A favourable upcoming run of fixtures for Newcastle elevates Yohan Cabaye onto our updated Watchlist.
The summer signing from French champions Lille is starting to find his feet in the more frenetic Premier League and is becoming more integral to Newcastle’s style of play as the games go by. His burgeoning central midfield relationship with Cheik Tiote is beginning to click into place and while the Ivorian offers steel and solidity to the Newcastle centre, Cabaye’s passing ability and willingness to drive forward and take a shot is slowly but surely coming to fruition.
Last Saturday’s performance at Aston Villa is indicative of his growing influence – Cabaye hit the woodwork and had more attempts on goal than any player in Alan Pardew’s side in the 1-1 draw. In terms of creativity, he shone, too; only Juan Mata presented more goal scoring opportunities to his respective team mates in the Gameweek gone by.
Newcastle’s unbeaten start to the campaign and strong defensive displays mean Pardew’s side have conceded just two goals so far- the tightest defence in the top-flight- and Fantasy investment has resultantly been limited to their defence in the main. It’s understandable – with just four goals scored, they have yet to demonstrate a real cutting edge going forward but as Cabaye begins to pull the strings, an upturn in goal returns for the Toon Army faithful can surely be expected.
Joey Barton’s departure to QPR further stands the Frenchman in good stead- with set-piece duties in the bag, Cabaye will provide plenty threat with his impressive delivery.
With four home games in the next six (BLA, wol, TOT, WIG, stk, EVE) he should be afforded plenty opportunity to present himself as a strong mid-price option and coming in at just 6.0, he’s crept under the radar so far, with just 1.4% of Fantasy managers willing to take a punt.
