Week 8 – Keeping the faith

Well, our last blog (entitled West Ham on the Up? and Time to ditch Mo?) suggested it maybe time to consider ditching M. Salah (£7.2m)… and there he is as the only Striker on this week’s Team of the Week !! 😆

I guess the lesson there is no amount of statistical analysis or clever AI algorithms can (yet?!) predict the future… just ask the West Ham fans on the end of a 4-1 thrashing in their ‘Cup Final’…

A bad result for Arsenal and a good win for Spurs leads to some changes in this week’s Team of the Season:-

our first 3-4-3 formation for Team of the Season, this is historically the ‘usual’ formation and the poor defeat for Arsenal witnesses G. Magalhaes (£4.3m) replaced by J. Maddison (£5.2m) of Spurs. D. McNeil (£3.4m) is back also and N. Jackson (£4.0m) of Chelsea makes his first appearance this year, replacing B. Mbuemo (£3.9m).

Jackson is actually level on points with O. Watkins (£5.7m) of Villa but, Jackson gets the nod courtesy of his much cheaper price tag.

E. Haaland (£8.5m) makes it three weeks in a row now scoring a ‘blank’ and he drops out of the Six Week Form Rank on the Weekly Form Comparison report on the Player Stats Portal for the first time this season:-

M. Salah (£7.2m), J. Maddison (£5.2m) and B. Saka (£5.8m) are the only players in the Team of the Season to appear at the top of the Six Week Form rank, and this despite Saka not playing due to injury this week and indeed Maddison being hooked (for tactical reasons) at half time in Spurs’ 4-1 rout of West Ham !

But, back to Haaland’s poor recent form and learning our lesson from questioning Salah in last week’s blog, City next face the hapless Southampton at home so, we’d definitely caution against removing Erling just yet… !

Transferring our attention to gamer’s transfer activity, we note that W. Saliba (£4.5m) and B. Saka (£5.8m) are the most transferred out players this week:-

Check back on the Player Stats Portal for the latest injury and suspension news (usually updated Friday afternoon after the managers weekly press conferences) :-

but, at time of writing Saka (as highlighted earlier, one of THE most consistent performers this season) is potentially back for Arsenal’s Week 9 home game against Liverpool, perhaps the 5% who transferred him out already have jumped the gun a bit….? Assuming that is they don’t move him back in again if fit 😊

Saliba also is only suspended for ONE game, not the usual two for a straight red (two games is for violent conduct only now) so, again perhaps the 6% who ditched him have acted a bit too hastily…?

That said, the former best defence in the league (Arsenal) has been crumbling of late and now, surprisingly, Nottingham Forest have the second best record for Goals Conceded :-

We would pick out some Forest defenders to recommend but, they have one of the hardest set of forthcoming fixtures so, we won’t ‘bother’ 😂.

Instead, we’ll ponder the possibility of ditching Haaland, given his huge price tag and the funds that would be freed up….especially as City play on Saturday at 3pm i.e. there are a few alternatives that could be transferred in AFTER Haaland has played Southampton (especially worth considering if he were to ‘blank’ again against the poor Saints’ defence ?!)

M. Salah (£7.2m) would seem the safest choice if not already owned. Other options highlighted above, all have games AFTER City vs Southampton – R. Jimenez (£3.8m) is the only one with 4 ticks, his (Jimenez) recent form has been very ‘steady’ although the other players highlighted seem to have greater potential for large weekly ‘hauls’ :-

Including Midfielders and filtering for the last 5 weeks on the Player Form report on the Player Stats Portal (remember, only highlighting players who play AFTER Haaland in Week 9) – C. Palmer (£5.8m) is an obvious replacement, were you not to already own him.

J. Maddison (£5.2m) is the only other Midfield option jumping out, otherwise the claims of Jimenez, Jackson and Johnson are reinforced (especially given their low price tags)…. IF you’re brave enough to give up on Erling…

If previous blogs are to go by, Haaland is now guaranteed to get a hat-trick against Southampton, watch this space !! 😊