Hub contributor Jon aka @FPLBrain has been playing FPL seriously for 3 years – 16k OR in 19/20, 28k in 18/19, 224k in 17/18. 2x Fantasy Telegraph top 500 prior to that. He wrote ‘The Universal Guide to FPL‘ to help beginners hit the ground running and others to improve their skills. Jon has played and followed football for 30 years.

Check out our Ultimate Guide to FPL Gameweek 6 for all the key information, stats and tips you need going into the weekend’s action.

Introduction

Having watched every single match of Gameweek 5, here are my notes on all the Premier League action of the last few days and some of the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) implications.

Everton 2 – 2 Liverpool

Excellent pressing intensity & movement from Liverpool right from the whistle.
Andrew Robertson playing high up again, practically as a winger, frequently looking to get in behind and cut the ball back, which he did nicely for Sadio Mane to score, and again for Mane to miss a similar chance.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is currently playing deeper than Robertson, and aside from set pieces is not looking as much of an attacking threat as last season.
Lovely corner from James Rodriguez for Michael Keane’s goal, but Adrian should’ve done better with the header which was right at his hands.
Salah and Mane both looked dangerous throughout, great instinctive finish from Salah for his goal to put Liverpool back ahead. Terrifying watching Liverpool without either of them in my team (soon to be addressed).
The horrendous tackle from Jordan Pickford which seriously injured Virgil van Dijk obviously hangs over this one and Liverpool felt his absence already here. No-one got close to stopping Dominic Calvert-Lewin from crushing another header home after a fabulous leap from Lucas Digne’s beautiful cross.
Mane looked most likely to get the winner and his non-pen xG is easily top among mids thus far; I’ll probably bring him in this week (can’t quite afford Salah).
Roberto Firmino had little impact once again and if this keeps up Diogo Jota will get plenty of game time this season. Hopefully Firmino will pick it up soon.
Everton did well to just about stay in this one considering how well Liverpool played and I remain bullish on them for the rest of the season.
It’ll be fascinating to see if Liverpool get more conservative or more attacking without van Dijk.

Chelsea 3 – 3 Southampton

Ben Chilwell was playing extremely high up the pitch, pretty much in the Marcos Alonso role of old. He was frequently involved in attacks, had a good shot well-saved and notched an assist here. He ooks appealing at £5.7m even if Chelsea are shipping a lot of goals so far.
Timo Werner looked good, pretty much exactly as most of us hoped for in Gameweek 1 and took his goal extremely well after roasting a couple of defenders. There’ll be plenty more where that came from.
The Chelsea attack looks like it’ll be a points factory, as it was for most of last season, so now that the big 4 of Werner, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech are fit, I’ll be keen to get whichever of them emerges as the best option.
Just as Spurs did, Chelsea were looking to pop early balls over the top for Werner and others to chase behind Southampton’s high line, and Werner was the beneficiary of one of those from Jorginho for his second goal, again very well taken.
Havertz has settled in nicely and he’ll certainly score and assist plenty more goals this season. There is not much between him and Pulisic as FPL options in my opinion, Pulisic tends to be greedier, which we like, but Havertz is hopefully less injury prone (that’s a pretty low bar) than the American so for me it’s a close call between the pair.
Che Adams and Danny Ings combined well for Southampton’s first goal and generally look a solid partnership and worth their price tags without being standout options (due to Ollie Watkins, Calvert-Lewin, Harry Kane etc).
Kyle Walker-Peters continues to get forward pretty regularly and despite conceding five and three goals to Spurs and Chelsea respectively, Southampton should continue to notch some clean sheets against weaker sides.

Manchester City 1 – 0 Arsenal

Manchester City were looking a bit more like themselves but were clearly missing Kevin De Bruyne’s creativity, as you would expect.
City played almost a front four at times of Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Riyad Mahrez, having moved to a sort-of back three (with Joao Cancelo helping out in midfield).
I know he still divides opinion but I thought Foden looked good again, buzzing around incessantly, a pest when City don’t have the ball and a spark when they do, without being either as good with the ball as David Silva was or as much of a threat in behind as Sterling, Mahrez or Leroy Sane previously.
He should perhaps have done better when his shot was saved and ended up as a fantasy assist for Sterling to easily finish the rebound and missed another great chance.
City smothered Arsenal with possession and looked a bit more solid at the back in this one, whilst still giving the feeling of being a bit fragile on the break.
Aguero started well and was involved in the buildup to City’s goal, but faded and was a touch sluggish as you might expect after a fair while out.
City generally lacked runners in behind with Foden and Mahrez both more inclined to come to the ball; they lacked a bit of cutting-edge threat as a result.
Foden played almost 70 mins in the left sided attacking midfield role and another 15 or so at the false-nine position which is pretty good for £6.6m even if he’s yet to really bag a haul this season (has started 11 of the last 14 in the Premier League for City).
There was nothing much else of note here, although I’m laughing at myself for thinking the Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s reclassification to midfield was ridiculous; he was playing very, very deep in this one.

