The Stock Check – Gameweek 21 – Saturday

Harry Kane snatches top billing in a glittering Spurs display, ably supported by a cast of blossoming Fantasy assets. Elsewhere, Chelsea and Arsenal also convince, with Marcos Alonso dismissing all talk of fitness concerns and rotation with a devastating 21-point return. Here’s the Stock Check following Saturday’s action…

On The Rise

Harry Kane
Having failed to score in his last three home outings, Kane banished those particular demons with a superb display, bristling with goal threat to produce a hat-trick and a 17-point return.

Amassing 11 shots, with eight arriving from inside the box, Kane looked unstoppable in the 4-0 victory over West Brom, as he gleefully accepted the service provided to him by Spurs’ raiding full-backs and the promptings of Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli.

The progress of those two midfield options, plus the appeal of the Spurs backline, are the only caveats that would currently prevent investment.

Kane has picked up thousands of Diego Costa owners as a result of his Gameweek 21 absence and, should Zlatan Ibrahimovic show signs of faltering; the Spurs striker will surely be the big beneficiary.

Christian Eriksen
The Dane again produced a double-digit return, his sixth in ten Gameweek starts, to underline his undeniable potential as a midfield asset.

With Alli also turning heads with his recent burst of goals, we will struggle to tick all the boxes available in the Spurs camp, but Eriksen is arguably the most consistent and precious on offer at this time.

Kyle Walker, Danny Rose
However, the Spurs full-backs also continue to emerge as key assets in our season.

Earning a ninth clean sheet of the campaign, the Spurs backline was rarely troubled by the visiting Baggies, with Walker and Rose pushed up as wingers throughout.

Walker earned the assist this time out, his fifth of the season, but Rose created four chances to Walker’s two and also received more passes in the final third than any other defender so far in the Gameweek.

Despite the obvious appeal presented by Kane, Eriksen and Alli, one of these two full-backs look almost essential targets given their prospects at both ends of the pitch.

Marcos Alonso
Emphatically confirming his fitness and the vital role he plays in Antonio Conte’s set-up, the wing-back turned match-winner at the King Power Stadium.

Alonso’s two goals re-affirmed his status as a defender who can offer almost peerless attacking threat, backed up by four attempts on goal which take him to 23 for the season, more than any other FPL defender.

The Spaniard also saw more of the ball than any other defender in the Gameweek so far, indicating just how integral he has become to Chelsea’s attacking ploys.

Pedro
The sparkling Spaniard claimed his first goal of the season away from Stamford Bridge, taking him to five strikes for the season, along with five assists.

Currently priced at just 6.9, while his minutes could remain curtailed around the hour mark, his starting role would appear to be cemented by Diego Costa’s potential absence.

With Hull City up next at the Bridge, Pedro is elevated in our thinking, at least as a short-term target.

Pedro will face the Tigers having returned points in five of his last six starts in front of his own fans, providing four goals and five assists.

Tom Heaton
Having failed to offer save points in his last four Gameweek starts, the Clarets’ skipper returned to form triumphantly against Southampton.

The shut-out took him to four clean sheets from 11 home matches, with just nine goals conceded in those outings.

More significantly, Heaton returned another save point – his 21st of the campaign and claimed the three bonus points – he’s now collected five maximum hauls this season.

Moving to 16 bonus points for the season, he is just a single point behind Thibaut Courtois as the top scoring goalkeeper, despite the Chelsea keeper boasting 12 clean sheets to Heaton’s five.

The Burnley stopper is a full 1.0 cheaper than Courtois, underlining his incredible value among the goalkeeper options.

Rarely has the choice in goal been so obvious, and yet Heaton still only found in just over 726,000 squads (16.9%).

Peter Crouch
The angular Potters striker has now provided three goals and two assists in his last three Gameweek starts to underline his standing as the go-to third forward option.

Seemingly assured of his Stoke City starting role given his current form and absentees in Mark Hughes’ squad, Crouch has the potential to trouble any defence and provide us with regular returns.

Marko Arnautovic
The Austrian has been bitterly disappointing as a Fantasy asset this season but used the 3-1 victory at Sunderland to demonstrate the potential on offer.

Provider of 11 goals and six assists last term, Arnautovic had scored just once this term before his brace on Wearside.

However, he will now go into a run of three successive home matches with confidence high and with Manchester United in his sights next, providing us with an intriguing 7.1 priced differential.

Junior Stanislas
The Cherries midfielder is perhaps a higher priority target, having returned a fourth goal of the season in the defeat to Hull City, confirming his role as penalty taker in the absence of striker Callum Wilson.

