It was another good week for the optimum squad’s Leicester assets, as Ben Chilwell (£5.8m) collected two points alongside his fourth consecutive clean sheet and Jamie Vardy (£9.7m) brought in another 12-point haul aided by a goal and assist. James Maddison (£7.6m) scored the rebound from Vardy’s original penalty miss but encroachment gave the striker a second attempt, which he duly converted. Although bad for Maddison owners, the successful re-take benefitted the algorithm XI and helped achieve a score of 69 that was way above the global average of 49.
A fourth attacking return in five games arrived from Andrew Robertson (£7.0m), again concealing Liverpool’s inability to keep clean sheets. He assisted Sadio Mane’s (£12.2m) goal and enabled the Senegal star to reach the same price tag of Mo Salah (£12.2m). The algorithm selected two Chelsea players who blanked at Man City but elsewhere there were assists for Jack Grealish (£5.9m) and John Lundstram (£5.0m), whilst the outshone Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) still managed to set up one of Alexander Lacazette’s (£9.3m) two strikes.
OPTIMUM SQUAD
Fresh from two successive clean sheets in comfortable 3-0 wins, Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope (£4.7m) is selected by the algorithm for their home clash with Crystal Palace. The visitors have a league-low of 133 goal attempts, which is even worse than Newcastle and Norwich. Therefore, a Clarets double-up is needed, more specifically the top-scoring player of two consecutive gameweeks - James Tarkowski (£5.0m). Nobody bettered his dozen points of Gameweek 12 and nobody topped the fantastic 17-point haul of Gameweek 13, aided by the goal, assist and clean sheet trifecta of their 3-0 win at Watford.
A bonus points magnet, Tarkowski will relish the prospect of facing such a toothless attacking side. Seven members of this optimum squad were also there last week, as the familiar faces of Chilwell, Robertson and Lundstram accompany Tarkowski in a back four. Leicester are at home to in-crisis Everton, down in 16th place after a relatively generous run of games so far. With Marco Silva under pressure, it’s a good time to face the Toffees and Chilwell hasn’t conceded a goal for 424 minutes.
Despite Liverpool keeping just two clean sheets this season, Robertson is the top scoring defender of the past 11 gameweeks with 59 points. Once the defensive points start rolling in – which they should do – he and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m) will be unbelievable value. Yet over the whole 13 matches, Lundstram is still on top with a total of 73. Starting the season at the lowest possible price, he has now risen 1m in price and we’ve not even reached December.
The resilient Liverpool are at home to Brighton, a side who Mane has never scored past. However, it’s hard to bet against him considering his fantastic season so far – eight goals, four assists and 13 bonus points put Mane ahead of all midfielders. He’s now a threat in the air, with his 12 headed goal attempts only surpassed by Yerry Mina (£5.3m). Jose Mourinho has begun life at Spurs with two victories. Although the defence needs a lot of work, the goals and assists have started flowing for Harry Kane (£10.8m) and Dele Alli (£8.4m). Last Saturday saw 13 points came in from Heung-Min Son (£9.7m) and he has been selected for his promising home meeting with Bournemouth.
Mourinho seems to have set up his side so that Serge Aurier (£4.9m) attacks from right-back and Ben Davies (£5.4m) tucks inside on the left, meaning Son is asked to stay very wide in order to provide left-sided width. That could be a problem, Fantasy-wise, but it remains to be seen how the manager reacts to Davies’ ankle ligament injury. Son has scored five times from six games versus Bournemouth but, when they last met in May, he was shown a red card for kicking and pushing Jefferson Lerma (£4.8m).
Vardy is the first player to reach 100 FPL points this season, helped by his five double-figure returns – three of which have come in the past four games. Whenever a thought creeps in that this game might finally bring a blank, he decides to score again. So he gets the captain’s armband. Second-placed Leicester are ten points ahead of Wolves in fifth and have won their last five games, so confidence is high ahead of hosting Everton.
The algorithm had initially selected two Chelsea players for their home clash with a leaky West Ham defence, until Tammy Abraham’s (£8.0m) hip injury against Valencia made him unlikely to play. Christian Pulisic (£7.5m) introduced himself to Frank Lampard’s side by netting a hat-trick at Burnley, followed by scoring past Watford, Crystal Palace and Valencia. Replacing Abraham in our line-up is Raul Jimenez (£7.5m), hoping to score in his fourth consecutive game. Whilst forward Anthony Martial (£7.8m) is a popular option amongst the FPL community due to being cheaper than Marcus Rashford (£8.6m) and listed as a midfielder, Rashford really is in form and has four goals since Gameweek 9. The designated penalty taker for now, he has seven bonus points in that time and is encountering an Aston Villa side whose 241 conceded shots are higher than everyone else’s.
GOALKEEPERS
DEFENDERS
MIDFIELDERS
FORWARDS
