Let’s put gameweek 16 behind us, deal?

It was a weird week for most managers, to say the least.

Anyway, let’s jump into some early thoughts for gameweek 17.

Time for a Villa defender

Aston Villa have been immense this season and it’s now time to consider bringing in one of their defenders. 

They’ve had back-to-back clean sheets against two of the biggest scorers in the league - Arsenal and Manchester City.

As they come out of what should have been a tough fixture run, there will be more opportunities for Villa to get clean sheets.

In gameweek 17, they face Brentford away from home. While Villa is better at home, Brentford looked weak without their main man Bryan Mbeumo - resulting in a 1-0 loss to Sheffield United on Saturday. 

Their next seven fixtures look good from a defensive perspective.

Newcastle will be Villa’s biggest challenge. It’ll be tough to keep a clean sheet, but Villa have been superb from home, and Newcastle have been less impressive away from home this season.

Pau Torres (£4.6m) could be a good long-term pick. He’s Villa’s highest-scoring defender (58) this season. 

The second-highest is Lucas Digne (£4.7m) who’s out for the game versus Brentford after receiving his fifth yellow card of the season.

Sold on Solanke?

Bournemouth have five wins in seven.

But that’s not all… they can’t stop scoring. 

Only three teams have scored more goals than the Cherries (16) from gameweek 9. And in the last four gameweeks, Bournemouth has the second-highest xG in the league (7.95) - only behind Arsenal.  

In the form that they’re currently in, their fixture run looks good too. It’s fair to say that at least six of their next eight fixtures are winnable. 

Their next fixture is Luton, who have the worst expected goals conceded (xGC) away from home this season (21.0), as well as the worst expected clean sheets (xCS).

And with Erling Haaland (£14m) potentially out for an unknown amount of time, FWD options are looking sparse.

Enter Dominic Solanke (£6.6m). 

While he’s been on FPL manager’s radar for a while, he’s now looking like a great and inexpensive option.

He’s scored eight goals and assisted once this campaign, a goal tally that only Haaland can better among forwards. 

He’s also nailed on to start and on penalties for the Cherries. 

Other talking points

No Haaland?

A moment of silence for the Haaland captainers (virtually everyone) who found out that he wasn’t starting versus Luton.

Haaland missed the game against Luton due to a “bone stress reaction in his foot.”

Pep Guardiola has been coy about how long the striker will be out of action. But, there’s no need to panic just yet.

If Haaland is out for a while, then there are cheaper options to go… Solanke first then Watkins. 

Suspensions…

It’s that time of year when yellow cards start to rack up. 

And before gameweek 19, there’s usually a long list of players that are suspended after picking up their fifth yellow card. Here’s the list from the weekend’s games:

• Bruno Fernandes - Manchester United

• Charlie Taylor - Burnley

• Douglas Luiz - Aston Villa

• Lucas Digne - Aston Villa

• Jack Robinson - Sheffield United

• Marvelous Nakamba - Luton

• Kieran Trippier - Newcastle

Chelsea’s good fixture run

Chelsea’s an interesting one. 

Some managers are tempted to opt for Chelsea assets because of their fixture swing. 

Up until gameweek 21, they have a good fixture run… on paper.

But, it’s tough to commit to Chelsea because of their inconsistent form after back-to-back losses to Manchester United and Everton.