Recent performances and a favourable schedule could put Arsenal’s defensive assets on the Fantasy Premier League radar.
While even considering these sorts of players might be considered high-treason by many, it is undeniable that the Gunners have made progress since Mikel Arteta took over last month.
With matches against Sheffield United, Burnley and Newcastle between now and Gameweek 26, there could be a window of opportunity for Fantasy managers looking for differential options.
In this article, we are going to provide an update on Arsenal’s defence to see if Gameweek 22 provided enough evidence of improvement ahead of those appealing fixtures.
As this uses data from the Fantasy Football Scout Members Area, only those who have signed up for the full 2019/20 season, a monthly pass or a discounted package can access it in full.
What progress did Arteta make in Gameweek 22?
It seems fair to say that Arsenal were a little unfortunate not to come out of their Gameweek 22 trip to Crystal Palace with a clean sheet and all three points.
For the first time in roughly a year, the Gunners came into the match with an unchanged starting XI, which appeared to help them established control over proceedings in the first half.
After dominating possession for large spells, the loss of Lucas Torreira (£4.7m) at interval saw them pegged back by a heavily deflected Jordan Ayew (£5.0m) shot and it’s worth remembering they had to play the final 24 minutes with only ten men.
Despite conceding, Arsenal are still showing improvement against the first 18 matches of the campaign, when Unai Emery and Freddie Ljungberg were at the helm.
During that period they conceded 1.5 goals per game but this has reduced to just 1.0 per game between Gameweeks 19 and 22 – Arteta’s first four matches.
However, the question on Fantasy managers’ lips is whether the Gunners are showing enough of an improvement to warrant investment.
In order to do that, we will have to dig deep than the goals conceded during Arteta’s brief time in charge and look instead at the underlying statistics.
