We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Wednesday’s Double Gameweek 26 fixtures.
The graphics below are taken from LiveFPL, Ragabolly’s excellent and ever-expanding website, and our own Premium Members Area.
GOALS, ASSISTS AND BONUS
INJURIES AND BANS
There weren’t too many injuries to round up from Wednesday, with Diego Llorente (£4.5m) reportedly absent from the Leeds team because of a hamstring problem and Rodrigo Bentancur (£5.0m) said to have picked up a thigh issue in Spurs’ defeat to Burnley.
Vicente Guaita (£4.6m) was absent from the Palace squad, meanwhile, after sustaining a knee injury on Saturday.
The main fitness-related headline was the absence of Maxwel Cornet (£5.9m), although Sean Dyche said after full-time on Wednesday that the Ivorian could be back for Gameweek 27.
Josh King (£5.9m)’s substitution at Vicarage Road was also later explained as partly injury-related.
“I don’t know, we’ll have to see tomorrow. He took a knock in our last training session, unfortunately, so this exacerbated the problem for him.” – Roy Hodgson
FPL TALKING POINTS
Leeds’ defence the best advert for Spurs assets in Gameweek 27
Four days after producing one of the best performances from any Premier League side this season, Tottenham Hotspur slumped to a 1-0 loss to Burnley.
That result at the Etihad looks anomalous now, as it is sandwiched by four league defeats to Chelsea, Southampton, Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Clarets.
Chances were few and far between in Lancashire, although Son Heung-min (£10.8m) came within inches of an assist when first Harry Kane (£12.2m) nodded the Korean’s free-kick against the bar and then Dejan Kulusevski (£6.0m), who again started behind the front two before moving to right wing-back, curled a shot from another Son pass just wide.
“The reality is this. That we lost four games of the last five. No one deserves this type of situation – the club, me, the payers and fans, but this is the reality.
“I came in to try to improve the situation in Tottenham but maybe in this moment, I don’t know, I’m not so good to improve the situation.
“I’m too honest to close my eyes, you understand, and to continue to say ‘ok I want to finish the season in this way and ok my salary is good’.
“But I’m not this type of person. I have ambition, I’m a person who has ambition, I hate to lose and we lost, I repeat, four games in the last five games. And for me, I repeat, this is unacceptable.” – Antonio Conte
Antonio Conte’s remarkable post-match comments, some of which are above, don’t suggest a happy camp or that Spurs players are ‘must-buys’ ahead of Gameweek 27, when many managers are playing their Free Hit.
The one positive to cling onto is that it’s Leeds next, who have the division’s worst defence in 2021/22 and also on current form: they’ve shipped 36 goals in their last 11 matches alone.
Liverpool ran riot against the Whites, racking up six goals and spurning more chances besides: their xG of 4.44 was one of the highest of the season.
Raphinha (£6.5m), incidentally, turned in another below-par showing, despite returning to Marcelo Bielsa’s starting XI.
Burnley in form ahead of Double Gameweek 27
Any FPL managers who went early on Burnley assets for their two Double Gameweeks have generally been handsomely rewarded so far, with four clean sheets and a Wout Weghorst (£6.5m) haul thrown in for good measure.
The hope for the rest of us, who belatedly come to the Clarets party ahead of Double Gameweek 27, is that their good form can carry on into the upcoming round of matches.
(above image from Soccerstats)
The goals aren’t flying in, it must be said: Sean Dyche’s side are the second-lowest scorers this season and even during this six-game purple patch against admittedly tough opposition, they are still scoring at a rate of less than one goal per match.
But in Crystal Palace and Leicester, they’ll at least be coming up against defences in not-too-brilliant shape, not to mention two backlines that have shipped goals aplenty from set plays in 2021/22.
Weghorst was excellent again against Spurs despite a blank and an expected goal involvement (xGI) of just 0.04, while Jay Rodriguez (£5.2m) stands to benefit in terms of starts if Cornet is ruled out for any length of time. Rodriguez, in fact, has a better rate of xGI than Weghorst since the Dutchman’s arrival and had two big chances to his strike partner’s zero on Wednesday night.
The main focus has to be on the defence, however.
Nick Pope (£5.4m) has remarkably conceded just three goals in his last nine appearances, registering six clean sheets along the way. He hasn’t even been that overworked, ranking just joint-10th for saves made across his last half-dozen run-outs, which is a testament to the back four in front of him.
Ben Mee (£4.8m) jumped the gun on our Scout Picks ‘bus team’ inclusion with the match-winner against Spurs, topping the shot count at Turf Moor ahead of those meetings with the aerially suspect backlines of Palace and Leicester.
Connor Roberts (£4.5m) is a name worth mentioning for bargain-hunters, too, after registering three chances created and as many bonus points in Gameweek 26.
Wildcarders v Triple Captainers
A 6-0 win for Liverpool would usually be a Scout Notes headline but their players now take a backseat in Gameweek 27, so they temporarily move away from our thoughts.
The main Fantasy narrative last night was over Mohamed Salah‘s (£13.1m) latest haul, which took his overall Gameweek 26 score to a whopping 28 points.
It’s advantage to Triple Captainers, then, but big returns from fresh targets elsewhere – including double-digit scores for semi-popular Wildcard buys Andrew Robertson (£7.2m) and Virgil van Dijk (£6.7m) – means that there’ll be very little in it by the time that Arsenal v Wolves comes to a head on Thursday:
It’ll be future Gameweeks, and not this one, that will properly determine just how successful each chip strategy is.
EDOUARD AND KING DISAPPEARING FROM VIEW
It was a dismal Double Gameweek 26 for owners of Josh King (£5.9m) and Odsonne Edouard (£6.6m), who failed to muster a return between them. King – who has just one attacking return in his last 12 appearances – was hooked after 50 minutes of Watford’s 4-1 home defeat on Wednesday, while Edouard was only on the pitch for a matter of seconds across Palace’s two matches.
Form and rotation risk respectively are good reasons to sell the pair, with only Watford’s forthcoming double-header in Gameweek 28 the smallest of incentives to keep hold of King.
The Norwegian failed to register a shot against the Eagles but Saturday’s goalscorer Emmanuel Dennis (£6.1m) was prominent enough to maintain interest, spurning two big chances here.
Watford’s defensive blip after some promising displays at the back ought to be put in context: Palace scored four times but had an xG of just 0.71, only registering seven shots throughout.
Two-goal Wilfried Zaha (£6.8m) was at his best and Conor Gallagher (£6.2m) delivered a fifth double-digit haul of the campaign but without a double in the upcoming matches, Palace assets will surely only come onto the FPL radar if they are dumped out of the FA Cup by Stoke next week and have a Gameweek 30 match going ahead.
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