Selling key Manchester City assets proves painful, reinvesting that money in Liverpool stars more hurtful still.
Big-ticket strikers provide value for all that money, while a Spurs defender shines on a day when many backlines struggle.
Here are the notes from a Saturday full of goals, hard knocks and major points swings.
Trying times at the Etihad…
For those of little faith, Saturday’s match between Man City and Liverpool was a reminder of fantasy football’s devilish ways.
Kevin De Bruyne’s three consecutive blanks would have tried the patience of a saint, let alone the average Fantasy Premier league manager, and nearly 315,000 of us finally bit the bullet and sold him – many for a loss – before yesterday’s 11.30am deadline.
That made him the most transferred-out player of the Gameweek just in time for him to produce two assists and a nine-point haul much more in keeping with his premium 9.9 price tag.
Less than 24 hours on from City’s 5-0 mauling of the Reds, 33,000+ managers have now made him the fourth most popular player among early Gameweek 5 purchasers – some, no doubt, repentant returners.
The Belgian set up one of Gabriel Jesus’ two goals.
The Brazilian striker has been involved in 14 goals in his 12 Premier League starts, scoring ten and providing four assists.
But that consistency hasn’t been enough to save even Jesus. He’s lost owners every week since Gameweek 1, and he was down to just over 380,000, or 8.3%, by the time he walked off with 12 points from a performance that earned him maximum bonus points against Liverpool.
Jesus has so far circumvented Pep Guardiola’s rotation policy and has started every league match. However, he’s been subbed off in all four fixtures, his 56th minute withdrawal yesterday costing his ownership a point.
Guardiola rolled out a two-man attack for the third match in four by returning Sergio Aguero to the XI and the 9.8%-owned Argentinian promptly scored for the sixth successive home match against Liverpool.
He also unselfishly set up Jesus for his second goal, although that good deed has not led to significant investment – it is the Brazilian, with nearly 27,000 new owners, who is attracting perhaps overdue attention this morning.
…brutal ones for Liverpool backers
The pre-match exodus of managers from City assets was marked, with many directly swapping over to Liverpool stars.
Some 52,916, for instance, sold De Bruyne and spent the money on Sadio Mane. The Senegal international’s dismissal left them with an 11-point swing – entirely the wrong way – for their pains.
Roberto Firmino had been the most popular purchase of the Gameweek. But once Mane was gone, he looked weary without support and was hooked after 66 minutes.
Mo Salah, meanwhile, was sacrificed at half-time as Jurgen Klopp attempted to regroup his troops.
The Egyptian had been making hay down the right before Mane’s red card, but he missed a big chance against City, and his profligacy is becoming apparent.
No midfielder has had more than his 12 attempts in the box and only Man United’s Paul Pogba can match his four big chances to date, but Salah has scored just twice, and his conversion rate is a touch over half that of Mane’s.
Sales of all three of Liverpool’s attacking trio are now underway, with Mane understandably the worst hit, a massive 168,000+ getting rid as his three-match ban means he will miss Gameweeks against Burnley and Leicester City.
Salah is picking up some of his traffic – gaining 28,000+ direct trades from Mane. However, there will be concerns as to how Jurgen Klopp’s attack will adjust to life without Mane over those next two fixtures.
The popular perception is that Liverpool struggled without the pace of the Senegalese over his absence from Gameweek 31 last season. However, while the statistics show a reduction from 2.1 goals per game to 1.8, curiously Klopp’s attack created both chances and big chances at a faster rate without Mane.
If there was any positive to be found in a 5-0 humbling, it sort of came from a second domestic start for Liverpool’s cut-price defender Trent Alexander-Arnold (4.5).
His limitations were exposed by City and De Bruyne in particular, but he took a share of set-piece duties once again and could well start again at home to the Clarets on Saturday should Klopp turn to Joe Gomez for the midweek Champions League tie.
Harry hurries back into credit
The August woes of Harry Kane were well documented, his September revival now well underway.
Nearly 190,000 managers ditched him ahead of Spurs’ supposedly testing trip to Everton, with just under half a million selling him on since Gameweek 1.
Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata was the direct beneficiary of Kane’s collapse in owners, with a straight swap from the one striker to the other the most popular of the Gameweek.
And while the Spaniard brought in a healthy six points, sticking with Kane would have produced 13 from his brace and maximum bonus.
