The Premier League season is upon us and, with it, the return of Fantasy Premier League. We know you'll want to get the jump on your FPL rivals, and so we've given you the breakdown on some of the most intriguing Fantasy Football Differentials for the upcoming season.
For the purposes of this article, a "differential" has been considered to be someone with less than 15% ownership in FPL at the time of writing.
Fantasy Football Differentials: Players with low ownership to consider
Leon Bailey (£5.0m)
“He showed energy, speed & a hunger to cause problems. He’s come back in pre-season a different player. He is sending a massive signal to me that he wants to be in our 11.”
Gerrard has been very complimentary of Bailey’s performances in pre-season. With five attacking returns and a string of impressive performances in pre-season, Bailey has surely walked his way into the Villa starting 11.
His fixture against newly promoted Bournemouth is one where he’d fancy his chances. Scott Parker's recent comments should give further confidence to Bailey's owners ahead of his GW1 fixture:
"We barely have any defenders. At this moment, our squad is much weaker than it was when it got promoted."
READ HERE: Fantasy Premier League: Six Must-Have Players In GW1
I’m actually shocked to see that Robertson is owned by just 12% of FPL managers at the moment – especially given his strong finish to 2021/22.
No defender had a better points per game average than Robertson’s 7.4 since Gameweek 14 last season.
It was at this point that Robertson hit a serious run of form, and never looked back: in 20 starts, he only failed to register a clean sheet or an attacking return on two occasions, which is remarkable.
He also recorded six double digit hauls in that spell. The consistency and explosiveness that he offers is unlikely to be matched by most midfielders in the £7.0-8.0m club.
READ HERE: The Best Fantasy Football Names For Your FPL Team In The 2022-23 Season
Aaron Ramsdale (£5.0m)
I usually tend to start with £4.5m goalkeepers but this season has made me rethink that strategy.
Only Alisson (£5.5m), Ederson (£5.5m) and Hugo Lloris (£5.5m) had a better FPL points-per-game average than Ramsdale last season. Hence, it is to my pleasant surprise that Ramsdale is only owned by 12% of the managers at the time of writing.
Arsenal have a great run of fixtures to start with – they only play Manchester United from last season’s top six in their opening eight fixtures.
The Gunners kept 13 clean sheets last season, so we know they have the tendency to produce defensive returns when the fixtures are in their favour.
Furthermore, Ramsdale has the best minutes per baseline BPS ratio among all the Arsenal defensive assets, which makes him likely to accumulate bonus whenever Arsenal keep a clean sheet.
I prefer Ramsdale to Mendy as I believe he has more haul potential – which is why he had a better FPL points per game average than Mendy last season despite the slump in Arsenal’s defensive solidity in this calendar year.
READ HERE: Fantasy Premier League: Best Bargains For New Season
Danny Ward (£4.0m)
Until a couple of weeks ago, there were no starting £4.0m keepers in the game. However, strong rumours have emerged that Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m) is on his way to OGC Nice, and last night, Schmeichel confirmed he was leaving the King Power.
That brings Danny Ward (£4.0m), Leicester’s substitute goalkeeper, to the forefront.
These comments from Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers give me further confidence about Ward being first choice to begin with:
“Danny Ward is an exceptional keeper, I’ve always said we’ve got a number one keeper there. If Kasper is to go, he’s a big possibility for us. I think we would still need to bring in another one as a back-up. I’d be happy with that.”
SEE ALSO: Fantasy Premier League: Players To Avoid For Gameweek 1