Foden looked a threat in Gameweek 5

Newcastle 1 – 4 Manchester United

A bit of a strange game as a 2-0 Manchester United win would’ve reflected play more. Aside from the fluky Luke Shaw own-goal, Newcastle posed little threat and switched off at 3-1 allowing Marcus Rashford to pad the score in the dying minutes.
United played pretty well, certainly better than their lineup looked on paper.
Rashford saw lots of the ball despite playing furthest forward and continues to sort of delight and frustrate in equal measure. He’s so talented but still hit and miss in terms of end product.
Newcastle played so defensively that Allan Saint Maximin’s considerable talents were wasted; he was picking the ball up deep and often beating two or three players but still not getting anywhere near the final third. I would disregard him as an option for the time being.
Bruno Fernandes was excellent; he had a brilliant goal disallowed for an offside, finished brilliantly after great work from Rashford for 2-1, put a lovely ball over the top for Rashford’s goal and was able to miss his first penalty for United and yet still have a great game and bag 11 points. He’s just an FPL machine.
David de Gea made a brilliant save from Callum Wilson in the second half when Wilson might have been better going with his head instead of trying to prod home with his studs, but otherwise the Utd goal was rarely threatened.
While Rashford had a great game, his 15-point haul flattered him slightly as his assist to Aaron Wan-Bissaka was just an innocuous sideways pass before the fullback strode forward and surprised everyone by lashing home into the top corner.
It was a nice header from Harry Maguire for United’s equaliser and it continues to surprise me that he doesn’t get more of those with his aerial ability.

Sheffield United 1 – 1 Fulham

A very dull first half in this one but the game came to life a bit after the break.
Oliver McBurnie should’ve done better with a few headers but as usual Sheffield United weren’t creating a great deal.
As tends to be the case, Fulham plan A and B was to cross to Aleksandar Mitrovic which they actually did pretty nicely, but he was having a serious off-day, missing a series of great chances, blazing a penalty over the bar and giving one away at the other end with a clumsy challenge.
Fortunately, Ademola Lookman came up with a moment of magic, jinking through a couple of players before absolute smashing the ball home towards the top right corner; a lovely goal, somewhat out of the blue.
Rhian Brewster briefly looked threatening when he came on around the 68^th minute, but whether it was the pretty nasty head-clash he was involved in shortly after, or he just tired very quickly, he was ineffective and looked pretty lost for most of his outing. A disappointing start, and now has tough fixtures over the next few.
Fulham looked quite a bit better, helped by some players who actually look Premier League quality in Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Lookman, to add to Mitrovic who I still believe can cut it at this level. This just wasn’t his day.
I thought Sheffield United should have started Brewster and gone at Fulham more aggressively but as it played out Fulham were unfortunate to only draw this one.

Crystal Palace 1 – 1 Brighton & Hove Albion

A very soft penalty for Crystal Palace to open the scoring here, but Tariq Lamptey did have a slight tug at Michy Batshuayi’s shoulder and that gave the ref a decision to make when the latter threw himself down in a heap. It was just not quite a ‘clear and obvious’ error enough for an overrule on VAR was my take.
Batshuayi also had an emphatic finish into the near top corner chalked off for offside.
Neal Maupay had a pretty good chance to equalise but passed up a great opportunity to shoot initially and then faffed too long and the chance was gone.
There was not much between the two teams, albeit with Brighton’s brand of football much easier on the eye.
Wilfried Zaha remains a pretty solid FPL asset while he’s taking penalties, and it looks like Luka Milivojevic is going to remain on the bench for the most part.
Lamptey and Brighton both continue to look good and indeed I think are quite good, without coming away with a lot of points.
Yves Bissouma looks a really good player and he’s not shy about letting fly when the opportunity presents itself from range. He remains a very good bench option at £4.5m (albeit I think it’s worth going up £0.4m to Pavel Soucek in that spot).
Solly March and Maupay got in each other’s way in what should’ve been a good late chance, before a very late equaliser from Mac Allister who I can honestly say I don’t think I’d ever heard of before seeing him run away in celebration. The point was the very least Brighton deserved.
A late red card for Lewis Dunk for an appalling two-footed lunge on Gary Cahill, which won’t help Brighton’s defence in the near-term.

