Well hello there, Christian Pulisic.
Chelsea’s £58m signing rocked up to the Premier League party in style last weekend, bagging a hat-trick to reward those loyal fantasy football players who kept faith over all those weeks of seeing him scrape the odd point.
He was joined in the treble club by Ayoze Perez and Jamie Vardy, who both scored three as Leicester thrashed Southampton 9-0.
But who is going to be the star this coming weekend? BBC Sport tries to dig into gameweek 11 to help you out…
The next Pulisic?
Fantasy football managers are largely a reactive bunch. A player scores highly one week and managers flock to transfer him in, in the hope that he’ll repeat the trick but knowing deep down that they may have missed the boat.
Yet such was the quality shown by Pulisic last weekend that you can probably expect more healthy points returns in coming weeks, and Ayoze Perez has every chance of chipping in (although perhaps not quite as spectacularly as at Southampton) throughout the season.
But who might be the next man to net you double figures?
How about Gabriel Jesus? We all know he’s got points in him (an assist and a goal in his past two games is a good start), but you’re never 100% sure when he’s going to go goal crazy. Well this weekend City host Southampton, who know a thing or two about conceding goals.
Or maybe Anthony Martial? He scored once at Norwich, and would have scored two more but for Tim Krul’s heroics. This weekend, the forward goes to Bournemouth with Manchester United looking to continue a fine record – he has had a hand in 16 goals in his past 20 league starts.
Other options? What about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who is on an uncharacteristic run of three league games without a goal, having previously scored seven times in seven matches? Surely he is due a goal? Or maybe Neal Maupay, whose Brighton team host Norwich, the side with the second worst defensive record?
Keep the faith?
Owning Liverpool and Manchester United defenders is a frustrating business.
They are some of the highest-priced in the game and should deliver clean sheets but so rarely have this season.
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson are unsellable as they also offer attacking points, but you may want to hold fire before shipping out Virgil van Dijk, Harry Maguire or Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
The two big rivals remain the best in the division for expected goals against in 2019-20 – United at 9.05 and Liverpool at 9.7. By that metric, the clean sheets should come sooner rather than later.
The other sides with the best xG against? Leicester (10.62), Burnley (10.96), Man City (11.61) and Chelsea (11.93).
While we’re talking xG (and we appreciate it is not everyone’s cup of tea), Newcastle’s ‘expected goals for’ total currently stands at a league low 6.67, which is more than four worse off than Sheffield United. Possibly useful information if you’re still expectantly clinging on to Joelinton.
Other things to consider
- After a run of scoring with five consecutive shots in the Premier League, Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson has failed to score with any of his past eight attempts. However, of the 95 players to have had 10 or more shots in the Premier League this season, Wilson has hit the highest percentage of them on target (69%).
- Teemu Pukki has been directly involved in a league-high 73% of Norwich’s Premier League goals this season (8/11 – six goals, two assists). Despite this, the Finnish striker hasn’t registered a single goal involvement (scoring or providing an assist) in any of his past five games in the competition.
- Kevin De Bruyne has nine assists in Manchester City’s 10 Premier League games so far this season, more than double that of any other player in the competition.
- Sheffield United’s Lys Mousset has scored with three of his past four shots in the Premier League, having found the net with just three of his previous 39 in the competition.
- Watford’s Gerard Deulofeu has had more shots (24) and shots on target (10) without scoring than any other Premier League player this season.
- Christian Eriksen has scored in each of his past four Premier League appearances for Spurs against Everton.
