Diego Costa crowns another professional away performance from Antonio Conte’s men as Chelsea run out 1-0 winners over Middlesbrough. Elsewhere, Eden Hazard frustrates, while Marcos Alonso confirms his reputation as the most forward-thinking of defensive options. Here’s the Stock Check following Sunday’s Teesside tussle.
On the Rise
Diego Costa
The Spaniard’s relentless form continued with an opportunistic strike, his tenth of the season and his fifth goal in the last six Gameweeks.
The goal, plus the fact that 10% of FPL managers handed Costa the armband, will again ramp up the pressure on those holding Sergio Aguero and Romelu Lukaku following yesterday’s blanks and with toughening fixtures looming for the pair.
Still sitting on four bookings, Costa has now navigated through six Premier League outings without earning the caution that will trigger a one-match ban. Those who have held off investment on that basis will be beginning to wonder if it will arrive before the Gameweek 19 cut-off.
Costa will now be free to face the Spurs defence in Gameweek 13 and follows that with a crunch trip to the Etihad.
However, from Gameweek 15, Chelsea’s fixtures are nothing short of superb and, assured of starts over the busy Christmas spell, Costa’s stock seems destined to rise further.
While Hazard clearly represents a key midfield investment, the prospect of doubling up on Chelsea’s twin threats looks difficult to resist from Gameweek 15 onwards – barring that potential ban.
Marcos Alonso
The left wing-back has now returned a clean sheet in each of his six starts for Chelsea.
Curiously, Alonso has returned just a single bonus point in that time – mainly because, of all the four FPL defenders fielded, he returns the fewest defensive actions.
However, Alonso’s attacking promise was again evident at the Riverside.
Pushing forward almost as a left winger, he is clearly benefiting from linking with Eden Hazard, with defences distracted by the Belgian’s menace and leaving space for Alonso to exploit.
His end product was lacking and often is, but, given the frequency of his attacks and his presence in the box from both open play and set-pieces, further attacking returns look inevitable.
Coupled with Chelsea’s peerless resilience, Alonso appears to be the obvious top bracket defensive target.
In Decline
Eden Hazard
It’s incredibly harsh to knock Hazard following the first blank in five Gameweeks and, while his form and potential as a Fantasy asset remains far from “in decline”, our confidence in the Belgian as a rounded captain candidate can be questioned.
Having earned a reputation in previous seasons as an asset heavily biased towards home fixtures, he has so far reinforced that theory with his returns to this point. Hazard has now produced just a single goal on his travels: only 28 of his 82 points have arrived on the road.
While that will be a minor concern for most, it’s clear that Hazard is still a work in progress as an all-round candidate for the armband.
He has the advantage over Costa at Stamford Bridge but, home and away, the striker has a clear edge as a reliable and consistent scorer of points. Costa has scored in six of his past seven road trips.
Despite today’s failing, Hazard’s stock has to remain sky-high ahead of Chelsea’s festive fixtures and his place at the top of the Watchlist is untouched.