Tottenham Hotspur 3 – 3 West Ham United

My goodness, I’m not sure I’ve quite got over the eventual scoreline here.
It was an explosive start from Tottenham who raced into a 3-0 lead after just 16 minutes and looked worthy of it at that point.
Harry Kane, in his new quasi-false-nine / number 10 role looking tremendous and combining extremely well with Heung-Min Son again, who was playing as a wide forward on the left (a la Mane / Sterling) while Steven Bergwijn did similar but a bit more conservatively on the right, in what I expect will be Gareth Bale’s role going forward.
It was a lovely ball over the top from Kane to put Son in for the opener, then Son laid off to Kane who nutmegged one defender to make space to shoot, before nutmegging another with his shot into the bottom corner. Fabulous stuff.
Lovely interplay and then a beautiful cross from Sergio Reguilon and great header from Kane to make it 3-0.
Kane and Son nearly linked up again but Kane’s volleyed through-ball was just too close to the keeper.
Kane also thwacked a beautiful side-footed curler off the post in the second half, for what would’ve been a ‘perfect hattrick’ (right foot, head, left foot).
West Ham got a grip after the terrible start but Spurs still looked in control of the game, and Jose Mourinho was clearly annoyed when they eventually gave up what seemed a consolation goal with 10 minutes left, Fabian Balbuena heading home from an excellent Aaron Cresswell set piece.
Then it got really nuts, with a Davinson Sanchez diving header own goal making it 3-2, and the jitters were firmly in.
Spurs still should’ve wrapped up the points as Kane fed substitute Bale who bamboozled his way between two defenders before flashing the ball just wide of the post with all the hard work done and Lukasz Fabianski
Then deep in injury time, Serge Aurier needlessly fouled (ish) a player heading back towards the halfway line, Kane cleared the initial free kick well but Harry Winks decided to try and dribble instead of hoof clear from there, losing control into the path of Manuel Lanzini whose first shot of the season was an outrageous thunderbolt that went into the top right corner via Hugo Lloris’s fingertips, post and bar. Incredible goal, excellent fightback from West Ham but also a ridiculous collapse from Spurs.
Back to the FPL side of things… Kane looks fantastic and if I didn’t already have him I’d be trying to rectify that. In his new role he’s playing deeper and yet getting more good chances to shoot (and we know he’s an elite finisher), as well as creating a lot of good chances. And he’s on pens too of course.
Son looks really good, as he’s always done when he’s fit and playing this far forward, but I think he’s also a better player than ever this season.
An early season surprise has been Jose playing Aurier ahead of Matt Doherty for the most part. In any case, the defence remains suspect so I wouldn’t go there.
Bale looks likely to be a similar asset to Son in terms of goal and assist threat, but I’d back Son to stay fit and play more minutes than Bale.
Despite the great fightback, this wasn’t West Ham’s best performance, although Soucek and Michail Antonio still looked good (the latter twinged a hamstring however), Cresswell is FPL-friendly, as is Arthur Masuaku.

Kane is in the form of his life

Leicester City 0 – 1 Aston Villa

Not a great game; for the most part this looked like two fairly evenly-matched teams largely cancelling each other out.
Leicester were clearly feeling the losses of Jamie Vardy, Caglar Soyuncu and Wilfred Ndidi amongst others.
Jack Grealish was comfortably the best player on the park (which seems to often be the case these days), and Leicester responded to that with one reducer after another; the poor lad must have come off black and blue.
Neither side were able to create many clear-cut opportunities despite Grealish’s craft and Harvey Barnes’ pace at the other end. The former should let rip more often and the latter needs a trick or two in his bag.
Ezri Konsa headed narrowly wide from a set piece and looks good value for £4.6m; indeed Villa look solid enough that the double-up with Emi Martinez (absolutely the keeper of choice this season I believe) is pretty appealing.
Matt Targett is also a decent option at £4.5m as he’s taking some set pieces and does like to get forward a bit.
Timothy Castagne continues to look pretty good but was never going to maintain the crazy rate of his early returns, James Justin remains a bargain while Pereira is out which sounds like it’ll be a few more weeks at a minimum.
The season’s first nil-nil looked likely despite Grealish weaving some late magic to tee up a nice chance until Ross Barkley found a bit of space and let rip with a fine long-range drive to win it in the dying minutes.
I still prefer the all-round FPL contributions of Grealish but Barkley does look good value for £5.9m given his trigger-happy style. If he gets to take penalties too he’s a steal.
John McGinn was impressive again too and while all the talk is of Grealish, Barkley and Watkins, he quietly has five attacking returns in just four games this season. I prefer to others mentioned but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

