The Brighton and Newcastle double gameweek
Gameweek 36 preview
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest edition of Fantasy Gameweek. This is Gameweek 36 and it is a double for Brighton and Newcastle United. There are just three weeks to go until the end of the season and there is a fascinating mix of fixtures this week - it is an opportunity to make up ground in your mini-league or consolidate your position at the top. A reminder that next week - Gameweek 37 - involves two matches for Brighton, Chelsea, Man City and Man United.
The deadline for transfers and changes to your team this week is 11am UK time on Saturday. These are the fixtures…
As you can see the fixtures for Brighton are tricky - Arsenal away and Newcastle away - while Newcastle face Leeds away and Brighton home. Many FPL teams already have three Brighton players but an injury to Solly March (MID, £5.3m) and a 5-1 home defeat to Everton in Gameweek 35 means the outlook for Roberto De Zerbi’s team is more uncertain than it was a week ago.
For Newcastle, Kieran Trippier (DEF, £6.1m) is in 66 per cent of Fantasy Premier League teams but has not delivered more than two points in a match since Gameweek 29, eight matches ago. At one point this season Trippier looked the most reliable defender available in FPL and would have been a captaincy contender in a double gameweek for Newcastle - but that is no longer the case. Newcastle have only kept one clean sheet in their last 14 matches and Trippier only has two assists and no goals in that period too. In contrast, Tottenham’s Pedro Porro (DEF, £4.8m) has two goals, two assists and two clean sheets over the same period. But he is in just 1 per cent of teams. Trent Alexander-Arnold (DEF, £7.7m), meanwhile, has delivered returns - either an assist or clean sheet - in his last seven matches.
There are far more attractive captaincy options than Trippier. These include Erling Haaland (FWD, £12.4m), of course, although Haaland only has one match this week - Everton away - and could be rested ahead of the second leg of Man City’s Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid.
Mo Salah (MID, £13.1m) is nailed-on to start and has 56 points over the last six gameweeks, which is exactly the same as Haaland, although the Man City striker has played one game less. Liverpool play away to Leicester this week, a team who just conceded five to Fulham and haven’t kept a clean sheet since Gameweek 16.
Don’t forget Harry Kane (FWD, £11.4m) too. The Tottenham forward has 44 points since Gameweek 30, also from one game less than Salah. Kane has delivered returns in eight out of his last nine matches and is only 10 points away from recording his best-ever points total in an FPL season - a reflection of the brilliant season he has had, even if the England striker has been overshadowed by Haaland. Tottenham travel to Aston Villa this week.
Newcastle’s Callum Wilson (FWD, £7.1m) and Alexander Isak (FWD, £7m) are the other obvious contenders for the armband. Wilson has eight goals in Newcastle’s last eight matches - including five in the last four - but has only played more than 45 minutes in three of those eight matches. Isak, meanwhile, has recorded a goal or assist in five of the last eight Newcastle matches he has started. However, he has been rested for Newcastle’s last two midweek matches. In other words, both players have big potential but are subject to rotation.
According to Impect, our data partner, Haaland has been the most effective attacking player in the Premier League since Gameweek 30 on the basis of its Offensive Impect Metric. Kevin De Bruyne (MID, £12.2m) is second and Wilson third. Salah, meanwhile, is top for expected goals - xG - ahead of Haaland and Ivan Toney (FWD, £7.3m). Wilson is eighth in that list and Kane 12th, with Isak much further down. Interestingly, Wilson moves up to third when you look at post-shot xG, which takes into account the quality of the shot. That is behind Haaland, the runaway leader, and Salah. In other words - Haaland, Salah and Wilson are the leading contenders to be your captain this week.
These are the most transferred-in players ahead of Gameweek 36…
And these are the top transfers out…
There are no risers and fallers in this edition as Tom is away for a well-deserved holiday, so let’s get into the rankings….
Rankings
There are some key performance indicators from Impect, our data partner. The rankings are based on data from December 26, the first gameweek after the World Cup, and each player must have played at least 20 per cent of the minutes available since then to be included.
Offensive Impect - overall attacking effectiveness
Erling Haaland - 100
Harry Kane - 99.6
Kevin De Bruyne - 99.2
Callum Wilson - 98.8
Ollie Watkins - 98.4
Leandro Trossard - 98
Mo Salah - 97.6
Marcus Rashford - 97.1
Alexander Isak - 96.7
Diogo Jota - 96.3
Bypassed defenders - how many opposition defenders a player takes out of the game with their play, including passing and dribbling
Kevin De Bruyne - 13
Trent Alexander-Arnold - 12
Bruno Fernandes - 11
Christian Eriksen - 11
Alex Iwobi - 9
Casemiro - 9
Kieran Trippier - 9
Youri Tielemans - 9
Ilkay Gundogan - 8
Pascal Gross - 8
Post-shot xG - quality of chances and quality of shot
Erling Haaland - 12.8
Ollie Watkins - 11.69
Harry Kane - 10.87
Mo Salah - 10.35
Marcus Rashford - 8.78
Alexis Mac Allister - 7.54
Ivan Toney - 7.48
Alexander Isak - 7.37
Kaoru Mitoma - 6.9
James Ward-Prowse - 6.55
Offensive Impect, defenders only
Trent Alexander-Arnold - 100
Lewis Dunk - 98.1
Adam Webster - 97.2
Kieran Trippier - 95.3
Levi Colwill - 94.3
Ben White - 93.4
Luke Shaw - 92.5
Joel Veltman - 91.5
Pedro Porro - 90.6
Nathan Ake - 89.6
FGPE index
Finally, let’s look at our updated FGPE index. This measures how Premier League players rank by value and upside in FPL. Our FGPE algorithm calculates a score for each player based on their points-per-million each week and their points total relative to other players. Jason Steele (GK, £4m) still leads the way but his performance is slightly skewed because the sample size is smaller - he has started just ten matches. The position of Wilson and Isak in this list shows you want one of the Newcastle forwards - or both if possible - for Gameweek 36…
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading. Best of luck in Gameweek 36. Please share Fantasy Gameweek with those you think will find it useful