The relative sparseness of Premier League action in January is allowing clubs to recover some of their injured stars.
These players are the focus of this mini-series of articles in which we focus on the fit-again (or almost fit) forgotten men in Fantasy Premier League (FPL).
Already we’ve looked at Ivan Toney (£7.9m), Kevin De Bruyne (£10.2m) and James Maddison (£7.8m).
Now, we focus attention on Brighton and Hove Albion’s Pervis Estupinan (£4.9m).
WHY HE’S BEEN OUT
Estupinan avoided any sort of fitness issue last season but his 2023/24 campaign was interrupted at the end of September.
The left-back suffered a muscle injury in the 6-1 pummelling by Aston Villa in Gameweek 7, initially being ruled out for around a month by Roberto De Zerbi.
Returning as a substitute in the UEFA Europa League group stage game against Ajax on November 9, Estupinan lasted all of 12 minutes on his comeback before limping off again.
He didn’t resurface until late December, three months after his original injury, being declared an option from the bench by De Zerbi – somewhat out of the blue – for the Gameweek 19 match against Tottenham Hotspur.
RETURN DATE
Estupinan was introduced as a half-time substitute in that 4-2 win over Spurs on December 28.
It was as if he hadn’t been away: a rocket of a goal from the Ecuador international, just 18 minutes after his introduction, took him to five attacking returns for the season.
A start then followed against West Ham United on January 2. While there was no goal or assist this time, Estupinan did collect points from Brighton’s very first clean sheet of 2023/24.
“We have to say thanks to Webby [Adam Webster] and Pervis Estupinan because maybe they are not in the right physical condition to play in the starting XI but anyway they made themselves available to play.” – Roberto De Zerbi on Pervis Estupinan, after the Gameweek 20 draw with West Ham United
Estupinan was handed a second successive 90-minute run-out against Stoke City in the FA Cup on Sunday just gone.
And again, the £4.9m FPL defender found the net with a thumping effort from outside the box.
FPL HISTORY
Above: Pervis Estupinan’s FPL record in 2022/23
It’s worth reiterating what a Fantasy force Estupinan was in the second half of last season – which is hopefully a portent of things to come in 2024.
Nine clean sheets, one goal and five assists arrived from Gameweek 20 onwards, with Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m) the only FPL defender to better those 15 returns in the final 19 Gameweeks.
And this time around, he’s already up there with the Liverpool right-back and Kieran Trippier (£6.7m) in terms of points per match:
Bear in mind that Estupinan has benefitted from just one clean sheet all season, too.
Only four defenders can better the Ecuadorian’s total of five attacking returns in 2023/24, even though he’s only played eight league matches.
THE UNDERLYING NUMBERS
Above: FPL defenders sorted by minutes per expected goal involvement (xGI) in 2023/24 (minimum of 500 minutes)
Estupinan has a very similar minutes-per-xGI average to the much pricier Alexander-Arnold and Trippier this season, as seen above.
The Brighton defender is among the top six defenders (minimum of 500 minutes) for frequency of shots and chances created.
That was almost the case in the second half of last season, too: seventh for shots, fifth for chances created.
Estupinan hadn’t actually had a single shot in the box until Gameweek 14 of 2022/23, with his attacking instincts slightly curbed under Graham Potter and slowly evolving under his successor.
THE FPL PROSPECTS
