Man City’s Aguero and Southampton’s Tadic have increased the Magic Number!

Oct 21

GW8 FPL REVIEW FROM @FANTASYGAFFER

It was an historic weekend of play in the Barclays Premier League as Sergio Aguero hit four goals to go level with Chelsea’s Diego Costa atop the scorers table. Less than an hour later, Southampton’s Dusan Tadic assisted the first of four goals as the Saints romped to an 8-0 victory over Sunderland at St. Mary’s.

A flying start to GW8 carried over to Loftus Road on Sunday, where Liverpool and QPR combined for four goals in the final 7′ as the Reds ran out 3-2 victors, benefiting from a pair of own goals by Richard Dunne and Steven Caulker. Dunne has now scored 10 OG in the Premier League, the only player to reach that ignominious plateau while Liverpool benefited from two own goals for the first time since the Premier League’s inception. Certainly an historic weekend, and one with myriad fantasy premier league taking points.

We’re starting with the highest scorer of the weekend, and will go down the list from there. Sergio Aguero hit four goals and was still pipped to the title by Dusan Tadic. Tadic recorded a goal, four assists, a clean sheet, and the full three bonus points to post 23 points in the Official game. The 25-year-old Serbian’s accomplishment is made more impressive by his limited touches in the match. While Southampton completed 99 out of 136 passes in the final third, and completed 387/462 overall, Tadic attempted just 39 passes, completing 29. Which means that he was creating a chance better than once every ten passes, and 14% of his passes assisted goals. Truthfully, he didn’t do much else with the ball, but his passing was precise at the moment he needed and he picked out the right pass four times.

Tadic did score a goal of his own, adding his tally to the eight-goal haul which included another brace for Italian Graziano Pellè. The newly minted international – who scored to only goal in Italy’s 1-0 defeat of Malta during the break – scored his fifth and six goals of the season, having scored six in his last six with a pair of double-digit fantasy performances in GW4 and GW8. If there was one statistical graphic that represented the euphoria around St. Mary’s it may be this.

New #SaintsFC vs New #LFC #Pelle #Tadic #Lallana #LambertOut pic.twitter.com/8oBreMaDvV

— FootySays (@Footysays) October 19, 2014

The two players shipped out to Liverpool have struggled to make an impact at Anfield – neither are heavily owned in FPL with Lambert’s 2.4% significantly ahead of Lallana’s 0.9% – and it was only after Lallana’s substitution that the Reds midfield sparked to life. Phillipe Coutinho replaced the former Saint’s captain on 66′ and immediately linked play with Raheem Sterling – the two interchanging positions during the run of play. Coutinho would score Liverpool’s second go-ahead goal, firing home a fine effort in the 90′ after Eduardo Vargas had equalized for the hosts. For more on Dusan Tadic’s performance please read Saints Net Octet.

There was considerably less drama at the Etihad where Sergio Aguero’s four-goal effort saw him rewarded with the match ball and effusive praise from all corners of the footballing world. Aguero hit two from open play, another two from the spot and was a constant threat to add to his tally. Apart from the four shots he scored on, the Argentine international had seven other shots (11 in total) with just one failing to find the frame – forcing for shots from Hugo Lloris. Lloris had an impressive performance himself. Despite allowing four goals, he recorded a penalty save and was award one bonus point, finishing the day with 8pts, just one shy of his season’s best. Kun was assisted twice by Frank Lampard – earning a start while Yaya Toure rested following his own international commitments – and the former Chelsea man has earned an astonishing 20 FPL points in the past four weeks.

Lampard ended GW8 with 2 goals and 2 assists to his credit despite a paltry 139′ of pitch time. The 36-year-old was stretchered off on 28′ with a thigh injury and has already been ruled out of the Citizens trip to CSKA Moscow. Priced £5.4m and 1.5% selected, Lampard was an intriguing option as a fifth midfielder until the injury.

While Lampard’s injury may relegate him to the sidelines, another fantasy premier league player got an opportunity because of his injured teammate. Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez had played 106′ over the previous three weeks but earned the start and was man of the match for Arsenal as he set-up Danny Welbeck’s late equalizer against Hull. Sanchez scored, assisted, drew the plaudits and corresponding bonus points amassing 13 points for an afternoon’s work. It was his second double-digit haul of the season, and his first since GW3. Arsenal face Sunderland, Burnley and Swansea in the next three and the Chilean’s £10.3m price will likely rise in tandem with his 11.1% selection. He had seen net transfers out of at least 21,000 for five of the previous six weeks as his price dropped £0.2m.

There were other impressive feats accomplished this week, with one in particular given short shrift. Scoring question’s aside West Ham’s Diafra Sahko has been remarkable since his arrival in London. The Premier League records that he has scored in at least five straight (official scoring has his effort in GW 4 against Hull as an assist on Curtis Davies own goal), while Opta has his streak at all six matches he has started for the Hammers, including five straight in the Premier League (a feat only matched in Claret and Blue by Carlton Cole). Regardless, in those five matches, he has recorded 5, 9, 6, 8, and 12 FPL points, with the official tally of four goals and an assist (to go with 9 bonus points). The £5.6m-rated forward is still owned in less than 3% of leagues (2.9% at the time of writing) and faced a difficult test in GW9 when Manchester City visit Upton Park. Following that match, it’s a run of eight on the bounce without facing a top-three defense (Stoke, GW9, is fourth with 9 goals allowed).

The final match of the week saw Manchester United’s Daley Blind snatch a late draw – probably deserved – at the Hawthorns with his well placed strike 3′ from time. The Baggies saw two magnificent goals taken by Stéphane Sessegnon and Saido Berahino, with the youngster’s raising his tally to six. A fine point, with very few unexpected turns and a result that was accurately predicted by @OurLogie in his article. At was a fitting end of a weekend of unexpected performance and new talent shining through. In a weekend with so many goals, it was one spectacular miss and one more spectacular own goal that may be longest remembered. For posterity, here is Mario Balotelli missing a glorious opportunity to break his League duck:

and a stunning strike from Santiago Vergini – wrong goal, that.

Mario can only hope to hit a strike that well.

To read the Fantasy Premier League draft recap, including loads of Opta stats, please read Fantasy Premier League Recap: GW8.

To read Fantasy Premier League draft stats and analysis, please visit the Togga Blog where you can find the sister post to the one you’ve just read. You can follow the author @FantasyGaffer on Twitter.

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