Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 11

Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 11

Another game-week another introduction to write! If you haven’t worked it out by now I don’t particularly enjoy writing the introduction every week, so much so that I might just start reviewing films, TV shows or whatever else tickles my fancy in any given week, and I’m even open to suggestions. But for now I’d best stick to FPL! So let me make a number of broad observations based on the opening 10 game-weeks. At the back, the old reliables are coming to the fore with City, Arsenal & West Brom having multiple entries in the top 10 scoring defenders. In midfield it’s unsurprisingly a lot more fractious, what is surprising is the fact that Payet, Mahrez, Ayew & Wijnaldum all feature in the top 5 scoring midfielders. Up front it’s been the season of the budget striker with Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane the only premium priced strikers to make the top 10. What I would say is that the cream typically starts to come to the top the further into the season we get. Enough waffle, here are this week’s tips.

Goalkeepers
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[/three_fourth]Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United have each conceded just eight goals in their opening 10 games and each of them have a great run of fixtures over the coming weeks, so let’s take a look at their respective keepers. Arsenal are currently the league’s form team picking up 19 points from their last eight games, with the only blemishes on their record during that period being a draw at home to Liverpool and a loss at Chelsea. During these eight games Petr Cech has kept an impressive five clean sheets and for the first time since David Seaman, the Gunners have a keeper in whom their defenders can have 100% confidence in. Another three Premier League clean sheets for the Czech will see him surpass David James who currently leads the way with 169 and we wouldn’t bet against him passing that total in the month of November. Against United on Sunday Joe Hart kept his first clean sheet since GW5 and it’s no surprise that Vincent Kompany returned to the starting line-up for the first time since GW5. As we’ve said before Vinny means Hart is much more likely to keep a clean sheet and now that Pellegrini has made his point we suspect Kompany will remain in the team. With Gael Clichy apparently nearing a return to fitness City will have 7/8 defenders to choose from which will inevitably lead to a certain amount of rotation meaning Hart is the safest route into their defence. At £5.5m David de Gea is the cheapest of the three, although he is arguably the best of the three, however this is a debate best left for another day. With three clean sheets in his last four games the Spaniard has undoubtedly put the debacle that was his proposed move to Real Madrid behind him and is now focused on the task at hand. Ignoring the other defensive options from each team if I were forced to choose one of these for the next 5-6 weeks I’d go for Cech.

A couple of other keepers who are worth a mention this week are Southampton’s Maarten Stekelenburg and Sunderland’s Costel Pantilimon. Southampton have been a little leaky at the back over the opening 10 game-weeks, keeping just three clean sheets and conceding 13 goals. They do however have an extremely enticing fixture list over the next six game-weeks and with Stekelenburg being the cheapest nailed on starter from the Saints defence we believe he deserves some consideration. Sunderland have conceded 19 goals to date and have kept just one clean sheet, however that clean sheet was last weekend against bitter rivals Newcastle. The Black Cats don’t have the easiest of fixtures over the coming weeks but Big Sam will surely make them difficult to beat and we wouldn’t be at all surprised should Pantilimon keep a number of clean sheets along the way. There are cheaper routs into the Sunderland defence but with the likes of Kaboul & O’Shea having picked up knocks it’s difficult to tell at this early stage who Sam considers to be first choice and therefore Pantilimon is your best bet.

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Defenders
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[/three_fourth]Alongside Arsenal, City & United, Everton also have a great set of fixtures over the coming weeks. Unlike the other three Everton’s recent form hasn’t been great, they’ve conceded 11 goals in their last eight games, however they did face all of last season’s top six finishers during this period. Assuming they can turn things around against the lesser teams we would consider it wise to at least consider a Toffee defender over the coming weeks. There’s currently little to separate Seamus Coleman & John Stones with Coleman on 21pts and Stones on 26, although Stones has started a game extra. Unsurprisingly Coleman has the better attacking stats although he hasn’t been much of a threat this season, however this could very well be due to the quality of the opposition. Stones defensive stats are quite impressive over the opening 10 game-weeks and should Everton keep a number of clean sheets over the coming weeks we could very well see Stones pick up a decent number of bonus points. At this moment in time we would slightly favour Stones and at £5.5m he could prove a shrewd investment for the weeks ahead.

