FPL Fixture Focus: Should we invest in Tottenham assets?
Recent transfers now mean that four Tottenham players are over 40% owned in the top 10k. These are their best FPL assets.
Tottenham form
Once Antonio Conte arrived in north London, Tottenham went unbeaten for his first nine league matches. Then things went a bit ‘Spursy’.
Their loss at Chelsea was compounded by home defeats to Southampton and Wolves, shortly followed by defeat to Burnley. Yet the only win in that five-game period was away at champions Man City!
Since then, things have settled down slightly. Four wins from five, 16 goals and three clean sheets. Furthermore, the impact of new signing Dejan Kulusevski, combined with the nostalgia trip of Matt Doherty and return of the real Harry Kane, has made Spurs assets highly investable in recent weeks.
Over 6.39 million FPL transfers have went on these three plus Son Heung-min over the past four Gameweeks. In fact, 4.45m have occurred just for Gameweeks 29 and 30, where Spurs followed a Double Gameweek by being one of only eight sides to play last weekend.
Tottenham fixtures
Using the Fantasy Football Scout Season Ticker, it’s a sea of beautiful blue fixtures for Spurs. Ranked in terms of difficulty, their run is deemed the best from sides without a Double Gameweek 33. Even then, whilst managers are judging whether it’s really worth investing in Burnley, Newcastle and Southampton’s dual outings, Tottenham are at home to Brighton.
There’s also one more match that still needs rearraning – hosting Arsenal in the north London derby.
Interestingly, Conte’s side won six of the reverse fixtures against these nine opponents, losing to the Gunners and Burnley.
FPL assets
The great thing about this Premier League season is that everything looks like it’ll be decided late on. That includes the race for fourth place, where Arsenal are currently in the lead with an extra game to play but Spurs and Man United are close by.
Because they are out of all other competitions, Conte is less likely to rotate Doherty and Kulusevski. He has found a winning line-up. A problem for FPL managers is not being able to have all four due to the three-per-team limit.
Former Wolves wing-back Doherty was handed a rare start in Gameweek 27 and ended with an 18-point haul. So he has now started five successive matches that have resulted in a goal, three assists and three clean sheets.
Although Son offered a timely reminder of his elite-level reliability by netting twice against West Ham – his 13 goals are more than all FPL forwards – Kulusevski is matching him statistically but for £4.6m less.
This table shows goal threat during their last seven matches, from Gameweek 26. Here, Kulusevski (£6.3m) beats Son (£10.9m) for attempts, shots in the box and penalty area touches.
Kulusevski also tops Kane for the latter. There seems to be a myth that Kane’s return to form is because he is in the box more often and not dropping back as much.
However, despite 65.2% of shots in the box (Gameweeks 26-30) being slightly better than 61.4% (Gameweeks 3-25), his penalty area touches per game has actually dropped from 5.5 to 4.0.
Still, it’s hard to ignore the brilliant form that has brought seven goals and four assists during his last seven outings. A shout out should also be given to the other wing-back, Sergio Reguilon. Previously a popular buy, he seemingly lost his place to Ryan Sessegnon but the latter’s injury has brought the Spaniard back into proceedings. He offers great attacking threat.
Community chatter
So yes, invest in Spurs assets. Already the most prolific goal combination in Premier League history, Son and Kane added two more last Sunday.
Meanwhile, FPL Editor is getting nostalgic about Doherty’s first full Premier League season. A £4.5m starting price, four goals and seven assists.
