A portion of Fantasy Premier League managers in the top 10,000 have sold their Tottenham Hotspur assets for Blank Gameweek 33.
Ryan Mason’s men are one of four clubs not in action in the current round of action and, despite a Gameweek 34 meeting with Sheffield United, Harry Kane (£11.8m) and Son Heung-min (£9.5m) have been sold by some.
In Double Gameweek 32, the former was the most popular forward in the top 10k, owned by 99.2% at that level.
Double Gameweek 32
Blank Gameweek 33
However, as you can see from the graphic above, Kane’s top-10k ownership has dropped off by 19.4 percentage points.
That decline is sure to be made up of transfers out more so than recent poor performance considering Kane was a heavily backed captain and Triple Captain last time out and scored 12 points.
Meanwhile, Son has gone from the most popular midfielder in the top 10k to the fifth-most between deadlines.
84.4% of the top 10k owned the South Korean international for Double Gameweek 32, dropping by 14.4 percentage points between the two most recent deadlines.
It is also worth noting that Rúben Dias (£6.2m) has finally left the template at this level. For Double Gameweek 32, he had clung onto 31.1% ownership but is no longer among the top-five defenders.
Salah appears to have picked up some of the Son sellers considering his top-10k ownership has increased by 11.1 percentage points between Double Gameweek 32 and Blank Gameweek 33.
Diogo Jota (£7.0m) may have taken on some of those managers, as he increased his top-10k ownership from 66.8% to 72.7% between the two most recent deadlines.
Up-front Kelechi Iheanacho (£6.1m) appears to have benefitted from Kane sellers, rising from 78.3% top-10k ownership to 88.7%, making him the most popular forward at this level for Blank Gameweek 33.
Patrick Bamford (£6.5m) has also been sacrificed to bring Iheanacho in. He has been replaced in the top 10k’s template by Ollie Watkins (£6.6m).
Crucially, Jamie Vardy (£10.2m) has picked up some former Kane owners but has not managed to break into the top-three most-popular forwards for the top 10k, indicating his relative differential status at this level.
Meanwhile, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) is back to the summit of FPL defenders in the top 10k, with 61.3% ownership in this rank bracket.
Vardy also looks to be a differential in the Blank Gameweek 33 captaincy conversation too.
4.8% of the top 10k have put their armband on the Leicester striker, who has two double-digit hauls in his last four matches.
Salah is the clear favourite in that respect as he prepares to face Newcastle on Saturday lunchtime.
Two goals in his last two starts and a rest in Double Gameweek 32 has encouraged 65.7% of the top 10k to captain him for Blank Gameweek 33.
That makes for a majority of 56.6 percentage points over Iheanacho, this week’s runner up in the top-10k captaincy debate.
12.0% of them made him their skipper for the Monday-night meeting with a rather obliging Crystal Palace outfit.
8.4% have kept faith in Bruno Fernandes (£11.6m) despite recent defensive improvements and his two attacking returns in seven matches.
Meanwhile, 2.2% have trusted Alexander-Arnold’s recent reliable form for the captaincy. He has produced 52 points in his last seven, working out at 7.4 per match.
We have two players over 100% effective ownership for Blank Gameweek 33, namely Salah and Iheanacho.
The Egyptian’s figure at this level is 147.5% while Iheanacho has crept just over that threshold with 100.4%.
The chips were used sparingly for Blank Gameweek 33, perhaps out of necessity more than anything else.
Just 7.2% of the top 10k have a Free Hit left to use and are holding it in reserve, perhaps a sensible decision with Double Gameweeks expected to be announced soon.
The Wildcard was the most popular this week, with 2.5% at this level pulling the trigger on a new squad.
Accordingly, 72.2% of the top 10k have now exhausted their chip supply while 24.5% have just one left to use.
Anyone just outside of this rank bracket holding onto any of their chips ahead of the final matches of the season run-in will find encouragement in those pieces of data.
Finally, a look at the latest Wildcard template makes for interesting reading.
Emiliano Martínez (£5.4m) remains the most popular goalkeeper for such managers while Alexander-Arnold is joined in the top-three defenders by Stuart Dallas (£5.2m) and Timothy Castagne (£5.7m).
Crucially, 55.0% of these managers have held onto Kane despite his lack of match in Blank Gameweek 33 and ongoing injury situation.
3 years, 1 month ago
I'm amazed arteta isnt under more pressure than he seems to be.