Gameweek 17 | Back to business

The Stuff You Should Know

🚨 Gameweek 17’s deadline is Saturday 21st December, 11:00 GMT.

👋 Wolves sack Gary O’Neil, Southampton sack Russell Martin.

🤝 Vitor Pereira confirmed as Wolves’ new head coach.

🔴 Cunha charged with violent misconduct, but could still be available this GW.

🥶 Palmer becomes the most owned player in FPL.

🛏 Join our Sleeper league and win prizes every month for predicting results. It’s free.

Alright?

Twas the gameweek before Christmas
When all through your team,
Every player was available
All their fixtures were green.

But then you woke up
And realised with fright,
That half your team is injured
And their fixtures are shite.

So always remember
When planning for Gameweek 17,
That this is FPL
Not some silly little dream.

Gameweek 17’s fixtures.

Win a year of LazyFPL Premium.

It’s the season of giving, and this month we’re giving away 10 annual LazyFPL Premium memberships to 10 Sleeper winners.

The thing is, you don’t pay anything to be involved and it’s dead easy to play. All you have to do is pick who you think will win (or draw) each Premier League game.

Click the button below or scan the QR code:

Penetrative Stats.

Summary for the Lazy: Ismaila Sarr.

We don’t really like picking a player that’s just come off the back of a 17-point haul, but the fact that Ismaila Sarr is only 0.5% owned (with no signs of that significantly increasing) means an exploration into his credentials still feels justified.

FPL lifers might remember Sarr from his days at Watford. They may have even owned him. 12 attacking returns from 2,000 minutes in the 19/20 season was hardly the stuff of legend, but it introduced him to managers looking for a cheap midfielder with goal-contributing potential.

Well, allow us to reintroduce you. Manager - meet Sarr. He’s just £5.7m and his underlying stats are ridiculous.

Since Sarr started playing regular football in Gameweek 10, only three midfielders have a better expected goal involvement (xGI). All three of those have the added meat of penalties, too.

It’s ludicrous that a £5.7m midfielder is keeping this sort of company.

It’s also worth noting that since Sarr’s introduction to Crystal Palace’s starting 11, they’ve only lost one Premier League game.

His fixtures until February are mixed, but unlike his status at Palace, Sarr shouldn’t be seen as a permanent part of your starting ensemble anyway.

Instead, he’s a first-on-your-bench-for-when-your-expensive-midfielder-gets-unexpectedly-rested sort of player. You know the ones.

Great stats, a team in form and dirt cheap. Is it time to wish upon a Sarr this Christmas? (Sorry - we’ll see ourselves out).

Is the “new manager bounce” real?

Summary for the Lazy: Yeah, it is actually.

Luckily for FPL managers, we can’t get sacked from our teams. If we could, the majority of us would’ve been let go a long time ago.

Unfortunately for Russell Martin and Gary O’Neil, the same cannot be said for actual Premier League managers.

What does it mean for us though? The civilians who choose to manage a team free of charge?

Well, it might not be good. You see, there’s a comfort in knowing that a team is definitely crap. It makes it easier to pick your bench and captain.

But according to research from multiple sources, the new manager bounce is real.

Between the 17/18 season and the 23/24 season, a study was carried out on the 26 incoming managers to the Premier League.

It revealed that 20 of them achieved a higher points-per-game in the first five matches in charge than their predecessors.

The long-term impacts of a new manager are less compelling, mind you.

Still, those “banker” fixtures that we might target for hauls might not, at least for now, be quite as fruitful. You’ve been warned.

The best captain for Gameweek 17.

Summary for the Lazy: It’s Mohamed Salah.

Another rather tricky one on paper, but a quick dig into the stats reveals a Spurs side that, in recent gameweeks, has struggled defensively.

This was only consolidated by their 4-3 win against Manchester United in the League Cup on Thursday. They are a leaky team now.

Meanwhile, Cole Palmer’s Chelsea will visit an Everton side who, despite their struggles, have kept four clean sheets in their last six games, including against Arsenal most recently.

But aside from the defensive quality of their opponents, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that, for all of Palmer’s brilliance this season, Mohamed Salah is still a hefty 28 points better off than the Englishman.

Bukayo Saka visits a rejuvenated Crystal Palace and Erling Haaland’s stats have dropped off a cliff. If you own him, the Egyptian is the best pick.

The only difference between The Professor and Natalie Imbruglia is that, thankfully, when The Professor is torn he doesn’t take off his clothes and lie naked on the floor.

There are two possible transfers that The Professor can’t decide between this week:

Mykolenko → Gabriel

Or…

Johnson → Amad

His captain is Mohamed Salah and for him, it’s “not even close”. Join LazyFPL Premium to find out what transfer he ends up making.

Overall rank: 627k.

The key stats.

Other stuff we found interesting.

• Rayan Ait-Nouri is suspended for Gameweek 17.

• Andy Robertson has served his suspension in the League Cup.

• Gabriel Jesus scores a hat-trick in the League Cup.

• Sepp Van Den Berg and Ethan Pinnock ruled out this gameweek.

• James Maddison was credited with an assist after tweeting OfficialFPL himself (@FPLFocal):
  

  

Right, we’re back in your inbox on Christmas Day. You heard. See you next Wednesday.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.