It’s a Double Gameweek 36 special of Big Numbers as we look at the key player and team statistics ahead of Fantasy Premier League (FPL).
These are a cherry-picked selection of Opta stats from our Premium Members’ Area, with the focus on the dozen clubs who play twice in the upcoming Gameweek.
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+9.20 expected goals prevented (xGP) by Jose Sa (£5.3m) in 2021/22, by a country mile the highest figure among Premier League goalkeepers. David de Gea (£5.1m) and Ederson (£6.1m) are next best on +1.70. The figure suggests that Wolverhampton Wanderers’ healthy clean sheet count has arrived more by luck than judgment, or rather the heroics of Sa between the sticks. As we discuss further down this article, those ‘xG’ figures do occasionally catch up with Wolves.
0.63 big chances created per 90 minutes by Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.4m) in 2021/22, the best rate of any player with significant game-time – regardless of position – in the Premier League. Only two assists have arrived for the right-back since Gameweek 23 but the rate of big chance creation has stayed pretty constant at 0.60 in that time, so the statistics would suggest he’s been a tad unfortunate. Andrew Robertson (£7.3m) has outscored his teammate by 94 FPL points to 60 over this period but again, the expected goal involvement (xGI) figures imply that Alexander-Arnold has still been the more threatening:
19 starts made by Joel Matip (£5.2m) since his last Premier League benching. The Cameroonian stopper was absent in Gameweeks 21 and 28 but was ill on both occasions, so he last was among the substitutes all the way back in November. The centre-half’s breathers have instead been coming in the UEFA Champions League and FA Cup, and true to form, Jurgen Klopp again named Matip as a substitute in the midweek win in Villarreal.
14 shots in the box attempted by Marcos Alonso (£5.7m) over his last six appearances – that’s one more than Mohamed Salah (£13.3m) has registered over the same period. Alonso’s total of 15 chances created in his last half-dozen outings is also inferior to just two Premier League players, regardless of position. It’ll be rotation risk around the FA Cup final, rather than the eye-popping underlying stats, which will be the main downside to Alonso and other Chelsea assets in Gameweek 36.
