The first international break of the season, while unpopular, does give Fantasy Premier League managers an opportunity to take stock of the opening weeks and assess what has or hasn’t gone well to date.
Similarly to the clubs themselves, the two-week hiatus can either come at a good or bad time for your FPL team depending on how it is performing. If you’ve not got off to a flying start don’t worry about it; there are plenty more gameweeks to come, after all.
The majority of FPL managers will have gone into the international period in reasonable shape, though, considering Gameweek 4 had an average score of 72 points, the highest of the campaign so far.
It is clear that attacks are outperforming defences at this early stage. There were 41 goals scored in Gameweek 4, while only two of the 20 clubs kept a clean sheet. It will be interesting to see whether that trend continues or if managers have been able to iron out some defensive kinks during the last fortnight.
Until we see any evidence of the latter, attack remains the best form of defence. With so many midfielders in good form and so few forwards offering much consistency, a 3-5-2 formation looks to be the optimal one to use right now.
i‘s top three scorers in Gameweek 4
- Erling Haaland – 20 points vs Fulham: One of three players to score a hat-trick in Gameweek 4 and comfortably the most predictable to do so. Haaland also grabbed an assist to rack up his biggest score this season.
- Julian Alvarez – 14 points vs Fulham: A goal and assist in the same game took Alvarez into second place in the top-scoring forwards charts behind his strike partner. Doubling up on City’s front two looks increasingly
- Eberechi Eze – 8 points vs Wolves: Our faith in Eze was rewarded as he finally got off the mark for the season with a well-taken goal against Wolves. Eze has taken at least five more shots than any other midfielder and remains a solid pick for the foreseeable future.
During the interval we also received confirmation of the first double gameweek of the season: Luton will play Everton at Goodison Park and Burnley will face Newcastle at St James’ Park, before the two meet at Kenilworth Road in Gameweek 7.
Considering neither side has picked up a point yet it isn’t worth prioritising your transfers over the next few weeks to get their players in. Having said that, taking a short-term punt on either Carlton Morris (£5.5m) or Lyle Foster (£5m) might be worthwhile.
This week’s deadline is at 11am on Saturday:
Gameweek 5 fixtures
Saturday 16 September
- Wolves vs Liverpool
- Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace
- Fulham vs Luton
- Man Utd vs Brighton
- Tottenham vs Sheffield United
- West Ham vs Man City
- Newcastle vs Brentford
Sunday 17 September
- Bournemouth vs Chelsea
- Everton vs Arsenal
Monday 18 September
- Nottingham Forest vs Burnley
Bernd Leno (Fulham)
Fulham shipped five goals in their previous Premier League game but they were A) playing against Manchester City at the Etihad and B) without midfield anchor Joao Palhinha, who was in the process of returning head bowed from Munich after his move to Bayern collapsed.
This weekend they face Luton and will have the influential Palhinha back which will make them far harder to break down. Bernd Leno looks to have as good a chance as anyone of keeping a clean sheet in Gameweek 4 and is a reliable supplier of save points too having made the most stops (with 22) of any keeper.
Price: £4.6m Points: 19 Gameweek 5 fixture: Luton (h)
Matty Cash (Aston Villa)
Aston Villa have either been extremely impressive or deeply unimpressive so far this season: Unai Emery’s side have won two games at an aggregate score of 7-1 and lost two games by an aggregate score of 8-1. They have an encouraging run of games coming up, however, so investing in their squad is a reasonable thing to do.
Matty Cash looks like the pick of their defenders after scoring twice already, with both goals coming against Burnley in Gameweek 3. The right-back ranks top among all defenders for shots (with nine), shots on target (five) and big chances (three) and xG (1.86).
Price: £4.7m Points: 21 Gameweek 5 fixture: Crystal Palace (h)
Pedro Porro (Spurs)
Destiny Udogie is the safer pick given his lack of competition, but Pedro Porro arguably has the higher upside of Tottenham’s full-backs. The Spain international looks well capable of providing attacking returns in every game he plays having created two big chances and fired off seven shots in only three appearances.
Sheffield United have recorded the lowest expected goals (xG) of any team in the division to have played four games, which should help Tottenham’s chances of keeping a third clean sheet.
Price: £5m Points: 23 Gameweek 5 fixture: Sheffield United (h)
Levi Colwill (Chelsea)
An expensive midfield plus Erling Haaland has meant we’ve had to make compromises in defence to fit into the weekly £83m budget, which is why Levi Colwill rather than Ben Chilwell is selected from Chelsea’s defence.
We’re backing Chilwell to come good this weekend having been statistically the biggest underperformer in defence so far, but Colwill is a decent pick too. The centre-back has had four shots on goal and created three chances in his first four appearances.