In the short term, Kane now has both form and fixtures – SWA whu hud BOU – on his side.
As for the long haul, we all know what Harry does over a full season. His 12.4 price tag – plus Mane’s suspension – means that uptake in the England man is currently slow, but many more will surely be scraping together the cash required before that plum home tie with Burnley next Saturday.
Two of his team-mates, meanwhile, again impressed at Goodison Park.
Ben Davies shot to the top of the defenders’ scoring chart with a 14-point return involving a clean sheet, two assists and a further two bonus.
The Welsh international also has one other shut-out and a goal to his name so far this season and his 8.0 points per match is the best of any regular FPL starter thus far.
Christian Eriksen’s first goal of the campaign took him to just a point behind Paul Pogba at the top of the midfielder standings.
His consistency is his greatest asset – in four matches, he’s now produced a goal, three assists and five bonus – and the Dane is currently the most popular replacement for the banned Mane – 38,000+ have made that swap.
The only caveat surrounds the Champions League. Eriksen was subbed off after 70 minutes yesterday, while team-mate Dele Alli played the full 90 as he is suspended for the first three European fixtures this season.
But if Mauricio Pochettino can manage Eriksen’s pitch-time effectively, the midfielder’s 23.0% ownership base can only continue to grow – he and Davies are currently the two most popular signings and would seem destined for another price rise prior to Friday’s Gameweek 5 deadline.
Lukaku ticking over
The re-emergence of Kane means premium-priced strikers are starting to look like the order not just of the day, but the entire season.
Romelu Lukaku’s goal for Man United at Stoke City continued to convince his 57.9% ownership base that 11.7 is money well spent – he now has four goals from as many starts.
The Belgian is also the go-to captaincy choice in FPL, with 1.7 million managers (or 62% of hos owners) taking home 12 points from yesterday’s encounter.
Notably, however, Lukaku has suffered a minor loss of ownership overnight. While just over 4,700 have acquired the Belgian, more than 15,000 have moved him out. Some of those – 5,250 – have moved directly to Kane.
Given his consistency so far and Kane’s propensity for explosive performances, this season could hinge on our ability to effectively balance the books while having both Kane and Lukaku in or line-ups.
With that in mind, the 8.3-priced charms of Pogba continue to offer excellent value from midfield.
The Frenchman was freed up by Jose Mourinho at the Bet365 stadium, with Ander Herrera drafted in to play alongside Nemanja Matic to allow Pogba a role closer to a traditional no 10.
That enabled him to produce his third assist of the season, somewhat fortuitously via the head of Marcus Rashford’s.
The one to suffer the most from Pogba’s more advanced role was Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The Armenian was shifted out to a wider role on the left-hand side that markedly affected his creative influence.
He still leads the way with 15 chances created this season, and was unlucky not to earn an assist when Lukaku failed to score first-time from his perceptive pass, but Mkhitaryan managed just the two chances created overall at Stoke – his worst return of the campaign.
Mourinho would seem very likely to return Mkhitaryan to his former position for the Gameweek 5 Old Trafford meeting with Everton, with Pogba probably retreating alongside Matic once more. However, it will be interesting to see if the United manager keeps up his policy of turning to Herrera in away matches.
At the back, United conceded their first goals of the season, despite Mourinho’s decision to bench the 3.4%-owned Daley Blind in favour of the more robust, at least in theory, Matteo Darmian.
With Champions League football now knocking at the door, more backline rotation looks inevitable, although Phil Jones and Eric Bailly look protected for the meeting with Everton given their suspension from the midweek European tie.
The key figure to trouble Mourinho – aside from Mark Hughes – was midfielder Eric Choupo-Moting.
The 5.5 FPL option had started as Stoke’s lone striker up to yesterday’s encounter but actually swapped roles with Jese (6.0).
The Spaniard was deployed as the central attacker, with Choupo-Moting deployed on the left. But that failed to reduce the Cameroonian’s goal threat. He fired a brace to put in a dynamic 15-point shift that also bagged him the maximum bonus.
If he can bring consistency to his game – and that’s a big if – Choupo-Moting looks a steal at that price and an ideal budget fourth midfielder. He has attracted over 25,000 new owners since his brace of goals.
Jese, meanwhile, failed to produce from his central role and blanked for a second consecutive week. His ownership had leapt from negligible to 9.5% on the back of his debut strike in Gameweek 2 against Arsenal and his role as a de facto striker.
