It's week four, where legends are made and desperate early wildcards are played. Welcome to Fantasy Hot or Not, where you find out who's Hot and who's Not. In Fantasy. That's why we picked that name.
This isn't necessarily a list of players are and aren't good (although it's a bit of that), but players who aren't being picked enough this week...or are being picked too much. Nobody, for example, is starting Danny Welbeck – so we don't need to tell you not to do that. It's all contextual. Lovely, lovely context.
Anyway. Fire away.
Goalkeepers
Who's Hot
Ederson: Lots of people have Ederson in their team. That's smart, because the tattooed Brazilian is very good at goalkeeping, the stopper for the best team the Premier League has ever seen, and faces Brighton (one goal in two games) and Norwich (how long, honestly, can Teemu Pukki keep doing this?) next. Yes. Pay for Ederson.
Kasper Schmeichel: But alright, let's say you're stingy. Brought up northern, maybe. You can save yourself £1.1m and pick up Kasper Actual Schmeichel. Premier League winner, son of a Premier League legend and – more pertinently – starting goalkeeper for Leicester, who have conceded the fewest goals in the league this season and play at home (good) to Bournemouth (misfiring, a little) this weekend.
Who's Not
Hugo Lloris: Tottenham's 2019: Three games, zero clean sheets, one Davinson Sanchez. And they play Arsenal, with one of the league's most exciting attacking lines, this weekend. Away from home. And Hugo Lloris is the sixth most-owned starting goalkeeper on the official FPL website. Stop it.
Defenders
Who's Hot
Oleksandr Zinchenko: See the Ederson section, with the added bonus that Zinchenko is cheap (for a City defender) and assisted one goal every four games he played in the Premier League and Champions League last season. He's played three games without doing it this season, so he's...due?
Issa Diop: Alright, this is a little bit left-field so bear with. Issa Diop is a part of maybe one in 30 teams on the FPL website, and...yeah, only Norwich have conceded more goals than West Ham's seven this season so that scans. But their next game is at home to a newly-promoted side, the game after that is away to another newly promoted team, and the Hammers tend to come together after slow starts. Believe.
Who's Not
Cesar Azpilicueta: Chelsea's captain turned 30 years old this week. He's looked about twice that. The Blues are the only other team on the same number of goals conceded as West Ham, and they haven't played anyone good. They've got Wolves (A) and Liverpool (H) straight after the international break, and Azpilicueta is in WAY too many teams.
Midfielders
Who's Hot
Wilfried Zaha: This is a massive overreaction to Crystal Palace looking decent against Manchester United, but we're three weeks into the season, what else do you want us to overreact to? Palace's next four games (starting with Villa at home) are against four teams who average 1.6 goals conceded per game this season, comfortably above the league average of 1.35. So. Zaha. Zig when others are zagging.
Mason Mount: This is a three-pronged argument. England's Mason Mount has scored in his last two games (prong 1). Chelsea's defence is really, really bad, which means they have to score plenty of goals to keep up (prong 2). Mason Mount is cheap as hell (prong 3).
Who's Not
Tanguy Ndombele: So we all know that Ndombele doesn't actually score many goals, right? That the Villa goal was the exception rather than the rule, and that the way Spurs play means he won't create many either? And we know that Spurs have a difficult run coming up, and look toothless? We do? Then why is Lucas Moura the only Tottenham midfielder who's in more FPL teams than Ndombele?
Forwards
Who's Hot
Ashley Barnes: Yes! Ashley Barnes! Austria's finest! He's scored in every game this season, twice in one, Burnley are at home to Liverpool (who haven't kept a single clean sheet this season) this weekend and then a powderpuff run of three teams who concede 0.4 goals per game more than league average.
It won't be pretty, but look. You don't have to watch the games.
Sebastien Haller: He's off the mark, he's mid-priced, West Ham are about to play Norwich (worst defence in the league) and Villa (worse than average defence). Done.
Who's Not
Harry Kane: All hail Harry Kane, breaker of the 'August Curse'! All hail Harry Kane, man playing at the head of an attack that looks absolutely toothless! All hail Harry Kane, playing away to a team with a mildly better than average defence this season! All hail Harry Kane, the second most expensive striker in the league who's also in the second most teams! All hail Harry Kane, as long as he isn't in your fantasy team!
Source :
90min
