With the international break on the horizon and a two week break to ponder transfers, Man City’s performance this afternoon has given Fantasy managers plenty to think about.
The display of Edin Dzeko, in particular, is food for thought. The Bosnian’s poor previous campaign meant Fantasy Premier League (FPL) have assigned a price of 8.5 to his name this time round but City’s summer influx of attacking talents already make him look a bargain.
City have now scored twelve goals in their opening three games, with just one of those matches at the Etihad Stadium, and Dzeko has bagged six of them- so far, incredibly, only one team has scored more goals. While Samir Nasr, David Silva and Sergio Aguero buzzed around him, the big forward put the finishing touches to some superb free-flowing football, with a total of nine attempts on goal at White Hart Lane.
Granted, City have the likes of Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli as other forward options but they have no one quite like Dzeko- a tall, powerful hit man, superb in the air, he provides a focal point for the array of creative talents directly behind him and as games go by, his place in Roberto Mancini’s starting XI is looking more assured.
As Fantasy managers bail out on the likes of Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll following insipid starts to the season, Dzeko’s upcoming run of fixtures (WIG, ful, EVE, bla, AVL) only strengthens the case for his acquisition and he has already been snapped up by the thousands before this afternoon’s match was out. The only downside, really, is his lack of spot-kicks.
While the likes of Robin Van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Darren Bent will offer the security of penalty duties, all are far pricier than Dzeko and given City’s continued desire to attack rather than defend this term, his relatively low price looks like flying up over the next fortnight.
It’s not even so much a knee jerk this one- three gameweeks now of cold, hard statistics and outstanding team performances are presenting a case that has just become nigh-on impossible to ignore.
