Sam Austin

WEEKLY DIFFERENTIALS 2019/20: FPL Gameweek 6

Ahead of each round of Premier League games The Hype Train analyses the best left-field player options for your Fantasy Premier League teams. Historically, weekly FPL Dream Team’s comprise of mostly differential players whose selection falls with a low selection percentage of overall players, to which there is no doubt that their influence cannot be ignored. With such an abundance of points coming from the FPL’s hidden gems The Hype Train selects one player from each Premier League match in the upcoming Gameweek to decide who could be the differential that sets your team apart. All aboard.

Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 6 Deadline

For the 2019/20 Premier League season, the FPL deadline will be one hour before the commencement of the week's first game. Our website provides a real-world countdown timer for the the upcoming Gameweek, whilst you can read our latest Fantasy articles from the season on our 2019/20 FPL weekly hype sub-section.

Weekly Differentials (GW6)

Differentials were all over the place last week, mostly because they are so hard to predict this season. Mostly because you can’t predict football. Take Raheem Sterling, not a differential, but he won our captaincy poll last week and has two dud Gameweek’s in a row.

The ‘expected goals’ formula makes no sense because all it tries to do is say ‘easy fixtures, lots of chances’, and to be frank, City deserved to lose the match and were out played by the Canaries. Sheffield United lost to Southampton after everyone said Lundstram was destined for 6pts, Chelsea can no longer defend, and Everton are back to struggling in every game after people before the season began were saying that they were destined for a place in the top six. Expectations and reality are two different things, and we are back at trying to pick ten players that may make an impact this Gameweek, here are those ten:

Gameweek 6: Differential Picks

SOU/BOU: Moussa Djenepo (SOU, MID, £5.4mil, 0.2% ownership)

LEI/TOT: Hueng-Min Son (TOT, MID, £9.6mil, 5.3% ownership)

BUR/NOR: Emiliano Buendía (NOR, MID, £6.0mil, 1.2% ownership)

EVE/SHU: Yerry Mina (EVE, DEF, £5.6mil, 5.0% ownership)

MCI/WAT: Nicolás Otamendi (MCI, DEF, £5.4mil, 2.3% ownership)

NEW/BHA: Martin Dubravka (NEW, GK, £5.0mil, 0.9% ownership)

CRY/WOL: Jordan Ayew (CRY, FWD, £5.1mil, 8.1% ownership)

WHU/MUN: Sebastien Haller (WHU, FWD, £7.5mil, 6.7% ownership)

ARS/AVL: Nicolas Pépé (ARS, MID, £9.4mil, 3.6% ownership)

CHE/LIV: Adrián (LIV, GK, £4.6mil, 6.3% ownership)

GW6: Differential Highlights

Jordan Ayew (CRY): Wolves are a Europa League team, and as such, we expect them to have Europa League results on correspondent weekends. Wolves haven’t been able to pick up any league momentum which suits Palace in this fixture. Jordan Ayew has notched in two of his last three starts, and with a potential European hangover from Wolves it might be an overlooked option.

Adrián (LIV): This isn’t really a highlight, but just to say that this player is selected in this fixture due to a lack of player availability in the differential category. There will probably no differentials that return.

Emiliano Buendía (NOR): Norwich have been an incredible offensive outfit in the first five games, and after beating the English champions, they face a different test in Burnley who are more than likely going to sit in a rigid 4-4-2 to limit the Canaries chances. Before the season the hype was on Vrancic, but a calf injury has seen Buendía thrust into the chief creative roles with Cantwell. After a stellar performance against City, there is no other differential to trust in this fixture than the man who got 11pts. Buendía has four assists in five games and looks the most likely to create another Pukki goal.

Key Differential: Hueng-Min Son (TOT)

We’ve officially going into the FPL equivalent of the Twilight Zone, because here we are again talking about the irrational forces that are Spurs midfield options as our differential captain again. You should also be aware that the North London club also has some promising upcoming fixtures after this one: Southampton (GW7), Brighton (GW8), and Watford (GW9). Eriksen last week, Son this week, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Lamela or Moura leading the line for us in the coming weeks. Spurs are an oddity, and the longer the season goes we will find it harder to keep justifying their midfielders as leading differentials.

Discussing Eriksen last week only for the Dane to get 2pts (after a yellow card) makes us sceptical long term. Spurs are a competitive outfit, and they have lots of talented player in their midfield. The problem about Spurs is that they are the ‘best of the rest’ in terms of differentials, they have potential in most fixtures, but they are inherently inconsistent. Arsenal call it ‘Spursy’ on the streets. Take the Newcastle game, everyone loves to talk up Spurs at home but then they lost the game, and all we saw on social media was Kane leading the way in captaincy polls and draft teams. Eriksen last week played ninety minutes in a 4-0 win and didn’t do anything, but don’t you worry he made sure he got booked though for his efforts. Kane played a full ninety against Newcastle, and barely touched the ball.

They are truly a team living in the Twilight Zone as there is so much irrational behaviour on the pitch. You never know what you are going to get from them on a week-to-week basis. One-week Kane will score a hat-trick in the most unlikely game, and then go three games without a shot. Essentially…Spurs are THE differential team. There are reasons why FPL prices are getting out of hand, and why fantasy managers opt for Liverpool and City options who are a lot more stable in returning points.

Eriksen was picked for GW5 after scoring against Arsenal in GW4. Son has now been picked for GW6 after scoring against Crystal Palace in GW5. The problem is that form doesn’t mean anything for Spurs. Pochettino doesn’t even pick players on form, look at Moura who got them to a Champions League final, and the Argentine dropped him in a heartbeat to include Kane in his losing team. Based on pure facts, Son has an assist and two goals in his last two starts, and after coming back into the team he has picked up the pace to give Spurs a different cutting edge. Leicester, who Spurs face this Gameweek, even lost to Man United in GW5 in a pretty toothless performance. Arguably, Spurs are a shoe in to capitalise on their win over Palace to add salt to Leicester’s wounds. Spurs last three league games against Leicester have seen them win all three, and score ten goals in the process, and on the outset, it looks positive for Son this week.

Among the options this Gameweek, Son is the best option on paper…just as Eriksen was last week. All the chips are lining up in the exact same way again. We are backing yet another Spurs midfielder as differential captain, but we do ask you to proceed with caution. Spurs make life hell for fantasy managers, and we’ll be back here again next week telling you how great of an option Erik Lamela will be against Southampton.

Want to know more about The Hype Train?

The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in Fantasy sports reporting, starting with Fantasy Premier League (FPL), before expanding to MLS Fantasy coverage in 2018.

We pride ourselves in providing beautiful graphics, statistics, in-depth analytical reporting and free weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb rankings tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review games, live sport, and professional wrestling.

In 2019, Hype Train Football Club was formed, becoming the first Fantasy Football website to take to the field. HTFC is a socially active team across social and web channels, providing regular match highlights, match reports, comprehensive player statistics and unique player profiles.

The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog' in 2016 by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), and were again shortlisted as a finalist in 2019 in the 'Best Fantasy Football Blog' category.

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