fantasy premier league – GW9 clean sheet analysis

Here’s my view of the clean sheets for fantasy premier league GW9

I’m a little pushed for time this week so I’m going to do it slightly differently.  I’ve gone to the William Hill website and picked out the clean sheet odds under £3.00 and then commented on them.  There’s 7 in total which is over the gameweek average which is around 6ish

Here they are in order

Man Utd home to Stoke  (£1.75)

Whenever the phrase Stoke as an opponent are uttered the words clean sheet are sure to follow.  No strikers and precious little midfield creativity.  Seemed to have decided to pass the ball sideways instead of up in the air towards Crouch as a result of the new manager.  The facts are that  they’ve scored only 2 games away from home although they are only bottom 3rd in underlying attacking stats not bottom.

The United defence hasn’t really been up to last years model with injuries and form being a problem.  In fact prior to GW8 I only rated them the 12th best defence overall and so far overall its 10 goals conceded in 8 games and only 2 clean sheets.  At home though its 3 goals conceded in 4 games and 2 clean sheets and top 5 underlying stats so not too bad

verdict:  Man Utd clean sheet

Spurs home to Hull (£1.85)

Spurs have the best defence in the league in my view with 5 clean sheets in 8 games and only 5 goals conceded (3 of those in the freak result against West Ham)

Hull have Aluko and Graham out Hull are even weaker than usual.  They’ve only scored 1 goal away if you discount the Newcastle game and have very poor underlying stats

verdict:  I can only see another Spurs clean sheet here

Arsenal away to Palace (£1.95)

Speaking of defences that haven’t performed as they did last year……  Only 1 clean sheet in the first 8 games and overall before GW8 I rated them only the 11th best overall defence.  However they have only conceded more than 1 goal once and constantly threaten to get a clean sheet but never deliver.  That is borne out by the fact that away from home only 3 sides have better underlying stats than them.

Palace’s attack home or away is one of the worst in the league and if you take out the Sunderland game they have been unable to score in 2/3 other home games and even with the stats from the Sunderland game included have pretty much the worst underlying attacking stats of any team.  Only hope is the new manager effect

If Arsenal can’t keep a clean sheet here they should give up

verdict:  Arsenal clean sheet

Southampton home to Fulham (£2.10)

The defence of the moment with 5 clean sheets overall and only 3 goals conceded and this is not just against poor opposition.  At home they’ve only conceded 1 goal although they have rode their luck with shots.

Ignore the 4 goals against Palace.  The Fulham defence apart from that game have been hopeless away from home only scoring against Sunderland and looking terrible in the process.

verdict:  Clean sheet to Saints and the bet looks generous value

Liverpool home to WBA (£2.25)

No clean sheet for 5 now and not really anything impressive in the underlying stats.  Only 2 goals conceded at home but really they haven’t always been that impressive their either.

The WBA attack has been pretty hit and miss.  They don’t really have a striker that seems to be able to score but attacking midfielders who have looked very dangerous.  Its only 3 goals in 4 games away but they have looked dangerous in their last 2.

Personally I think the improved recent WBA attack will see the score

verdict:  no clean sheet

Swansea home to West Ham (£2.37)

After Stoke the next team you go hunting for when the words clean sheet are mentioned are West Ham.  I have to admire Big Sam for buying rubbish strikers such as Maiga and Vaz Te, realising  that they couldn’t score against Spurs in a month of Sundays so he then decides that he wont  play any of them and puts 10 men behind the ball.  Then when they get a freak result he declares himself a tactical genius.  Allardicee?  Are you kidding me?  Buyer of strikers he certainly isn’t.

Its really a matter of whether the Swansea defence has the ability to concentrate sufficiently to get that clean sheet. They’ve conceded 8 goals in 4 games and only 1 clean sheet against the hapless Sunderland although they’ve had difficult fixtures.

personally I cant see a clean sheet here.  I think West Ham will get one

verdict:  No clean sheet

Norwich home to Cardiff

Norwich have conceded 6 goals in 4 games and have 1 clean sheet against Southampton at home but don’t look the defensive side they were last year on their own ground.

Cardiff away have scored 4 goals in 4 games and don’t have 2 bad stats although the opposition hasn’t been that testing

Personally I think Hughton will set themselves up to not score at all costs and will look to get a goal from a set piece or out of no where.  He will not want to lose

Verdict:  Norwich clean sheet

That’s it hope you found the shortened version useful

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