The brand new Premier League season is upon us and which means we have to put collectively our FPL groups.
Listed below are three important gamers to incorporate when selecting your groups.
Mo Salah – £14.5m
This one may appear apparent given his spectacular season final yr however for some motive, he’s not in everybody’s crew.
Final season he broke the FPL level scoring file by over 40 factors. A file which he beforehand held from the 2017/18 season.
Everyone knows how good Salah was final season however let’s put some numbers to it.
He scored 29 targets, the subsequent highest was Isak with 23. He supplied 18 assists, the subsequent highest was Murphy with 13.
An underrated stat is that he began all 38 video games which not many forwards handle in a season.
Lastly, and most significantly, he scored 344 FPL factors. The following highest was Mbeumo with 236.
Regardless of these spectacular numbers, he’s solely in round 50% of groups presently.
One motive for that is that he has been given a worth improve and is, unsurprisingly, the costliest participant within the sport this yr.
One other is his uncharacteristically disappointing efficiency within the Neighborhood Protect towards Crystal Palace on the weekend.
No targets, no assists, no possibilities created, one missed penalty and only one shot.
Not fairly the efficiency we’d anticipate from someone that managed 47 purpose involvements in 38 video games final season.
Nonetheless, if historical past is something to go by then betting towards the Egyptian in gameweek 1 is often a really unhealthy concept.
Within the final 8 seasons, Salah’s gameweek 1 factors are:
24/25: 14 factors
23/24: 12 factors
22/23: 12 factors
21/22: 17 factors
20/21: 20 factors
19/20: 12 factors
18/19: 8 factors
17/18: 11 factors
Liverpool’s new recruits in Wirtz and Ekitike will solely increase Salah’s menace so going with out him this season shouldn’t be for the faint-hearted.
Ollie Watkins – £9.0m
Ollie Watkins has had a powerful pre-season, scoring 5 targets and offering 5 assists in Aston Villa’s friendlies.
The striker wasn’t capable of take part in pre-season final yr and he lately mentioned in an interview that he believes he’ll be capable to begin this season a lot stronger because of having a full pre-season schedule this yr.
Regardless of outsourcing Haaland in each of the final two seasons, Watkins is priced at solely £9.0m, an entire £5.0m lower than the Norwegian.
Admittedly, in a kind of seasons Haaland spent a while injured however within the different, Watkins performed fewer minutes and nonetheless managed to outscore the Man Metropolis striker.
With Rashford now not at Aston Villa this season, Watkins’ minutes needs to be safe and so they have a pleasant fixture schedule to begin the season with Sunderland and Everton of their opening six.
Cole Palmer – £10.5m
Cole Palmer was a funds gem that was in everybody’s crew within the season earlier than final when he made the transfer from Man Metropolis to Chelsea.
Regardless of having a barely disappointing finish to final season, he nonetheless completed with 15 targets and 10 assists, making him third total for FPL factors scored behind solely Salah and Mbeumo.
His return to type began in Chelsea’s spectacular Membership World Cup win the place Palmer scored 3 targets and supplied 2 assists in 5 video games.
Chelsea are one other crew which have beneficial fixtures to begin the season as they play Crystal Palace, West Ham and Fulham within the opening 3 weeks.
The brand new signings which have been made by Chelsea similar to, Gittens, João Pedro and Delap will solely enhance Palmer’s possibilities of attacking returns so going with out him in your FPL crew might result in you enjoying catch up when he inevitably begins the season nicely.
