What you need to know for Gameweek 32
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Hello and welcome to Fantasy Gameweek. This is our round-up of everything you need to know for Gameweek 32 in Fantasy Premier League. It includes the news that matters, the key data from Impect, our data partner, and the risers and fallers.
The deadline for transfers and changes to your team for Gameweek 32 is 11am UK time on Saturday April 6.
Here are three key news stories this week:
-Bukayo Saka missed Arsenal’s Gameweek 31 match against Luton but should return in Gameweek 32 against Brighton, judging by comments from Mikel Arteta. More here
-Erling Haaland should also be back in Gameweek 32. He was only being rested in Gameweek 31 according to manager Pep Guardiola. More here
-Mo Salah was subbed off in the 59th minute of Liverpool’s match against Sheffield United, capping off a disappointing week for some of the most-picked players in FPL. But his substitution was tactical rather than injury-related. More here
These are the fixtures for Gameweek 32:
These are the most transferred-in players this week so far:
And these are the transfers-out:
Now for the key data from Impect, our data partner. This is what has happened in the last ten gameweeks, although please note it does not include the Thursday games from Gameweek 31 - Chelsea v Man United and Liverpool v Sheffield United
These are the top-five and bottom-five teams for xG per game - in other words, the best and worst attacks. As a reminder, xG measures the quality of chances that a team creates by attributing a score to each chance based on the likelihood of it being a goal. For example, if the chance was certain to be a goal then it would get an xG score of 1.
Best
Liverpool - 2.9
Tottenham - 2
Man City - 1.96
Arsenal - 1.94
Aston Villa - 1.84
Worst
Burnley - 1.07
Nottingham Forest - 1.11
Crystal Palace - 1.13
Sheffield United - 1.16
Brighton - 1.34
And here are the best and worst for xG per game conceded - in other words, the best and worst defences:
Best
Arsenal - 0.55
Man City - 0.99
Nottingham Forest - 1.27
Crystal Palace - 1.29
Brighton - 1.31
Worst
Newcastle - 2.27
Burnley - 2.23
West Ham - 2.12
Sheffield United - 2.09
Luton - 1.91
Moving on to the players, these are the top-10 for Offensive Impect, which measures the attacking effectiveness of a player for their team when they are on the pitch:
Ollie Watkins - 100
Phil Foden - 99.4
Bukayo Saka - 98.8
Cole Palmer - 98.2
Rodrigo Muniz - 97.6
Kai Havertz - 97
Brennan Johnson - 96.4
Heung-Min Son - 95.9
Martin Odegaard - 95.3
Danny Welbeck - 94.7
And these are the players with the highest xG:
Rodridgo Muniz - 6.27
Dominic Solanke - 6.09
Ivan Toney - 4.97
Luis Diaz - 4.95
Ollie Watkins - 4.95
Erling Haaland - 4.95
Darwin Nunez - 4.43
Phil Foden - 4.35
Brennan Johnson - 4.08
Bukayo Saka - 4.07
Next, these are the post-shot xG rankings. As a reminder, post-shot xG measures the quality of a chance after the shot has been taken, so it also takes into account the quality of the shot:
Rodrigo Muniz - 7.39
Ollie Watkins - 6.63
Phil Foden - 6.05
Luis Diaz - 4.9
Bukayo Saka - 4.31
Ivan Toney - 4.28
Rasmus Hojlund - 3.96
Kai Havertz - 3.84
Darwin Nunez - 3.79
Brennan Johnson - 3.75
Alexander Isak - 3.75
These are the top-10 players for bypassed defenders, which measures how many opposition defenders a player takes out of the game with their passing or dribbling. It is a way to track a player’s attacking influence in a game:
James Maddison - 13
Alex Iwobi - 13
Enzo Fernandez - 12
Kevin De Bruyne - 12
Casemiro - 11
Bruno Guimaraes - 11
Bruno Fernandes - 11
Cole Palmer - 11
Martin Odegaard - 11
Alexis Mac Allister - 10
Christian Norgaard - 10
Morgan Gibbs-White - 10
Lucas Paqueta - 10
