In a performance that restricted a free-scoring Chelsea team to just four shots on target and no goals, Man City served notice of their defensive solidity last Saturday as, with six games played, the Eastlands club picked up their fourth clean sheet of the season.
Given they have conceded just two league goals to date (a penalty away to Sunderland and a rush of blood to the head that saw Joe Hart charge out of his box against Blackburn) City are a fair bet to concede the least number of goals in the Premier League this season, as Roberto Mancini’s 4-2-3-1 formation is, first and foremost, set up to prevent opponents scoring, relying on the quality up top to grab a goal on the break.
With injuries to summer signings Jerome Boateng and Alexander Kolarov meaning the pair have played just 48 minutes between them, and with Vincent Kompany classified by Fantasy Premier League (FPL) as a midfielder, Kolo Toure is the only member of City’s first-choice back four to have staked a solid claim for Fantasy investment so far this season.
The centre-half has played 90 minutes in every game and although he hasn’t registered any Bonus Points (he does have Bonus darlings James Milner and Carlos Tevez to contend with, after all), his haul of 27 points means Toure is the third highest-scoring defender in the FPL game.
Clean sheets have been hard to come by for the majority of clubs this season; Chelsea also have four, but the next best total is just two, as the usually reliable Man United and Liverpool defences struggle to keep their opponents out. Carlo Ancelotti’s tendency to sometimes rotate, however, strengthens the case for Toure considerably.
As Andy’s recent Frisking the Fixtures article has already suggested, Mancini’s side are looking at a kind run of upcoming fixtures (NEW, blp, ARS, wol, wba) and investment in City players will, no doubt, be considerable. Toure currently tops our Watchist Defender rankings as a result. At £6.2m, the former Arsenal man has already increased in value this week and is second only to Nani in “Transfers In”.
Playing at the heart of a continually impressive defence, Toure is looking decent value for money not just for the foreseeable future, but as a long term possibility as the season starts to unfold.
