Brighton FPL Gameweek 2: Shane Duffy at £4m is a fantasy dream
One of the major talking points from Brighton & Hove Albion’s excellent 2-1 opening day win at Burnley surrounded the surprise return to the starting line up of Shane Duffy, a player who now looks like an absolute bargain in FPL presuming Graham Potter does not drop him straight away.
As we revealed last week, Brighton’s defence are hot assets in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) this year following the second half of 2020-21 when the Albion conceded the second fewest number of goals across the whole of the Premier League.
The new campaign did not get off to the best of starts for those who have backed a similar meanness this time around. By 3.01pm on Saturday, owners of Robert Sánchez (£4.5 million) – currently 24.6 percent of the FPL community – saw their hopes of a clean sheet end in controversial circumstances.
Whilst the loss of the clean sheet, alongside Joël Veltman’s (£4.5 million) absence from the squad as a result of a COVID contact, was disappointing there was plenty to feel positive about elsewhere on the pitch after Burnley 1-2 Brighton.
Neal Maupay (£6.5 million) is currently the most popular attacking FPL asset at Brighton and is owned by 2.7 percent of managers. The Frenchman had the fourth best expected goals (xG) total amongst all forwards across the entire division in gameweek 1.
His 0.89 xG was only bettered by West Ham United’s Michail Antonio (£7.5 million), Newcastle United’s Callum Wilson (£7.5 million) and Everton and England forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£8.0 million), all of whom are priced at least £1.0 million more than the Seagulls frontman. Maupay also ranked fourth overall for expected goal involvement (xGI).
During gameweek 1, Maupay registered 35 touches, with 19 arriving in the final-third, at an average of one every 2.6 minutes. In comparison, team-mates Leandro Trossard (£6.5 million) and Alexis Mac Allister (£5.5 million) registered a touch every 1.8 minutes.
That suggests that whilst Maupay wasn’t the most involved of the Brighton players in terms of minutes per touch, the ones he did have were in the right areas and were positive in terms of both xG and xGI.
Ahead of gameweek 2, Mac Allister could be a good differential for FPL managers. In just 14 minutes he racked up an xG of 0.32, returning a goal and three bonus points for the 0.4 percent of managers who currently own him.
The 22-year-olds touch map above shows that, except for one piece of defensive play, the majority of his involvement came in attacking areas of the pitch, which is encouraging. Also, across all £5.5 million midfielders Mac Allister was second for xG and second for mins-per xGI with 43.8.
With a fixture against Watford next, who conceded two goals against Aston Villa at the weekend, Mac Allister could offer FPL managers a good opportunity to invest in an in-form, cheaper budget enabling asset – presuming of course the Potter Selection Roulette Wheel offers him an opportunity to shine.
Defensively, whilst the Albion did not return clean sheet points this weekend, their defenders did fare well in comparison to the rest of the league.
That brings us onto Shane Duffy (£4.0 million), who topped the WAB Brighton Player Ratings away at Burnley and ranked top amongst all FPL players for aerial duels and third amongst defenders for clearances, blocks and interceptions (CBI) with 13.
For FPL managers, a £4.0 million starting defender is a gift and following the promising numbers Shane Duffy put up last weekend, if Brighton do keep a clean sheet he is likely to pick up bonus.
With Veltman hopefully back in the match day squad for Saturday’s fixture, the Seagulls defence can offer a good route to points in the coming weeks.
Captain Fantastic
On the back of exceptional performances from both Bruno Fernandes (£12.6 million) and Mohamed Salah (£12.5 million) last weekend, they will both be popular captain options again in gameweek 2.
Fernandes travels to Southampton, having featured in February’s 9-0 win when he registered 67 passes (44 in the final-third and 14 in the penalty area), six shots (three on target), five chances created, two assists and one goal.
Whilst Salah’s record against Burnley is not quite as impressive, it is Liverpool’s first home match of the season and he will have the additional drive of the Anfield crowd to spur him on.
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