Now let’s see the top-10 players for bypassed defenders receiving, which measures how many opposition defenders were taken out of the game when a player receives the ball. It measures the quality of the attacking positions that a player gets themselves in with the ball:
Dominic Calvert-Lewin - 20.9
Ollie Watkins - 20.8
Erling Haaland - 18.8
Ivan Toney - 18.3
Rodrigo Muniz - 18
Danny Welbeck - 17.5
Jean-Philippe Mateta - 17.1
David Datro Fofana - 15.8
Heung-Min Son - 14.4
Kai Havertz - 14.4
Lastly, these are the top defenders for Offensive Impect, which shows the defenders who are contributing to attacks, which is really useful to know for FPL:
Kieran Trippier - 100
Lewis Dunk - 98.6
Fabian Schar - 97.2
Malo Gusto - 95.8
Chiedozie Ogbene - 94.4
Ben White - 93.1
Gabriel - 91.7
Axel Disasi - 90.3
Jakub Kiwor - 88.9
Alfie Doughty - 87.5
Finally, let’s look at the risers and fallers…
Risers
Phil Foden (MID, £8.2m)
Phil Foden is now the second top-scoring player in FPL after bagging his second hat-trick of the campaign as Manchester City swatted aside Unai Emery’s Champions League-chasing Aston Villa 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening. Despite being a regular in arguably the best attack in the league and having his best goalscoring season to-date, Foden is still in just a third of fantasy line-ups. With the rotation risk that used to dampen the England international’s value seemingly a thing of the past, there’s no reason not to have him in your side for the run-in.
Cole Palmer (MID, £6m)
Getting excited about Euro 2024 yet? Two spectacular hat-tricks on successive evenings from two England players demonstrated the wealth of talent available to Gareth Southgate this summer. Palmer is now the fifth top-scoring player in FPL and still costs just £6m, a price that reflects the fact he started the season as a substitute at City. If you don’t have Palmer by now, you’re probably already adrift in your fantasy mini-league.
Alejandro Garnacho (MID, £4.9m)
Manchester United are in disarray but Argentinian Garnacho has been a shining light and is another bargain midfielder in FPL this season. United lost 4-3 to Chelsea on Thursday evening, conceding the latest-ever winning goal in Premier League history in the process. Despite that loss, Garnacho was exceptional, scoring twice and netting 14 FPL points in the process. What’s more, he costs just £4.9m and looks a guaranteed starter between now and the end of the campaign.
Fallers
Erling Haaland (FWD, £14.3m)
If you’re investing over £14m in a striker in FPL, you’re assuming he will start come rain or shine. Haaland’s shock benching in Gameweek 31 means he gets an automatic downgrade. The fact the Norwegian’s form has been poor by his lofty standards in recent weeks, coupled with City’s excellent performance in his absence, means there has to be a question mark over whether he’ll continue to be a line-up lock for Pep Guardiola. It is, of course, entirely possible that an angry Haaland will go berserk against Crystal Palace this weekend.
Kevin de Bruyne (MID, £10.3m)
Similarly, de Bruyne’s benching and his relatively low output when on the field means it’s hard to justify paying £10.3m to get him in your team, particularly given the plethora of attacking talent available in midfield this season.
Mohamed Salah (MID, £13.4m)
Salah’s downgrade is less dramatic but the Egyptian’s performance against Sheffield United was poor enough for Jurgen Klopp to hook him after 59 minutes, much to the chagrin of the millions of FPL managers who’d captained him against the league’s bottom side. That’s not enough to remove one of the most consistent performers in Premier League history from your line-up, but his status as a ‘must pick’ player has to be brought into question.
That’s it for this edition. Thanks for reading and good luck in Gameweek 32.
Graham and Tom
