Sometimes when one can’t figure out what to write on, you simply write a bit about everything. So this week we look at what went on during the game-week. We also look at some of the trends that have developed and I will do a section of Love/Hate/Lukewarm where I look at some of the transfers in and out and rate them depending on how I see them working out over the coming weeks.

This has been perhaps the first real week of turmoil during this FPL season. Until now it had been somewhat predictable and the templates had been in place since very early on. However the injury to Aguero before the game-week caused some major shake ups in many FPL teams. Add to that the suspensions and injuries and it led to some major hits that helped the breaking up of said templates to a degree. If the injury to Courtois wasn’t bad enough, we also had to deal with the resting of Azpi and the crying of 71279 managers who brought in the Bosnian Edin Dzeko. Just another regular week it was not. Ok enough messing about let’s get to the body of this article as the Intro has met the quota of words expected now.

Tom Heaton is the highest scoring keeper in FPL. Yep…..let that sink in a bit, what’s more he is only scored 10 points less than Diego Costa. Heck if I could play Heaton in Diego’s place and save myself £6.5m in money then I’d be all over that, well maybe. The Heaton transfer that some are doing this week will be addressed later on. So now that we have dismissed the King of the keepers for a bit of scrutiny later on let us address the Brazilian born Spanish forward instead.

From GW5-16 Costa has managed these scores

1-6-6-0-0-2-7-6-1-0-1-5

Hardly the numbers you would expect of an over £11 million priced forward. Undoubtedly he has reached the stage where releasing him is a possibility for many. I know he plays on Chelsea as the lone forward and they get the third most shot attempts in the EPL with him averaging 3.5 himself per game. But he certainly has become a case that is hard to swallow. Because even though he is still scoring goals, he never gets an assist to pad his numbers and any bonus is all but nonexistent for him. Since GW5 he has only managed two bonus points and his goals might as well be assists instead of goals; because he managed to accrue the same amount of yellows as goals over the last 12 GWs. I might be still holding on to him on my personal team, but it has more to do with Chelsea than Costa himself, however my patience is wearing thin.

Another curios case is that of Siggy. For weeks the story has been that he is great value and if you sell him you will have to pay a bunch more than what you originally paid for him to get him back. The thing is if you didn’t own him before week 4, you probably don’t, as he has been very average since then. His average of 3.85 PPG from GW4 on is not enough to warrant a spot on any team unless he is a fifth midfielder and about 5.0 in price. So much is the urban myth of Siggy that Chadli despite only playing 86 minutes over the last 5 games for a total of 3 points is even with Siggy in points since week 4 at 50.

Cheaper players like Walters and Jedinak are outscoring him since week 4 and Downing is really putting a hurt on him. In fact one could probably call Downing the new Siggy or at the very least a player who has earned the moniker of being great value, a lot better over recent weeks. Speaking of Downing, on top of some of the nice returns he has been getting, it might have gone unnoticed that he is joint top in bonus points earned this season with 17. That is an impressive achievement for a player that many of us scoffed at earlier in the season. 

One of the guys he is tied with is Christian Eriksen who has also impressed many of late. If you look at Spurs last 12 goals you will notice that the Viking is involved in 7 of 12 via scoring himself or assisting. But be aware that his tally this year also shows that he can be as inconsistent as anyone and Pochettino has shown to be at quick on subbing him out in the past. As many will know by now, probably because it has been beat into you over the last few days. Hazard is great at home, scoring in 5 straight home games and averaging 11PPG over those 5 games. So don’t forget Hazard is great at home, don’t forget now.

Continuing the theme of good midfielders, I think it is time we spoke about the new top point’s gatherer in FPL, the Dirty one himself, Alexis Sanchez. By the way “Dirty” is not meant as an insult to Sanchez, thought I’d clarify that before I get nasty tweets from Arsenal fans or a stray Chilean. El Niño Maravilla as he is known by his close friends and me has managed to score or assist in 7 of his last 9 games. He was brought in by close to 100k managers before game-week 16 started, good to see these managers finally got a clue. ;)

