Burning Question – Which Chelsea Players Will You Be Drafting In?

This weekend marks the start of one of the best run of fixtures Chelsea will face all season. Over the next seven Gameweeks, the league leaders entertain West Brom, Tottenham, Hull and West Ham and travel to Sunderland, Newcastle and Stoke – with such a strong schedule on the horizon, savvy Fantasy managers will be looking to ensure they tap into the Blues’ points potential at both ends of the pitch.

Up front Diego Costa, with ten goals, looks the main attraction. At a cost of £11m in the Fantasy Premier League game, though, he comes with a hefty price tag and is a yellow card away from suspension. In midfield there are plenty of options, but all come with a degree of caution. Cesc Fabregas has notched nine assists already but, like Costa, also sits just one booking away from a ban. Eden Hazard lacks consistency in front of goal as does Oscar, another enticing potential prospect in midfield.

At the back Branislav Ivanovic has grabbed the headlines with two goals already but does the cheaper price tag of Cesar Azpilicueta offer better value for money?

After running the rule over Southampton’s poor fixtures, our second Burning Question of the international break looks at Chelsea’s kind run and asks: which Chelsea players will you be drafting in?

Mark says…
There’s no doubt that, if Chelsea aren’t already providing the backbone of your Fantasy team, now is the time to consider their assets.

Their schedule from now until the trip to St Mary’s in Gameweek 19 screams potential and I fully expect them to secure a seemingly unassailable lead at the top of the table by the turn of the year.

In Fantasy terms, Diego Costa remains the obvious target. Personally, I think his injury concerns were played up somewhat by Jose Mourinho and I think, from this point on, Costa will play six, if not seven of their league outings before Gameweek 19. Given his output to this point, that should guarantee a flow of goals that warrants recruitment.

Should it be at the expense of Sergio Aguero? No – for me, there’s enough value in midfield and for the third striker spot to allow for both of the key heavy-hitters up front.

Is Costa essential? Again, no, however I think having the two most consistent goalscorers up front can be invaluable. They rotate home and away from Gameweek 14 and the option to rotate the armband accordingly looks a key benefit.

Elsewhere, I’m keeping Branislav Ivanovic. I am concerned about his recent slump in attacking involvement but I put that down to Mourinho showing caution with Azpilicueta suspended. I think Ivanovic will deliver attacking returns in the next six weeks and I also see at least two or three clean sheets in this spell.

As for the Chelsea midfield, while I’m a big admirer of Eden Hazard, his consistency is a concern and I don’t see him as cover for Costa as a result. If I was maximising my Chelsea allocation, I’d opt for Oscar, simply because at 8.4, you can forgive some blanks scattered around the occasional explosion of points. Hazard, at 10.0, has to deliver with the kind of regularity we’ve seen from Alexis Sanchez and I just don’t think he’ll do that with Costa’s monopoly on goals.

Jonty says…
Chelsea’s forthcoming run of fixtures is extraordinary. From Gameweek 12 when they face West Brom at home up until they entertain Manchester City in Gameweek 23 there is plenty of opportunity for clean sheet and attacking points. As with Southampton’s kind recent run of matches, I’m looking to triple up on Chelsea’s assets and luckily am already two thirds of the way there.

The debate over Diego Costa’s essential status still rumbles on, but I’d argue that over the next 11 matches he is vital. He’s a great armband option with 10 goals already and is cemented as first choice striker – injury is the only way he will leave my team.

In midfield I’ve already drafted in Oscar. Price was a major consideration over my favoured options of Cesc Fabregas and the more expensive Eden Hazard. While Fabregas offers consistency, he is currently an injury doubt, is notorious for tailing off as seasons progress and is £1.4m more than Oscar. I’m less concerned about him being one card away from suspension. Like Costa, who is also on four yellow cards, I’d be happy to bench him for just a week.

Hazard is now £10m, and for that price I want much more than his three goals, only one of which was from open play, and two assists. He is also too rarely explosive for my tastes, with just two double-digit scores – Alexis Sanchez’ four scores of 10+ points currently put the Belgian in the shade. Other factors in choosing Oscar are that he so far has matched Hazard’s double-digit return and looks secure in the number 10 role. In addition, in terms of points per appearance, he is currently above Hazard.

In defence I have my eye on Cesar Azpilicueta. At 6m, I may not be able to squeeze him in, but I will try. While Branislav Ivanovic is Chelsea’s top scoring defender, at £7.2m he is too pricey for my backline that also includes the far superior Leighton Baines. Azpilicueta offers the cheapest, most reliable way into the Chelsea defence and crucially is an under the radar bonus magnet excelling across the board in the Fantasy Premier League Bonus Point System (BPS). He averages 23.2 BPS per 90 minutes, while Ivanovic averages just 19.8 and relies heavily on rare goals to gain bonus.

7Shades of Smoke says…
When the league’s runaway leaders show up on your doorstep with title winning pedigree and a seven-week streak of blue on the season ticker, you let them in. Chelsea assets will have no trouble finding a Fantasy home through the rainy autumn nights, and many a Fantasy manager will be keen to double, or even triple-up on Mourinho’s men.

