Following an unexpected pause in the football calendar after Queen Elizabeth II’s death last Thursday, Fantasy Premier League returns this weekend with a reduced gameweek consisting of only seven fixtures.
Due to concerns over policing resources for the Queen’s state funeral on Monday 19 September, two Premier League fixtures have been postponed: Chelsea vs Liverpool and Manchester United vs Leeds. Brighton vs Crystal Palace will also be rescheduled at a later date after originally being called off due to rail strikes, which have since been cancelled.
As a result, FPL managers will have a shallower pool to pick from in Gameweek 8 and may be required to shuffle their squads accordingly. As things stand, four of the top 10 most popular players in FPL are from clubs who will blank in Gameweek 8: Liverpool trio Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz and Chelsea defender Reece James.
It is no surprise that managers are turning away from their assets from those select clubs with the 10 top sold players all hailing from the fixture-less contingent. Although offloading the likes of Salah or Alexander-Arnold is perfectly reasonable given Liverpool’s recent iffy form, it is probably not worth discarding all of your non-playing assets. Chelsea have a promising run of matches, so hanging onto James for instance, could be worthwhile.
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Gameweek 6’s top scorers
Goalkeepers:
- Pope (Newcastle) – 12
- Pickford (Everton) – 9
- Alisson (Liverpool) – 8
Defenders:
- Chilwell (Chelsea) – 10
- Collins (Wolves), Gomez (Liverpool) – 9
- Silva (Chelsea), Trippier (Newcastle) – 8
Midfielders:
- Rashford (Man Utd) – 18
- Mac Allister (Brighton) – 14
- Trossard (Brighton) – 12
- Podence (Wolves) – 11
Forwards:
- Toney (Brentford) – 17
- Solanke (Bournemouth) – 12
- Daka (Leicester) – 11
- Haaland (Man City), Kane (Tottenham) – 9
This week’s deadline is at 6.30pm on Friday!
Gameweek 8 fixtures
Friday 16 September
- Aston Villa vs Southampton
- Nottingham Forest vs Fulham
Saturday 17 September
- Wolves vs Man City
- Newcastle vs Bournemouth
- Spurs vs Leicester
Sunday 18 September
- Brentford vs Arsenal
- Everton vs West Ham
Postponed matches:
- Chelsea vs Liverpool
- Man Utd vs Leeds
- Brighton vs Crystal Palace
Nick Pope (Newcastle)
A third shutout of the campaign against Crystal Palace in Gameweek 6 resulted in Nick Pope moving to the top of the goalkeeper scoring charts in FPL and into thousands of manager’s teams. Unusually for a goalkeeper, Pope is currently the second-most bought player ahead of Friday’s transfer deadline.
Pope’s prospects of adding to his clean sheet collection over the coming weeks look promising considering Newcastle will play Bournemouth (h), Fulham (a), Brentford (h), Man United (a) and Everton (h) in their next five games. The England keeper is top for saves (28) and second for save percentage (82.9 per cent) in the Premier League this season.
Price: £5.2m Points: 36 Gameweek 8 fixture: Bournemouth (h)
Ivan Perisic (Spurs)
One of the few Spurs players – along with Hugo Lloris and at a push Richarlison – to emerge from Tuesday’s dismal defeat in Lisbon with any credit. At 33, Ivan Perisic is unlikely to start every game but a five-day gap between matches this week allied to an impending international break should work in his favour.
Despite only starting half of Tottenham’s Premier League fixtures, Perisic is level with Dejan Kulusevski for assists (two) and third in the squad for chances created (with eight). Spurs upcoming opponents Leicester, meanwhile, have conceded over 2.5 goals per game in their opening six matches.
Price: £5.6m Points: 25 Gameweek 8 fixture: Leicester (h)
Kieran Trippier (Newcastle)
It is a testament to Newcastle’s improvement at the back under Eddie Howe that doubling up on their defensive assets in FPL seems like a sensible strategy.
The Magpies have kept clean sheets in both of their home games that didn’t feature Manchester City ahead of the visit of Bournemouth. Kieran Trippier is an integral member of the backline and offers points potential in attack too; only Trent Alexander-Arnold has created more chances than him so far.
Price: £5.3m Points: 30 Gameweek 8 fixture: Bournemouth (h)
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Joao Cancelo (Man City)
Joao Cancelo surpassed the 200-point mark in FPL last season and is the early front-runner among defenders this season with his score of 33 superior to any other player in that position.
