Manchester City are re-asserting their Premier League dominance – and two of their attacking talents have emerged as the men to have in the fantasy version of the league.
Chelsea’s defeat to Tottenham leaves just City and Liverpool unbeaten, with Pep Guardiola’s defending champions two points clear at the top.
Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane have powered that rise with a combined six goals and eight assists in the last four games – despite the latter starting only two of those contests – and they stand clear in Press Association Sport’s ‘Transfer Score’ rankings if you are making changes for week 14’s Friday night start.
Sky high Blues
A player’s recent form is the most important factor in his transfer score. The player averaging most points over the last six gameweeks – in this case Sterling with 13 points per game – scores 99 while the lowest (currently Fulham’s Timothy Fosu-Mensah on -0.7) scores zero.
That is given triple the weighting of the other categories, price tag and ownership percentage, where lower values are more desirable and mean higher scores – a player owned by no managers at all would score 99 in that category.
Sane is second to Sterling in form with 11.3 points per game, with his lower cost and ownership pushing him to an overall transfer score of 78.5 – 1.5 behind Sterling, whose hefty £11.3 price tag drops him to a round 80.
Defenders occupy the next three spots, but the Wolves unit who set the early pace have slipped back to leave Liverpool and Everton full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold (74.0) and Seamus Coleman (71.0) sandwiching Huddersfield’s Christopher Schindler (71.4).
Schindler’s team-mate Aaron Mooy makes the midfield podium, sixth overall at 69.9. The overall top 10 is completed by West Ham midfielder Felipe Anderson and defenders Ben Chilwell (Leicester), Lewis Dunk (Brighton) and Federico Fernandez (Newcastle).
Attacking options limited
While Wolves’ defensive form has regressed after that strong start, Raul Jimenez comes out on top of an uninspiring crop of striker ratings at 64.2. The Mexican has a goal and three assists in his last six games at just £5.9m.
Newcastle’s Salomon Rondon is cheaper still at £5.7m and has regained a starting place, but his average of 5.3 points per game is almost entirely down to his two goals against Bournemouth. Burnley’s Sam Vokes completes the podium with a transfer score of just 56.4.
If you believes Fulham’s win over Southampton was the start of a Claudio Ranieri renaissance, Aleksandar Mitrovic could be the smart pick – the combative Serbian scored twice in that game to match Rondon’s form rating but is slightly more expensive (£6.6m) and owned by more managers. Consider, too, the Cottagers’ trips to Chelsea on Sunday and Manchester United next weekend.
Schmeichel stands out
If you are pondering a goalkeeping change, the picture is slightly brighter though transfer scores remain low for even the leading options.
Kasper Schmeichel leads the way at 62.0, with his 5.3 points per game good for the joint-leading form score among goalkeepers alongside Liverpool’s Alisson Becker. At £5m, though, the Leicester man is only really of use to you if you already employ one of the ‘big five’ of Ederson, Alisson, David De Gea, Kepa Arrizabalaga or Hugo Lloris (there is no ‘big six’ when it comes to FPL goalkeepers, though Bernd Leno’s ascendancy at Arsenal bears watching).
Alongside Schmeichel on the podium and around £500,000 cheaper are Jonas Lossl (61.4) and Wayne Hennessey (60.3). Huddersfield’s improvement means the former now has just two fewer points than De Gea for the season while representing a saving of £1.3m.