For the past number of weeks we have included an Arsenal defender and that trend continues this week. This week we moved away from their full-backs and instead our tip is Gabriel. Is he first choice at centre back? Of that we can’t be certain but he has impressed every time he has been called upon and following the win over Everton last weekend his manager described him as ‘a typical centre back for the Premier League’. His stats are slightly more impressive than Per Mertesacker and we wouldn’t be at all surprised should he become a regular beside Koscielny. He’s unlikely to pick up as many attacking returns as Bellerin, Monreal or Koscielny but at just £4.8m he is considerably cheaper than all three. He’s undeniably a gamble but with that price tag and an ownership of just over 1% he’s possibly a gamble worth taking.

For those that have already invested in the United defence it is clear that Chris Smalling and Matteo Darmian have to date been the defenders of choice. But with Smalling now priced at £6.4m and Darmian being rotated with Antonio Valencia it is perhaps time to look elsewhere for United defensive coverage. Phil Jones missed the opening few game-weeks of the season due to injury while Marcos Rojo also missed the start of the season due to a falling out with LvG. However both have started the last two games with United keeping a clean sheet in both matches. Jones claimed three bonus points in the derby while Rojo picked up an assist thanks to a sumptuous cross the week before against Everton, so both are a good bet for more than just clean sheets over the coming weeks. Unsurprisingly Jones has the better defensive stats while Rojo has the better offensive stats. Both currently feature in just 0.4% of teams while Jones in £0.2m cheaper at £5.2m and for that reason alone we would slightly favour the Englishman.

Another couple of defenders who warrant a mention this week are West Ham’s Aaron Cresswell and Leicester’s Danny Simpson. With West Ham sat 4th in the table having scored 22 times we can’t criticise them too much for the fact they’ve only kept three clean sheets. The great thing about Cresswell is the threat he offers going forward and having picked up three assists to date he could well improve on last season’s tally of two goals and four assists. Leicester picked up their first clean sheet of the season last weekend and there’s every possibility they’ll pick up another over their next three games. However it’s not for his clean potential we’ve included Simpson, it’s for his £3.9m price tag. Basically he’s an enabler in that he allows you to save money which can be invested elsewhere and at present he’s the perfect 5th defender.

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Midfielders

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[/three_fourth]With 22 goals to their name West Ham are the league’s 2nd highest scorers so it should come as no surprise that Dimitri Payet is now the FPL’s highest scoring midfielder. The Frenchman has very quickly become the Hammers talisman and nearly everything goes through him. With five goals he is the clubs leading scorer, while he also leads the way with four assists. West Ham fans bang on about the mythical ‘West Ham way’ which in all honesty is a load of nonsense, but if it did actually exist Payet would embody it. From an FPL perspective, one of the great things about Payet is his consistency, he has delivered attacking returns in 8 out of his 10 games to date. As I’ve said before I’m amazed that one of the leagues bigger clubs didn’t make a move for him, but their loss is certainly West Ham’s gain. The Hammers have a mixed bag of fixtures over the coming weeks but given their current form I think we can ignore their fixtures and for those of you yet to invest in the Frenchman, what are you waiting for?

Given Everton’s fixture list over the coming week it would be remiss of us not to include one of their midfielders this week. Ross Barkley is the only midfielder to have found the back of the net this season, whilst only he and Deulofeu have contributed with assists, so for now Barkley is the only one worth any consideration. In season’s past the threat of rotation always loomed over Barkley but this season he has started every game as he has become an integral part of Martinez’s plans. With three goals & three assists to his credit he has already improved on his returns from last season and we expect him to beat his six goals and four assists from 2013/14. Priced at just £6.8m and given Everton’s fixtures he could prove great value over the coming weeks.

How many clubs can you think of who are capable of following up impressive wins over United, Bayern & Everton with an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday? Yes, we can only think of one ourselves. Arsenal. Although it’s not time to panic yet as Arsene did field a weakened side and we all know that Arsene doesn’t care about the League Cup, no it’s all about 4th spot in the league for him. One player who missed out on Tuesday night was Mesut Ozil who has been in superb form of late. The German has a goal & five assists in his last four games and with seven assists for the season he is the league’s leading assister. Aside from the North London derby in GW12 the Gunners have a relatively kind fixture list and we expect Ozil’s fine form to continue.

