Steem Fantasy Premier League - Gameweek 4 Overview

Gameweek 4 was again a low-scoring gameweek with an average score of 44 points. It was a gameweek when many Åhighly owned players didn’t turn up. For example the most transferred in player before gw 4, Walcott (6.8m), got injured before the hour mark against Huddersfield and managed only 1 point. Other popular players like Zaha (7.1m) (30% ownership) got injured on Fridays training and didn’t play, Mkhitaryan (7.2m ) (20%) was benched and played only 1 minute against Cardiff while the player with highest ownership, Salah (13.0m) (52%) blanked and was again outscored by his attacking colleague Mane (9.9m) against Leicester.

If this was a frustrating gameweek for us managers it could become worse. When we are back from the International break in two weeks time Champions League, Europa League and Cups games starts to roll on and we will have to accept there will be more rotations, injuries, suspensions and underperforming players that will upset us. In his Press Conference before the Leicester game Liverpool manager Klopp talked about the upcoming period and the need of rotation in his team. You just have look at Liverpool’s fixtures in the upcoming weeks, before next International break, to understand that he’s not joking and that almost every player in Liverpool (and also other “bigger teams”) will be rotated at some point:

15.9 Tottenham(A)
18.9 PSG (H)
22.9 Southampton (H)
25.9 Chelsea (H)
29.9 Chelsea (A)
3.10 Napoli (A)
7.10 Manchester City (H)

One burning question for many FPL managers is now to wildcard or not to wildcard. Between gw3 and gw4 268 000 wildcards were already played and a bad gameweek, with several players not performing, before a break usually means a lot of wildcards. My own team is really starting to look like a wildcard team and though I managed an okey gameweek I have thought about wildcarding. I haven’t pulled the WC trigger yet and will try to stay cool and save it for later when I need it even more.

What did we learn from gameweek 4:

Romelu Lukaku doesn’t seem to like being ignored by FPL managers. Only owned by 6.8% of the teams he decided to score two goals in Manchester United’s victory over Burnley. Lukaku was a treath to the Burnley defense throughout the game and could easily have scored more goals. No Premier League forward has had more shots on target or penalty box touches than Lukaku after 4 games and only Callum Wilson (£6.2m) has had more “big chances” this season. Lukaku seems to be one of the more “nailed” picks up front and his ownership will for sure start to increase from this on.

Wat“the f**k”ford? Watford took their fourth win out of four when they defeated Spurs at home on Sunday. Jose Holebas (4.7m) registered another two assists and is now second behind the OUTSTANDING Alonso with 34 points. Holebas has delivered more successful crosses and created more chances this season than any other defender. And this is nothing new for the 34 year old the Greek left-back. Last season he was also on top when it came to “attempted crosses” for defenders. If you are looking for value for money you should definitely consider Holebas because currently he is providing better value than any other player with 7.2 points per million spent.

Mané vs. Salah
The discussion about owning Salah or Mané or both will continue over the break. After Salah’s blank and Mané’s fourth goal of the season this week some managers have for sure started to think about a life without Salah int their team. Liverpool has got quite tough upcoming fixtures ( Liverpool players, at least attackers, should be fixture proof) and owning them both at a total price of 23m is maybe too much. Underlying numbers for the two players suggests that the Egyptian has been unlucky not to have scored more this season while Mané is “overperforming” with a score of 9.8p per game. If he would continue this form over 38 gameweeks he would smash the all-time FPL high score record (303 set by Salah last season) with nearly 70 points (372 points). My feeling is that this won’t happen and that Salah will start to outscore him soon, but you never know.

Alonso is outstanding at the moment. 1 assist and a clean sheet against Bournemouth means he has now scored 44 points. His ownership has increased to above 35% and it’s still counting. His high price has put some managers off but even if he can’t continue to score in this way forever he looks good value for money. His manager was also impressed after the game:

“Alonso, at the moment, this position at left-back is maybe the best in Europe. Physical qualities at a top level, I think. He’s doing very well in the offensive phase. But I also think he can improve in the defensive phase. If he improves that, he could be the best left-back in the world.” – Maurizio Sarri

Beside Watford there are only three teams that still have a 100 % record this season. These teams are Liverpool, Chelsea and West Ham. (Sorry West Ham fans, but I just couldn’t resist!)

Gameweek 4 results:

LEICESTER CITY 1-2 LIVERPOOL
Goals: Rachid Ghezzal (£5.3m) | Sadio Mané (£9.9m), Roberto Firmino (£9.5m)
Assists: James Maddison (£6.5m) | Andrew Robertson (£6.1m), James Milner (£5.6m)

BRIGHTON 2-2 FULHAM
Goals: Glenn Murray x2 (£6.5m) | Andre Schürrle (£5.9m), Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.6m)
Assists: Anthony Knockaert (£5.5m) | Jean Michael Seri (£5.4m)

CHELSEA 2-0 BOURNEMOUTH
Goals: Pedro (£6.7m), Eden Hazard (£10.6m)
Assists: Olivier Giroud (£7.9m), Marcos Alonso (£6.7m)

EVERTON 1-1 HUDDERSFIELD TOWN
Goals: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.4m) | Philip Billing (£4.5m)
Assists: Lucas Digne (£4.8m) | Chris Löwe (£4.5m)

CRYSTAL PALACE 0-2 SOUTHAMPTON
Goals: Danny Ings (£5.6m), Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (4.4m)
Assists: Cédric Soares (£4.5m), Matt Targett (4.4m)

West Ham United 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Goal: Adama Traore (£5.5m)
Assist: Leo Bonatini (£4.9m)

Manchester City 2-1 Newcastle United
Goals: Raheem Sterling (£11.0m), Kyle Walker (£6.5m) | DeAndre Yedlin (£4.5m)
Assists: Benjamin Mendy (£6.4m), Sergio Aguero (£11.3m) | Salomon Rondon (£5.9m)

Cardiff City 2-3 Arsenal
Goals: Victor Camarasa (£4.5m), Danny Ward (£4.5m) | Shkodran Mustafi (£5.4m), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.9m), Alexandre Lacazette (£9.4m)
Assists: Joe Bennett (£4.5m), Sean Morrison (£5.0m) | Granit Xhaka (£5.4m), Alexandre Lacazette, Lucas Torreira (£4.9m)

Burnley 0-2 Manchester United
Goals: Romelu Lukaku x2 (£11.0m)
Assists: Alexis Sanchez (£10.2m)

Watford 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Goals: Craig Cathcart (£4.5m), Troy Deeney (£6.0m) | Abdoulaye Doucoure (£6.0m) own-goal
Assists: Jose Holebas x2 (£4.7m) | Lucas Moura (£7.2m)

Tony Coppen, manager of the team “Luke know nuffink”, is the world #1 after 4 gameweeks. He has gone ALL IN with his chips and has now used them all (Bench Boost, Wildcard, Free Hit and Triple Captain). His chips have turned out pretty well. In gameweek 4 he putted his triple captain armband on Aguero who “only” scored 6 points (18p as TC). But for how long can he keep his 15 points lead and the #1 position? Maybe this strategy is something worth to try another year? Is anyone else tempted to play all your chips in the first few gameweeks in hope of becoming world number one for a short time?

In our Steem Fantasy League we have a new leader in ”Writingamigos” who scored 64 points with his well balanced team with following players: Ederson (2p), Mendy (C) (10p), Alonso (9p), Robertson (5p), Van Anholt (1p), Pedro (6p), Shurrle (7p), Mkhitaryan (1p), Mané (10p), Firmino (7p), Aguero (6p). The overall score of 286 is enough for place 35,020 overall.

Current League Table

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