Dilemmas of the Week - GW 3 (26/27)

 

Only a few new injury issues this week, it seems. We have been remarkably fortunate so far - compared to most recent seasons. (There have been two or three occasions when I've been forced to use my Wildcard only a few weeks in because I'd lost so many players to early injuries!!) 

For some years, I have found the 'Injuries & Bans' summary on Fantasy Football Scout the most reliable resource for this kind of information; although this site, Premier League Injuries, is a very good alternative (often a little quicker to update, I think - though it did go through a bit of a glitchy period for a while last year).  Go check these out for more comprehensive coverage. 

The Fantasy Premier League site itself now has a 'Player Availability' page (though hidden under 'The Scout' tab?!). That also seems to be reasonably comprehensive and up-to-date, but god knows how it's supposed to be 'organised' - maybe by 'date of injury'? Obviously, arranging it by club and alphabetical order would be more sensible; but the denizens of FPL Towers seem to have a deep aversion to the sensible.

I've recently discovered this additional resource, the weekly Predicted Lineups from Fantasy Football Edits. My longtime standby for this sort of news, Fantasy Footall Scout, does usually provide some explanatory commentary on its predictions, even including reminders of the key injury concerns, and sometimes also some discussion of possible alternate selections; so, if you like a bit more detail with your 'probable lineups' for the week, that could still be the preferable roundup to look at. But because FPL Edits is so stripped-down, it's rather more straightforwardly accessible, easier to scan through quickly; and I think it's also perhaps a tad more reliable with its expected formations and lineups, and a little quicker to update.

So, what are the conundrums we face ahead of Gameweek 3?

Does anybody need to be moved out because of injury?

Brentford's Matthias Jensen missed the game against Leeds last week because of a minor knock picked up in training, and still seems to be a doubt. Ditto Yasin Ayari of Brighton.

Jean-Philippe Mateta has injured a hamstring, and is set to be out for at least a month.

Joe Rodon had to come off against Brentford with a hamstring problem which appears to be quite serious and could sideline him for 2-3 months (probably meaning that new signing Nico Elvedi will get an immediate start).

Sunderland's Habib Diarra became yet another hamstring victim against Fulham last week, and it's projected he will miss 6-8 weeks.

Spurs's new signing Savinho made a brief appearance for them in the League Cup win over Charlton last week, but was then unable to feature against Newcastle at the weekend because of 'muscle soreness'; didn't sound too bad, so he might be available again to face Forest this weekend.

Do we have any players who are dropped, or not looking likely to get the starts we hoped for?

Villa's Joao Gomes is serving the second part of a three-match 'violent conduct' ban for getting himself sent off in the opening game.

It seems unlikely that very late signings who've changed clubs this week - most notably, perhaps, Illiman Ndiaye and Daniel Munoz - will get an immediate start; although I suspect that Jack Grealish and Enzo Fernandez might.

I did a rundown yesterday of the most interesting moves in this year's transfer window.

Did anyone give other cause to consider dropping them?

Spurs are looking an absolute shit-show, and all of their players have to be avoided until further notice.

Coventry, Fulham, and Palace aren't much better at the moment (although at least Palace managed to hang on to Adam Wharton, so perhaps their prospects this season won't be that grim).

The Christos Tzolis 'bubble' has dramatically burst this week, after his disappointing Monday night performance and half-time benching against Villa. Nearly 475,000 managers have baled on him this week. That seems a harsh overreaction to me. I never thought he was worth having in the first place (he's the same price as Odegaard, for heaven's sake!); but if you did, you shouldn't lose faith in him after one game!

Did anyone play so well, you have to consider bringing them in immediately?

Bruno Fernandes, of course, produced what might be the biggest FPL haul of the entire season last week against unlucky Ipswich; but that sort of outcome is always a one-off freak kind of event, and we shouldn't be expecting him to repeat returns like that very often - perhaps ever. Interestingly, he's only enjoyed a fairly small net rise in ownership this week; a remarkable 265,000 FPL managers have transferred him out! Probably most of them had decided to do that beforehand, after United's dismal opening display against Hull, and were just waiting until they got a second transfer so that they could redistribute the money from his sale more effectively; it is even possible that many of them went ahead with the transfer as soon as the gameweek deadline passed, before Bruno played his game on Sunday - and might now be suffering some seller's remorse. I said before the season started that I thought it would be impossible for Bruno to justify his price-tag this year, however well he played: there's no way he can score 1.5x as many points as the next best midfielder, or 2x as many as the best cheap midfield options. However, it is very hard to walk away from a player who's just delivered 23 points!!

Cole Palmer had a fairly subdued game against Brighton, but still managed to pop up for another outstanding goal. Joao Pedro and Morgan Rogers are looking in very dangerous form, and are attracting a lot of transfer attention (well, Pedro not so much - because everyone owns him already!). Some might hesitate to bring any of these in this week, though, since they're facing Arsenal.

Rayan Cherki has become the week's most transferred-in player, by some distance, after scoring what will probably become the 'Goal of the Season' against Palace. It is unfortunate that this 'most popular transfer' distinction almost invariably dooms a player to a poor return in the next gameweek! Moreover, there were already doubts about whether Cherki might share minutes with Phil Foden; and the arrival of Enzo Fernandez might now create further competition for that slot in the lineup.

Alex Scott of Bournemouth also had an absolutely outstanding game against Everton, and has attracted 47,000 new owners so far this week as a result; but, good as he is, he's not really the profile of midfielder to be very attractive for FPL; Rayan and Tavernier (and maybe Kluivert?) surely remain the likelier midfield picks from that club.

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!