As the dust was settling on a hectic, and at times bizarre opening weekend, it was time to pick through the scores, stats and highlights and scout out some more alternative options for this week’s ‘Differentials’. With dozens of new faces amongst the starting line-ups last weekend there were plenty to choose from, but in the end we settled on our final three. After last week’s ‘Differentials’ nearly outscored my entire FPL team, I’m hoping for another bumper week….
Russell Martin
Norwich skipper Russell Martin gets the first slot in this evening’s line-up. Coming in at 4.5 in FPL, he’s pricier than any other Canaries first-team defender and has suffered from investment as a consequence- while 4.0 Ritchie de Laet is owned by 110,223 Fantasy managers at the time of writing, Martin has been snapped up by just 5,553, which equates to 0.002%.
The club’s first home game of the season sees Stoke arrive at Carrow Road this Sunday and while the likes of De Laet and Zak Whitbread are kinder on the budget, Martin offers the greater potential. His raids down the right saw the full-back score 5 goals and picked up 2 assists for Paul Lambert’s side in the Championship last season; even if the home side concede, then, Martin’s attacking tendencies shows more promise at the other end of the pitch than the rest of the Norwich back-four.
Yohan Cabaye
Despite missing most of the pre-season, Yohan Cabaye impressed on his debut against Arsenal last weekend, and looks set to retain his starting spot for Newcastle’s tie against bitter rivals Sunderland. Without last season’s top scorer Kevin Nolan, Newcastle will be looking to Cabaye to provide a creative threat from midfield, and despite a dull game last week, Cabaye showed signs that he could become a key fantasy target over the season.
At Lille, Cabaye played a central playmaker role while also taking free kicks and penalties, and in the 09/10 season, he picked up 15 goals and 10 assists for his efforts. If he can produce anywhere near those sort of returns at Newcastle this season, then he will be excellent value at 6.0m, and his current ownership of just 0.9% will surely shoot up. It will be interesting to see if he takes on the majority of set pieces going forwards – Last weekend he shared free kicks with Joey Barton, so the jury is still out on that one.
Danny Graham
Any striker moving up to the Premier League from the Championship will find it much tougher to score, and as expected, Danny Graham struggled to get involved in Mondays game against Man City. As the central point of Swansea’s 4-2-3-1 system, Graham will get plenty of chances to score in easier fixtures, and he certainly knows how to put them away – he was the Championship’s top scorer last season with 24 goals, and also picked up 11 assists.
At 5.0m, Graham should slot into most fantasy sides very comfortably alongside a couple of big name strikers and with three home games in the next four against Wigan, Sunderland and West Brom, Graham should prove to be great value for the 2.2% of managers that have invested so far.
