Chelsea’s Premier League form may be inconsistent but in the fantasy version of the competition, they are emerging as the team to turn to.
Plenty of managers are deploying wild cards after an unpredictable start to the season, and Frank Lampard’s men could be an important ingredient.
Zoum call incoming
The PA news agency ranks players using a Transfer Score metric combining form, cost, ownership and upcoming fixture difficulty rating (FDR), with form accounting for 50 per cent of the score and the other categories weighted equally.
Looking at the top three in each position this week, the Blues provide four of the 12 players and dominate the defensive positions.
Kurt Zouma and Ben Chilwell have two clean sheets in the last three games and both scored in the 4-0 win over Crystal Palace so – while those shut-outs have been alternated with 3-3 draws – they rank as our top two defenders for gameweek seven with transfer scores of 67.
Zouma’s lower cost and ownership nudge him fractionally ahead after the decimal point, and he is the season’s third highest-scoring defender – that list is topped by Wolves’ Romain Saiss, but it is his cheap colleague Max Kilman who fills out our defensive podium on 64 after impressing in his first few starts.
Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, with four clean sheets in his first five appearances for the club in all competitions, is fit again and will try to add to his two league games with no goals conceded – he is our second-ranked goalkeeper on 56, behind only West Brom’s £4.5million starter Sam Johnstone (58). Southampton’s Alex McCarthy is third on 54.
Spot the difference?
Midfielder Jorginho completes the quartet of Chelsea recommendations – though he comes with a warning after his second penalty miss of the season, in the 4-0 Europa League win over Krasnodar.
Timo Werner scored from the spot later in the game and Lampard plans to talk to his players about whether a full-time change is necessary. Three penalty goals have propelled Jorginho to 35 points, eighth among all midfielders, and losing those duties would harm his value even at £5.3m.
The same is true for Wilfried Zaha, our third-ranked midfielder on a transfer score of 64 as one point covers the podium places. Two of Zaha’s five goals have been spot-kicks but the return of regular taker Luka Milivojevic could change things.
The midfield podium is topped by Son Heung-min, the game’s top scorer with 69 points, with Tottenham team-mate Harry Kane, four behind, the only player within 18 of him.
High cost and ownership keep Kane to third place in our striker rankings on 61 behind Ollie Watkins and Che Adams.
Watkins (67) has still only scored in one game – albeit a hat-trick against Liverpool, with an assist for good measure – but at £6m and owned by only 4.8 per cent of managers he is a cheap differential.
Adams (63) trails Southampton team-mate Danny Ings 41 points to 29 but is £2.7m cheaper at £5.8m and has only two per cent ownership.
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