The round-up of key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) notes from Friday’s Gameweek 18 match between Aston Villa and Sheffield United.
The numbers and graphics you see in this article are taken from our Premium Members Area. Here, you can access Opta player and team data from every single Premier League fixture.
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FPL NOTES
All Aston Villa needed to top the Premier League table before the Liverpool v Arsenal clash was a straightforward-looking win at home to last-placed Sheffield United.
Yet, after many missed chances, it almost felt inevitable that the Blades would eventually take a shock lead through Cameron Archer (£4.6m), back to haunt his former club. An even later stoppage-time equaliser from Nicolo Zaniolo (£5.4m) salvaged a point for Villa but it will still go down as a wasted opportunity, ending their outstanding run of 15 consecutive home league wins.
ARCHER GOAL STUCK ON BENCHES
Like most times, 76.4% of Archer’s 910,686 managers have the cheap forward named on their Gameweek 18 bench. Some of these will already know he’s stepping in as an autosub for Erling Haaland (£13.9m) but many others are now hoping and praying that a starting player gets surprisingly unused over the weekend, therefore allowing Archer’s eight points to replace him.
WIPEOUT + BAN FOR CASH
Until this 87th-minute goal, Aston Villa were on the verge of a third clean sheet from four matches. The recently out-of-favour Matty Cash (£4.7m) still lingered in a decent proportion of squads and – following nine crosses, five tackles and one big chance created – was about to collect all three bonuses to finish on nine points.
Owners quickly switched from joy to pain, as the final minutes saw Cash concede, receive his fifth yellow card of the season and seemingly dislocate his shoulder. He’s now suspended for Gameweek 19’s trip to Manchester United.
Elsewhere in defence, around 232,000 and 116,000 bought Emiliano Martinez (£5.2m) and Ezri Konsa (£4.6m) in the build-up. Sheffield United started to show some life just before taking the lead and Konsa very nearly converted into his own net, just like he almost scored at the right end with a first-half header.
Both ended on two points, whilst lucky Lucas Digne (£4.7m) owners bagged six as he was replaced after 73 minutes.
MOST-BOUGHT WATKINS BLANKED
Not only was Ollie Watkins (£8.7m) the most-bought FPL player of the week with approximately 909k transfers in but he was captained by 67% of the top 100k and almost 2.3 million overall.
However, as is often the case, a popular purchase blanked in a game that promised so much more. He was pushed to the floor in the tenth minute and – incredibly – wasn’t awarded a penalty. Later, a corner was nodded down to him at close range, only for it to be blazed over the crossbar.
“We are playing now some matches with teams who are defensively very strong, very low and it was difficult to attack a defence like that.
“They were doing very, very well and playing a slow match. We needed to adapt to that. We did. The way was to score one goal when we were attacking and we didn’t do it.
“In the second half I think the team were playing like we talked about in the dressing room, but the VAR refused our goal and that was the moment we were upset and lost a bit of control.
“We’re going to analyse it and we have to understand why we lost this control. Overall, I think it’s a good point.” – Unai Emery
And when he helped Villa break the deadlock by crossing for Leon Bailey’s (£5.6m) goal, VAR ruled it out. Jacob Ramsey (£5.9m) was judged to have fouled goalkeeper Wes Foderingham (£4.5m) but Sheffield United had cleared the ball at least a couple of times in between.
Time ticked on and Watkins has now blanked in four of his last five home matches. He’s very much about away goals. The decision also stopped Bailey from returning for the fifth successive Gameweek.
Moussa Diaby (£6.7m) had a low shot saved after Cash and Bailey linked up down the right. Given his usual substitution with considerable time left, the Frenchman has one goal from his last 15 league outings.
Meanwhile, the cross for Zaniolo’s equaliser came from Douglas Luiz (£5.5m). Back from suspension, it’s his eighth attacking return of the season.
MAN CITY: WORLD CHAMPIONS
And a quick word from the Club World Cup final, which took place shortly before events at Villa Park. Treble winners Manchester City won their fifth major trophy of the year, beating Brazilian side Fluminense 4-0.
In the absence of Erling Haaland (£13.9m), there were two goals and an assist for Julian Alvarez (£6.8m). Although a nasty tackle from Alexsander forced a limping Rodri (£5.6m) to be substituted, the Spaniard was highly involved in the post-match celebrations and he was fine.
Those with Man City assets will be hoping it was a precautionary withdrawal, as they’ve lost each of this season’s four matches without Rodri, in all competitions.
