The weekend’s events have shaken up the midfield landscape.
Eden Hazard’s form was confirmed by his sweetly struck low drive into the corner of Tom Heaton’s net, ensuring that the Chelsea man earned promotion to the very summit of our Watchlist rankings.
The effervescent Hazard inherits that position from Riyad Mahrez, with the Leicester City wide man suffering a damaging Gameweek 3 weekend.
The missed penalty against Swansea not only saw him blank, it cast further doubts over those duties from this point on.
Despite recently signing a new four-year deal with the Foxes, Mahrez’ confidence doesn’t quite to be at the level of last season.
Whilst he’s actually seeing more of the ball and enjoying more touches in the opposing box, his ability to skip past opponents is either being limited by defenders or his own approach.
Mahrez has completed 27% of his dribbles so far this season – he achieved an average of 54% per match last term. Hardly a telling stat in Fantasy terms, but perhaps indication that he is not yet at the same level or at a standard that can yet compete with others in his price bracket.
The Leicester man has subsequently slid down our rankings and now sits behind a queue of in-form contenders.
Alexis Sanchez’ 16-point haul at Watford should perhaps see him now rival Hazard at the very pinnacle of the Watchlist. However, Mesut Ozil’s return with a goal at Vicarage Road, allied with his consistency over last season, gives the German the edge.
Both Sanchez and Ozil clearly now have the fixtures to thrive and threaten Hazard. Ozil is not only the safer bet of the two Gunners’ options, he’s also the cheapest route by some margin.
The 1.4 saving in the Fantasy Premier League is hugely significant in the current landscape and means that, feasibly, we can look to pair both Ozil and Hazard in our midfields should we allow ourselves to explore a budget third striker.
Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling is now also a factor.
Two goals in Sunday’s 3-1 win over West Ham saw him finally supersede Kevin De Bruyne as City’s Watchlist asset in midfield.
The Belgian almost seems impaired by his new central role, while Sterling’s confidence is sky-high following an endorsement from manager Pep Guardiola.
Again the price point is key here. At 8.1, Sterling can be accompaniment to Hazard rather than a replacement.
Similarly Everton’s Ross Barkley profits from being a potential partner to the Chelsea man. A blank against Stoke damaged his stock but Everton’s fixtures remain buoyant with Barkley’s prospects still strong.
Certainly, opting to ignore Hazard now appears to be a huge risk.
All the underlying numbers suggest that Hazard is back to the form which saw him carry Chelsea to the title in 2014/15. He is actually outperforming that level in some key areas.
Just taking one simple stat – Hazard has so far fired in an average of 4.7 efforts on goal per match under Antonio Conte. That’s compared to a 1.2 average last season and an average of 2.1 in his 14 goal 2014/15 campaign.
Whilst Chelsea’s fixtures are testing, Hazard’s current form would suggest he can overcome that and return against even the most illustrious of opponents.
Equally, with Sterling, Sanchez and Ozil now forced to deal with the labours of Champions League football, Hazard is free to concentrate his energies on maintaining output in the league.
That, along with spot-kicks that now look assured, is a big factor in Hazard’s favour. That cements him as a key asset alongside strikers Sergio Aguero and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
This scenario likely leaves one remaining high price slot in our midfields, with the likes of Sterling, Barkley and Ozil currently jostling for our attentions.
Right now, we rank the Arsenal man as the next key target.
Ozil’s aforementioned consistency would seem likely to flourish over Arsenal’s obliging run, whilst Sterling may have to deal with rotation around European ties, with Leroy Sane soon to be an option for Pep Guardiola.
If you can stretch the funds, there’s little doubt that a Hazard/Ozil combination looks powerful and could prove extremely productive through the next two months.
