A much-maligned German star shines for Arsenal, Everton find some form thanks to Wayne Rooney, while Burnley win again, but without a clean sheet for a change.
Amid all the selectorial carnage on show last night, Arsene Wenger’s choices promoted much serenity and even more points.
Mesut Ozil was pronounced fit after a bout of illness to return to the Gunners’ ‘big three’ of himself, Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette, while the in-form Aaron Ramsey continued in his productive role behind them.
The German was clearly fully recovered as he turned in a season-best performance of 17 points from a goal, two assists and maximum bonus.
A mere 1.3% have been prepared to fork out the 9.3 required for his services, with an ill-timed 10,402 getting rid ahead of the 5-0 dismissal of Huddersfield, but those who have stayed loyal have now been treated to two goals and five assists from his last five starts.
That’s the sort of form that made him 200-point Fantasy royalty just two seasons ago.
Priced tantalisingly close to Man City pair Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane – but potentially without the rotation issues – Ozil has much to offer in a fine schedule (sot whu NEW) following Saturday’s visit from Man United, with even Jose Mourinho’s men looking more vulnerable of late.
Ramsey (7.1) is another rolling back the years as he claimed another two smart assists.
He’s now produced points in five of his last six Gameweeks, supplying two goals and four assists.
That consistency surely has to pique our interest in the mid-price bracket, potentially challenging Richarlison and Pascal Gross for the fourth midfield spot in our line-ups.
Ramsey’s appeal is boosted further by the fact he offers cover of the Arsenal attack in the continued absence of Sanchez as a viable big-ticket target.
The Chilean scored again on Wednesday – his third goal in as many matches – but was overshadowed by Ozil’s performance.
Despite successive returns, Sanchez is still struggling to convince as a heavy-hitting option in the current landscape, as Mohamed Salah, Eden Hazard and Sterling all justify selection ahead of him – and all for considerably less than his 11.8 price tag.
Kolasinac exploits home comforts
The Gunners defence, like Chelsea’s, is now showing some consistency.
Wednesday’s shut-out was their third in a row and they’ve not allowed a single big chance over those three matches – the only side to achieve this.
Sead Kolasinac remains the stand-out option in Wenger’s backline, particularly at the Emirates.
He raided forward as usual and came out of the Huddersfield match with an assist – his fourth of the season – for Olivier Giroud’s second goal.
In his seven home matches the Bosnian has now returned four assists, a goal and five clean sheets.
Shkodran Mustafi, at 5.4, comes in 0.7 cheaper than Kolasinac, but nobody in Arsenal’s newly reliable rearguard can hold a candle to the summer signing’s potential for points at both ends of the pitch.
Lacazette derailed by injury
It wasn’t all wine and roses for Arsenal, however.
Lacazette opened the scoring last night, taking him to seven goals for the season, five of which have come at home.
But he was withdrawn at half-time with a groin problem that Wenger admitted post-match could take some time to overcome.
“It looks like a groin injury, and he is certainly out on the weekend (against Manchester United). He might be out for a while.”
Even the virtually indestructible Sanchez suffered on the night.
“Everybody else looks to be OK, yes. Sanchez had a little hamstring problem – that’s why I took him off, but I think he will be alright.”
All of which points to a Giroud (8.2) start on Saturday, although Danny Welbeck could also be an option as he is often favoured by Wenger against his former club.
Rooney treble welcomes Big Sam
In a season of consistent awfulness, the one other constant for Everton has been the Fantasy Premier League popularity of Wayne Rooney.
The striker has been the most owned Toffees player all season, although he’s now down to 438,000+ owners (from a Gameweek 4 high of close to a million) following a four-match barren spell prior to last night’s visit from fellow strugglers West Ham.
But with new Everton boss Sam Allardyce watching on from the stands, Rooney broke his longest run of matches between Premier League hat-tricks – his last was in 2011 – and capped it with a wonderful effort from his own half.
There’s a genuine sense of a new dawn at Everton now – and not a moment too soon for such an expensively-assembled squad – with Rooney in pole position to take advantage of a generally decent run (HUD liv new SWA CHE wba bou) through to the New Year.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (5.1 and owned by 3.3%) also impressed, indicating that Oumar Niasse (5.0, 5.1%), who now returns from a two-match ban, will struggle to get a start for Gameweek 15.
The 4-0 win over the Hammers, which included a goal for Ashley Williams and assists from Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jonjoe Kenny, was Everton’s first clean sheet since Gameweek 1.
That, perhaps, could be a sign of things to come now that Big Sam is in place, potentially promoting the cause of keeper Jordan Pickford (4.8).
His fine penalty save from Manuel Lanzini was the match’s turning point and helped bring in a whopping 13 points for his 5.9% ownership.
Phil Jagielka’s (4.8) omission from the matchday squad was unexplained, though the centre-half was rested for last Thursday’s clash with Atalanta and it may just be that the Toffees are managing his minutes. He also went into the weekend match with Southampton as a doubt.
Brady carries Clarets to victory
A superb individual display from Robbie Brady (5.5), involving a goal and an assist for 13 points, helped Burnley to a 2-1 win at Bournemouth.
That was the first double-digit haul of the campaign for the Irishman, who was once in 114,000+ squads, but is now very much an 83,000-owned (1.6%) differential.
The budget charms of fellow midfielder Johann Berg Gudmundsson (5.0) were again on display as the Icelandic international provided a fourth assist of the season, all of which have come from the last seven matches.
Burnley’s other goal came from striker Chris Wood, his fourth of the campaign.
The Clarets’ back four again looked commanding, although they missed out on a fourth clean sheet in five matches.
Indeed, so well have they performed of late that goalkeeper Nick Pope has had to make just a single save in each of his last three Gameweeks.
With Burnley allowing just five shots on target in that spell, save points may continue to be at a premium for Tom Heaton’s understudy.
As for Bournemouth, Callum Wilson (6.1) was starved of opportunities to boost his appeal as a budget third striker option, Josh King bagging his second goal of the season from a Jermain Defoe assist.
