In his FPL Gameweek 8 review, FPL author David Wardale sees old names delivering fresh joy.

Those too superstitious to use the armband on the early kick-off had an entire weekend of Fantasy Premier League action to rue their decision.

But not all the big-name assets delivered, two key strikers blanked once again and the fallout from the international break left many managers without full teams.

You can catch up more on Saturday’s and Sunday’s FPL action and don’t forget to check out all our brilliant FPL Gameweek 9 tips right here.

Watford 0 Liverpool 5 – Salah For Lunch

There was a strange blip after Mohamed Salah’s (£12.7m) one and only blank of the season.

Having managed just three points in Gameweek 2’s win over Burnley, the Liverpool midfielder was sold by a net -203,411.

He punished the faithless then, hitting a double-digit return the following weekend, and he made it five of those in eight starts as Salah’s utterly dominant season continued with a dismantling of a truly terrible Watford.

More than 63% own the Egyptian. We should soon find out exactly how many people have given up playing FPL this season because any active manager still refusing to buy him is the wrong side of stubborn or maverick now.

FPL Gameweek 8 review Salah

Salah hauled for a sixth straight game, while Roberto Firmino (£8.8m) returned to the starting XI, struggled with the ball, looked better without it and promptly scored a hat-trick of mostly tap-ins to finish with a 20-point total.

The fitness of Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) was a big pre-match talking point and he was handed a fantasy-friendly 63 minutes for six solid points. Andy Robertson (£7.0m) was afforded the same courtesy, providing further proof of Konstantinos Tsimikas’ (£4.0m) return to bit-part status.

A whopping 16.2% still own the stand-in left-back. Then again, he got one point more than the 15.3%-owned Diogo Jota (£7.5m), who watched the carnage from the comfort of a Hertfordshire bench.

New Hornets boss Claudio Ranieri talked of knowing the players better after the Saturday lunchtime horror show.

What we learned was that his team were a distant sixth-best behind the visitors, the match officials, the stewards, the catering and a surprisingly docile crowd.

Watford’s schedule doesn’t exactly perk up from here in on, however, and owners of the likes of Ismaila Sarr (£6.3m and 16.8%) might want to make like the club’s board and get rid sooner rather than later.

Newcastle 2 Spurs 3 – Kane Able Again

Delirium after two minutes, hope for 17 and then a rapid descent into the usual mediocrity – welcome to post-takeover Newcastle, a team still not worthy of much fantasy consideration.

Instead, let’s all get reacquainted with one Harry Kane (£12.1m), who finally got his season started at the seventh attempt, with a goal, an assist and the maximum bonus point award.

It’s been coming for Kane. Only Mason Greenwood (£7.6m) has had more shots (15 v 13) over the past three Gameweeks, while his three big chances is eclipsed by Salah alone.

The key question is whether he can now kick on. A cursory glance at Spurs’ fixtures suggests not, with West Ham and Everton away and Man United at home leading into November’s international break.

Harry Kane Stats. best gameweek 8 team fpl

But none of those sides are displaying defensive solidity this season. United have kept just one clean sheet, the other two just two each.

And once those matches are done, Tottenham have an excellent schedule (a Gameweek 18 visit from Liverpool aside) through to the North London derby in mid-January.

A Covid-19 scare left many managers buying and then selling (for a hit) Heung-Min Son (£10.1m), so his Kane-assisted goal was strangely inevitable.

Should the Son and Kane gang get anywhere near last season’s levels, then there’s going to be an awful lot of rejigging – mostly involving the selling of big ticket strikers – to get that pair into squads.

Those who have yet to wildcard suddenly look like they might have an almighty edge.

Other than that, Callum Wilson (£7.3m) returned and scored, and both defences continued to make no case for inclusion in our thoughts, although the impressive Sergio Reguilon (£5.1m) made it two assists in three matches.

FPL Fixture Ticker

Leicester 4 Man United 2 – Premium Poverty

One of the more cogent arguments for not owning Salah was the need to find the funds to buy the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.5m) or even, at a pinch, to stick with Bruno Fernandes (£11.8m).

It turns out we could have all saved us a few quid and bought Greenwood instead. Well, for his goal on Saturday, at least.

United haven’t won since Gameweek 5 – the last time Ronaldo scored. Since then, the comparative stats of their key attackers is…troubling.

