Winners
John Lundstram – The Sheffield United man is the gift that keeps on giving and is truly the King of the North. FPL placing this guy as a defender for 4.0 at the start of the season is going to go down as simply legendary in fantasy history. Against Burnley on Saturday he ran the show and managed to grab two goals and a clean sheet with an obvious plus three bonus afterwards, earning him a huge 21 points. He is currently the top scoring ‘defender’ in the game and his price is sky rocketing, he is currently sitting at 4.8M. If like me, you had him at the start of the season we just sit back and take those rises all day long. He may well end up being the highest owned player in the game eventually. So far Lundstram has shown he is an all-round midfielder who loves to get in the box, he has been unlucky so far to probably not have more attacking returns which seems insane to say. Combine this with the Blades having conceded the least amount of goals in the league and you have a true must own player. So, arise Lord Lundstram first of his name and of house Blade the true King of the North.
Leandro Trossard – Brighton’s brilliant Belgium is still working his way back from injury and started on the bench against Norwich. With the score line at 0-0 on the hour mark, Brighton boss Graham Potter subbed him on and Trossard produced a half-hour cameo which announced his return. The midfielder opened the scoring and assisted Shane Duffy to head in the goal which sealed the win. The week before he also came off the bench to put in the cross in which Lucas Digne put into his own net. Trossard created a very impressive four chances for his teammates in his time on the pitch too. It is a shame an injury has created a disruption in his time so far at the Seagulls, he is such a talented player and was in my squad from Gameweek one. Brighton do have some tricky games coming up, but they do look a lot more threatening this season and with Trossard back up to speed it just makes it even more enticing given his price at 5.8M. He is an easy swap with West Ham’s Andriy Yarmolenko and one I will make soon. I wouldn’t sleep on getting him in your sides his price is great and he is an excellent player.
Newcastle – Steve Bruce might be looking forward to more trips to the capital at this rate, with wins against Tottenham and now most recently West Ham (more on them soon). The Toon army probably could not believe what they were seeing as they did go 3-0 up before a brief fight back saw the Hammers score twice. It was the first time in the League this season that Newcastle had scored more than once in a game, it is November…. This is probably going to be more off a one off than anything to think about too deeply, Steve Bruce has not turned into an all-out attack style manager. Nevertheless, though it still represents a great achievement for a side who when you watch them look like they are actively trying their best to not go forward. The Magpies host Bournemouth next which should be an interesting game. The Cherries are usually poor at the back but have kept three consecutive clean sheets whilst only scoring once in those three games. The pressure will be on Newcastle to break them down which is not something they excel at.
Losers
West Ham – As Suj (@sujanshah) has said himself many times if you need a result then West Ham will duly roll over and give you one. Being three nil down at home to as mentioned earlier to a Newcastle side who struggle to even get one goal most games is quite an achievement. Manuel Pellegrini is starting to skate on thin ice, given the Hammers current form and the money spent in the Summer on the likes of Sebastian Haller. They have not win a league gameweek six against Manchester United and without Lukasz Fabianski back until the New Year it looks like a Winter of discontent could be on the cards. Especially since the replacement Roberto looks to be very poor. Two of the goals conceded to Newcastle he most certainly should have done better with. Haller has already had a price drop this week and more will be on the way for some of their other players, so if you any Hammers players in your side now is probably a good time to down tools.
Burnley – Some dubbed the match between Sheffield United and Burnley to be a battle of Brexit given the number of British players on both sides, an unusual thing to see in the modern Premier League. But with it finishing 3-0 to the Blades it was less of a battle and more of a walk over. That is seven goals conceded now for Burnley in two games which is concerning for Nick Pope owners such as myself as you can usually rely on them being difficult to score against. The early season form of Ashley Barnes has disappeared which has made them less dangerous but with West Ham at home next that could soon be about to change. Although I do have some concern over Pope I would stick just due to his price and I know that Sean Dyche will be making sure his side are back to their resilient selves soon enough.