Priced at 5.2, Stanislas has now returned four goals and six assists from ten Gameweek starts, providing an impressive 5.5 points per match – surpassing the likes of Matt Phillips and Roberto Firmino for that metric.

With Bournemouth facing Watford and Crystal Palace at the Vitality Stadium in their next two Gameweeks, the Stanislas stock remains buoyant.

Alex Iwobi
Awarded two assists via a pair of own goals in Arsenal’s 4-0 win at Swansea City, the 5.8 midfield prospect nonetheless blinked on the radar ahead of a superb run of fixtures.

For those struggling to stretch to the Alexis Sanchez price tag and perhaps made nervy by Olivier Giroud’s ankle injury sustained in South Wales, the young Nigerian could now offer a viable mid-price option.

He’s started the last five and delivered two goals and two assists in his last seven appearances ahead of home match-ups with Burnley and Watford.

Abel Hernandez
A consideration as a third striker option at the start of the campaign, the Uruguayan has hardly remained fit long enough to grow his reputation among Fantasy managers.

But Saturday’s brace in an impressive display against Bournemouth demonstrated the potential.

Sadly, with evil fixtures to come over the next four Gameweeks, Hernandez is likely to struggle for further returns but remains a name to monitor over that spell ahead of an improving Hull City schedule.

Michail Antonio
Stepping up in the absence of Dimitri Payet, Antonio delivered a stunning 15-point return as he chained together three assists in West Ham’s impressive victory over Crystal Palace.

Antonio has been an erratic source of points of late, while the Hammers’ short-term schedule could also be kinder.

With strong options available in midfield, then, Antonio remains a presence on our Watchlist but seems unlikely to be seen as a priority target.

In Decline

Diego Costa
So much has already been said and written on these pages on the Diego Costa situation and, in truth, we likely know just a few of the facts involved.

Antonio Conte’s official line is that Costa is troubled by a back problem and was omitted from Saturday’s squad for that reason. However, while Conte insists that the striker missed training all week prior to Saturday’s meeting with Leicester, he was pictured emerging with the group in a Friday social media release.

It’s difficult to know when or even if we will get the full picture on Costa, and how we can therefore assess his availability and state of mind ahead of what would normally be a fruitful Gameweek 22 tie with Hull City.

For now, Costa’s stock is plummeting, along with his ownership and price.

Eden Hazard
An assist for Alonso’s opener provided a little consolation but hardly detracts from the fact that Hazard has now produced just two goals and two assists in his last nine Gameweek starts.

Those are very modest returns for a high ticket item and, with Pedro providing a convincing alternative, the pressure is mounting on Hazard to produce a big haul to re-align matters.

A significant return against Hull next weekend may just be essential if Hazard is to stem the threat of big sales.

Nathan Ake
Excluded from Chelsea’s 18-man squad at Leicester City, it seems that Ake will need more time to install himself in Antonio Conte’s thinking.

With the Chelsea head coach remarking that Ake had trained as a central defender in his first week back at the club, talk of the 4.3 priced asset threatening Alonso’s role looks to be premature.

Christian Benteke
A sixth successive blank from the Belgian ensured that his flimsy case for consideration in our forward lines suffered a further decline.

Benteke failed to register a single effort on goal in the defeat to the Hammers and has mustered just six attempts on goal in his last six Gameweek starts.

Chris Brunt
Forced into a left-back role as a result of Allan Nyom’s continued absence, Brunt’s stock suffers a minor wobble following a 4-0 humbling at White Hart Lane.

With West Brom last returning a clean sheet in Gameweek 12, we need assurance that Brunt will be deployed further up the pitch ahead of favourable fixtures with Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Stoke City to come.

Gylfi Sigurdsson
A muted force in Swansea City’s damaging 4-0 home defeat to Arsenal, Sigurdsson continues to struggle to make an impact while his side displays such pitiful form.

It’s just one assist in six Gameweek starts now for the Icelander.

The schedule remains firmly against a Swansea and Sigurdsson revival, surely ensuring that further sales of the playmaker will follow, at least until there are signs that Paul Clement can turn things around.

Jan Vertonghen
The Belgian claimed the clean sheet from Spurs’ convincing victory over the West Brom but suffered an ankle injury which saw him forced off just after the hour-mark.

With Mauricio Pochettino offering a brief but pessimistic opinion on the injury, Vertonghen now looks set to suffer a term of absence.

That could be a key factor in pushing the Spurs boss to reconsider his formation and move back to a four-man backline.

Alternatively, it could bring Kevin Wimmer or Ben Davies, at just 4.6 and 4.7 respectively, into the equation as cheap routes into the Spurs defence.