Ronaldo: eight shots, three key passes, no goals and no assists

Fernandes: (respectively) nine; 20; zero and two

Paul Pogba (£7.7m): 11; three; zero; zero

Greenwood: 15; three; one and zero

A goalscoring cameo from the fit-again Marcus Rashford (£9.4m) was a rare high point of the day for the Red Devils.

Harry Maguire’s (£5.4m) return to fitness was rather less joyous. He had a shocker against his old team and United’s one clean sheet of the campaign, back in Gameweek 3, is an even more distant memory than Ronaldo’s better days.

Form has instead shacked up with Jamie Vardy (£10.5m).

Jamie Vardy Stats. gw9 fpl tips

The striker scored for the fifth time in four Gameweeks, although there is one nagging doubt about him this season.

His goal on Saturday came from three shots all in. Over the campaign, he’s scored seven times from 23 attempts, meaning he’s massively out-performing his xG of 3.97.

Leicester’s fixtures are good enough from now until mid-December and Vardy has always made a lot out of a little, but is his current output sustainable?

Another in good form is Youri Tielemans (£6.4m), who made it three attacking returns in four Gameweeks with a fine goal.

He’s owned by just 4.4% despite trailing Vardy by only four shots and leading the way for key passes (13) among the Foxes. The Belgian has also played every minute of the season thus far.

Fantasy Premier League Stats by OPTA

Brentford 0 Chelsea 1 – Wretched Romelu

There’s someone in even worse form than Ronaldo and his name is Romelu Lukaku (£11.7m).

As the other prime reason for not being able to afford Salah, the Chelsea striker has not even bothered to flatter to deceive since his last goal in Gameweek 4.

Instead, he’s played 346 minutes for six shots and no goals.

Strike partner Tino Werner (£8.6m) has had four more attempts (and a goal) from 290 minutes of action over the same period. Even Saturday’s match winner, Ben Chilwell (£5.6m), has had only one shot fewer – from just 180 minutes of pitch-time.

Lukaku’s one saving grace would be his team-leading six key passes over that drought, but that’s a lot of money for a mis-firing creativity engine seeing as he’s not produced a single assist as of yet.

Romelu Lukaku Stats. best forwards gameweek 9 fpl

Chilwell’s star turn meant joy for his 4.9% ownership and despair for the 24.4% on Marcos Alonso (£5.9m).

The Blues’ fixtures are now so good that many are doubling up on the team’s defenders. That’s understandable with five clean sheets and a league-leading (with Man City) three goals conceded.

But manager Thomas Tuchel loves to mix things up and Saturday’s back three of Andreas Christensen (£5.0m), Trevoh Chalobah (£4.8m) and debutant Malang Sarr (£4.9m) had a combined ownership of just 7.1%, or less than a fifth of a Lukaku.

And when not one member of the backline – including the man of the match at Brentford, keeper Edouard Mendy (£6.1m) – has started every league game, finding major fantasy minutes from two of them looks both risky and expensive.

Neither of those things can be said of owning Brentford assets.

Having proved their pedigree against some of the best in the league – they out-shot Chelsea 17-5 on Saturday – the case for investment in players across the side looks inarguable as their schedule now eases for the next two months.

Man City 2 Burnley 0 – The More Things Change…

The crushing inevitability of Man City’s win over Burnley was matched by the whining of managers burned once again by Pep Guardiola’s lust for change.

But key patterns are emerging, among the midfielders at least.

Bernardo Silva (£6.9m), who opened the scoring, has started all but one game in the league this season and has displayed impressive versatility in both deeper and more attacking roles.

The other scorer, Kevin De Bruyne (£11.9m), is one of a select few players rarely rested (when fit) by his boss.

And by ‘select few’, I may well mean ‘Kevin De Bruyne’, who could team up with Kane to finally shatter the increasingly brittle Ronaldo/Lukaku template.

FPL Gameweek 8 review De Bruyne

A third straight start produced a second straight return (an assist) for Phil Foden (£8.0m), while the news that Ferran Torres (£6.9m) could be missing with a foot injury for a while slightly declutters the picture as well.

Things are less clear at the back, however, as the 29.7%-owned Ruben Dias (£6.2m) was rested and, worse still, then came on for an 18-minute, one-point cameo that no doubt scuppered the dreams of some bench points for many a manager.

Burnley had chances to stop a sixth clean sheet for City, but their players remain shrug-inducing despite an upturn in their fixture list.