Baines, Baines, Baines, Baines, Baines. You wondering why I wrote his name down 5 times? Because that happens to be the same amount of total points he has over the last 5 games. Double ouch if you are an owner. When many bought him he was seen as an almost 4^th midfielder type but his production over recent games even has Glen Johnson laughing at him. Speaking of defenders doing nothing, I bring you the top points gathering defender Nathaniel Clyne. Realise he is still on top despite only scoring 1.5PPG over his last four games. Many of the experts thought that Clyne should be sold after week 12 or so and e forgotten at least until mid-January when the fixtures turn a bit easier. Some of the other experts thought he would be fine, because Southampton was for real. Hmmmm, sounds like some people have fake credentials as experts, just kidding! I don’t want to get nasty direct messages on twitter from the ”experts” and stray Chileans again. Alan Hutton is now suspended for a game which is no biggie since he plays Manchester Utd. next so he probably would have been bench fodder anyway. His resurgence in transfers in prior to the suspension was brought on by his first clean sheet (week 14) since GW4 and a goal the following week which was his third in his EPL career. I guess some people don’t believe in coincidences and went out and bought him quickly. However his fixtures do look good after they play LVG’s men so I will give those who transferred him in the benefit of the doubt. Chelsea defenders could be the name of the game going forward. Problem could be guessing who will get rested in the upcoming weeks. They have now kept 4 clean sheets in the last 5 games and 6 of 8 at home overall. Manchester City also look good for a while in particular when you realise that they play the 14^th, 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th placed teams in the premier league standings and 3 of those 4 are at home. Jumping to Arsenal now and their complete domination of Newcastle over the last 3 seasons at the Emirates. That makes 14 goals in the last 3 games there, including that epic Theo Walcott explosion for 26 points from two seasons ago. Those were the days I tell you, those were the days. Speaking of domination, has anyone else noticed that Spurs has beaten Swansea in all 5 of their meetings since the Welsh side ascended to the top division? Spurs might not be thumping them like Arsenal does Newcastle, but they are finding a way to earn the 3 points every time.

Well enough about taking a positive spin on teams, my specialty is being negative. Well perhaps one more remotely positive take on a team, West Brom now have 6 clean sheets on the season which ties them for 2^nd most in the league. Not bad for a team that goes relatively ignored since Berahino stopped scoring. In fact, so ignored that I suspect Myhill will be the most owned Baggie by week’s end and he has played a total of 90 minutes. Funny thing is that he is still being transferred in by more managers this week than the starter Foster. Ok, now to a bit of negativity. Leicester, Villa and Sunderland have failed to score in 8 of the 16 games this season. So when you are stuck trying to figure out which defender to play, just remember that these 3 teams forwards love a clean sheet against them. Speaking of holy trinities of futility, if we once again include Leicester and Sunderland and take out Villa for Hull City, we find another set of teams that keep their fans under a permanent state of depression. These 3 teams have managed one win a piece for a total of 3 in a combined 24 games at home. They are terrible at home, well let me check how they do on their travels though….Interesting they are the exact same. Leicester, Sunderland and Hull City6 wins in 48 games combined is equal or less than 10 individual teams so far this season. Brilliant work boys, makes Liverpool’s season look damn good by comparison.

Love it/Hate it/Lukewarm

So in this part of the article we will examine some of the movers and shakers in the transfer market be it in or out. Hopefully give a quick opinion on what is a credible bandwagon or the act of a clueless sheep, if I find it difficult to see into the future on my crystal ball, I will happily sit on the fence and pick the gutless lukewarm option.

Starting with the transfers out...

Azpilicueta- Hate it, Hold the line people, hold the line. If you remember Jose did say everyone would be rested. Also if you remember some of the stats on Chelsea and their defensive prowess then one should not be so quick to dump the Spaniard. Add to that the fact that he is tops in bonus points among his defending partners and third overall on the Chelsea side in said stat. If you have him, hold him at least one more week until Jose shows his cards, my guess is he is back in.

Courtois- Hate it, Basically the same as Azpi. Particularly if you didn’t sell him last week before the deadline. Can’t see the point to selling him now until we get a better clue on what his health status is. If at the time of printing this article something has changed, by all means sell him, but for now he should not be leaving your team.

Chadli- Love it, I thought about going lukewarm on this one, but this is not where I want to sit on the fence. He simply has to go, enough is enough. Many of us were patient through his injury and endured a one pointer or two, but five weeks of little to no production is enough of a sign that he should be escorted out.

