Bertrand Traore (£5.9m) has been handed his first league start since signing for Aston Villa, replacing Trezeguet (£5.4m) for Sunday lunchtime’s hosting of Southampton.
Head coach Dean Smith had stuck with the same starting XI when facing Liverpool, Leicester and Leeds but has opted to select the summer arrival from Lyon.
The back five have kept three clean sheets from five matches, a total only passed by a Wolves side who have played seven times. Emiliano Martinez (£4.8m) is FPL’s highest-scoring and most-selected goalkeeper, boosted by his penalty save against Sheffield United.
Ahead of him, both Tyrone Mings (£5.2m) and Ezri Konsa (£4.7m) have already contributed a goal to Villa’s impressive start, whilst talisman Jack Grealish’s (£7.3m) 24-point haul against Liverpool has played him into almost 30% of teams.
That incredible 7-2 victory over the champions also brought a goal from Ross Barkley (£6.0m), who provides an interesting cheaper route into the Villans midfield. With consistent minutes and the possibility of penalty duty, the loanee could soon be an enticing option.
The big question is whether Patrick Bamford’s (£5.9m) hat-trick for Leeds last week has brought them back down to Earth after a 100% winning start.
Southampton’s only change is to replace Nathan Redmond (£6.4m) from the side which beat former leaders Everton 2-0 at St Mary’s. The winger missed earlier matches due to an ankle injury but remains on the bench here, with Theo Walcott (£5.8m) taking his place.
With knocks to only Moussa Djenepo (£5.4m) and Will Smallbone (£4.5m) and a lack of match fitness for new signing Mohammed Salisu (£4.3m), manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has also been able to name consistent line-ups.
The clean sheet against the Toffees was their third from four matches, responding brilliantly to their 5-2 collapse against Tottenham in Gameweek 2.
This has provided regular returns for the popular Alex McCarthy (£4.5m) and Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.5m), although the latter has already collected three yellow cards.
Up front, only a trio of strikers have amassed more points than Danny Ings (£8.5m). Despite a large pre-season price hike, he still provides a reliable option up front for Fantasy managers. His 22 goals of last season have been added to with four this time, taking a break last week to assist both goals against Everton.
ASTON VILLA XI (4-2-3-1): Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett; Douglas Luiz, McGinn; Traore, Barkley, Grealish; Watkins
SOUTHAMPTON XI (4-4-2): McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Vestergaard, Bednarek, Bertrand; Armstrong, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Walcott; Adams, Ings
Check your latest FPL rank LIVE on LiveFPL.net every Gameweek
Become a Member and get unrestricted access to our data and articles
Full-year memberships are now available for the price of £19.99. Monthly subscriptions also cost just £2.99. A FREE trial is now available during December.
Join now to get the following:
- Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.
- Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.
- Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.
- Get access to over 150+ exclusive members articles over the season.
- Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers.
- Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats.
- Enjoy our brand NEW Flat-Track Bully feature which introduces an opposition filter to your tables.
- View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player.
- Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head.
5 months, 13 days agoHoping for a 1-0 villa win (Og).