There were huge Fantasy Premier League (FPL) hauls aplenty on Saturday, with Phil Foden, Mason Mount and Joshua King all registering three attacking returns in comprehensive victories for their sides and two Chelsea defenders supplementing their clean sheets with goals.
Our usual, more detailed Scout Notes will follow for all of the day’s games but in the meantime, our resurrected Scoreboard series rounds up the key goings-on from the day’s Gameweek 9 fixtures.
You can read about the Friday night match between Arsenal and Aston Villa here.
The graphics below are taken from LiveFPL, Ragabolly’s excellent and ever-expanding website, and our own Premium Members Area.
GOALS, ASSISTS, PROJECTED BONUS
INJURIES AND BANS
Raphinha (£6.7m) is an injury concern for Leeds United’s plum-looking Gameweek 10 clash against Norwich City, having limped out of the Whites’ draw with Wolves.
The Brazilian was seen on crutches and wearing a protective boot in the aftermath of that game, with Marcelo Bielsa unable to offer us much after full-time.
“He received a knock, we don’t know the extent or gravity of the injury.” – Marcelo Bielsa on Raphinha
There was at least a more positive update from the player himself, who said he was “fine” in comments posted on social media this evening.
Kalvin Phillips (£4.8m) was back on the bench at Elland Road but Marcal (£4.6m) missed the game for the visitors, even if his calf injury doesn’t sound serious and he could be back for Gameweek 10.
Ralph Hasenhuttl was also optimistic of goalscorer Armando Broja’s (£5.0m) chances of recovering from an ankle knock in time for the trip to Watford.
“I hope so. It doesn’t look too bad, hopefully. It will take a few days [for him to recover], I think. He is not allowed to play [against Chelsea] on Tuesday anyway, so we’re okay. He is a threat for us, definitely. He is helping our team.” – Ralph Hasenhuttl on Armando Broja
N’Golo Kante (£4.9m) and Raheem Sterling (£10.7m) sat out wins for Chelsea and Manchester City as precautions.
Fresh from a double-digit haul at Goodison Park, Emmanuel Dennis (£5.2m) will miss Gameweek 10 after picking up his fifth booking of the season today.
GAMEWEEK 9 TAKEAWAYS
LIVRAMENTO IS THIS YEAR’S LUNDSTRAM?
Tino Livramento (£4.3m) isn’t an ‘out of position’ defender in the mould of John Lundstram but he’s providing similar value from a £4.0m starting price, with Saturday’s goal against Burnley meaning that he has banked an attacking return or clean sheet in five of the last six Gameweeks. This was no fluke, either, as he registered three shots and created another three chances against the Clarets, hitting the post with another effort.
Among £4.5m-and-under defenders, Livramento is second to and only four points behind Shane Duffy (£4.4m). And while Livramento’s ever-present starter status remains intact, Duffy was an unused substitute in Brighton’s loss to Manchester City. It was likely a ‘horses for courses’ selection by Graham Potter, with the Irishman’s lack of pace probably a consideration, but Adam Webster (£4.4m) made his comeback from injury on the bench and Tariq Lamptey (£4.4m) produced an eye-catching cameo to further the medium-term concerns about Duffy’s security of starts.
MOUNT AND FODEN ON THE CRUSADE FOR MID-PRICE MIDFIELDERS
So much value is being offered by £6.0m-and-under midfielders this season (the eye-catching Maxwel Cornet (£6.0m) is now firmly on the radar in that price rung after his brace against Southampton) that it’s easy to overlook the options in the bracket above. But Phil Foden‘s (£8.0m) recent promise finally culminated in a massive 18-point haul at the Amex, with Mason Mount (£7.4m) topping even that with a hat-trick in Chelsea’s 7-0 win over Norwich City.
Foden’s strikes were somewhat fortunate given the deflections involved but he was nevertheless putting himself in positions to score in his false nine role, topping the Gameweek 9 count for goal attempts, shots in the box and efforts on target.
Mount, meanwhile, can boast the best expected goal involvement (xGI) figure of any midfielder in Gameweek 9 so far, even if his mammoth FPL score comes with a big, fat, yellow-and-green caveat of it ‘only being Norwich’.
It wasn’t all success stories at this price point, however: Kai Havertz (£8.1m) – captained by 11% of the top 10k – somehow failed to get in on the act in that thumping win for the Blues.
CHELSEA’S DEFENDERS: HIGH RISK, HIGH REWARD
We were given another weekly reminder that Thomas Tuchel holds all the cards with our Chelsea defenders, with the German benching Marcos Alonso (£5.9m), Andreas Christensen (£5.1m) and Cesar Azpilicueta (£6.2m) for the humping of the Canaries. Ben Chilwell (£5.7m), who now has 35 points in three Gameweeks, Antonio Rudiger (£5.8m) and Reece James (£5.5m) again demonstrated the upside of owning a member of the Blues backline, however, notching attacking returns to go with their clean sheets. It’s Newcastle and Burnley up next before the international break, so it’s an emphatic hold on most of our Chelsea defenders (Alonso perhaps aside) ahead of Gameweeks 10 and 11 – and all eyes on the teamsheet in the midweek EFL Cup clash with Southampton.
A GOOD DAY FOR BUDGET FORWARDS
Sub-£6.5m players have been responsible for eight of the 11 goals scored by forwards in Gameweek 9 so far.
Joshua King (£5.5m), back from injury and playing through the middle of Claudio Ranieri’s 4-2-3-1, scored a hat-trick, while Broja has two goals in as many starts and Hwang Hee-chan (£5.7m) made it four goals in six apperances since his Gameweek 4 debut with the opener at Leeds.
Both names currently on our Watchlist on the sidebar of our homepage, Hwang and Broja have another good-ish five Gameweeks’ worth of fixtures to come before we reach the hectic December period.
STAT WATCH – GAMEWEEK 9
After what seemed like years of dormancy as a Fantasy asset, 2016/17 cult favourite King burst back onto the scene on Saturday. A total of four big chances and an xGI figure of 2.13 haven’t been beaten in Gameweek 9 so far, and he now has six attacking returns in his last four appearances for the Hornets.
Christian Benteke (£6.3m) matched King for big chances on Saturday, notching back-to-back goals in successive Gameweeks and only being denied a match-winner against Newcastle after a foul was spotted in the build-up. He is top for xGI among all Premier League players since his return to the Palace line-up in Gameweek 8.
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