Wildcard Differentials For Gameweek 6

Every single Wildcard 6 draft out there looks alike.

It’s like that one Buzz Lightyear meme where there are just hundreds of him, and that’s frankly quite boring.

So we’ve done the research and found five differentials that limit your downside while maximising your upside for the long run.

From one of the league’s best wingers (enough about Yankuba Minteh) to allegedly the best goalkeeper in the world, let’s take a look at the best differentials for your Wildcard 6.

Ownership: 3.9%
Price: £9.8m

With Saka, the good is really good and the bad is really bad. So let’s make a list of pros and cons.

Pros: Madueke’s out for two months, which means Saka’s biggest competition is out of the picture, leading to higher xMins for Arsenal’s star boy middle-aged man.

Plus, he’s on most set pieces, had an npxG+xAG/90 of 0.71 last season, and Arsenal have really, really good fixtures coming up: new, WHU, ful, CRY, bur, sun.

Cons: He plays for Arsenal. That’s not ideal. Seriously, though, his minutes are just not likely to be what they were. Sure, Madueke’s out, but Trossard and Nwaneri can play there instead. And that makes sense, right? You want to save Saka for the Champions League.

To further add insult to injury (or recovery in this case), Victor Gyökeres seemingly looks like Arsenal’s first-choice penalty taker, which takes away an easy route to points for Saka.

The one saving grace here is that Havertz is getting closer and closer to a return, and if that makes Gyökeres a minutes risk, Saka could be on penalties.

Ownership: 3.5%
Price: £8.0m

With Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki ruled out for considerable periods, Phil Foden looks like City’s main goal and creative threat behind Haaland, which gives him a decent enough minutes floor to be a darn good differential on a wildcard.

Foden’s underlying data has always looked good, and he somehow always seems to make a mockery of it anyway. If you think Chris Wood was bad, Phil Foden has overperformed his career xG by 20.3. Twenty. Point. Three.

City have also put up the second-highest xG across the PL this season (don’t look up who’s first or you may have trust issues with data), and fixtures of BUR, bre, EVE, avl, BOU seem perfect to further that cause.

Ownership: 1.1%
Price: £5.9m

Brighton’s fixtures in the short term aren’t great, but at just £5.9m, Minteh seems perfect to bring in—bench—and then play beyond GW 10, where he has fixtures of LEE, cry, BRE, nfo, AVL, WHU.

Sure, Fabian Hürzeler rotates more than a dodgy ferris wheel with a screw loose, but Minteh seems to have nailed down that RW spot. He is an early sub risk more often than not (fatigue), but with limited options to fill in there—what with de Cuyper’s injury meaning Kadioğlu’s needed at LB—I’d be quite comfortable owning Minteh.

Plus, a basic tenet of Hürzeler’s football is that he likes getting his wingers isolated, meaning Minteh repeatedly gets to run at opposition defenders. Alone. Being as fast as he is. Just give me the points already.

Ownership: 7.4%
Price: £5.5m

Tarkowski has 51 CBITs in 5 games and has hit the threshold in ⅘ games. Essentially, the floor is 3 points, and that’s ridiculous. A clean sheet basically equals 8 points. A big head equals a goal threat on corners. Everything equals a lot of points.

Plus, Everton look pretty solid under Moyes. They’re about a mid-table defence (4th for xGA last season, somehow???), and this was without Jarrad Branthwaite. Fixtures of WHU, CRY, mci, TOT, sun, FUL can’t hurt either.

Ownership: 5.5%
Price: £5.6m

Last year was a bit of a downer from City’s lofty standards, and while their defensive structure is as suspect as their accounting records, things seem to have improved at least a little.

Sure, they let up a lot of chances on the break, but Donnarumma’s one of the best shot-stoppers in the world, so there’s plenty of BPS potential there.

City’s next few opponents—BUR, bre, EVE, avl, BOU—hardly boast the best attackers either (I’m looking at you, Aston Villa, please be ashamed), so there’s good clean sheet potential there too.

Raya is still arguably the better option, but if you want a way to differentiate without much downside, I think Donnarumma’s a perfectly good asset.