The City full-back has combined a goal and assist with three clean sheets and caught the eye during his side’s 4-0 thrashing Sevilla in the Champions League by creating two more goals. Pep Guardiola’s full-back options have been weakened by Oleksandr Zinchenko’s move to Arsenal, meaning Cancelo should be a safe long-term pick.
Price: £7.1m Points: 33 Gameweek 8 fixture: Wolves (a)
Jarrod Bowen (West Ham)
You can analyse stats until you’re blue in the face but sometimes the best FPL decisions are ones in which you’ve gone with your gut rather than your head. Jarrod Bowen is yet to provide a single goal or assist this season and has dropped £0.4m in price since Gameweek 1 but he could benefit from a kind upcoming schedule.
West Ham face Everton (a), Wolves (h), Fulham (h) and Southampton (a) and Bournemouth (h) in their next six games and with a World Cup place up for grabs, Bowen will see that run as a chance to stake his claim in Gareth Southgate’s England squad.
Price: £8.1m Points: 13 Gameweek 8 fixture: Everton (a)
Anthony Gordon (Everton)
Everton have made a winless start to the Premier League campaign but there is still a sense of optimism coursing around Goodison Park for a couple of reasons: 1) the club managed to hang onto Anthony Gordon this summer and 2) Anthony Gordon has been in exceptional form.
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The winger has noticeably upped his output in the opening weeks, scoring half of Everton’s four league goals and firing off 18 shots on goal, a total only bettered by Gabriel Martinelli and Rodrigo among midfielders.
Price: £5.5m Points: 22 Gameweek 8 fixture: West Ham (h)
James Ward-Prowse (Southampton)
Aston Villa earned a credible and much-needed point in their last game against Manchester City but it is too early to tell whether Steven Gerrard’s side have turned a corner or will revert to the mean.
Southampton will either be the ideal next opponents for Villa or else pile on the misery depending on which of Ralph Hasenhuttl’s teams decides to show up. If James Ward-Prowse plays well, the chances are that the Saints will too. He has one goal and an assist to his name and ranks fifth among midfielders for chances created with 15.
Price: £6.5m Points: 23 Gameweek 8 fixture: Aston Villa (a)
Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
It hasn’t quite happened for Bukayo Saka yet this season, as reflected by his status as Arsenal’s eighth-most popular FPL asset, behind his fellow attackers Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard.
However, there were promising signs from the England winger last time out when he opened his goalscoring account for the season against Manchester United. Saka has had 14 attempts on goal and created 11 chances, both of which are the second-highest totals in Arsenal’s squad.
Price: £7.8m Points: 28 Gameweek 8 fixture: Brentford (a)
Erling Haaland (Man City)
There will inevitably come a point when Erling Haaland is given a breather but it seems unlikely that it will come before the international break.
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Haaland has raced to the top of the Premier League goalscoring charts with 10 goals in six games and converted 40 per cent of his shots in the Premier League. Even against a defensively sound Wolves side, you’d expect him to add to that tally this weekend.
Price: £12.0m Points: 67 Gameweek 8 fixture: Wolves (a)
Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham)
Aleksandar Mitrovic’s brilliantly taken goal at Spurs was his sixth of the season and meant that he has already doubled his tally from Fulham’s previous campaign in the top-flight (in 2020-21).
Ostracised by Scott Parker then, there is no doubt that the Serbian is the focal point of Marco Silva’s side now; he has taken 27 shots so far, three times more than any Fulham player. The Serbian has only blanked in one match – against Wolves in Gameweek 2 – and it could have been a different story had he scored rather than missed his penalty.
Price: £6.8m Points: 39 Gameweek 8 fixture: Nottingham Forest (a)
Harry Kane (Spurs)
Harry Kane didn’t have his best game against Sporting in midweek, but he has started the Premier League season in decent enough form, scoring five goals in his first six appearances. Only Haaland (with 67 points) and Brentford’s Ivan Toney (45) have outscored Kane (40) among forwards to this point.
Kane’s upcoming opponents Leicester have been abysmal at the back so far and have historically struggled to shackle the England skipper: Kane has scored 17 times in 14 Premier League meetings with the Foxes.
Price: £11.4m Points: 40 Gameweek 8 fixture: Leicester (h)
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