The second week of enthralling Premier League football is in the books. Things were kicked off with another excellent 4-0 victory for Manchester United and the gameweek concluded with an epic battle between City and Everton at the Etihad; the match eventually finished 1-1 with a couple of red cards.
In terms of Fantasy Premier League, it was a rather low-scoring week with an average of 44 points. To be brutally honest, you did extremely well if you managed to get above that tally - because in a lot of the games, there was an alarming lack of goals which was in stark contrast to GW1.
There were some brilliant individual performances over GW2, with Paul Pogba putting on a show in Wales. However, the top scorer was Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso, with his two goals and three bonus points against fierce rivals Spurs; earning his owners a huge 16 points.
Here are our three players to transfer in this week:
Jack Butland – Stoke City - £5.0m
This pick is slightly out of left field, but it could be an astute piece of business. Stoke City looked stern against Arsenal on Saturday evening and their goalkeeper Jack Butland was brilliant.
He made save after save and picked up maximum bonus points. He’s only owned by 3.5% of managers and coming in at £5.0, the Englishman is a cheaper option in comparison with the likes of Hugo Lloris, Ederson and Thibaut Courtois.
Butland is in great form and trust me when I say those points for making saves will rack up pretty quickly – and they are guaranteed whether The Potters keep a clean sheet or not.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan – Manchester United - £8.2m
Manchester United’s midfield Armenian has been wonderful in his opening two matches. He’s tacked on four assists already, picked up three bonus points and also picked up two clean sheet points. In total, he’s scored 21 across two gameweeks and his value has already risen by £0.2m.
That scintillating form has also meant his ownership has risen to 16.5% and I fully expect that to keep rising until the transfer deadline on Saturday morning. The 27-year-old has been at the heart of everything good for the Red Devils, and he’s a shoe-in to start against Leicester City this weekend.
Wayne Rooney – Everton - £7.5m
I fully expected Wayne Rooney to struggle this term, but to his credit, he’s started wonderfully. He’s picked up the maximum of three bonus points in his opening two fixtures and also scored in both of those games. The Englishman is becoming a real father figure of this talented Everton team and he looks to be enjoying his football once again.
At £7.5m there aren’t many better options out there as a second-choice striker, and right now he’s in better form than the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Harry Kane who are both significantly more expensive. My only worry here is that Everton have a tricky fixture list, but I wouldn’t put it past Rooney to keep finding the back of the net.
And here’s our three players to get rid of:
Kyle Walker – Manchester City – £6.5m
Whether you think his sending off was harsh or not, Kyle Walker will not be involved this week against AFC Bournemouth. I’d say keep him in, but you can do an awful lot with £6.5m on the defensive side of the ball – particularly when his teammate Danilo costs £5.5m and will likely start in Walker’s absence.
As you’d imagine, he tops the list for the most transferred out player this week, with close to 250,000 managers deciding to bin him off. If you have him, I’d be following suit and looking at some cheaper options.
Mohamed Salah – Liverpool - £9.1m
I love Mohamed Salah for FPL as I think he’s the perfect player to succeed. However, the fact that Jurgen Klopp dropped him last weekend worries me, and £9.1m is a lot of money to have sitting on the bench every other week. In my opinion, the wise decision is to sell him, invest that money elsewhere and wait for the Egyptian to become a regular fixture in the Liverpool XI.
A lot of people are binning him off this week but he still has 25.8% ownership. Personally, I think they’ll be disappointed when the Anfield side names their team to take on Arsenal on Sunday.
Gabriel Jesus – Manchester City - £10.4m
The Manchester City man made a brilliant start to life in sky blue last term, but he just hasn’t started off the 2017/18 campaign well at all. In GW1 he drew a blank, and in GW2 he was unfortunately hauled off when City went down to 10 men. A total of 2 points just isn’t good enough for a striker who costs over £10.0m in my opinion.
On top of that, I can see Pep Guardiola dropping him to the bench due to a change in tactic. The 3-5-2 just doesn’t seem to be working for City and a large part of that is the Jesus & Sergio Aguero partnership.
One final tip: If you’re thinking about playing your wildcard this week, try and hold off if you can. GW3 is the last before the dreaded international break and no doubt an injury or two will occur – so it may be wise to try to hang on to it until the following week.
