Brighton FPL Gameweek 8: Neal can rise again following Maupay-gate

Well, FPL gameweek 7 was quite the experience for Brighton & Hove Albion fans and Neal Maupay in particular – what on earth could happen in gameweek 8 to top it?

Unless you’ve been living under a (non-Brighton) rock, you’ll have struggled to dodge the fallout from Graham Potter’s team selection for the 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur and more specifically, the non-involvement of the Albion’s top scorer.

The exclusion of Maupay (£6.5 million) was initially put down to “tactical reasons” by Potter on Sunday. On Monday, the Daily Telegraph reported that he had been dropped because of his ego.

On Tuesday, Andy Naylor revealed in The Athletic that it was in fact because of a heated confrontation with an as-of-yet unidentified teammate.

Potter was keen to drawn a line under Maupay-gate, saying in his pre-Burnley press conference: “There is no problem with Neal, we have dealt with the issue. He has trained with us this week and accepts it wasn’t his finest hour.”

Neal And Then Rise Again
All of which means the Seagulls striker’s finest hour could instead come on Friday evening at home to Sean Dyche’s Clarets. More than 45,000 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers disagree and have sold Maupay this week before Brighton face Burnley.

But the striker has been the seventh most productive forward in FPL so far in 2020-21 for a reason. Well, three reasons actually – four goals, one assist and 36 points. And if you look a little closer at his output over the first six game weeks, he has every right to warrant Fantasy interest.

Maupay was sixth among strikers for attempts (19) and attempts in the box (14); fourth for shots on target (nine); joint-fourth for big chances (six); and joint-third for penalty area touches (35) over this period.

He’s been, in short, providing a decent bang for his modest buck and all that recent controversy might fire him up for a haul against Burnley.

Maupay excels when he has something to prove, as he has shown time and time again by scoring against clubs whose supporters and players take a dislike to him. He is known as Le Petit Shithouse for a reason.

After the Burnley game, there could be further FPL points for Maupay backers to harvest – Brighton face Aston Villa next and they are a side that’s just conceded seven goals in their last two home matches.

Tarifiq Lamptey
Amid all the kerfuffle over Maupay and the Spurs match, the fact that full-back Tariq Lamptey (£4.7 million) added a first goal to his collection of three assists for the season was noticed by a few FPL managers.

The Seagulls starlet is the most popular Albion buy for gameweek 8 and the stats suggest he could well be on for his first clean sheet of the campaign, having been denied one in the 3-0 win over Newcastle United because Potter took him off three minutes before the qualifying time of an hour played.

Lamptey had been kicked to pieces at St James’ Park as the Toon Army had no answer to him. It was a performance that went a long way towards securing Lamptey our WAB September 2020 Brighton Player of the Month award.

Brighton, as mentioned last week, have allowed fewer shots than pretty much anyone this season – their current total of 53 is bettered only by a Manchester City side that has played one game less. That partly explains why Maty Ryan was dropped for Robert Sanchez at Spurs.

Burnley are also miserly when it comes to that metric – their tally of 65 (again from six matches) is the joint-fourth-best in the league. As a result, a goalless draw would not be a huge surprise.

Neither would a Brighton win and clean sheet as the Clarets’ 60 attempts on goal is the joint-fourth-worst record, although (again) it should be noted they have played just the six times to date.

Only four other defenders in FPL can match Lamptey’s three assists this season and he’s also Brighton’s leading crosser among the back four/five, with 16. For context, his closest rival is Joel Veltman (£4.3 million) with five.

So even a clean sheet and attacking returns is not beyond the realms of possibility.

Captaincy Corner
It would be almost cowardly to suggest captaining a Spurs player for a third straight week, but fortune rarely favours the brave in FPL so hand the armband to Harry Kane (£11.0m). He’s produced attacking returns in six straight games and three of them have involved double-digit returns.

Spurs will be at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday to face a team that’s allowed the joint-most big chances (17) and the second-most attempts on target (42) of anyone in the Premier League.

And if you want to ignore that line about bravery from three paragraphs ago, you could always try tapping into the start of a favourable run of fixtures for West Ham United.

David Moyes’ men entertain Fulham on Saturday night, with midfielders Pablo Fornals (£6.4m) and Jarrod Bowen (£6.3m) in a very good place at present.

The former has two goals and three assists to his name and his teammate three goals, with both impressing during a spiteful early schedule that included Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City, Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester City.

Neither player is owned by more than 2.2% of FPL managers either, making them potential differentials.

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