[CEO Dossier] GW7: Our next big call after "no" Salah in pre-season

At the macro-level, FPL choices for the next few weeks have become more tightly contested at the "mid-tier range" compared to last week. This makes it harder for your whole team to score big because things are less lop-sided.

The effect is subtle, but you can step back and use our recent transfer overviews to get a visual idea how there are fewer teams to avoid outright; and a large pool of individual players to pick from:

At the micro-level, you can see this as a convergence of smaller developments:

• Middle powers seemingly stabilising their wobbles: Aston Villa may be regaining their confidence with Brentford starting to show it can survive its their big-player departures;
• Improving fixtures for decent teams like Brighton and Crystal Palace who can already beat top teams;
• Newly promoted teams Sunderland and Leeds threatening the established order,
• Clearer picture of fringe players' consistencies, etc.

Part of the answer is to go premium: focus on getting top players who still have an edge rather than small punts.

To have an edge, the rest of the answer is to get overlooked top players.

We are doubling down on our call to get Arsenal fullbacks Calafiori and Timber for your defence, over other defenders including Arsenal centrebacks (Gabriel/Saliba).

Reason is the payout has become greater since our earlier call last week. Gabriel's injury time goal has made him and even more popular choice with 1-2 points over Timber/Calafiori. And we are aware that Gabriel is seen as the better set-piece threat against set-piece weak West Ham. But on balance, the fullbacks make the better choice especially after taking into account the long haul. Last week. the underlying stats from that match show the fullbacks had several good chances during open play, so the torque has become greater.

E.g. this free article from fantasyfootballscout on last week:

On a smaller note: we're also bringing in Gyokeres (taking a -4) as part of our triple-up for Arsenal, but this is a less major recommendation, and he is only marginally better than Ekitike who looks the sharper player but the fixtures look trickier.

May the FPL gods smile on you.

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