Who To Target for Fantasy Premier League 2024/25 Gameweek 9?

Dive into our weekly analysis where we spotlight the top performers from the previous Gameweek, examine the latest FPL transfer trends, and reveal the must-have players to consider for your lineup this week.

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FPL Gameweek 9: Which Players to Target?

Expected FPL Points Review - A Look at the Stats

As the below image shows, Salah tops the Custom Stats xFPL table for Gameweek 8 with a score of 10.3, the Egyptian international took two shots in the box, one of which was a penalty and also created a 'big chance' which Jones converted.

Anderson (6.8 xFPL) of Nottingham Forest and Maddison (1.9) were the most creative players with five attempted assists, which is impressive considering the latter only played the first half.

Isak (6.0), Johnson (4.9) and Calvert-Lewin (5.5) were joint-top for shots in the box (five) with none of the trio finding the back of the net. However, they only had three 'big chance' invovlements combined with Calvert-Lewin (two) leading the way.

No player was afforded more 'big chances' than Raúl (three), the Mexican international took four shots in the box and looks like an excellent pick going forward.

Popular budget option Semenyo was subbed on for many managers and judging by the numbers, he was unlucky not to register any attacking returns. The Ghanaian international took four shots in the box, two of which were 'big chances' and registered an xFPL score of 8.0, the seventh highest this weekend.

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 FPL Transfer Activity Analysed - Which Players are FPL managers buying and selling?

As the below image from our Transfer Analytics feature shows, Gvardiol is the most popular transfer in for Gameweek 9 so far with nearly 200,000 FPL managers bringing him in at the time of writing.

Despite no returns against Man. Utd., Mbeumo is the second most popular transfer in, with the Ipswich fixture no doubt a big part of his appeal. Son is also popular after his goal, while enablers Raúl and Keane have also seen over 100,000 transfers each.

Arsenal assets are being sold in droves with Saliba, Saka, Havertz, Raya and Gabriel featuring in the top eight transfers out. Luis Díaz has also seen over 150,000 sales after back to back benchings.

Up top, all the traffic is going to Raúl with the Mexican international featuring in nine of the top 10 forward transfer combinations. In midfield, Saka and Luis Díaz take up nine of the top 10 midfielder transfer combinations with Son, Palmer, Johnson and Mbeumo the primary beneficiaries. In defence, Saliba out is the popular move with Gvardiol, Aït-Nouri, Lewis and Keane coming in.

Raúl vs Wood - The Form Budget Forwards

As the above image from our Opta Player Heatmaps feature shows, Wood (46) has outscored Raúl (39) by seven points. However, it is worth mentioning that the Mexican's first start of the season was not until Gameweek 4, and he has played 204 minutes fewer than the New Zealand international.

A look at the Average stats Per 90 minutes shows that Raúl is ahead for almost every attacking metric: Goals (0.83 vs 0.70), 'Expected Goals' (xG) (0.76 vs 0.58), shots (3.95 vs 2.23), attempted assists (1.25 vs 0.42) and 'big chances' created (0.62 vs 0.14).

The price saving is also a consideration with the Mexican international £0.6m cheaper than Wood. With Andreas missing his penalty, there is a chance that Raúl could be on spot kicks going forward as well.

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