We are now ten games into the 2023-24 Premier League campaign, just over a fourth of the season, and Spurs are topping the table. That’s right, Spurs, the Londoner butt of many a joke about silverware (or the lack thereof) over the past years, who just lost one of their all-time superstars to Bayern Munich, and who brought in a new coach from Celtic over the summer. Of course, the season is very long still and the competition is enormous, but it’s starting to look like Tottenham Hotspur might actually be a serious contender for the title this season. Or at least an outside for the title. With a largely favourable set of fixtures coming up, two of the major questions for fantasy managers are whether to pick two or three Spurs players, and perhaps even more importantly, which ones?
Spurs are also one of the sides with a good fixture on paper in GW11. Manager Ange Postecoglou’s men are hosting Chelsea on Monday, and the Blues’ woes and lack of any kind of form is well-known by now. Liverpool away at Luton Town is another stand-out fixture for FPL managers this weekend, especially with Mohamed Salah in top form, as is the encounter between Manchester City and Bournemouth at the Etihad on Saturday. From a neutral point of view, the current-top-six clash between Newcastle and Arsenal at St. James’ Park on Saturday is probably the one to look forward to.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 11 is set at 11h00 (UK time) on Saturday, November 4th, 2023.
Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per November 3rd, 2023)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Ramsdale (ARS), Onana (MUN), Sanchez (CHE) | Johnstone (CRY), Alisson (LIV), Vicario (TOT) | |
| DEF | Udogie (TOT), Estupiñan (BRI), Trippier (NEW) | Andersen (CRY), Tsimikas (LIV), Romero (TOT) | Palace fixtures, Robertson injury, Udogie + Estupiñan injury worries |
| MID | Neto (WOL), Odegaard (ARS), Mitoma (BRI) | D. Luiz (AST), Mbeumo (BRE), Hee-Chan (WOL) | All transferred-in assets are in form, Neto injury worries |
| FOR | Isak (NEW), Alvarez (MCI), Watkins (AST) | Nketiah (ARS), Darwin (LIV), Watkins (AST) | Jesus injury, Watkins and Darwin form, Isak injury |
Premium pick
After two consecutive blanks and then just a single, measly goal against Brighton at home in gameweek 9, a few fantasy managers figured that Erling Haaland (£14.0m) had probably passed his peak… or something of the like. Anyway, to our surprise, he was amongst the most transferred-out forwards in the build-up to gameweek 9, in which the Manchester derby was waiting. OK, so perhaps there is some understandable reasoning behind that move when you looked back at a very recent, very small sample, but this is the same guy who managed 9 goals and 1 assist from nine league starts, and who is only trailing Mo Salah in terms of total FPL points in the overall game. So, of course, Haaland went on to punish the doubters in style, recording a direct involvement in each of the three goals scored by City at home to United: 2 goals, 1 assist. The result? A juicy 16-point haul, which, honestly, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a repeat of when Bournemouth visit the Etihad this weekend.
Non-premium pick
Ollie Watkins (£8.4m) had a relatively slow start to the season, in the sense that he only got his first league goal back in gameweek 6 at Stamford Bridge. He did however, up to that point, already register 4 assists from five league starts, so he wasn’t entirely off the radar. The Chelsea goal seemed to have galvanised him though, because since then, the England international scored 4 more goals and added another 4 assists to his totals, bringing him to 5 goals and 8 assists in ten league starts. At his current price, that’s incredible value territory. We are expecting his price to rise a bit further over the coming weeks though, as Aston Villa have a short stretch of very good fixtures coming up, starting with Nottingham Forest away this weekend. In the three games after that, it’s Fulham at home, followed by Spurs away and then Bournemouth away. In his current form, Watkins should be good for at least three attacking returns over that stretch, including the Forest game on Sunday. And who knows, there might even be a repeat of his monster 26-point haul against Brighton in GW7 among them.
The budget enabler
You might have noticed in the brief transfer overview for gameweek 11 around the start of this article, but Crystal Palace defenders are in fashion at the moment. That’s because the Eagles, at least from a defensive point of view, are approaching ideal FPL territory. They have been solid defensively so far, recording 4 clean sheets (only Arsenal has more with 5), and they’ve got a great run of fixtures coming up, in theory at least. On Saturday, it’s time for Burnley away, before Everton at home, Luton away, West Ham away and Bournemouth at home. In other words, potential clean sheets galore for the Eagles. That’s why we have decided to include Tyrick Mitchell (£4.5m) as our budget enabler of choice for gameweek 11. He is a guaranteed starter for Palace, he has a license to join in attack when possible (though he has recorded just 1 assist so far), and he is slightly cheaper than the more popular Marc Guéhi. There is, of course, Joachim Andersen as well, but the Dane will set you back considerably more than Mitchell, as he costs £5.0m at the moment.
The differential
We honestly can’t remember the last time we included a Wolves attacker in one of our gameweek previews, but here we are. Hwang Hee-Chan (£5.5m) has quietly gone under the radar so far this season, or so it seems when looking at his current ownership 3,6%. When looking a bit deeper though, the Korean attacker actually represents outstanding value over the first ten games of the 2023-24 campaign. He has been a guaranteerd starter for Wolves since the gameweek 5 visit to Anfield and it’s not hard to see why. In six starts since then, including the Liverpool fixture in which he scored, Hee-Chan managed no less than 4 goals and 1 assist, bringing his totals for the season to 6 goals and 1 assist. Another way of looking at these great stats: Wolves’ Korean attacker has registered at least one attacking return in six of his seven last league games. Or how about this: only four players currently have more goals to their names than Hee-Chan, those being Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah, Son Heung-Min and Callum Wilson. Let’s see if the South Korea can crash into the top scorers top four when Wolves visit Sheffield United on Saturday.
The (vice-)captaincy
We’re pretty sure that the captaincy debate for gameweek 11 will be between Erling Haaland, who is waiting for Bournemouth to roll up to the Etihad on Saturday, and Mohamed Salah, whose Liverpool is set for a visit to Kenilworth Road the day after. Both are in form, so we’ve opted for Haaland, thanks to him playing at home. Also, he is owned by just over 84% of managers.
If you have both premium FPL assets, then it all comes down to who you are captaining and who will be the vice-captain. If this is not the case though, fear not, because there are a few very appealing alternatives available this weekend as well. These include Ollie Watkins away against Nottingham Forest, Julian Alvarez at home to Bournemouth and Son Heung-Min at home to inconsistent Chelsea.