Off The Mark - EPL Daily Plays: December 1st
Welcome to week 14 of the premier league contests. This week begins the brutal stretch of schedule for the premier league where teams play at least seven matches in a 30 day span. This is when rotations matter and teams with depth can pull away from the relegation zone or get ahead in the hunt for the premier league title. This week there are six matches that should be fun to track on Saturday morning. Both Manchester clubs are in play with United playing the late game on the road against Southampton while City okay at home against Bournemouth. The remaining four matches feature evenly matched teams that can each produce some good matchups that can provide some fantasy content for our DraftKings teams.
As usual this week’s contests will focus on both cash play options and tournament options
Cash Options
Raheem Sterling – he’s priced as high as we’ve seen him all season but he’s a good option for the biggest favorite on the slate and he has several games in recent weeks where he delivered goals or assists or both for the citizens. Without Kevin De Bruyne then Sterling becomes the defacto cash game option for this team. There are several other options of course. Sane, Bernardo Silva, and Riyad Mahrez are all in play up front as well as Aguero (more on him later) and even Benjamin Mendy as one of the top defensive options out there for this slate.
Andros Townsend – the Crystal palace midfielder may end up playing up front with Zaha as part of a front two in a 4-4-2 with palace still struggling to score goals this season. I expect that between Townsend and Zaha the team will be attacking at home trying to take advantage of a Burnley team that hasn’t been playing well in recent weeks and has failed to produce results in recent matches that they should have produced results in.
James Maddison – when Leicester host Watford this week Maddison will be a player I target on my teams for both FanDuel and DraftKings. What Maddison brings to the table is a steady supply of attacks and chances created for his teammates. He has 10 chances created in his last three matches not counting his match against Brighton where he got a red card 28 minutes into the game that cost him a chance to help his team. Maddison also provided enough crosses in those three matches to make him a solid cash optionthat approaches 10 DK points per game without scoring goals.
Jose Holebas – Holebas is one of the top fantasy producing defenders on the premier league because of his ability to deliver single digit crosses in a weekly basis. The risk with Holebas is that he’s coming off an injury that may limit him or he may not get a start at all. If he doesn’t start then that might limit my exposure to Watford players as they are on the road against a Leicester team that should be better than them on paper.
Matt Ritchie – playing for Newcastle on the wings should give Ritchie plenty of opportunities to bomb forward and cross the ball. They won their last three matches against mediocre competition and should get a chance to continue their streak this week in a home matchup against West Ham United. In his last game Ritchie produced 13 crosses and four chances created with a price tag that should provide plenty of opportunities for DFS returns.
Anthony Martial – it’s hard to like any Manchester United players because they tend to keep games tight and don’t score a lot of goals with most games preferred at 1-0 slugfests. Of course Jose Mourinho will try to keep the game close so if United fall behind on the road you can expect the game to open up with Martial and others pushing forward for goals to try to get points back. Martial has been United’s best performer in recent weeks with goals in six of his last seven league games. Southampton should have trouble stopping him as he should feast against their defense.
Felipe Anderson – in games where West Ham have roughly even possession Anderson provides plenty of opportunities and chances created. Before their last match against Manchester City Anderson had three goals in two matches. He should get a chance again this weekend against Newcastle.
Aaron Mooy – I haven’t talked much about the Brighton vs Huddersfield March match as I don’t think there is much fantasy output in it. Mooy is a potential option as he provides some traditional counting stats like crosses and shots.
Tournament options
Sergio Aguero – I expect Aguero to be a very common play in tournaments as most DFS players will want to stack city to try to reap the benefits of the potential goals. Aguero is the most likely goal scorer this week and for this he is a player I don’t care to skip out on no matter the price tag.
Leroy Sane – Sane has five goals on the season with four of them coming in the last four weeks. He’s in the middle of a solid streak that i think is worth riding through. He’s probably a good pivot from Aguero to get City exposure as he maybe underowned but still a solid option with a chance to score goals this week.
Paul Pogba – while I don’t fully expect that United will be a solid team to Target on Saturday, I think that if United do have to score several goals to win this one then Pogba will play a key role in the teams performance. He came off the bench in the UCL contest in the midweek so that gave him some rest for this weekend. I can see him playing just 60 minutes before subbing off due to fatigue and with 8-9 matches in the next month for United. In those minutes I foresee him being very productive and threatening to score for his team.
Marko Arnautovic – West Ham rely on Arnautovic to score goals for them and while he’s only scored 5 goals this season, his production is more than a third of the goals scored by the hammers. The team obviously needs to improve their goal scoring performance. A matchup with Newcastle might help with the goal scoring as the Toons have allowed 10 goals in 7 matches at home this season. Arnautovic is in a good spot to score this week.
Wilfried Zaha – palace have scored just two goals at home this season and they should have had more if you look at all their statistics. This to me means that Zaha is one player that should get a chance soon to score goals. He’s already shown that he’s their most important player and one that could provide the goals for this team when they get to scoring once again.
Kenedy – Kenedy has been filling up the statsheet in recent weeks with games of five or more shots and in a game against West Ham at home Newcastle should have possession with chances to shoot and score. Kenedy has been getting better as the season has been going on and a matchup here I think will give him chances to score or contribute to scores.
Glen Murray – if Brighton were to score goals then I expect that Murray can come through. In his last three home games he scored three goals off of six shots and the matchup against Huddersfield should be easy enough for him to come through once more.
Goalkeepers
Alex McCarthy, Southampton – with United not scoring lots of goals in recent weeks (4 in their last 4) McCarthy is in a good spot to get saves without conceding lots of goals. Playing at home he has a chance to keep the clean sheet or even the win if Southampton can pull it off.