Everton 0 West Ham 1 – For The Few, Not The Many

Any game involving Rafa Benitez and David Moyes was going to have ‘hard-fought’ thrown at it, and so it proved.

But from a fantasy perspective, it was the lack of beneficiaries of, for example, a rare West Ham clean sheet that was the key takeaway.

The chunky 14.4% who own Aaron Cresswell (£5.5m) were happy enough, but match-winner Angelo Ogbonna’s (£5.0m) 15-point haul was reserved for just 0.3% of FPL managers.

The assist came from the 1.0%-owned Jarrod Bowen (£6.3m). That was the midfielder’s fourth straight return, so he has some form as the Hammers’ fixtures turn nastier.

How that shift will affect Michail Antonio (£8.1m) will be interesting to see.

Still owned by 45.9%, the second most popular player in the game has scored just once in his last four starts and might not be given much chance to improve upon that when the next seven opponents are: TOT avl LIV wol mci BHA CHE.

The absence of a striker who isn’t Salomon Rondon (£6.0m) is really starting to bite Everton now.

The Toffees have scored just three goals across the last four Gameweeks and the likes of the 19.0%-owned Demarai Gray (£5.8m) and Andros Townsend (£5.7m and 10.1%) can’t keep baling out bosses forever.

Predicted Points Tool

Aston Villa 2 Wolves 3/Arsenal 2 Crystal Palace 2 – Last Gaspers

A late, late comeback made it three wins on the spin for Wolves, but it was another victory not enjoyed by many FPL bosses.

The side’s two most popular assets, Fernando Marcal (£4.6m) and Raul Jimenez (£7.6m), are owned by 7.6% and 7.0% respectively, but brought in just two points between them.

Gameweek 8’s third-most purchased players, striker Hee-Chan Hwang (£5.6m), also blanked.

In fact, the only significant winners on the day were the 6.2% invested in Conor Coady (£4.5m), who scored, and the 16.2% who stuck by Danny Ings (£7.8m) as the striker found the net for the first time since Gameweek 2.

Neither team’s immediate schedule will inspire much investment, however.

Arsenal’s fixtures have been persuading some buy-in, but not for much longer.

The Gunners’ revival might well have peaked during their Gameweek 6 win over Spurs, and with Watford the only stand-out fixture of their next four, time could be up for the select few – Ben White (£4.4m and 12.9%) and Bukayo Saka (£6.4m and 13.1%) – with vaguely significant ownership.

The latter went off with a knock against Crystal Palace, with the big scorer on the night being Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£9.9m), who netted for the the third time in five starts and brought in maximum bonus as well.

The fact that no Arsenal player makes it into the top 20 for either shots or key passes is damning, while Palace’s only representative, the 7.8%-owned Conor Gallagher (£5.7m), scrapes in with 18 attempts but has now blanked in three of his last four outings.

At least Odsonne Edouard (£6.5m) scored his first goal as a starter, while Michael Olise (£5.4m) produced a second straight attacking return as an impact sub.

The Eagles’ fixtures are okay for now, a Gameweek 10 trip to Man City aside, but they are still too defensively accommodating, and their forwards too inconsistent, to warrant much interest.

Southampton 1 Leeds 0/Norwich 0 Brighton 0 – Bore Wars

It was a case of no Raphinha (£6.6m), no fun for a Leeds side that is veering dangerously towards the dull.

They came bottom for Gameweek 8 shots (three), which was half the total of even Watford – a decidedly damning stat.

Marcelo Bielsa’s men have managed just seven goals in eight games now and their xG of 9.1 is matched by that powerhouse of attacking intent, Burnley.

Southampton, with six goals, are even worse.

But they scored the all-important one against Leeds, courtesy of Armando Broja (£5.0m). That probably kept Ralph Hasenhuttl in employment, which meant we were then treated to this blistering post-match insight from the Austrian:

“To win a game you need a goal and today we scored one; this is helpful.”

Indeed.

Meanwhile, Norwich and Brighton’s nil-nil draw surprised nobody.

Both sides have now kept back-to-back clean sheets, although neither is likely to keep a third as the Canaries travel to Chelsea next and the Seagulls have Man City and Liverpool to come.

All great reasons for going nowhere near any of the sides’ players right now.

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FPL Gameweek 8 Review – Familiarity Breeds Contentment

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