<p>Our FPL Player Comparison for Gameweek 26 article uses the <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fpl-player-comparision-tool/">Hub’s Comparison Tool</a> to compare two key transfer targets. This week, <a href="https://twitter.com/CoysFPL"><strong>Dan</strong></a> compares <strong>Philippe Coutinho (£7.3m)</strong> and <strong>Bukayo Saka (£6.4m)</strong>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Bukayo Saka (£6.4m) vs Philippe Coutinho (£7.3m) | Double Gameweek 26 Comparison</h2>
<p>Going into Double Gameweek 26, mid-priced midfielders Bukayo Saka and Philippe Coutinho look like the two hottest properties in their range. Both are in the top five for transfers in so far for this gameweek, with the pair set for a <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fixture-ticker/">nice run of fixtures</a>.</p>
<p>Arsenal have a favourable <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/double-gameweek-26-announced/">Double Gameweek 26</a>, as one of the eight teams set to play twice with home fixtures to <strong>Brentford</strong> and <strong>Wolves</strong>. However, that&#8217;s followed with a <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/blank-gameweek-in-fantasy-premier-league/">Blank Gameweek</a> in Gameweek 27. On the other hand, Villa have just the single fixture this week followed by a non-blank in Gameweek 27.</p>
<p>Arsenal have three blanks left to reschedule, but all are all tough fixtures: trips to Chelsea and Spurs and a home tie against Liverpool. Meanwhile, Villa only have two fixtures left to reschedule, although they&#8217;re far nicer fixtures; hosting Burnley and travelling to Elland Road. Both teams will feature in Gameweek 30 as they will play each other after exiting the FA Cup already.</p>
<h3></h3>
<div id="attachment_44085" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44085" class="size-large wp-image-44085" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-16-at-15.36.16-1024x833.jpg" alt="FPL Gameweek 26 player comparison" width="1024" height="833" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-16-at-15.36.16-1024x833.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-16-at-15.36.16-300x244.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-16-at-15.36.16-768x625.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-16-at-15.36.16-1536x1249.jpg 1536w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-16-at-15.36.16-610x496.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-16-at-15.36.16-1080x878.jpg 1080w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-16-at-15.36.16.jpg 1596w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><p id="caption-attachment-44085" class="wp-caption-text">Coutinho vs Saka <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="1" title="FPL Stats by OPTA - Player and Team Stats">stats</a> since Gameweek 21.</p></div>
<p>Winter signing Coutinho has already settled back into life in the Premier League, scoring twice and assisting twice in his first four appearances. Those games were against relatively weak opposition, facing Leeds, Newcastle and Everton in those four.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Saka has already outscored his best ever goal scoring season, with six to his name so far, four of which have come in his last five appearances.</p>
<p>Now Coutinho has regained his fitness, I expect him to play the full match regularly. He has played just 262 minutes so far, which is only 16% of the minutes Saka has played all season. In the limited sample size, Coutinho looks to be far better at creating big chances and racking up xA, although their goal threat at first glance looks quite similar.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/"><strong>FPL Stats: powered by OPTA</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<h2></h2>
<h2><strong>Price | Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26</strong></h2>
<p>Coutinho is priced at £7.3m at the time of writing, whereas Saka will take £6.4m out of your budget.</p>
<h2></h2>
<h2><strong>Position | </strong><strong>Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26</strong></h2>
<div id="attachment_44014" style="width: 1007px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44014" class="wp-image-44014 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FFStuffImage-16-1.jpg" alt="Saka vs Coutinho comparison Double Gameweek 26" width="997" height="812" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FFStuffImage-16-1.jpg 997w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FFStuffImage-16-1-300x244.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FFStuffImage-16-1-768x625.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/FFStuffImage-16-1-610x497.jpg 610w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 997px) 100vw, 997px" /><p id="caption-attachment-44014" class="wp-caption-text">Saka vs Coutinho heat maps.</p></div>
<p>Saka&#8217;s touch heat map looks more impressive than Coutinho&#8217;s, with more impact in the box as well as the final third. That being said, Coutinho&#8217;s heat map is based on a much smaller sample size.</p>
<p>Saka also has the responsibility of taking corners from the right side, whereas Coutinho isn&#8217;t on corners at all.</p>
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<h2><strong>Goal Threat |</strong><strong>Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26</strong></h2>
<div id="attachment_44015" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44015" class="wp-image-44015 size-medium" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SakavCoutinho-goal-threat-300x140.png" alt="Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26" width="300" height="140" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SakavCoutinho-goal-threat-300x140.png 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SakavCoutinho-goal-threat-1024x479.png 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SakavCoutinho-goal-threat-768x359.png 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SakavCoutinho-goal-threat-610x285.png 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SakavCoutinho-goal-threat-1080x505.png 1080w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/SakavCoutinho-goal-threat.png 1432w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-44015" class="wp-caption-text">Goal threat per 90 since Gameweek 6</p></div>
<p>Coutinho (shown in top row) is currently beating Saka&#8217;s average tally for shots, shots on target, xG and goals from our <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/">OPTA stats tool</a> since Gameweek 6 (Saka played the first five gameweeks as a left winger, failing to score or assist).</p>
<p>Saka does beat Coutinho for shots in the box and big chances, but so far Coutinho has been by far the better finisher, hitting the target 50% of the time compared to Saka&#8217;s 37%.</p>
<p>Since 2016-17, Coutinho has averaged 40% of his shots on target, which narrowly beats Saka&#8217;s total. Coutinho has also averaged a 12% success rate of goals per shot, which Saka beats with a success rate of 16% so far this season. That isn&#8217;t particularly surprising given that Coutinho attempts more ambitious shots, but given their similar number of shots, Saka should be expected to find the back of the net a little more often.</p>
