After a downpour of hauls and the season’s second-highest average score in gameweek 9, gameweek 10 was a completely different experience. With Mo Salah not scoring for once (though he did assist), the FPL differentials took the power once again as Cristiano Ronaldo and Reece James were the only players with an ownership of more than 10% to make it into GW10’s Team of the Week. On the flipside, no less than six of last weekend’s outstanding performers currently still boast an ownership of less than 5% with four of them sitting in less than 2% of all teams. While James recorded the highest score of the week (21 FPL points), courtesy of 2 goals and a clean sheet, the likes of Gabriel (15 points, owned by 1.7%), Matthew Lowton (14 points, owned by 1.7%) and Declan Rice (13 points, owned by 5.1%) provided big as well for the few fortunate managers who own them.
This weekend could end up being another unpredictable and possibly low-scoring affair in terms of FPL. On Saturday, it’s the Manchester derby at Old Trafford at 12:30pm, while on Sunday, Liverpool (at West Ham), Leicester (at Leeds) and Spurs (at Everton) are all up for potentially tricky outings. In terms of the traditional top sides, Chelsea and Arsenal do present interesting fixtures by hosting Burnley and Watford, respectively. The home games of Southampton (vs Aston Villa), Brentford (vs Norwich), Crystal Palace (vs Wolves) and Brighton (vs Newcastle) all look winnable for the home sides (only 2 of the 10 fixtures in GW9 were home wins!), but the results might just as easily go the other way, in our opinion.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 11 is set at 18h30 (UK time) on Friday, November 5th.
Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per November 5th, 2021)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Raya (BRE), Schmeichel (LEI), Ederson (MCI) | Ramsdale (ARS), Mendy (CHE), Sánchez (BRI) | |
| DEF | Alonso (CHE), Dias (MCI), Azpilicueta (CHE) | James (CHE), Chilwell (CHE), Livramento (SOU) | Chelsea defensive rotation |
| MID | Kovacic (CHE), Mount (CHE), Sarr (WAT) | Smith-Rowe (ARS), Gallagher (CRY), Son (TOT) | Kovacic injury doubt, ESR and Gallagher form, Conte arrival at Spurs |
| FOR | Ings (SOU), Lukaku (CHE), Antonio (WHU) | Toney (BRE), Hwang & Jimenez (WOL) & Ronaldo (MUN) | Ings and Lukaku injury doubts, Toney fixtures, Hwang & Jimenez form |
Premium pick
Since Salah failed to score last weekend for the first time since his blank in gameweek 2, we are immediately removing him from our recommendations. He’s over. That’s a joke, of course, the Egyptian provided an assist against Brighton for his 17th return of the season and remains the most reliable FPL asset out there, including for his upcoming away game with West Ham. For the sake of variation though, and because decent form and a good fixture seem to be coinciding for him at the moment, our premium fantasy pick for gameweek 11 is Pierre-Emerick Aubaneyang (£10.0m). The Arsenal forward had a slow start to the season, but seems to be finding his place in Mikel Arteta’s improving squad. He scored 4 goals and gave 1 assist in his last seven games for a total of 37 FPL points or just over 5.5 points per game. Not amazing for a player with his price tag, but definitely not bad either. Up next are Watford at the Emirates, followed by Liverpool away and then Newcastle at home, which looks like a run over which Auba could bring the 5.4% of managers who own him considerable joy.
Non-premium pick
Mason Mount (£7.5m) missed last weekend’s clash with Newcastle at the very last minute due to non-COVID19-related illness, which will have had more than a few fantasy managers fuming, but the English midfielder is set to return this weekend. He had initially travelled with the team to Newcastle, but was then sent home to recover and he was also left out of the mid-week squad that visited Malmö in the Champions League. Mount is a key figure for this Chelsea side and in the absence of Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner, is attacking creativity is much needed. Injury issues have kept his season from really taking off so far, but in the three games that he could start so far this season, he recorded 3 goals and 3 assists. Two of those assists came in gameweeks 1 and 2, while the rest of his returns formed his 24-point mega haul against Norwich in gameweek 9. Even though Burnley are considerably sturdier than the Canaries, especially in defence, this weekend’s game should be three points in the bag for the Blues and the hope is that Mount can contribute to such a result. Keep an eye on Chelsea team news.
The budget enabler
It’s hard to remember the last time we mentioned TWO Arsenal fantasy assets in the same gameweek preview article, but here we are. After highlighting Aubameyang’s potential as a premium pick, we have now come to the budget-enabler category with Emile Smith-Rowe (£5.6m). Over the past two games, the 21-year old midfielder recorded 22 FPL points, courtesy of a goal and an assist against Villa in GW9 followed by a goal at Leicester last weekend. This brought his totals to 3 goals, 2 assists and 49 FPL points from nine starts, which represents incredibly good value when taking his price tag into consideration. ESR ranks amongst the top-two Arsenal assets for several important attacking indicators, including shots in the box, shots on target and big chances creates. This bodes well for him as the Gunners take on Watford at home next. Since Claudio Ranieri took over at Vicarage Road, the Hornets have conceded 8 goals and they still have not managed to keep a clean sheet this Premier League season. Like the case with Auba, this fixture looks juicy for Smith-Rowe, with the added bonus of Newcastle at home in gameweek 13 (after an away game at Anfield).
The differential
Now this is a bit of a punt and with “bit”, we mean that it’s a pretty big gamble when looking at the season so far. Harry Kane (£12.1m) does not only have just 1 goal and 1 assist to his name so far, he also carries a very premium price tag, which is not really a combination of factors you’d favour when looking for new recruits for your FPL squad. The “punt” part of this pick comes from the fact that Tottenham’s away game against Everton will also be Antonio Conte’s first game in charge of Spurs. Very much remains to be seen when it comes to the Italian’s ideas for his new side and his the extent of his arrival’s impact on the club, but Kane looks set to be an integral part of whatever comes next at White Hart Lane. In that sense, the visit to Goodison Park could be a great beginning of a new era, as the Toffees are finding themselves in a bit of a slump at the moment. Rafa Benitez’ men have lost their last three league games and conceded 8 goals over that run, while important figures like Lucas Digne, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Abdelaye Doucouré all remain sidelined with injuries. It might just be the moment to hop aboard the Kane train early (his ownership is at 6.6% at the moment of writing), before it takes off on a very appealing run of fixtures (if you have 2 transfers to use this week and no real need to make one then consider transferring a benched player for a Spurs player due to their fixtures from GW12 and the new-manager bounce factor).
The (vice-)captaincy
Seeing as about 99.9% of FPL managers will again be captaining Mo Salah this weekend for Liverpool’s visit to West Ham, we figured we’d approach our usual captaincy segment a bit differently this time. Instead of focusing on recommendations for the captaincy (Salah, obviously), we’ll take a quick look at some interesting and, most importantly, wise picks for the vice-captaincy. Salah did play 90 minutes in Liverpool’s mid-week victory over Atlético de Madrid, after all.
For those who can afford this type of team structure, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would be a more than decent pick for the vice-captaincy as Arsenal host Watford on Saturday. Much of the same goes for Chelsea’s Kai Havertz for the home encounter with Burnley and Leicester’s Jamie Vardy for the visit to Elland Road. Riskier, but also more affordable vice-captains for gameweek 11 include Brentford’s Ivan Toney against Norwich at home, Brighton’s Leandro Trossard or Neal Maupay versus Newcastle at home, and Chelsea creator Mason Mount, on condition that he is declared fit before the Burnley game.
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