In Frisking the Fixtures, we pinpoint the teams and players with the strongest runs of matches over the next six Gameweeks and beyond.
Our colour-coded Season Ticker is the primary source for this piece.
Using this tool as a Premium Member, you can sort by difficulty, rank by attacking and defensive potential or find budget rotation pairings. You can even set your own difficulty ratings, should you disagree with ours.
You can see a tutorial on the Season Ticker here.
SEASON TICKER OVERVIEW: NEXT SIX GAMEWEEKS
The above colours reflect the ‘overall’ ratings of each side. There are options within the ticker to separate attack and defence.
Chelsea’s attack, for example, is rated more highly than their defence.
We’re also still using the pre-season ratings we set for each club. The second international break, which follows Gameweek 7, is traditionally the time when we review and revise this.
BEST FIXTURES: GAMEWEEKS 7-12
EVERTON
Everton’s favourable fixture swing began in Gameweek 5. The results, not coincidentally, have picked up: a draw and a win followed a four-match losing run.
Short sample alert: Sean Dyche’s are also top of the table for lowest expected goals conceded (xGC) over those two fixtures.
As we mentioned in Saturday’s Scout Notes, the return of Jarrad Branthwaite (£4.8m) could be a fillip to defensive returns. Everton kept 13 clean sheets last season, all but one of which came with Branthwaite and James Tarkowski (£4.8m) at centre-half. The first of those didn’t arrive until Gameweek 8, if we’re looking for positive omens from the Toffees’ current clean sheet drought.
All of their next six opponents are ranked 10th or below for expected goals (xG) this season.
At the other end of the field, Dwight McNeil (£5.6m) is attracting plenty of interest. He’s been transferred in by circa 230,000 managers – at the time of writing – ahead of Gameweek 7.
As the division’s leading chance creator, there should at least be assists arriving even if his current goal output – three from an xG of 0.53 – may dry up a bit. The new number 10 role really seems to suit him.
All bar one of Everton’s Gameweek 7-14 opponents are ranked in the bottom half for expected goals conceded (xGC).
MANCHESTER CITY
The rest of this article below is completely free to read but requires a Fantasy Football Scout user account for access – you can get yours at no cost here
VOTE FOR US AT THE FOOTBALL CONTENT AWARDS!
DETAILS OF HOW TO VOTE HERE
GO STRAIGHT TO THE VOTING PAGE HERE
6 days, 23 hours agoTottenham is going to win the league. This is the first place you read it and also probably the last place you ever gonna read about it