In this blog, Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 4's numbers are analysed to determine the best players and teams to target going forward.

xFPL Review

Haaland tops the Custom Stats xFPL table for Gameweek 5 with a score of 13.1. The Norwegian international was top for shots in the box (SiB) (nine) and ‘big chances’ (BC) (six) and his xFPL score of 13.1 indicates he could have had a haul on another day. Salah was sixth with an xFPL score of 8.9, the Egyptian international only took one SiB but attempted five assists, two of which were BC. He was joint-top for attempted assists with Kulusevski (five), but the Swedish international created an additional BC (three) and also took seven SiB which contributed to an xFPL score of 11.2. Rashford managed the same number of shots (nine) as Haaland but had just one BC involvement which meant a much lower xFPL score of 5.7.

What is xFPL?

xFPL is calculated primarily using expected goals (xG), assists (xA), which combine as Fantasy Premier League (FPL) involvements (xG + xA = xI), as well as expected clean sheets (xCS). These numbers are a result of underlying statistics (i.e. shot type and location will give a probability of scoring = xG). xFPL is the combination of these statistics and factors in appearance and bonus points to give an overall expected FPL point score.

Early Transfer Activity Analysed

Evaluate transfer analytics to see which players are popular with other managers.

As the above image from our Transfer Analytics feature shows, Alvarez tops the transfers in for Gameweek 6 with over 420,000 managers bringing in the Argentinian international already. He accounts for four of the top five transfer combinations across FPL this week with Jackson, Watkins, Wissa and Isak making way. Ward-Prowse and Mbeumo have found approximately 150,000 new owners each, both budget midfielders have been delivering over the opening five Gameweeks, but a look at the midfielder transfer combinations shows that the former Southampton man accounts for just one of the top 10 midfielder transfer combinations with Mbeumo and Salah dominating. Martinelli, Foden, Fernandes and Sterling are the midfielders being sold. In defence, Newcastle assets are popular with Botman and Trippier accounting for eight of the top 10 defender transfer combinations.

Edouard vs Wissa

As the above images from our Fix Heatmaps feature shows, Edouard and Wissa are both popular budget forward options this week with Brentford and Palace both having a good run of fixtures upcoming. As the above image from our Fix Heatmaps feature shows, Edouard has outscored Wissa so far by seven FPL points and has scored double the number of goals (four vs two). The two are identical for ‘Expected Goals’ (xG) (2.94) and have taken the same number of shots as well (20). Edouard has tested the opposition keeper more often with nine shots on target compared to six for Wissa and has also created more opportunities (five vs three).

A look at the above image from our Fixture Planner shows that Brentford are ranked fourth with games against Everton, Forest and Burnley while Palace have two away games against Man. Utd and Newcastle. Based on the fixtures, Wissa appears to be the better play but there is not much to split the two.