Chelsea’s midfielders “do a Liverpool” and rack up big hauls in an emphatic home win over Manchester United. Sergio Aguero returns to the Manchester City starting line-up but draws yet another blank, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic again falls short as United are humbled at the Bridge. Here’s the Stock Check following Sunday’s matches…
On the Rise
Eden Hazard
While Diego Costa surprisingly failed to play a part in any of Chelsea four goals, Hazard notched for the second successive Gameweek to continue his recent renaissance.
The Blues’ recent change in shape has been key to the Belgian’s improvement – only Arsenal’s Theo Walcott has managed more shots in the box from midfield since Antonio Conte ditched his four-man defensive set-up.
At a time where rotation has recently hit hard following European matches, the fact that Chelsea are focused purely on domestic matters may yet persuade some to reconsider a resurgent Hazard.
Costa, meanwhile, also managed to avoid a booking today, leaving him on four yellows ahead of Wednesday’s EFL Cup clash with West Ham United. If he’s cautioned in that one, he’ll miss next weekend’s Gameweek 10 trip to Southampton.
Nemanja Matic
The Chelsea stopper has been transformed under Conte this season and continues to offer a steady source of creativity from the centre of the park.
Matic managed just three assists last season, but he’s already up to five this time around after teeing up Hazard for the Blues’ third. That’s the same number as Dimitri Payet and second only to Kevin De Bruyne’s six.
All five assists have arrived in the last seven Gameweeks as the Serb steadily improves in the 3-4-3 formation. Priced at 5.0, Matic has suddenly become an unlikely option for the fifth midfielder slot.
The Chelsea Defence
Conte’s men made it three wins and a trio of clean sheets since moving to a 3-4-3 formation.
Gary Cahill and Marcos Alonso highlighted their points potential with goal and assist respectively, earning both players bonus in the Red Devils’ thrashing.
Alonso has been the standout performer since Conte’s tactical switch and looks the man to monitor. He sits first for attempts on goal amongst defenders from Gameweek 7 onwards and is ranked second for key passes thanks to his role as a raiding left wing-back.
Nathan Redmond
Redmond’s underlying numbers have already been impressive over the season due to his role up top for Southampton.
One goal in the first seven shows he’d been failing to tuck away his chances but Sunday’s Etihad strike, added to last week’s goal against Burnley, suggests that Redmond’s form and confidence is on the ascent.
Having dropped to just 5.9 in the FPL, he is clearly a tempting prospect. However, the Saints’ schedule is testing, with Chelsea and Liverpool looming in the next three.
Also, the introduction of new boy Sofiane Boufal also adds to Claude Puel’s options in attack. The intentions for the club-record signing are not yet clear but we can presume a starting role beckons. It remains to be seen how this shakes up the Saints’ teamsheet.
In Decline
Sergio Aguero
The striker returned to the starting XI after a couple of appearances off the bench, but there’s no doubt that Aguero was nowhere near his best against the Saints, with all three of his attempts off target.
The Argentine remains the most popular player in FPL – sitting in 44% of squads; he was also the top pick for this weekend’s captaincy.
But Sunday’s blank means that Aguero has now failed to score in four of his last five league appearances. With the goals suddenly drying up for City (they’ve scored twice in four in all competitions), Fantasy faith in the Etihad side is on the wane and Aguero and Raheem Sterling are taking the hit.
Aguero’s ownership fell ahead of Gameweek 9 and is already dropping following Sunday’s 1-point return.
Kevin De Bruyne
Replaced at half-time with a knock, the Belgian’s owners will take solace in the fact that Pep Guardiola has confirmed the problem is not serious. Given the recent uncertainty surrounding Aguero’s pitch time, some Fantasy managers have been considering De Bruyne as their go-to City attacker ahead of some kind upcoming fixtures. Confirmation that his withdrawal was not tactical will at least go some way to softening a disappointing one-point return.
John Stones
City’s run of dire defensive displays continued, with their big-money signing from Everton gifting Redmond the opener.
Guardiola’s side have kept one clean sheet this season, which, coincidentally, was the only league fixture that Stones has failed to start.
With Vincent Kompany now back in the fold, the 24%-owned defender now looks under threat – today’s benching of Nicolas Otamendi shows we cannot take anything for granted with Guardiola’s teamsheets.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
The United veteran endured yet another disappointing day and has now scored just a single goal in his last seven league outings.
A home encounter with Burnley in Gameweek 10 may well be enough for many to hand him one last hurrah before reassessing their options.
The Clarets have conceded an average of three goals per road trip and, with 39% ownership, a big haul could still do damage to non-owners.
Many have already had enough, though – Ibrahimovic has already been subject to more transfers out than any forward ahead of Gameweek 10, having already lost 900,000 owners since Gameweek 5.
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