Price: £4.5m Points: 11 Gameweek 5 fixture: Bournemouth (a)
Son Heung-min (Spurs)
Son Heung-min’s spectacular hat-trick against Burnley has caught the attention of FPL bosses with the South Korean currently the most bought player ahead of Saturday’s deadline. It was a ruthless display of finishing from Tottenham’s skipper, with Son converting all three of his efforts on target at Turf Moor.
Although Son went eight games without a goal after netting a hat-trick against Leicester last season, a repeat seems unlikely given he is playing in a much more attacking team. And not only that but he is starting up front and is likely to be on penalty-taking duty following Harry Kane’s departure.
Price: £9.1m Points: 28 Gameweek 5 fixture: Sheffield United (h)
Andreas Pereira (Fulham)
A hugely popular pick in FPL last season on account of his £4.5m price tag, Andreas Pereira is currently selected by just one per cent of managers after coming in £1m more expensive. Given the competition in midfield that is hardly surprising, but he has still made a decent start to the campaign with a goal and assist in his first four matches.
Pereira’s stats admittedly aren’t great – according to Fantasy Football Fix he has outperformed his expected FPL points by almost seven due to having only two shots and creating three chances to get his two attacking returns – but he has a plum fixture next.
Price: £5.5m Points: 15 Gameweek 5 fixture: Luton (h)
Martin Odegaard (Arsenal)
Has Martin Odegaard now usurped Bukayo Saka as Arsenal’s strongest attacking option? There is certainly a case to be made in favour of the Norwegian. Saka outperformed Odegaard by nine points last season, but two of his 14 goals were penalties.
The pair have each taken and scored a penalty apiece so far this season, but it was Odegaard rather than Saka, who had the ball in his hands against Manchester United before Anthony Taylor controversially changed his decision to award a spot-kick for a foul on Kai Havertz.
Price: £8.5m Points: 22 Gameweek 5 fixture: Everton (a)
Mo Salah (Liverpool)
Now that we all know Mo Salah is definitely staying at Liverpool until January at least, he certainly becomes a more appealing option in FPL. Liverpool’s main man is yet to produce a double-digit haul in 2023-24 which is disappointing given his price tag, but he is also yet to blank having registered a goal or assist in all four appearances.
Salah hasn’t been as prolific in front of goal as we’ve grown used to, but the underlying numbers are promising. Salah ranks second among midfielders for shots (behind Eberechi Eze), shots on target (behind James Maddison) and big chances (behind Bryan Mbeumo).
Price: £12.5m Points: 23 Gameweek 5 fixture: Wolves (a)
James Maddison (Spurs)
Despite playing away from home in three of their opening four matches, Spurs are the second-highest scoring team (along with Manchester City) for goals scored, netting 11 in total, with only Brighton (12 goals) bettering their efforts. Meanwhile, their opponents this weekend have conceded at least once in each of their games so far.
Doubling up on the Spurs attack looks like a good idea and James Maddison is the obvious one to pick alongside Son after scoring two goals and registering two assists for his new club. The Blades have also shown vulnerability from set-pieces which could work in Maddison’s favour: no team has conceded more shots from dead balls (15) than them.
Price: £7.8m Points: 29 Gameweek 5 fixture: Sheffield United (h)
Taiwo Awoniyi (Nottingham Forest)
Taiwo Awoniyi’s goalscoring streak may have come to an end at Stamford Bridge, but Nottingham Forest’s No 9 still caused havoc and helped himself to an assist for Anthony Elanga’s match-winner. He was back on the scoresheet in the international break too, netting in Nigeria’s 6-0 win over Sao Tome and Principe.
Awoniyi has scored nine goals over the past eight gameweeks (including the final four of 2022-23) which is two more than any other player. Fewer than five per cent of managers have him in their teams, and with Forest facing the division’s leakiest side next, he could be a great differential in Gameweek 5.
Price: £6.6m Points: 25 Gameweek 5 fixture: Burnley (h)
Erling Haaland (Man City)
The return of the Champions League may pose problems to FPL managers when it comes to their Manchester City assets given Pep Guardiola’s penchant to rotate. But given the form West Ham have shown this season you’d expect Guardiola to prioritise the league fixture with City hosting Red Star Belgrade in midweek.
That’s a lot of words to say Erling Haaland will definitely play this weekend and you’re all going to pick him anyway. Given his ownership of 91 per cent, he will undoubtedly be the most captained player again, however, this could be a week to entrust someone else with the armband. If you’re brave enough.
Price: £14.1m Points: 39 Gameweek 5 fixture: West Ham (a)
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