Brighton FPL Gameweek 6: Albion defence can bag a Baggies clean sheet
One shot, one goal. FPL Gameweek 5 saw Brighton fall on the unlucky side of this statistic as despite a solid display from the Seagulls’ defence, a penalty decision residing on the unfunny side of laughable was scored by Crystal Palace.
Still, an equaliser from Alexis Mac Allister (£5.3million) at least gave the Seagulls one of the three points they most assuredly deserved from the trip to Selhurst Park.
And it’s West Bromwich Albion up next, which really should be seen as the best of chances to put the points on the board which the Albion’s performances so far have deserved.
Sit on defence
Last week we suggested Fantasy Premier League (FPL) investment in Brighton & Hove Albion’s defence, what with Palace’s famously tedious attacking tendencies.
And we would have got away with it if it hadn’t been for the meddling of Stuart Attwell and that penalty so soft it could have been piped into a cone and had a flake inserted.
Still, all is not lost. Because the Baggies have scored even fewer goals than the Eagles this season – a monster five in five matches – and they’ve failed to score at all for the last two games.
West Brom have at least managed eight more attempts than Palace (40 v 32), but those figures represent the worst two totals in the Premier League, so a Brighton clean sheet is once again on the agenda.
It will have to be achieved without last season’s Player of the Year Lewis Dunk (£4.9 million), of course. He won’t be back until a Gameweek 9 trip to Aston Villa which comes after the final international break of the season, thanks to his red card challenge on Gary Cahill.
Graham Potter did what he does and mixed things up last time out, recalling Dan Burn (£4.4 million) and trying out Ben White (£4.5 million) as a defensive midfielder.
Presuming Potter sticks with a back three, both will likely be in it on Monday night against West Brom together with Adam Webster (£4.5 million) who could captain Brighton in Dunk’s absence.
All three are at the budget end of Brighton’s backline, but if money’s still too tight to mention, Burn’s marginally lower price could tip things in his favour.
It’s that man Maupay again
We keep plugging Neal Maupay (£6.6 million) as your go-to Brighton guy in attack, and with good reason. He has four goals and an assist thus far this campaign and although he really should have added to his tally last weekend, all will be forgiven if he delivers a decent haul against the Baggies.
He’s in really good company this season. Only three strikers have scored more goals than him and he’s also fourth for total attempts (18) and fifth for shots in the area (13) and big chances (5). He’s even got a better conversion rate (22.2%) than Harry Kane (£10.8 million and 20%) and at a considerably lower price.
Brighton’s attacking options might have just been boosted by the signing of Danny Welbeck, but Maupay remains the main man up top and he has the fixture and most of the form to justify either new investment or continued fantasy faith.
More than 54,000 FPL managers certainly think so – Maupay is in the top 30 for Gameweek 6 transfers-in.
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