Well, here we are with just a few precious few moments left before the start of the 2017-18 Premier League season. So instead of getting caught up in preamble narrative and with no ado, here is a quick list of 11 players who are both great potential values and differentials.
GK: Asmir Begovic - Bournemouth, £5.7m, owned in 1.91% of teams
After two years on Chelsea’s bench, Begovic found his way back to a starting job by joining Bournemouth. His former Blues teammate, Nathan Ake, was terrific in his loan stint with the Cherries last season which should put his fellow new signing in a great position to earn points between clean sheets and saves.DEF: Cedric Soares - Southampton, £5.9m, owned in 3.19% of teams
Cedric made the top 10 in accurate crosses among all players last season, and every player with more also had more provided more goals. The Portugal international will see a huge surge in assists if those numbers normalise.
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DEF: Alfie Mawson - Swansea, £5.8m, owned in 0.81% of teams
Swansea’s defence ended the year on a strong note, earning three clean sheets in their final five matches and helping them secure Premier League safety. Mawson himself had a sneaky four goals which was good enough to place five at his position.
DEF: Ben Davies - Tottenham, £5.8m, owned in 1.99% of teams
The Welshman is the cheapest entry point into the Tottenham defence and, with Danny Rose’s recent comments, Davies may have his job even longer than expected. Fun fact - Spurs kept more clean sheets with Davies on the pitch (eight) than with his English counterpart (seven).
MID: Andros Townsend - Crystal Palace, £6.5m, owned in 1.07% of teams
Much like Cedric, Townsend’s incredibly high accurate cross tally (59) should have translated to far more than his four assists. With Palace shifting to a back three, Patrick van Aanholt will often overlap the Englishman allowing him more space and freedom down the left wing.
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MID: Dusan Tadic - Southampton, £6.5m, owned in 2.08% of teams
Tadic is arguably the most frustrating fantasy player of the past few seasons. When he’s on the pitch, he racks up the points yet has never played more than 2,411 minutes in a season. If he can convince new manager Mauricio Pellegrino of his reliability, the Serbian will be a steal.
MID: Tom Carroll - Swansea, £5.6m, owned in 0.3% of teams
It seems as though he will be the player tapped to fill the void left by Gylfi Sigurdsson who is officially ruled out for the season opener and stepping ever nearer to the exit door. If Carroll does indeed get those minutes, he could be a 10 assist kind of player.
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MID: Christian Atsu - Newcastle £5.6m, owned in 0.96% of teams
Atsu is heading into the year off the back of a very productive pre-season. He is the biggest gamble on this list, but his pace should cause issues for whomever starts at right-back for Tottenham on Sunday. If he performs well, he may well be worth keeping long-term.
FOR: Christian Benteke - Crystal Palace, £7.4m, owned in 3.76% of teams
It’s strange that people don’t rate Benteke more highly considering he’s averaged 13 goals and three assists per season in his Premier League career. With Frank de Boer taking the reigns at Crystal Palace, the big Belgian could well be set to improve on that average.
FOR: Kelechi Iheanacho - Leicester, £6.2m, owned in 3.34% of teams
His goal tallies have never been very high due to limited opportunities, but his 0.76 goals per 90 minutes ratio over the past two years puts him behind just Harry Kane (.85) and Sergio Aguero (.83). If he gets consistent starts at Leicester he could be a major threat for Leicester and your Fantasy team.