<p>Coutinho&#8217;s <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/">underlying stats</a> so far are definitely sustainable, with the Brazilian used to averaging over 3.50 shots, 1.40 shots on target and an xG of 0.35 per 90 minutes since 2016/17.</p>
<p>Therefore, very little separates the pairs&#8217; goal threat.</p>
<h2></h2>
<h2><strong>Creativity | </strong><strong>Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26</strong></h2>
<div id="attachment_44016" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44016" class="wp-image-44016 size-medium" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Creativity-Saka-vs-Coutinho-300x215.png" alt="Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26" width="300" height="215" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Creativity-Saka-vs-Coutinho-300x215.png 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Creativity-Saka-vs-Coutinho-768x550.png 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Creativity-Saka-vs-Coutinho-610x437.png 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Creativity-Saka-vs-Coutinho.png 906w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-44016" class="wp-caption-text">Creativity <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="1" title="FPL Stats by OPTA - Player and Team Stats">stats</a> per 90 (Coutinho top)</p></div>
<p>Represented by the top row, <strong>Coutinho is beating Saka in terms of underlying creativity <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="1" title="FPL Stats by OPTA - Player and Team Stats">stats</a></strong> according to our <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/">OPTA stats tool</a>.</p>
<p>Nearly doubling his xA total of 0.39, Coutinho has averaged 0.68 assists per 90 so far, which is undoubtedly an outlier. Coutinho has beaten Saka in terms of big chances created and xA though.</p>
<p>Since 16-17, Coutinho has averaged an xA of 0.21 per 90 minutes. That was down to his role at Barcelona, where he failed to register an xA per 90 of more than 0.16 in all bar one of his three seasons in Spain. In his final season at Liverpool, Coutinho registered an xA of 0.34 and I expect similar numbers to be produced at Villa.</p>
<p>Saka has averaged 0.30 xA per 90, a record not far from of Coutinho&#8217;s at his peak. That being said, I think Coutinho has been reborn at Villa and will keep up the numbers he has been producing so far.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/best-fpl-midfielders-for-double-gameweek-26-best-midfielders-to-target-for-dgw26/"><strong>Best Midfielders for Double Gameweek 26</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<h2></h2>
<h2><strong>Fixtures | </strong><strong>Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26</strong></h2>
<div id="attachment_44025" style="width: 1558px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44025" class="wp-image-44025 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/saka-coutinho-fixtures.jpg" alt="Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26" width="1548" height="142" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/saka-coutinho-fixtures.jpg 1548w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/saka-coutinho-fixtures-300x28.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/saka-coutinho-fixtures-1024x94.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/saka-coutinho-fixtures-768x70.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/saka-coutinho-fixtures-1536x141.jpg 1536w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/saka-coutinho-fixtures-610x56.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/saka-coutinho-fixtures-1080x99.jpg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px" /><p id="caption-attachment-44025" class="wp-caption-text">Arsenal and Aston Villa&#8217;s fixtures</p></div>
<p>According to the <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fixture-ticker/">Hub&#8217;s fixture ticker</a>, Arsenal have slightly better fixtures over the next six. They face the likes of <strong>Brentford, Watford, </strong>and out-of-sorts<strong> Leicester </strong>in that time, whilst Villa host <strong>Watford</strong> and in-form <strong>Southampton.</strong></p>
<p>Leicester are the worst team over the last six gameweeks for expected goals conceded per game, whilst Brentford and Southampton rank 5th and 2nd respectively.</p>
<p>Past Gameweek 27, I prefer Saka&#8217;s fixtures, but his in Gameweek 27 puts me off him slightly. His double does make up for that though, as he still plays two games over the two gameweeks like Coutinho.</p>
<h2></h2>
<h2><strong>Points Prediction | </strong><strong>Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26</strong></h2>
<div id="attachment_44028" style="width: 1797px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44028" class="wp-image-44028 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-175954.jpg" alt="Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26 saka" width="1787" height="343" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-175954.jpg 1787w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-175954-300x58.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-175954-1024x197.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-175954-768x147.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-175954-1536x295.jpg 1536w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-175954-610x117.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-175954-1080x207.jpg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1787px) 100vw, 1787px" /><p id="caption-attachment-44028" class="wp-caption-text">Saka&#8217;s predicted points.</p></div>
<div id="attachment_44029" style="width: 1795px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44029" class="wp-image-44029 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-180022.jpg" alt="Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26 coutinho" width="1785" height="306" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-180022.jpg 1785w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-180022-300x51.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-180022-1024x176.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-180022-768x132.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-180022-1536x263.jpg 1536w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-180022-610x105.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screenshot-2022-02-15-180022-1080x185.jpg 1080w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1785px) 100vw, 1785px" /><p id="caption-attachment-44029" class="wp-caption-text">Coutinho&#8217;s predicted points.</p></div>
<p>The Hub&#8217;s <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/predictions/">Points Prediction Tool</a> projects Saka to outscore Coutinho by 0.6 PPG across the next two and around four points across the next six gameweeks.</p>
<p>Coinciding with the fixtures, Saka looks like the slightly better option for the forthcoming gameweeks.</p>
<h2></h2>
<h2><strong>Conclusion | </strong><strong>Player Comparison Double Gameweek 26</strong></h2>
<p>Ultimately, I prefer <b>Saka </b>as the pick going into Arsenal&#8217;s next few fixtures.</p>
<p>Despite the blank in Gameweek 27 ,I prefer his fixtures, and at £1m cheaper than Coutinho, his goal threat and creativity <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="1" title="FPL Stats by OPTA - Player and Team Stats">stats</a> are as good.</p>
<h2></h2>
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