Gameweek 9 finished on Monday night. Arsenal won 1-0 at Anfield, their first league win there since 2012, and are the new league leaders. Everton won at Newcastle four days after knocking them out of the League Cup. Our Recommended Squad scored 72 points this week.
The overall average is 44 points and the highest score is 122. Bonus points have been added, but the game has not formally closed the gameweek yet, so the average may still move by a point or two. Saturday’s games are covered in our Saturday review. This piece covers the rest and the full gameweek.
Sunday and Monday
| Match | Score | Goals and cards |
|---|---|---|
| Liverpool v Arsenal | 0-1 | Havertz 16′ |
| Newcastle v Everton | 0-1 | Barry 49′; red card: J. Ramsey 90+8′ |
Liverpool 0-1 Arsenal: an Alisson error and Arsenal go top
The only goal came from a goalkeeping mistake. Alisson played a pass to Jacquet that gave the defender no chance of keeping the ball. Arsenal won it, Madueke and Rice combined down the right, and Havertz tapped in at the far post in the 16th minute. According to ESPN it was his 46th Premier League goal, the most by a German player in the league’s history. He moved past İlkay Gündoğan.
Liverpool had most of the ball after that, but Raya did not have to make a single save. According to ESPN’s report, VAR’s decision not to look at Timber pulling Isak‘s shirt as he tried to head the ball raised questions. Arsenal now have 24 points from nine games, City 21 and Brighton 19. Liverpool are fifth with 15.
In FPL, the clean sheet paid off for Arsenal defenders who are in a lot of teams. Konsa (22.9% owned) has 10 points including 2 bonus, Calafiori (47.9%) and Gabriel 6 each, and Raya 5. Havertz has 9 points and Rice 8 with an assist. Rice and Calafiori both had 75% flags on Friday. Both played the full 90 minutes and both flags are gone.
For Liverpool, Isak played the whole game for 2 points and Gakpo scored 2 points in 66 minutes. Szoboszlai came off the bench for 32 minutes and scored 1 point.
Newcastle 0-1 Everton: Barry settles the second meeting in four days
On Thursday Everton beat Newcastle 3-1 in the League Cup, and on Monday they won in the league too. Barry scored in the 49th minute. After a quickly taken free kick, Tyrique George shot from the left, the ball squeezed under the Newcastle goalkeeper and Barry tapped it in. It is his fourth league goal this season. In stoppage time, substitute Jacob Ramsey was shown two yellow cards within a few minutes. Everton are seventh and Newcastle thirteenth.
Barry has 9 points including 3 bonus, Branthwaite also 9, Pickford 7 for the clean sheet and Tarkowski 6. For Newcastle, Hall (20% owned) and Barnes scored 2 points each.
Gameweek 9’s top scorers
| Player | Club | Price | Owned | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Van Hecke | TOT | £5.0m | 11.0% | 15 |
| McBurnie | HUL | £5.5m | 1.7% | 12 |
| Verbruggen | BHA | £4.6m | 23.0% | 11 |
| Fofana | CHE | £5.0m | 0.2% | 11 |
| Konsa | ARS | £4.7m | 22.9% | 10 |
| Ayari | BHA | £5.4m | 1.4% | 10 |
| Havertz | ARS | £7.4m | 5.6% | 9 |
| Barry | EVE | £5.6m | 7.5% | 9 |
Seven of the top eight cost £5.6m or less, including three defenders and a goalkeeper. Haaland, owned by 79% of managers, scored 2 points.
How our picks did across the gameweek
- Recommended Squad: 72 points against an average of 44. That is 28 points above the average and its best score since we started tracking it in these reviews (the previous four gameweeks: 55, 53, 54 and 49). The biggest contributors were Van Hecke (15), Verbruggen (11) and De Cuyper (9).
- Captain: Haaland scored 2 points, 4 with the armband. This is the third gameweek in a row in which our no. 1 captain pick scored 1 or 2 points: Semenyo in Gameweek 7, Rogers in Gameweek 8, Haaland in Gameweek 9. In the first two cases we lost out to Haaland, which is why we changed our method on Tuesday. This time Haaland himself blanked. To be honest: we have no evidence yet that the new method is better than the old one. We will compare the two after a few more gameweeks.
- Rice and Calafiori: on Friday we advised not to sell them if you had a fit substitute. Both played 90 minutes, Rice scored 8 points and Calafiori 6.
- Szoboszlai: we advised against buying him. He played 32 minutes for 1 point.
- Bruno Fernandes: we wrote not to sell him just because he was benched against Bournemouth, but not to buy him either. He returned as United captain and scored 2 points.
Our league after Gameweek 9
There are 73 teams in our league. The gameweek average was 52.1 points, against 44 across the whole game. 55 teams beat the game’s average.
- The best score of the week belongs to ***CHELSEA LONDON***: 77 points without any chip, and a climb from 11th to 6th. MegatroN- scored the same with a Free Hit (45th to 31st). Next are MARTINEZ with 76 (Free Hit) and YNWA with 75. YNWA made the biggest jump in the table, from 26th to 11th.
- Pogoń Bydło lead (681 pts), followed by AVERAGEJOE (656), Wojciech’s Team (634, up from 4th to 3rd), WinSquad (633) and Maciej’s Team (632).
- Haaland was captain in 54 of the 73 teams and gave each of them 4 points.
- Konsa started for 30 teams (41%) and gave each of them 10 points. Across the whole game he is owned by 22.9% of managers.
- Chips this gameweek: 5 Wildcards and 4 Free Hits.
The numbers may still shift slightly while the game updates leagues. The full table is on the Mini League page. You can join at any time with the league code 3ix1cw.
New ratings and Gameweek 10 picks
After the ratings update, four players have a Strong Buy verdict, two from Bournemouth and two from Brighton:
- Tavernier (BOU, £6.6m) and Evanilson (BOU, £6.4m), 91 each. In Gameweek 10 Bournemouth travel to Ipswich.
- De Cuyper (BHA, £5.4m) and Groß (BHA, £6.2m), 90 each. Brighton host Brentford.
In our captain picks for Gameweek 10, Haaland leads (risk 15, upside 87, away at Nottingham Forest). Barry is second (risk 8, upside 87, Everton at home to Coventry), Tavernier third, followed by Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes, with United at home to Aston Villa.
The market since the deadline: the most bought players are Evanilson (372,000), N. Jackson (301,000) and Tavernier (240,000). The most sold is still João Pedro (647,000), followed by Cherki (206,000) and Bruno Fernandes (106,000). Flags have been removed for Calafiori, Rice, Tzolis, Szoboszlai and Branthwaite. Saka, João Pedro and Semenyo are still out.
What’s next
- Gameweek 10 deadline: Friday 6 November, 18:30 UK. First match: Everton v Coventry the same evening at 20:00.
- Saturday: Leeds v Tottenham 12:30, Arsenal v Hull and Fulham v Newcastle 15:00, Nottingham Forest v Manchester City 17:30.
- Sunday: Brighton v Brentford, Crystal Palace v Liverpool, Ipswich v Bournemouth and Sunderland v Chelsea at 14:00, Manchester United v Aston Villa 16:30.
- Then comes the international break. The Gameweek 11 deadline is Saturday 21 November at 11:00.
Our Gameweek 10 picks are on the Who to Buy page and in the Recommended Squad.
Data: the official Fantasy Premier League API (as of Tuesday 3 November, morning) and ratings from our AI model. The gameweek average is provisional until the game formally closes the gameweek. Match details: ESPN and PA reports.