Saturday was largely a template day of this season’s Premier League, with expected winners winning, Haaland scoring and Leicester losing.
While day 1 of Gameweek 10 did not provide us with any glaring surprises, it still had plenty to offer FPL-wise.
Here is our analysis of the hits and misses from Saturday’s action.
The Hits
Joao Cancelo
Cancelo’s 18 points have him as the current highest points-getter of the gameweek ahead of the remaining matches.
The fullback started the scoring for City, twisting and turning in the box before a sweet finish past the keeper.
He then went on to get an assist for the last goal of the game.
A clean sheet locked in, thanks to a 69th-minute substitution meant Cancelo recorded his third double-digit haul of the season.
Cancelo, and other City players’ owners, however, must be wary of the next two gameweeks (Liverpool and blank) and fresh owners may as well wait till GW13 to get him.
Erling Haaland and Harry Kane
The first player this season to hit a century of points, Haaland finished Man City’s rout with a well-taken goal, having missed a few chances earlier which had people thinking if a blank is on the cards.
The most-captained player of the week, again, delivered for his managers with 6 points.
Kane outscored Haaland by a point this week, albeit getting a yellow card, thanks to two bonus points.
This makes is 8 back-to-back point-scoring weekends for the Spurs striker and 9 for the Norwegian.
Dominic Solanke
Much has been made of Solanke lately, given his price tag and run of games.
The GW6 game against Nottingham Forest thrust him into the limelight when he scored and assisted a goal for the Cherries.
He then blanked the next two weeks, which was enough for most managers to write him off saying as a flash in the pan.
Solanke though came back with a bang last night, outscoring all other strikers thus far with 8 points, thanks to his two assists against a struggling Leicester side.
It would be interesting to see how his 1.5% ownership changes going forward.
Bruno Guimaraes
Newcastle put five past Brentford on Saturday. Three were straight from Brentford errors, and the other two were well-taken by Guimaraes.
His two goals mean he’s off the mark for the season, which has thus far not resulted in much in FPL.
Just one assist prior to this has seen his ownership sink to only 2.7%.
With Trippier, Pope, Isak and Wilson making their way into a lot of teams, one good game may not be enough for Bruno to convince owners to take a punt on him.
The Misses
James Maddison
Much was made of Maddison’s record against newly promoted teams, but it all came crashing down for him rather spectacularly.
He, and Leicester, failed to make any sort of impression against hosts Bournemouth, eventually losing 2-1. Maddison’s xG of 0.07 and xA of 0.16 showed how ineffective he really was in the game.
Another yellow card brings his tally up to 4, and earning another would result in a one-match suspension for the midfielder. All in all, a bad gameweek resulted in just one point.
Nick Pope
The highest-scoring goalkeeper has now failed to keep a clean sheet for three successive games and against not-so-difficult opponents.
Pope and co. face United, Everton and Tottenham in the next three games. Something to think about for the 21% of teams that own him.
Leandro Trossard
The high-flying Brighton midfielder was one of the most transferred-in players this week. However, Trossard could not follow up on his Anfield heroics against Spurs, ending the game with only 2 points.
Reece James
After a solid goal-scoring midweek in UCL, James was rested in the match against the Wolves.
As if this wasn’t agony enough for all managers who brought him in, the fullback was brought midway and had an uneventful 18 minutes.
His 39.9% owners received only a point for the weekend, and they’ll be hoping that the next game, against Villa, will be a much better outing for them and their player.
Five games in, the gameweek is already looking much better than the previous one for most managers. Now onto the remaining five games to see how FPL shapes out.