Stoke’s short-term schedule includes a trip to Chelsea and a visit from Man City, but their fixtures are otherwise favourable all the way up to Gameweek 14.
Three forwards, all good
Consistency is not an issue for Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette and Chelsea forward Morata.
The latter’s third goal of the season – all headers – means he now has 30 points, with a further two assists and five bonus taking him to the top of the strikers’ table.
The 10.1-priced ownership now stands at 15.9% – only Firmino proved more popular among new managers in Gameweek 4 – and the 12-minute cameo from Eden Hazard at the King Power Stadium yesterday suggests that the Spaniard is likely to enjoy ever-improved service from now on.
On the downside, the Belgian will probably take over penalty duties, but Morata is another big-name striker attracting our attention – and at a price the right side of Kane, Lukaku and Jesus.
Lacazette comes in at 0.3 more expensive and has now scored in both of his starts at the Emirates Stadium.
That’s worthy of note when the Gunners are at the beginning of a nice run of home fixtures, with West Brom, Brighton and Swansea City still to visit before November’s final international break of the year.
But his 13.7% ownership base took a bit of a hit before Gameweek 4 and continues to decline, despite his goal.
Danny Welbeck’s stock and ownership levels are heading in the other direction. He hogged the points – 16 of them – in the 3-0 victory over Bournemouth, scoring two, providing the assist for Lacazette and bagging the maximum bonus points.
Welbeck’s 1.5% ownership was boosted by over 15,000 new owners overnight.
But there is a large Alexis Sanchez-shaped spanner waiting in the works. The Chilean followed up his 61 minutes in the Anfield debacle with a 15-minute home cameo against the Cherries.
It’s surely only a matter of time before he starts. Regardless of his productivity to date, Welbeck would be the most likely to make way.
Two defenders, not so good
Competition for places at the heart of the Southampton defence was always likely to be intense.
New signing Wesley Hoedt was going to be handed a debut sooner or later, while the non-sale of Virgil Van Dijk merely ramps up the competition further.
Hoedt was the first to get the nod from Mauricio Pellegrino, with Maya Yoshida the fall guy against Watford.
The Japanese star’s arduous international break was an undoubted factor in that decision, with Jack Stephens maybe handed only a temporary reprieve should Van Dijk find himself back in favour. The Dutchman is due to start for the U23’s on Monday.
The one consolation for Yoshida’s 2.7% ownership was that Southampton shipped two goals in his absence, while the Saints’ toothlessness at the other end of the pitch is now a huge concern for the 5.2% hoping Manolo Gabbiadini might provide healthy returns for his kindly 7.0 price.
Pellegrino’s men managed just one shot on target against the Hornets – and they had to wait until injury time at the end of the match to manage even that – while Gabbiadini was subbed off for the fourth consecutive match.
He’s not lasted beyond 79 minutes all season.
While Yoshida warmed the bench, Ahmed Hegazi was part of a West Brom backline getting burned at Brighton.
The return to full fitness of Jonny Evans threatened the starting berth of the Egyptian who, at 28.8% is the most popular defender in FPL.
In the end, both played, with Craig Dawson moved to right-back and Allan Nyom swapped to the other flank.
Chris Brunt took the fall in that reorganisation, but the 3-1 defeat at the Amex might have repercussions for Hegazi, particularly when Gareth McAuley finally returns from injury.
The Egyptian was hooked on 57 minutes with debutant Kieran Gibbs introduced. Hegazi’s start for the visit of West Ham is clearly in question.
Gross returns net major interest
The architect of West Brom’s downfall was Brighton midfielder Pascal Gross.
His two goals, an assist and maximum bonus produced the Gameweek’s biggest individual haul, to date, of 18 points – the exact total that Brighton’s three strikers have managed between them all season.
Aside from a Gameweek 7 trip to Arsenal, the Seagulls have an excellent schedule from now to Gameweek 12.
Gross, at 5.4 and owned by just 0.9%, could be a serious differential at a price point that enables the heavy investment in our forward lines this season might well demand.
Brighton’s three goals against the Baggies, however, were their first of the season at the fourth time of asking.
It could well be prudent to see whether Gross’ star turn, and Brighton’s new-found ruthlessness, were not just a glorious flash in the pan.
Over 22,000 managers clearly can’t wait that long and have moved for the German since his haul.