West Bromwich Albion 0 – 0 Burnley

As I tweeted on Monday, when you commit to watching all ten games of a Gameweek and number nine is West Bromwich Albion versus Burnley, it’s very much a case of Gob Bluth ‘I’ve made a huge mistake’ GIF. This one was not a lot of fun.
There was a few moments of excitement and Burnley shaded it, but it’s apt that this was the first goalless match of the Premier League season so far.
It took a terrific reaction save by Sam Johnstone to deny Ashley Barnes after WBA couldn’t clear a set piece, before a beautiful cross-field ball from Matheus Pereira deserved better, but was bungled by someone or other cutting in from the left wing.
Burnley were slightly on top for most of the game, in their usual functional style, and as usual were early to cross to their units up front. They were taking their time, trying to make the most of any set pieces in the opposition half.
WBA huffed and puffed around without really looking very threatening for any sustained period.
Branislav Ivanovic is now 36 and playing for WBA not Chelsea, so of course we shouldn’t expect much he popped up with a shot in the box, but unfortunately it fell to him on his left foot and he only made weak contact.
It was a shame to see Karlan Grant have a goal disallowed around the 40 minute mark because the cross from Grady Diangana was a beautiful pinpoint affair and was neatly headed home by Grant.
A fantastic triple-save from Nick Pope (along with a good block from a defender in the middle of them) kept Burnley on level terms in the second half.
Chris Wood (twice) and Barnes failed to convert exactly the kind of great chances in the air that you’d hypothetically own them for.
And… ladies and gentlemen, our first goalless draw of the season was in the books! It’s unbelievable that it took until the 9^th match of Gameweek 5 to get one.

Leeds United 0 – 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Patrick Bamford had a goal disallowed early. He remains something of a chance magnet but I’d expect moderate returns going forward after he exploded out of the gates.
Helder Costa was (lightly) tripped in the area after a neat turn near the byline… it would’ve been a soft penalty but not as soft as the pens given for ‘fouls’ on Rashford and Batshuayi this Gameweek, so… who knows anymore.
Romain Saiss was playing left wing back again. As an owner it feels like a high risk/reward situation; more attacking upside but more chance of losing his place perhaps (he played well in this one so I’m slightly less concerned about that for now).
There was fast and furious pressing and passing from Leeds once again. Wolves well suited to cope with it but couldn’t fully stifle it. Leeds’ possession looking more dangerous than Wolves’ counters for the first half hour or so, but the balance gradually shifted from there.
£4.0m Max Kilman started again albeit you get the feeling the youngster could disappear in a puff of smoke in any given Gameweek (as with Saiss, he played well so his chances of keeping his place can only have risen), but at that price tag he’s one to watch closely.
Daniel Podence went close on the stroke of half-time but well saved by Illan Meslier who seems like a good ‘un in nets.
A fantastic goal from Saiss was disallowed due to a marginal offside earlier in the build-up, which was an unpleasant tease.
Raul Jimenez nearly weaved his way through several defenders to get in on goal but took too long to get a shot off in the end and got smothered.
Kalvin Phillips then put in a very silly header to deflect a relatively tame shot from Jimenez past the wrong-footed Meslier for the game’s only goal.
Raul made the goal all by himself so you can disregard the assist from Kilman which was just a short pass before Jimenez did all the hard work.
Jimenez remains a solid option. I prefer the circa £6.5m forwards or otherwise paying up for Werner, Aguero or Kane to get a punchier captaincy option in, but you know what you get with him and he’ll tick along nicely as usual.
Jimenez could have had a late red card for a bit of uncharacteristic red mist, kicking out from the ground. It wasn’t hugely forceful but was clearly deliberate and he then employed the old ‘pretend you’re injured to avoid punishment’ trick, which somehow worked in this instance.
This was a good competitive game and could easily have finished 1-1 or 1-0 to Leeds, but Wolves just about deserved the win on reflection.
Leeds remain a breath of fresh air in the Premier League this season and I hope the incredible intensity with which they’re playing doesn’t catch up with them too badly in the end.

Jimenez remains a solid option

Conclusion

Lots to digest here! Personally at this stage I want my team to feature the attacks of Liverpool, Spurs, Everton and to a lesser extent the Manchester teams, along with probably Jack Grealish, Emi Martinez in goal, a Wolves defender (I have Saiss currently), Andrew Robertson, and perhaps a Man City defender. It’ll be interesting to see how ‘the template’ continues to evolve over the coming weeks. Good luck with any moves you make, and I’ll be back around Gameweek 10 with another full eye test review.

Check out our Ultimate Guide to FPL Gameweek 6 for all the key information, stats and tips you need going into the weekend’s action.

FPLBrain

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