Welcome back for another article. 📖
Who are the best players to buy for GW21? It's a really short turnaround this week so players to buy is out a day earlier, tomorrow will be Team Selection and The Experts before the Tuesday deadline. ⏰
🧤 Goalkeepers
Goalkeepers first and top of the table is Pickford, on 4.0 points as Everton host Wolves. Have Wolves turned a corner or is it a West Ham asterisk? Everton's longer term fixtures are great either way, after Wolves home it's Villa away which won't be easy, but then it's Leeds home, Brighton, Fulham, Bournemouth, Man Utd, Newcastle, Burnley.
Though something worth weighing up is whether he's worth 5.6m, only Raya and Donnarumma cost more, and 5.6m buys you Tarkowski who has the defcon potential and a chance of a goal involvement. If I were buying any keeper this week it would actually be Sanchez, Chelsea have got the best fixtures in the league for a while - Fulham away, Brentford home, Palace away, West Ham home, Wolves away, Leeds home, Burnley home. He wasn't in the Chelsea squad vs Man City but he's reportedly back for GW21. 🔵
Unfortunate timing with the Maresca situation though - that's the only thing with Sanchez and Chelsea assets in general, it's an unknown how things will play out over that run. Things could only worsen or maybe whoever comes in gets a tune out of Chelsea and they are the next big ahead of the curve team to invest in. 📉
Despite facing Liverpool next Raya is joint third on the table with Donnarumma and Pope for GW21, and top of all keepers for the next 5. The lack of clean sheets lately has been a massive frustration though, extremely good defensive numbers but Arsenal have been finding ways to concede, not helped by Gabriel last match though he did redeem himself. On that note let's talk defenders next.
Just a quick look at the fixture ticker - who's got the best fixture run from a defensive perspective? 📊
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Arsenal remain top for the next 6 gameweeks.
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Man City in second.
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Chelsea third.
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Everton fourth.
So that lends weight to City defenders, maybe Sanchez or a Chalobah, and of course Pickford or Tarkowski. Palace are actually fifth, I'd love to get Munoz back in the team as soon as he returns from that knee injury. He should be back in a couple of weeks. Newcastle have a couple of good options, Hall and Thiaw are my favourite of the defenders, Pope is back in the team now too though he's 5.1, Sanchez looks better here. 🏃♂️
🛡️ Defenders
So Gabriel lays it off to Evanilson who puts the ball in an open Arsenal net, only to score at the other end a few minutes later to make it goals in back to back games since his return. He's got as many league goals as Pedro Neto with 20. Gabriel becomes the first defender to pass 100 points, despite only 13 of 20 possible starts. He's fourth on the table this week facing Liverpool, given the fixture he's not a must own by any means but if you're a fed up non-owner and just want him in for peace of mind fair enough. 🔴
It's Tarkowski topping the table this week on 4.9 points, then Collins, then Thiaw. Newcastle are starting to get some of their injury absentees back and he looks fantastic for exactly 5m, they've got Leeds home, Wolves away as their next 2 as well. Man City are home to Brighton which is another notable fixture, though both Gvardiol and Ruben went off injured last match and Pep says they'll be out for GW22.
As far as the cheaper guys 4.5m and under, Mukiele is top of them all on 17.7 points, Van Den Berg is on 16.3 though his spot in the starting 11 is a bit iffy right now given Ajer's form plus Collins in the picture. If you can stretch to 4.8m Cash looks great, extremely attacking - we were talking about him on the deadline stream, got an assist so still a solid 5 pointer despite conceding last match, and if you look at Villa's fixtures they're basically all good especially the home fixtures. Their run of home fixtures are Everton, Brentford, Brighton, Leeds. Plus Palace and Wolves away in that run. 🦁