With Costa cozied in my team at an early stage, that £10.5 – £11m investment looks likely to gain interest in most of Chelsea’s forward play, so while the debate rages over Chelsea’s best midfield option, my main area of focus has been that José Mourinho defence. Chelsea finished last season with the league’s most reliable back-line (hence the weighty price tags) with 18 clean sheets and a sprinkling of goals amongst the more senior players for good measure. Yet this season’s record of three clean sheets in eleven may scare potential investors to look elsewhere.

Actually, Chelsea’s defensive form to date is almost identical to their early displays of 2013/14. Consider that they have conceded exactly the same number of chances as they had done at the same stage last season (96), have recorded the same number of clean sheets from their opening eleven matches (three) and – if we exclude John Terry’s own goal in Gameweek 4 – they’ve even conceded the same number of goals (10). Chelsea also saw red twice in their opening 11 fixtures in both seasons, too. Last year, the Blues went on to tighten up dramatically, racking up 15 clean sheets in the final 27 Gameweeks and I’ll be banking on them doing similar this time, given the strength of those fixtures ahead.

Branislav Ivanovic carries the premium tag well. At £7.2 he’s the most expensive route into Chelsea’s defence and has the highest ownership with almost a quarter of FPL managers keeping him on the strength of those opening displays. Ivanovic boasts a phenomenal one goal attempt in the box per 80 minutes over the season, though that figure slips to one in every 189 minutes over the last four, while John Terry has shown the most threatening form with one in 127 minutes over the same period. The right-back has also failed to create a single chance for his team-mates over those past four Gameweeks but a goal for a defender is worth two assists and Ivanovic has continued to rampage forwards – his penalty box touches only slightly falling from one in 24 minutes to one in 27 minutes over the last four – making him the standout option for those who can afford the outlay.

Those on a budget may look to house Cesar Azpilicueta. At £6.0, the Spaniard appears the cheapest option assured of minutes but when you consider that he has yet to register an effort on goal in the opposition penalty area, and has averaged 400 minutes per touch in the box for the season so far, that value comes with little promise of returns beyond Chelsea’s clean sheets.

Terry meanwhile has averaged a penalty box touch every 48 minutes over the last four, which, considering his price (£6.3), looks a decent investment over Azpilicueta. With Leighton Baines curled up by the fire, I simply couldn’t fund another £7m+ defender… so as much as it pains me to say it, I think I’ll be spending Christmas with John Terry.

Spencer says…
I’ve been stung by Chelsea players before. At the beginning of the season, I opted for Filipe Luis on the basis that Chelsea wouldn’t pay £16m on a bench player. We all know how that one turned out. Cesc Fabregas was coming in, but I opted for Eden Hazard as he showed how well he scored last season against the “lesser teams”. He lasted only one week in my team after managing a two-pointer against Burnley.

Of course, Chelsea have been playing well and at the moment it looks as though the title is theirs to throw away. Diego Costa’s been in my team since the beginning and I had to bring Fabregas due to his consistent point scoring. That leaves me with just one free Chelsea spot.

I like to play with just one big hitter at the back, who is currently Baines. Chelsea’s fixtures are just too good to ignore though, so I’ll be tweaking my tactics slightly and plumping for Azpilicueta – simply due to the fact his is just for the fact that he’s the cheapest starting defender. Knowing my luck, Luis will get an extended run in the team now!

Applebonkers says…
With every price drop John Terry is flirting harder and harder with me. I wonder if there is anything in Terry’s name being an anagram of retry. Does it mean retry in the sense of buy him again? Or does it mean retry in the sense of try another name?

I just don’t believe he can possibly keep up his personal goal, clean sheet and bonus drought. Bonus points have alluded him this season and the fact that Chelsea have less clean sheets than Burnley and West Brom is just straight up bizarre. If anyone joins Eden Hazard in my side it will be Terry. Costa, I’m certain, is set to hit the goal trail again but it will take an Aguero injury to get him for now.

Paul Says…
I currently have Ivanovic and Hazard on board. The former has been in my side for a number of weeks and with those fixtures, it’d be folly to shift him right now – no attacking returns in eight is a worry but if Mourinho starts to tighten up and curb the Serbian’s forward forays, Azplicueta’s tendency to earn bonus for shut-outs, at a far more budget-friendly cost, may forced me to reconsider further down the line.

Whilst he’s struggled for any real Fantasy consistency, Hazard’s stats are clearly on the up, as shown by our recent KPI Midfielders article. There’s so little between the Belgian and Fabregas in price now (10.0 to 9.8), his close-range threat and spot-kick duties are advantageous – granted, he’s only returned three goals and a pair of assists and has yet to justify the hefty outlay but this period of fixtures seems tailor-made for a resurgence.

Sergio Aguero’s superior captaincy appeal has made me turn away from Costa as my premium forward. With Southampton’s fixtures taking a turn for the worse, though, I’ve tentatively penciled in plans to shed my side of the likes of Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle in order to accommodate the Blues top scorer alongside Aguero and Diafra Sakho in my front three.