Here’s our FPL gameweek 5 review where we look back at each game in GW5. We look at the lineups, give some key team indicators and review FPL relevant player performances.
FPL Gameweek 5 review – a look at the games and underlying stats from GW5 (Saturdays games)
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Norwich 3 Man City 2
Norwich 7 shots xG 1.74 Man City 25 shots xG 2.34
Lineup Norwich had injury issues in defence and CMs but the all important attacking players were fit. For Man City with Laporte injured Otamendi and Stones were the CBs. De Bruyne was on the bench.
A game where Norwich defended well and took their chances which came through errors and poor set piece defending. Pukki and Cantwell again were the stars. Although statistically Sterling had a high attacking output with 6 shots and 4 key passes I thought he was disappointing and only Aguero came out of this game with any credit with 6 shots and 1 key pass.
David Silva with 1 shot and 58 minutes was ineffective. De Bruyne in a 32 minute cameo made 3 low quality key passes.
Wolves 2 Chelsea 5
Wolves 11 shots xG 1.49 Chelsea 15 shots xG 3.07
Lineups. Traore continued over Doherty. Dendoncker only lasted 48 minutes as a starter. Rudiger started for Chelsea although with Lampard playing a back 3 we still don’t know who his ongoing partner will be. Alonso came in for the injured Emerson. No doubting who the star was as Abraham walked away with a hat trick from 4 shots. That makes it 7 goals from 15 shots. The other impressive performance was Mount with 2 shots and 3 key passes. Willian despite playing as Abrahams strike partner was disappointing.
Wolves defended poorly made errors and their seeming lack of familiarity with chasing the game meant they had no idea how to deal with the counter attack. It’s incredible to think that one of the best defences of last season is now, by any measure, one of the worst
Liverpool 3 Newcastle 1
Liverpool 21 shots xG 2.93 Newcastle 8 shots xG 0.29
Lineups. No surprises of note for either team other than Firmino on the bench. Interestingly that meant Mane as the CF rather than Salah
For Liverpool unsurprisingly Mane and Salah were the stars statistically. Firmino when he came on was the game changer though and his assist for Salah was a thing of beauty. Defensively Liverpool lost the clean sheet early although the shot number and the xG against were both positives for their defence. Alexander Arnold and Robertson were again huge attacking threats with Alexander Arnold having 7 key passes and 2 shots that he could have easily scored with.
Spurs 4 C Palace 0
Spurs 13 shots xG 1.05 Palace 11 shots xG 0.58
Lineups; Aurier came in for Walker Peters. Moura was on the bench as was Ndombele. Lamela held his place. No particularly significant lineup surprises for C Palace
This was the Son show with 2 goals coming from 5 shots. Again he was just lethal on the counter and running in behind the Palace defence. A quiet game from Kane though with only 1 shot although he did pick up an assist.
Nobody worth talking about for Palace
Man Utd 1 Leicester 0
Man Utd 10 shots xG 1.10 Leicester 9 shots xG 0.46
Lineups. No Pogba, Shaw or Martial through injury which caused some changes. No particular surprises for Leicester. There’s always a couple of rotated midfield spaces but the core players all started.
If you take the penalty out of this game you get a very low xG and low shot total game. All of which puts the defences in good stead but says little positive about the rest. Man Utd without Pogba are a side with little creativity with only Ashley Young creating more than 1 chance.
Maddison was the only one who did anything for Leicester. In average position terms he was very central, advanced and close to Vardy despite the notional LM position
Sheffield United 0 Southampton 1
Sheffield Utd 17 shots xG 1.88 Southampton 11 shots xG 1.58
Lineups. No real surprises for Sheffield. For Southampton despite Redmond being injured Ings was benched and Djenepo came in with Adams leading the line.
For Sheffield McGoldrick and Norwood were the only attacking players to come out with any credit. Fleck did alot volume wise but of little quality. For Southampton a good performance by Adams who was unlucky not to score. Also good performances fo Djenepo and Boufal.
Fleck and Boufal had the highest average position of midfielders
Brighton 1 Burnley 1
Brighton 14 shots xG 1.69 Burnley 7 shots xG 0.34
Lineups: With Trossard injured in came last season’s key duo of Murray and Gross. For Burnley Lennon came in for the injured Gudmundsson.
A game dominated by Brighton where Gross who created 6 chances and Murray with 3 shots. Maupay also showed his finishing ability.
It was a pretty poor attacking performance from Burnley with no one showing up. Wood had 1 half chance but Barnes only had 1 low quality shot.
Pascal Gross and McNeil respectively had the highest average position
Geek note: If you join our Patreon site you will get access to an FPL contributor tracker team which combines the contributors individual teams each week to show their favourite players, transfers and captains. It will always be completed on a Friday/Saturday in a normal gameweek. There will also be a spreadsheet of each managers teams, transfers and captains so you can drill down further.
You also get:
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool
Weekly podcasts with myself and the contributors
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month. No commitment beyond 1 month
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