Gameweek 3 finished on Sunday and following the excitement of deadline day yesterday there will be an International Break now before the FPL returns on September 14th.

So you can take a breather now!

Here’s a run through of the Bonus Points from Gameweek 3. We spoke last week about the prominence of the defenders in the allocation of bonus points and with 8 of the 18 teams in action registering a clean sheet it was a similar story again for GW3.

A similar theme with more than 50% of the total allocated bonus points going to the defenders. With only 13 goals across 9 Premier league matches at 1.44 Goals per game we are a long way off the average of 2.81 from last season.

Surely there is a goal spree on the horizon for Gameweek 4 ?

Overall the total allocation table only really highlights the dominance of the defence again coming in with more than 50% of the allocation.

There has been a lot of talk about a potential switch to  a 4 or 5 man defence for your FPL line up however I think it is worth pointing out that the Premier League has been remarkably consistent with the average goals per game ratio over the past 4 years being 2.79, 2.80, 2.81, 2.81 meaning that the chances are high that we will eventually see the defensive flood gates opening and an increase in goals.

So, having harped on and on about defenders it is Arsenal’s Giroud who leads the way with total bonus points of 7 so far. While I wouldn’t call him a magnet yet, the arrival of Ozil will surely provide the Frenchman with more than a few opportunities.

As I’ve said – identifying trends with only a few sets of data is always going to be inconclusive… but for us #FPL fans it grabs our attention.

Keep in mind – Of the top 15 players allocated Bonus Points in the first 3 weeks…. 10 are defenders

Gameweek 3 – 31 Aug 11:30

31 Aug 12:45	Man City		2 – 0		Hull City
Bonus Zabaleta (3) Yaya Touré (3) Negredo
31 Aug 15:00	Cardiff City		0 – 0		Everton
Bonus Jagielka Baines (2) Distin (3) Coleman
31 Aug 15:00	Newcastle		1 – 0		Fulham
Bonus Coloccini (3) Yanga-Mbiwa (2) Ben Arfa (2)
31 Aug 15:00	Norwich		1 – 0		Southampton
Bonus Bassong (2) Redmond (3) Fer (2)
31 Aug 15:00	West Ham		0 – 1		Stoke City
Bonus Begovic Shawcross Wilson (3) N’Zonzi Pennant (2)
31 Aug 17:30	Crystal Palace		3 – 1		Sunderland
Bonus Gabbidon Gayle (3) Bonus Colback Fletcher (2)
01 Sep 13:30	Liverpool		1 – 0		Man Utd
Bonus Skrtel Agger (3) José Enrique Sturridge (2)
01 Sep 13:30	West Brom		0 – 2		Swansea
Bonus Chico Davies (3) Hernández (2)
01 Sep 16:00	Arsenal		1 – 0		Tottenham
Bonus Szczesny Gibbs Jenkinson Mertesacker (2) Giroud (3)