Man City sweep past Arsenal on a night when the sheer depth of their squad leaves many Fantasy managers with minimal returns.
A second 3-0 victory over the Gunners in four days took Pep Guardiola’s side to within touching distance of confirming their status as Premier League champions for 2017/18.
That they did so without having to rely on some of their biggest and most popular performers this season spoke volumes for the resources the coach has at his disposal.
City’s three most owned attacking players in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) – Raheem Sterling (31%), Sergio Aguero (29.1%) and Kevin De Bruyne (24.5%) – contributed just eight points between them at the Emirates.
Sterling missed out with a muscle injury, although Guardiola suggested in his midweek pre-match press conference that the winger may yet figure in the Gameweek 29 clash with Chelsea. Aguero managed five points from an assist and De Bruyne blanked for the third time in six starts.
The minimal returns from the latter pair were particularly frustrating for those managers who handed either of them the armband. The Argentine was captained by 458,000+, the Belgian 159,000+.
Aguero, at least, saw off the competition for the starting striker spot posed by the return from injury of Gabriel Jesus.
The Brazilian was given just three minutes from the bench last night and it would seem highly unlikely he will oust Aguero for the Chelsea match either, with the midweek Champions League tie against Basel the obvious opportunity for him to be handed his first start in two months.
Against Arsenal, it was left to some FPL differentials to come to the fore.
Leroy Sane (7.5%) made his first league appearance since Gameweek 24 and promptly delivered a double-digit haul for only the second time since Gameweek 10, scoring one goal, setting up another and bringing in two bonus points.
He’s the most bought player in the last 24 hours, with over 50,000 new owners, while Sterling is the most sold – over 86,000 have moved him on.
Fellow goalscorer David Silva (6.4%) produced eight points from his first attacking returns since Gameweek 17, although last night was only his fourth start over that period.
And Bernardo Silva (0.9%) opened the scoring to underline a fine run of recent form on the road in which he has two goals and an assist from his last three away appearances.
Key members of the defence also prospered from a relatively rare clean sheet – City have managed just two shut-outs over the last seven Gameweeks – as Guardiola surprised many by sticking with the same back-four that started the Carabao Cup final.
Nicolas Otamendi frustrated the 117,000 managers who sold him on ahead of Gameweek 28, even if his haul was dented by an eighth caution of the campaign, while Kyle Walker (12.4%) equalled his season-best total of 10 points from an assist and one bonus.
The England defender did limp off after 71 minutes, however, making him an early doubt for Sunday’s visit by Chelsea.
Star of the show at the back was undoubtedly goalkeeper Ederson (7.5%), the Brazilian awarded maximum bonus for a penalty save that helped bring in a season-high 15 points.
City now need just five more wins to guarantee a Premier League title that is as good as theirs already.
They will surely achieve that sooner or later – City have won 24 of 28 league matches this season – so the coach should, in theory, be able to concentrate his resources on the Champions League from here on in.
But the short-term fixture list suggests otherwise.
The 4-0 win in Switzerland effectively makes their Champions League progress a formality, but key league matches against Man United and Spurs follow each leg of the quarter finals in early April, making rest for Guardiola’s key men unlikely.
Instead, the Gameweek 32 clash with Everton is arguably the next rotation hotspot.
The problem for FPL managers is that there are so many attacking options for Guardiola to choose from, whatever the make-up of the City side he eventually settles on seems to deliver – regardless of the severity of the fixture.
Once the Chelsea, United and Spurs fixtures are done by the end of Gameweek 34, the league title could conceivably have been secured, allowing the coach to concentrate exclusively on the Champions League.
Second-guessing Guardiola’s domestic selections would then become an even more thankless task.
Arsenal outgunned
The Gunners have a run-in that should be making managers flock to their key assets.
Only a Gameweek 36 trip to Old Trafford looks problematic among their final ten fixtures of the season, but the severe lack of cohesion and confidence in the side is in stark contrast to the attractiveness of that schedule.
At the back, they’ve not kept a clean sheet in ten Gameweeks and have conceded two or more goals in six of those.
They still have the ability to punish the lesser sides, particularly at home, with recent big wins over Crystal Palace and Everton testament to that.
But recognising which of their key assets can take advantage of their schedule remains tricky.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang seems to be the first-choice penalty taker, but he fluffed his chance to impress last night when Ederson saved his weak effort from the spot, while Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were markedly ineffective against City.
The Gunners do have two decent fixtures, against Brighton and Watford, to come before their blank Gameweek 31, and their assets could yet play their way into our Wildcard plans.
But a further complication comes in the shape of the Europa League – now the club’s only realistic way of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Arsenal face AC Milan in the Round of 16 over the next two Thursdays and should they qualify for the quarter-finals, those ties will take place on April 5 and 12, before matches with Southampton and Newcastle in Gameweeks 33 and 34.
That could well lead to squad rotation, although Aubameyang is ineligible to play in Europe so at least he should be a shoo-in for domestic starts.
