Fantasy Premier League 2021 First Reaction – I’m Thinking It’s Back!

Potential Bargains

Tomas Soucek (5.0m, MID)

West Ham’s January acquisition took a while to get going but after lockdown, he played every minute and scored some crucial goals. His 5.0m price tag will surely be because he didn’t get many points having only played roughly 1/3 of a season (he picked up a knock and missed a few games in February). However, this year I would expect him to be a key cog in West Ham’s midfield and use his height and physicality to carry on scoring goals from set-pieces. Perfect 5th midfielder material!

Jack Grealish (7.0m, MID)

Currently at Villa, where he is a hero and a decent FPL option. However, last year he created the 2nd most chances of all players, even more than FPL darling Alexander-Arnold! But he registered just 7 assists, that’s the difference between setting up Aguero/Salah and setting up Wesley/Samatta. Even if he stays at Villa 7.0m is a decent price for such a talismanic figure at the club, everything good about Villa goes through him and he is a dual-threat with the potential for goals and assists. If he leaves for a bigger club (provided he gets decent game time) he will be a total bargain!

Adam Traore (6.5m, MID)

Somehow Traore didn’t get much of a price bump between seasons. After 4 goals and 9 assists last year I was expecting more, but I’m not complaining! He only played limited minutes at certain points in the season due to injuries, and there’s no way he and Wolves were unaffected by the Europa League efforts, so I think there will be more to come from him this year. Once fixtures are announced, if Wolves have a decent run, he will be straight in my team.

John Egan/Chris Basham/John O’Connell (5.0m, DEF)

Sheffield United were a defensive powerhouse last season. The only reason these guys were not owned more highly was because of a certain error at FPL towers that meant Lundstram was classed as a defender while playing as a box-to-box midfielder! They are now only priced at 5.0m, with the wing-backs pushed up to 5.5m, so if Sheffield United can replace or regain Dean Henderson they are all cheap options who are a necessity for the coming season.

Phil Foden (6.5m, MID)

He had a breakout season last year with 5 goals and 2 assists in just 888 minutes of Premier League football (that’s less than 10 full matches), many of which were from 20-30 minute cameos. With David Silva gone there’s more space in the rotating lineup and Guardiola loves Foden, so I expect him to start much more often and become a huge star for FPL managers.