In addition to our usual gameweek preview article and lineup predictions piece in the build-up to gameweek 13 on the 23rd of November, we’re also going to dive a bit deeper into the matches of gameweek 12 from an FPL point of view. Part 1 took a quick look at the matches from Friday and Saturday, which included the bottom clash Norwich vs Watford, top-six challengers Leicester hosting Arsenal, and Frank Lampard’s in-form Chelsea looking to make it six consecutive victories in a row.
This second part of the piece will look at Sunday’s matches, which, of course, includes the top-of-the-table clash between current leaders Liverpool and reigning champions Manchester City, as well as a somewhat resurgent Manchester United hosting Brighton, and Wolves versus new boys Aston Villa at Molineux. If you weren’t watching the football then maybe you were looking at online casino games and, if so, you could check out Top Casino Bonus first.
Goalkeepers
No clean sheets on the second day of gameweek 12, but Brighton’s Mat Ryan (£4.7m) was the clear stand-out goalie among the six who got into action on Sunday. No less than 9 saves brought him 2 save points and the full 3 bonus points for a more than decent total of 7 FPL points. Since his 2 points in gameweek 5, Ryan has not recorded less than 3 points in a game and that only happened once, in gameweek 9 against Aston Villa. That makes it 41 FPL points from the last seven Premier League games, equalling an average of just 6 FPL points per game.
Defenders
The lack of clean sheets on Sunday was naturally also reflected in the scores for defenders. Despite conceding three goals at Old Trafford, Seagulls central defender Lewis Dunk (£4.6m) came away with a nice 6 FPL points, courtesy of his first goal of the season. The only other defender to score more than 2 points on Sunday was Liverpool’s Andy Robertson (£7.0m), whose wonderful assist for Salah’s header helped him record an acceptable 5-point score, especially considering the opposition. It’s now 1 goal and 4 assists for the Scottisch wing-back with a favourable run of fixtures coming up, including three home games (Brighton, Everton, Watford) over the next five gameweeks. On the opposite side, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m) did not record attacking returns this time, but his record is identical (1 goal, 4 assists) and he looks like a popular asset for the weeks to come as well.
Midfielders
The three winning teams all saw one or more midfielders make the difference for them on Sunday. First of all, Liverpool beat Man City 3-1 at home and all goals were scored by players who are labelled as midfielder in the official Premier League fantasy game. Fabinho‘s (£5.5m) opener represented the Brazilian midfielder’s first PL goal of the season and a first FPL haul (9 points). Mo Salah (£12.3m) and Sadio Mané (£12.0m) netted once each as well, good for 8 FPL points and 7 FPL points, respectively. The Egyptian dribbler now has 6 goals and 3 assists, while the Senegalese winger stands at 7 goals and 4 assists so far. Their teammate Jordan Henderson (£5.4m) got 6 points after his assist for Mané’s goal. For City, Bernardo Silva (£7.9m) stood out in FPL terms with 10 points, thanks to a second-half goal and a somewhat surprising three bonus points
The Portuguese midfielder wasn’t the highest-scoring midfielder of the day, though. That honour, and indeed the title of gameweek 12’s highest-scoring midfielder overall, goes to Wolverhampton’s Ruben Neves (£5.3m), who scored a beautiful first-touch strike against Villa and was awarded the three bonus points as well. It was only his second attacking return of the season though, after his goal versus Man United back in gameweek 2. The assists for the two Wolves goals came from Traoré (£5.2m) and Moutinho (£5.3m), who recorded scores of 5 FPL points and 4 FPL points, respectively. For the former, it was his fourth attacking return of the season (2 goals, 2 assists) and his first return since gameweek 8, while the latter made it his third assist of the season and his second one is as many weeks. For Villa, it was winger Trezeguet (£5.2m) who scored a goal for a second week in a row, helping him to record 8 FPL points for the 1.3% of FPL managers who owned him.
At Old Trafford, the homeside beat Brighton 3-1 and the midfielders were involved a lot here as well. For United, striker Anthony Martial (£7.7m), who is listed as a midfielder in FPL, didn’t find the back of the net, but he did set up two goals, bringing his owners 10 FPL points. That makes it one goal and 3 assists in the three games since he came back from injury. After starting in every Premier League games since gameweek 4, Belgian-Brazilian midfielder Andreas Pereira (£5.0m, 0.5% ownership) finally recorded a first attacking return by scoring against Villa. His goal resulted in a bonus point and a total score of 8 points. The other midfielder on the United roster with a return this weekend was Scott McTominay (£5.1m, 3.7% ownership). After scoring against Norwich in gameweek 10, he provided an assist in gameweek 12 to bring his owners a decent 5 FPL points. The cheap central midfielder now stands on 2 goals and 2 assists this season, and three of those returns have come in the last six gameweeks. The final midfielder to record a noteworthy FPL score (ie. A score above 3 points) was Brighton’s Pascal Gross (£6.4m, 0.7% ownership). The German playmaker was one of the better players for the Seagulls and it was from his corner that Lewis Dunk scored their only goal at Old Trafford. Gross has now provided 2 assists and scored 1 goal over the last four gameweeks, for a total of 18 FPL points.
Forwards
Considering the way in which the midfielders grabbed the FPL spotlight on Sunday, the smaller role for forwards is not a surprise. As a matter of fact, only two forwards scored more than 2 FPL points on the third day of gameweek 12, namely Raul Jimenez and Marcus Rashford. Wolves forward Jimenez (£7.3m) scored against Aston Villa, bringing his owners 9 FPL points and making it 3 goals from his last four Premier League games. He was the third-best performing forward in the official game this weekend, behind Jamie Vardy and Gerard Deulofeu. The Mexican killer has got 3 goals and 2 assists from his last five gameweeks. Manchester United’s Rashford (£8.5m) found the net as well in gameweek 12, against Brighton in his case, and brought the 13.7% of FPL managers who own him 5 points, due to a one-point reduction as a result of a yellow card. It’s now 6 goals and 3 assists in the Premier League since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, and 3 goals and 1 assist from his last four gameweeks.