With Manchester City’s next two games against Norwich and Villa we must once again include Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian had his poorest game since joining City against United last weekend. However this was largely due to an impressive defensive display from United while City themselves didn’t appear interested in playing attacking football. Norwich & Villa will certainly not be capable of shackling De Bruyne in the manner which United did and we fully expect the Belgian to be back amongst the points this weekend.

Finally a couple of mid-priced midfielders who have been in decent form of late are Spurs’ Christian Eriksen and Southampton’s Sadio Mane. With 11 goals in their last four games Spurs would appear to have found their scoring boots, although it must be said that Bournemouth were extremely generous last weekend. Following the visit of Aston Villa on Monday night, Spurs have a number of tricky fixtures but are more than capable of winning these games and if this happens the Viking is likely to play a key role. Mane’s impressive start to the season continued last weekend as he scored a late equaliser at Anfield, although he then blotted his copybook by picking up two needless yellow cards. Luckily it was Wednesday night’s League Cup tie which he missed through suspension. The Saints have performed well over recent weeks despite a number of difficult fixtures and with their fixtures set to become considerably easier over the coming weeks we expect Mane’s form to continue.

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Forwards

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[/three_fourth]Olivier Giroud was on the list of possibilities for this week’s article prior to Tuesday night, however the injury sustained by Theo Walcott in the Capital One Cup ensured that Giroud featured this week. Despite only playing 90 minutes on three occasions this season the Frenchman has scored five goals and is Arsenal’s 2nd highest scorer after Alexis Sanchez. While we still await news on Walcott’s injury, he is likely to miss a couple of games at least as he’s not renowned for his speed at overcoming injuries. This means that Giroud will start and while he’s not prolific he will score goals, he managed 14 last season despite missing a significant portion of the season through injury. His lack of starts this season has seen his price drop to £8.7m which makes him significantly cheaper than the aforementioned Sanchez, although given Arsenal’s upcoming fixtures there’s always the possibility of doubling up. Giroud is also a great differential as he currently features in just 6.5% of teams.

With Everton set to embark on a great run of fixtures the inclusion of Romelu Lukaku is unlikely to come as a surprise. Just as Ross Barkley is the only realistic option in midfield so too is Lukaku up top. Yes Naismith & Kone will feature over the coming weeks and they could very well feature on the scoresheet but the problem is their lack of gametime. While Lukaku is guaranteed to start he is also guaranteed to frustrate as his points come in batches and you can rarely rely on him. He has accumulated 52pts to date but has only picked up more than two points on four occasions. We’re not making a great case for the Belgian but rest assured he will score over the coming weeks…just don’t ask us when.

Having failed to score in his opening six games there were fears that Harry Kane was set to be a one season wonder. His underlying stats suggested otherwise, the chances were coming his way he just wasn’t taking them. Enter the gift that is Artur Boruc & the Bournemouth defence who between them allowed Kane to walk away with the match ball last Sunday. At the time of writing he has been transferred in by nearly 75k managers and with a Monday night game against managerless less Aston Villa this week it’s easy to understand why. Spurs’ fixtures following the Villa game are rather tough but as we say last season when Kane is on form he’s fixture proof and last weekend’s hat-trick will certainly have improved his confidence.

If the last two game-weeks have taughtt us anything it’s that Wilfried Bony is a flat track bully. Against Bournemouth in GW9 he scored twice & created another and he looked capable of deputising for Sergio Aguero. Against United last weekend he was anonymous and looked capable of deputising for a lamp post. So why have we included him this week? Well with City’s next two fixtures against Norwich & Villa he can return to being a flat track bully. If you’re looking for a short term option upfront Bony is well worth consideration but for a longer term option we’d suggest you look elsewhere.

Our final pick this week is Southampton’s Graziano Pelle. After a great start to the season the Italian, having failed to score in his last two games, has slightly gone off the boil. However there are very few forwards who we expect to score week in week out and Pelle is never going to be in that bracket. However due to the Saints next six fixtures we can’t ignore the Italian and we expect to see his name on the scoresheet more than once over the coming games.

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Thanks for reading Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 11. This article was written by Kop Warrior

Follow @KenLyons79

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