With no goals, assists, clean sheets or bonus points to his name after three Gameweeks of the 2019/20 campaign, Emerson Palmieri (£5.5m) is hardly staking a convincing claim to be in Fantasy managers’ squads going forward.
The Chelsea left-back has shown some encouraging signs in an attacking sense, however, while the Blues’ forthcoming fixture run is among the more appealing in the division.
Between now and the November international break, Frank Lampard’s side face just one of the ‘big six’: a Gameweek 6 clash with Liverpool the only cloud on the horizon.
The Blues thus sit top of our Season Ticker for ‘defence’ between Gameweeks 4 and 12, which will provide faint hope of a long-awaited first clean sheet of 2019/20 – even if Chelsea’s defence is currently doing anything but.
Only Norwich City have conceded more goals than Lampard’s troops (seven) so far, while the west London club are among seven teams yet to register a shut-out.
Clean sheets are also thin on the ground across the Premier League, though, with just three in Gameweek 3 and two in Gameweek 2.
Indeed, Everton are the only club to have kept more than one league shut-out this season.
With that in mind, perhaps we should be placing even more emphasis than we usually do on defenders who can compensate for a loss of clean sheet with a semi-regular attacking return.
Emerson’s attacking credentials will, therefore, be the primary focus of this Members’ piece.
