What fixtures do the best FPL attackers have after the World Cup?
Premier League football returns eight days after the World Cup final. Let’s see what is in store for this season’s best FPL attackers.
All teams have played either 14 or 15 matches so far. The main stories are Arsenal’s five-point lead, Newcastle thrusting themselves into Champions League contention and the declining relationship between Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United.
Meanwhile, Fulham are up in ninth, West Ham are sliding towards the bottom and Roberto De Zerbi replaced Chelsea’s Graham Potter as Brighton boss.
In FPL, Manchester City duo Erling Haaland (£12.2m) and Kevin De Bruyne (£12.6m) are dominant. Yet the highest-scoring midfielder is Newcastle’s Miguel Almiron (£5.8m), whose initial price was just £5.0m.
Harry Kane (£11.6m) is one of two to exceed 100 points, while the supposedly underwhelming campaign of Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) still sees him as third-best in midfield.
When looking at the best team attacks, Man City, Arsenal, Newcastle and Spurs dominate. Liverpool are up there too, although a third of their 28 goals came in the early 9-0 win over Bournemouth.
Using Fantasy Football Scout’s Members Area, we can see which teams have bagged the most goals, shots and expected goals (xG).
Of course, not all have played the same number of matches – Newcastle have appeared twice more than Brighton, for example.
UPCOMING FIXTURES
Scout’s ‘Season Ticker’ allows you to not only rank fixture runs by difficulty but focus solely on defence or attack. So this is what shows up when ordering the next eight matches by attacking difficulty:
Here, the red boxes highlight the best attacks up to this point. The ticker believes that, like in yesterday’s look at the defences, Brighton and Man City hit the sweet spot of being strong going forward and having mostly good fixtures.
BEST FPL ATTACKERS
Unlimited free transfers can be made during this World Cup break, representing a great chance to nail down a long-term spine to your team.
Whilst the now-recovered Haaland becomes essential again and sits in 98% of top 100k teams, there is the ongoing debate about whether Phil Foden (£8.3m) can match De Bruyne’s output for a lot less money. Three consecutive league benchings have tainted him for many managers, as trying to guess Pep Guardiola is dangerous.
There’ll be a similar debate at Liverpool once injuries clear up after the World Cup. Will the returning competition of Luis Diaz (£7.8m) and Diogo Jota (£8.8m) limit the minutes of forward Darwin Nunez (£9.0m)? Or can one of these get the regular game time to effectively cover Salah?
At Spurs, perhaps the now-fit Dejan Kulusevski (£8.0m) is a more-balanced way to get into Spurs’ attack. Only De Bruyne has more assists than the Swede throughout 2022. Star man Kane has blanked just twice in his last 14 outings and deserves higher ownership than 27% but managers likely fear that having a top-heavy team with both him and Haaland will then limit their midfield options.
Across north London, table-topping Arsenal possess three of the top ten midfielders. Template pick Gabriel Martinelli (£6.8m) is joined on 77 points by Martin Odegaard (£6.4m), with Bukayo Saka (£8.0m) just behind. It’s a surprise to see them with a good ticker rank when inspecting their upcoming fixtures one by one. Besides this, forward Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m) is goalless in six games and one booking away from suspension.
Brighton are an attacking team about to face the likes of Southampton, Everton and Bournemouth. Leandro Trossard (£7.1m) is the fourth-best midfielder but strangely seems to save his goals for facing the ‘big six’. He scored a hat-trick at Liverpool, once at Man City and again versus Chelsea.
Elsewhere, Almiron has been a revelation in recent weeks by averaging 8.88 points over the last eight matches. Team-mate Callum Wilson (£7.4m) shares the same good fixtures but always feels close to another injury.
It was nice to see Leicester’s James Maddison (£8.2m) force himself into Gareth Southgate’s World Cup squad after producing 11 goal involvements in 13 matches – his fixtures turn nice at Gameweek 19.
Then there’s Leeds, whose last two encounters have seen them on both sides of 4-3 thrillers. A shock win at Liverpool preceded those, as did a 3-2 loss to Fulham. Incredibly, midfielders Rodrigo (£6.3m) and Crysencio Summerville (£4.4m) both scored on all four occasions.
Does this keep the latter in the starting XI ahead of Luis Sinisterra (£6.5m)? It would quickly make him a must-have asset.