Pelle- Love it, I think this was not just a case of tough fixtures. This forward was dying before he even hit the rough patch of the schedule. Those still holding have been brave to a fault and perhaps he could be an option later on, but I believe he first must clear the difficult fixtures and show a bit of form before reinvestment is an option.

Sterling- Lukewarm, this could prove to be more controversial than just picking a side. He has suffered 8 straight weeks of negative transfers and one can’t blame managers for selling. However I saw some light at the end of the tunnel this past weekend. One was his role in the formation and two were the chances he had. Granted, he had an element of Welbeck to his finishing, but after watching Balotelli all season, I am under the impression that the only way he will score is if Simon Mignolet is transferred to another EPL team and he is able to face him. Sterling could be given another chance or two high up the pitch and if he is able to put one or two away than we might have an OOP gold mine on our hands.

Transfers in...  (realize that love it and hate it take the opposite meaning in this section, because now we are talking about players being bought instead of sold)

De Gea- Lukewarm, I know why this transfer makes sense to many. United have easy fixtures, they are in great form and DDG in particular looks as good as a keeper could hope. But I am a bit skeptical, I chose a random number and ended up with 5. So I looked back to see which keeper was making the most saves in the last 5 weeks. Guess who it was? You might think this is good for save points and obviously it is, but you don’t take a premium keeper for save points, you buy him for clean sheets. You buy Heaton, Green, Guzan and similar for save points and the occasional clean sheet. DDG has 4 more saves with 23 than any other keeper over the last 5 weeks. To be honest he was more lucky than good against Liverpool. Sterling should have finished in that one on one. When you compare him to say the keepers for the other 4 top 5 teams you see a noticeable difference. No keeper for the other four has had to make even half the saves De Gea has over the last 5 weeks. What does this all mean? Perhaps nothing, but my inclination makes me believe that if his defence doesn’t improve then those chances he has been stopping won’t always be within his reach. Still like I said, I can see why it makes sense, but it does come with a warning label.

King Heaton- Hate it, How can I hate the purchase of the king of keepers? Fixtures is the easy answer. Spurs, Liverpool, City and Newcastle with 3 of those games being away. If you have him get them save points, but if you don’t there are better options. Once we enter the winter wild card though, I would consider him again as his fixtures are good after GW20.

Clichy-Hate it, I actually like the player and feel he should start all the time, just don’t think he will. At the time of writing he is the second most transferred in player in all of FPL. His recent output makes him worthy of such affection, but the recovery of Kolarov makes his permanent place very questionable. When Kola was healthy if you look back through weeks 2-8 you will see a big problem. Gael Clichy started in GW 2, 4, 6 and 8. Kolarov started in the odd number game-weeks. We also saw this from Pellegrini last season, so to think that all of sudden Clichy is an automatic sure fire starter is a bit presumptuous. I am thinking there could be some frustration in the future of Clichy owners.

Downing, Eriksen, Hazard and Sanchez- Love it,As of this moment, this looks like the template. They all are justifiable transfers and while I wouldn’t necessarily recommend owning all 4 and being the same as other managers, I would not critique owning any of these 4 until one of them shows me otherwise.

Bony-Love it, He is unspectacular, but he has shown great consistency. At his price you can’t ask for much more than him grabbing you a goal or an assist and he has managed that in his last five. Nice safe option with good fixtures.

Giroud-Lukewarm, This could be a blind spot of mine. I feel like he is a version of Bony to some degree. He plays on a good attacking side that is likely to continue improving. Most days he is also unspectacular, but for his price he will probably do the job for you. So why is he lukewarm instead of love it? Basically because he is French.

RVP-Whatever, Full disclosure, I owned him in week 14 which is the only week out of the last 4 he did not score double digits. So yeah, I am a wee bit bitter. He has trouble passing the eye test and that makes me skeptical on him to be perfectly honest. His price tag is also a problem in my eyes, I know he is in great form but can he continue to be that efficient? I am guessing it wouldn’t take 2 blanks before any owner would get squeamish about owning him. Just get the feeling we might have missed the boat on this one. But like I said I am bitter, so you might not be able to trust me on this one.

Thanks for reading. For FPL related tirades and a banter filled experience please follow @thelegendmito21 on Twitter. For all the non-price related information you need to field your best XI, visit us at FantasyFootball247.co.uk and follow us @FantasyFooty247 on Twitter.