Who are the best players to buy for GW3?
Let's take a good look at all positions. The weekend's games have given us a very significant amount of new info.
🧤 Goalkeepers
Goalkeepers table first, and it's one of Arsenal's tougher games, playing Chelsea home but Raya still tops the table and Arsenal among the favourites on the clean sheet odds. I'm looking to wildcard soon myself but will definitely be keeping an Arsenal triple up, the question is which way to do it. Konsa has fallen to 4.4, he looks like he could be an obvious pick, not that his defcon numbers will compare to Gabriel in all likelihood, or goal involvements but a ridiculously cheap route in to the best defence. Raya expensive but has a good chance of finishing the top scoring keeper, then there's Gabriel, Calafiori, Odegaard, Tzolis, Rice, Saka.
What would be your perfect Arsenal triple up with budget in mind? We're dealing with small sample sizes for a few weeks still but Brentford's 2 xG conceded ranks third best in the league, and Kelleher is second on the keepers table with 4.1 projected points, actually joint second with Donnarumma, Man City home to Coventry. Brentford home to Sunderland. Brentford's 10 shots in the box conceded is second best after Arsenal.
Suzuki is Villa's Martinez replacement, they're facing Hull in GW3 which is a favourable fixture but Villa have basically bought almost an entire new 11 so will it take time for things to click? My favourite 4.5m defender is Verbruggen and if you look at the next 5 gameweek column you can see he's actually third after Raya and Donnarumma, and significantly cheaper. And if you've already bench boosted you can pair him with Steele whenever you wildcard so you've got 1st and 2nd choice GKs covered and you're always guaranteed a keeper for the lowest possible price.
🛡️ Defenders
Defenders next and one fixture that's got to have a ton of upside is Man City home to Coventry, will talk midfielders shortly too. O'Reilly is top this week on 5.6 points, then the list is De Cuyper, Gvardiol, Gabriel, Collins, Van Dijk, Ajer and Murillo.
One difference I've noticed early on under Maresca vs Pep is that games seem to be more end to end, bit more open whereas Pep would heavily focus on total control and possession, so it may lead to fewer clean sheets but potentially more goals. Gvardiol just looks so good for 5.6m though, no clean sheets in either of the first two but a goal involvement in each of the first two games. Man City have some unbelievable home games in their next 5, Coventry home next, Sunderland home GW5, Ipswich home GW7, who just conceded 5 to Man Utd after all. Man Utd and Liverpool their away games in there.
Van Dijk on the table here, but Jacquet is one worth really considering, he's growing game by game after an injury last season and returned not long before the season kicked off. 69 mins in GW1, 76 in GW2. Ipswich away, Fulham home next.
There's some unbelievable 5m defenders this season, Muharemovic had 19 defensive contributions in GW2, Leeds are looking good. Thiaw might be my favourite 5m defender, he's on 19 projected points on FPL Review for the next 5, which is very slightly behind Gvardiol for comparison. Hall is also very good for 5m, won't hit defcon as often as Thiaw long term but has the attacking upside.
Rodon went off injured last game, who are the best cheap defenders? If you need someone short term Ajer is great, cheapest on the table this week, Ajer had 27 defensive contributions, only Egan from Hull has more this season among defenders. Bassey and Robinson for 4.5m are fine too, Dedic is also a top pick. 4.5m route in to Newcastle's defence, super attacking player, assist and clean sheet last game.