Our Saturday morning scour for some overlooked alternatives brings Arsenal’s French frontman onto our radar. Claudio Ranieri’s tinkering has afforded Fantasy managers an out-of-position prospect amongst the Leicester defenders, whilst we also plunder the Spurs midfield ahead of their plum home clash with Villa on Monday.
Olivier Giroud
With Theo Walcott now ruled out until after the next international break, the stage is set for the Frenchman to nail down a regular role in Arsenal’s first XI over the next few matches.
There’s no denying that Olivier Giroud deserves more minutes after a super series of cameos off the bench in recent outings. After scoring three times in five sub appearances between Gameweek 5-9, he vindicated Arsene Wenger’s decision to hand him a starting berth against Everton last time out by bagging the opener in a 2-1 win.
After also finding the net in a 2-0 Champions League win over Bayern Munich, Giroud is arguably in the most prolific form of his Arsenal career. Indeed, when on the pitch, he’s played a part in 55.6% of the Gunners’ league goals – that’s more than any team-mate in the opening ten rounds of fixtures.
Owned by just 6% of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers, he now faces a Swansea side with just two clean sheets to their name all season. With a north London derby at the Emirates and clashes against Norwich, Sunderland and Villa in the next six, Giroud looks a viable option for our three-man frontlines once again. Even if Walcott’s return places question marks over his long-term starting role, Wenger’s rotation policy, allied with Giroud’s prolific displays off the bench, may well keep him in the mix over the next couple of months.
Jeffrey Schlupp
In the last three Gameweeks, Leicester City boss Claudio Ranieri has fielded Christian Fuchs at the left-back berth, allowing Jeffrey Schlupp to adopt a more advanced position on the left flank – furnishing him with out-of-position potential. Ranieri even experimented with the Ghanaian defender at the number-ten berth in their previous match-up against Crystal Palace, shifting Riyad Mahrez onto the flank in the second half to facilitate his deployment there.
Schlupp’s new role has ultimately engendered some hugely impressive attacking numbers: over the last four Gameweeks, he ranks top among defenders for attempts (nine) and shots on target (five), while only Virgil van Dijk (four) managed more accurate attempts (three). The Foxes academy product consequently places top among his counterparts for attempts (14) and shots inside the box (eight) over the course of the campaign, underlining his value at the 5.0 mark.
Leicester bagged their first clean sheet of the term against the Eagles and look well placed to increase that tally over their next trio of fixtures (wba, WAT, new); the Baggies and Hornets lie joint-bottom in term of goals scored (eight), while no side has tallied fewer attempts at home (47) than the Magpies.
Mousa Dembele
Having put on a man-of-the-match performance against Liverpool in Gameweek 9, Mousa Dembele was pushed forward into the number-ten slot for Tottenham’s trip to Bournemouth, with Eric Dier reclaiming his slot in the double pivot. The Belgium international went on to capitalise from a lucky ricochet to card his maiden goal of the campaign.
In light of the fact that Nacer Chadli is sidelined until December and Heung-Min Son is still contending with a foot injury, Dembele should be afforded a decent run of starts in Tottenham’s attacking quartet. Although Dembele’s productivity throughout his Spurs career has been less than exemplary (eight goals and 12 assists), he’s typically been asked to operate from deep midfield, diminishing his potential for attacking returns. Now tasked with a more advanced role, the ex-Fulham recruit serves as a budget (5.3) route into a Lilywhites attack that ranked third for goals (11) and top for shots on target (32) over the last four Gameweeks.
Next on the agenda for Mauricio Pochettino’s troops is a visit from Aston Villa, who are fronted by caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald following Tim Sherwood’s dismissal. The West Midlands outfit have lost their previous four road ties, conceding 10 goals in the process. Meanwhile, only Manchester City (43) and Arsenal (33) chalked up more shots on target (31) than Spurs in their quintet of home fixtures, which bodes well for their attacking prospects on Monday.
