With the new season on the horizon, it’s time to finalize our FPL teams for the 2019/20 season. Do we bank on premium strikers like Kane, Aguero, or Aubameyang or do we go with last season’s formula of overloading our teams with premium midfielders i.e, Salah, Mane, Sterling? Is it worth spending a huge chunk of your budget on last years big point getters, the Liverpool fullbacks? These are all questions FPL players will be deliberating in the coming week. The focus of this article will be to equip you with all the necessary knowledge to maximize the productivity of your Arsenal FPL assets. With an explosive attack and a brittle defense, Arsenal will be involved in quite a few high-scoring matches. This makes them a very exciting FPL pawn. Without any further ado, let’s dive into all the do’s and don’ts with respect to Arsenal’s FPL assets. Note: All the player prices featured in this article are from the official premier league FPL website. MUST HAVE PLAYERS: Aubameyang - 11.0: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the joint top scorer and the highest scoring forward in the game. He ended the season with 205 points through 22 goals and 7 assists. While this isn’t the most impressive points haul compared to golden boot winners in previous seasons, Aubameyang is an absolute must have for this season. Here’s why. Aubameyang’s primary quality as a striker is not his pace, or his dribbling, or even his finishing. It is his ability to exploit space in the box and create high quality chances for himself. The acquisition of Pepe for Arsenal will have a huge impact on Aubameyang’s end product. Pepe’s dribbling ability and goal threat will make him a magnet for defenders, which in turn will lead to more space in the box for Aubameyang. And more space equals more chances. Auba’s goals dried up towards the end of last season as Arsenal’s collective form collapsed off a cliff. But even so, the Gabon international ended last season with an xG(Expected Goals) of 23.55. Expect that statistic to increase. He played a significant chunk of last season out of position, and with an incohesive attacking unit. This season, with the players having adjusted to Emery’s tactics and new offensive reinforcements, his xG should be closer to the 30 mark, like his final few seasons at Dortmund. Add the handful of assists he is bound to get through his partnership with Lacazette, and he’ll be well worth his 11 million price tag. In addition, Aubameyang has been Arsenal’s best player in preseason, having had the summer off with Gabon not qualifying for the AFCON. He has looked sharp in the final third and motivated for the new season. Arsenal are often a flat track bully at home, meaning they will frequently put 3-4 goals past weaker opposition. Being nailed on to start most if not all premier league games, Auba’s destined to produce many high scoring gameweeks in such matches, making him a reliable captaincy candidate as well. If you’ve read this far into the article and still haven’t been convinced to bring in Aubameyang, you must be a Tottenham fan. I’m sad to say that besides Aubameyang, Arsenal don’t have any other bankable premier league assets. However there are some players with potential who should be monitored over the course of the season. They could become fantastic differentials to help you overtake your rivals in your league later in the season. PLAYERS TO MONITOR: Here are some players whom I would recommend adding to your watchlist, even if they aren't ideal GW1 picks. Pepe - 9.5: Arsenal’s club record season ended the last Ligue 1 season with 22 goals and 12 assists. On the surface even a slight drop from his numbers last season would be a productive return for a 9.5 midfielder. Even so, I would strongly advise against drafting Pepe into your team from GW1. What’s the problem? Pepe’s numbers come with more caveats than just the fact that he played in Ligue 1. 9 out of his 22 goals were from penalties, and with Aubameyang on penalty duty for Arsenal, those are goals he won’t be getting in the PL. In addition to this Emery is notorious for slowly integrating his new signings. For example, Torriera only became a first team regular for Arsenal in mid-October. If this trend continues with Pepe, expect him to get off to a slow FPL start. However, once he acclimatizes to the league, Pepe could well be a great option later in the season. Eden Hazards first season is a good barormeter for Pepe. Hazard ended his first season in the premier league with 9 goals and 11 assists. Africa’s most expensive player has the potential to put up similar numbers if he can adapt his game to the premier league without losing his goal threat. Just like Zaha, Pepe is a penalty magnet, which means you’ll rack up additional assists for your squad. Bellerin - 5.5: With a CB roster comprising of an injured Holding, Sokratis, Chambers and Mustafi, Arsenal are not going have a watertight defense. The one defender at Arsenal worth keeping an eye on is Hector Bellerin. Arsenal’s first choice right back had a very promising season cut short by a devastating ACL injury in January. Bellerin ended the season with 5 assists and 60 points overall. Due to return by September, the Spaniard could become an out of the box options for managers looking to revamp their FPL squads. Emery placed a huge attacking load on his fullbacks, using them as the primary source of width for Arsenal’s attacks. If this trend continues this season, expect Bellerin to be heavily involved in Arsenal’s attacks once again. THINGS TO BE WARY OF: Along with pointing out the gems in the Arsenal squad, it’s also my job to make sure you steer clear of any possible Arsenal related pitfalls. Firstly, it’s important to note that Emery is a trigger happy manager in terms of his rotations and substitutions. Many a time last season, crucial players were taken off at half time or inexplicably rotated out of the squad. His decisions are extremely hard to plan for (Trust me, I’ve tried). Don’t bring in any Arsenal player until Emery has made it clear that he is nailed on to start. A perfect example of this right now is Lacazette. At 9.5 Lacazette could provide great value, but it is unlikely that he will play the entire 90 minutes in the majority of the games this season. Same goes for Pepe and Ozil. Another key point with respect to Arsenal players is the Europa League. If you have any Arsenal players, make sure you keep track of whether or not they start in midweek Europa League games. They are almost guaranteed not to start in the weekend’s game if they play 90 minutes on Thursday. The last point of discussion is Arsenal’s fixtures during Christmas. The premier league has done them no favours while scheduling fixtures in the holiday period. Between Dec 14th to Jan 1st, Arsenal play City, United and Chelsea, with Bournemouth(Away) and Everton(Away) thrown in for good measure. Be sure to transfer out any Arsenal players you have until after the holiday period.
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AuthorBasically everything you'll see on here is Canon in the history of Arsenal Football Club. That's how this works right? Archives
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