· Tom
FPL Gameweek 10 – Pep Talk
Little over a month ago, Manchester City manager/Ciro Di Marzio from Gomorra doppelganger Pep Guardiola made his feelings abundantly clear on the sour quince log of English domestic football competitions. Speaking after his side’s 2-1 win at West Brom in the third round of the Carabao Cup, Guardiola questioned the competition’s worth and deemed progress to the latter stages as a “waste of energy”. The City boss made eight changes to his starting line-up at The Hawthorns that night, once again demonstrating the apathy he had shown last season in a fourth round defeat at Old Trafford. There were nine alterations in total that day, with rare starts for the likes of Pablo Maffeo and Aleix Garcia, as Guardiola ignored the impulse to field a full-strength side in a Manchester derby.
So it was no surprise that Guardiola opted to rest all but two of the players that started Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Burnley for Tuesday night’s home tie against Championship leaders Wolves. What couldn’t have been anticipated however, was that Guardiola – frequently the arch-foe of us fantasy managers – would start both Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero, along with Raheem Sterling, at the Etihad. The collective sinking of hearts was palpable amongst the FPL community as the teamsheets were announced an hour before kick-off, with unnerved minds very much on City’s trip to WBA this coming Saturday and Pep’s subsequent tinkering for that fixture.
Worse was to follow as City made hard work of progressing to the quarter-finals, the game dragging on to extra-time and penalties – where that celebrated shotstopper Claudio Bravo brought our agony to an end. Sterling and Aguero ominously completed the full 120 minutes, with Jesus hooked on the 82nd minute mark. The Brazilian striker’s replacement, Kevin De Bruyne, saw 38 minutes of action, while Kyle Walker, John Stones and Leroy Sane were all deployed as substitutes in extra-time.
Elsewhere in the competition, Arsene Wenger changed his entire starting line-up for Arsenal’s home tie against Norwich – music to the ears of FPL managers who own Sead Kolasinac, Alexandre Lacazette, Alexis Sanchez et al.
Only Chris Smalling, Jesse Lingard, Ander Herrera and Anthony Martial retained their places in the Manchester United side that saw off Swansea on Tuesday, while Romelu Lukaku (still owned by over half of the 5,000,000+ FPL managers, despite a likely double price drop this week) was sent on as a 68th-minute substitute.
Other notable starters on Tuesday night included Charlie Daniels (Bournemouth), Harry Maguire (Leicester) and Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Crystal Palace), the 5.5%-owned budget midfielder who FPL managers may have been considering for selection in their GW10 sides given Palace’s favourable home fixture against West Ham.
On Wednesday evening, Toby Alderweireld, Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Kieran Trippier and Ben Davies were notable inclusions in the Tottenham side that surprisingly lost at home to the Hammers, who had themselves made nine changes to their starting line-up. Harry Kane (UPDATE: now out of GW10) mercifully had the night off to Snapchat and look in the mirror, while Danny Rose continued his comeback from injury by playing 81 minutes of the game – casting further gloom on Davies’ prospects of nailing down a regular starting berth in Mauricio Pochettino’s team.
Gary Cahill and Antonio Rudiger were the only two Chelsea assets who started both their last EPL fixture and Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Everton, with the visitors “only” making five changes from Ronald Koeman’s final match in charge of the Toffeemen.
If line-up changes are your thing, may we point you in the direction of another TSZ article on this very subject – detailing the average starting line-up changes made by each team in the top six tiers of English football.
Bonus Points – A Brief Analysis
Bonus points have always been a bone of contention (a bon-us contention, if you will) amongst FPL managers. Long gone are the fondly remembered but hugely controversial days of match assessor-awarded “BAPS”, replaced by a new, more quantifiable system that harnesses in-game statistics. Some may argue that it is still an imperfect method, unjustly rewarding those who have found the back of the net regardless of their overall level of performance. A cursory glance at the 11 players who have recorded eight or more bonus points this season would back up this assertion – only one defender (and not a single goalkeeper) appears on the list: Nacho Monreal, who happens to have scored twice for Arsenal this season.
The home/away bonus point distribution is a fairly accurate gauge of some teams’ respective form. Harry Kane’s nine-point haul away from home (versus three in north-west London) is indicative of Tottenham’s struggles at Wembley so far this season, while Abdoulaye Doucoure’s seven bonus points away from Vicarage Road highlight just how impressive the Hornets have been on their travels this season.
The bonus point potential of big-hitters such as Kane, Gabriel Jesus, Aguero and Lukaku will be no surprise to anyone – but where are the budget BAP-magnets to be found so far this season?
Stephen Ward of Burnley offers great value at £4.7m, the Irish defender weighing in with seven bonus points (as well as a goal and an assist) so far this season. Newcastle, Southampton and Swansea are next up for the Clarets – and none of these sides have scored more than ten goals in the Premier League this season.
In midfield, the aforementioned Doucoure (£5.4m) and Brighton’s Pascal Groβ (£5.8m) are stand-out bargains. The latter’s two goals and four assists have been enhanced by six bonus points to date, and the Seagulls’ attractive set of forthcoming fixtures is another reason the German playmaker’s price has risen already this gameweek.
Tammy Abraham, with eight bonus points already on the board (six of them banked at the Liberty Stadium), is a viable option for FPL managers looking to downgrade one of their costly forwards to a budget striker. Swansea’s on-loan youngster (now priced at £5.8m) has scored four league goals in 2017/18 so far – each time he has hit the net, bonus points have boosted his haul. Two home games in the next four against Brighton and Bournemouth add to his appeal.
Best of luck for the forthcoming gameweek and chins up – just be glad you’re not this guy:
