Arsenal – Fantasy Premier League Potential – Fantasy Football Tips

After 22 years of marriage, the 2018/19 campaign will be markedly different for Arsenal without Arsene Wenger at the helm. We are now into the Unai Emery era, where the new manager’s first task is to lead the club back into the Champions League places they’ve fallen out of in the last two seasons.

With Emery in charge, the Gunners have lost some of the predictability factor that became common place under Wenger. Away from the gaffer, Arsenal have moved on Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere in the last six months, while Per Mertesacker has moved to the club’s staff following retirement. Such a glut of changes makes things at the club harder to read from a Fantasy Premier League perspective, but the following is a ‘best shot’ at this mid-summer stage.

STAR MAN – Pierre Emerick Aubameyang (£11m)

Behind Harry Kane, who deservedly sits alone in a price tier higher, Arsenal’s Gabonese January signing Pierre Emerick Aubameyang is rightly grouped alongside seasoned Premier League pros Sergio Aguero and Romelu Lukaku in the next ring down. The ex-Borussia Dortmund forward got off to a flying start to his career in England, scoring ten goals in his first 13 Premier League games – a record breaking effort. Even more impressive about his goalscoring exploits is that they came during a really difficult time on the pitch for the club – with Wenger’s future up in the air and a large focus on the Europa League as opposed to domestic affairs, a competition Aubameyang was cup-tied for.

With a full pre-season behind him and many of his teammates (none of Ramsey, Lacazette, Mkhitaryan or Bellerin featured at the World Cup), it’s hard to see how Aubameyang won’t pick up where he left off in May. It will be interesting to see if Emery uses him alone up front or in a two with Lacazette, though either way he’s proved capable during his first few months. With Sanchez long gone, there is no doubt much of the goalscoring burden going forward will fall on the shoulders of Aubameyang – a role that he is more than capable for. If Kane’s price is too strong and rotation questions weigh heavy with the likes of Aguero and Jesus at Man City, you could do a lot worse than choose a man with 206 goals in 410 club career games.

HIDDEN GEM – Callum Chambers (£4.5m)

After suffering a recurrence of his achilles problem in their Europa League semi final, Laurent Koscielny is all but crocked for the first six months of the season. With Mertesacker also gone, Callum Chambers is now probably third choice centre back for Emery, with only Mustafi and Sokratis standing in his way to the first team. Neither player are indispensable, as both have shown tendencies to be ‘dodgy’ from time to time during their careers. Though they’ll likely start as the first choice pairing, Chambers might not be too far away from a call up.

Towards the back end of last season, Chambers broke into the team a little, looking to have matured slightly from the form he’d shown over the past 18 months. In fact, the improvement earned him a new contract, with Emery talking very positively about him just recently. In truth, the next year or two will probably be the defining point of Chambers’ career, meaning he’ll have to show the qualities that prove he’s not out of place in a top-four contending defence.

BARGAIN – Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£7m)

It was only 15 appearances (in all competitions), but Henrikh Mkhitaryan already looked more comfortable at Arsenal than he ever had at Man United towards the back end of last season. He still had his off days – away at Spurs stands out – but overall the Armenian looked more confident, contributed assists and notched a couple of important goals. Alongside Aubameyang – who he played with at Dortmund – he already had a professional understanding and a basis for ‘knowing what to do’ away from Jose Mourinho’s management.

In FPL terms, £7m looks a relative bargain for a player who’ll surely start more games than he misses and will often contribute to the team’s attacking moves. The fact that Naby Keita is priced higher in Liverpool’s player list astounds me, and I’d back Mkhitaryan to have a more productive season of the two if someone wanted to bet me it! (I’ll live and die by such a statement, I’m sure)

Overall, Emery will be keen to get the best out of a hard working attacking player that can and will be involved in most of the best things that Arsenal do. Not only that, moving to Arsenal gives Mkhitaryan an opportunity to test himself and win any doubters around after his time at United – he’s already scored once against them since his departure! Perhaps he’ll play like a man with something to prove…

PREDICTED LINE UP:

Leno
Bellerin – Sokratis – Mustafi – Monreal
Xhaka – Ramsey – Torreira
Mkhitaryan – Ozil
Aubameyang

Written by Joe McPhee (@JPMc99)

1 Response

  1. July 16, 2018

    […] Link: Arsenal – Fantasy Premier League Potential – Fantasy Football Tips […]

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