer for his side despite only completing 90 mins once. Loftus-Cheek was absent from the squad again, but Hennessey appears to be winning the goalkeeper battle after a solid performance to go along with 2 clean sheets in the last 3.
It’s just 1 clean sheet in the last 5 for the Burnley defence; however, it would be advisable to consider bringing one of their assets from GW27 because they have a great run-in from that point.
No Elliot in goal for Newcastle and it looks like plenty of managers will be operating with just one playing keeper going forwards. Forster was also benched and seems to have lost his place for now.
Ibe rewarded the underlying stats that he had been showing in recent times when he grabbed the winner against Arsenal. The opportunity was laid on by Wilson who also scored the equaliser and looks a decent sub-6mil striker option with the injuries in the forward department at Bournemouth.
Stoke have a new manager in Paul Lambert and there are couple of cheapies to monitor; 4.5mil midfield Ireland started and had a couple of good chances while veteran Crouch has now started 8 of the last 10 games up front and is priced at 4.9mil.
That concludes the GW23 review. Feel free to post any questions or feedback in the comments section or you can find me on Twitter.
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