FPL Gameweek 8 Tips: Snap up Spurs stars ahead of Luton clash
Tottenham Hotspur travel to take on Luton Town in Gameweek 8 – making it the perfect opportunity to acquire their assets in Fantasy Premier League.
Spurs boast the division’s joint-fourth best attack, having scored 17 times in seven league outings, while the Hatters’ defensive record is the fourth-worst, shipping 14 goals so far.
We take a closer look at the prime candidates from Ange Postecoglou’s squad and how they can hurt Luton.
Son Heung-min (£9.3m)
The departure of Tottenham’s talisman Harry Kane to Bayern Munich in the summer left a gaping hole in the squad. Son took over the Englishman’s duties as captain and has now cemented himself as the side’s first-choice centre-forward as well.
The South Korean was deployed on the left wing for the first three games of the campaign before being shifted into the middle and has scored all six of his goals in his four outings in the latter role, taking him to second in the Premier League’s goalscoring charts – two strikes behind Erling Haaland.
He is clearly Spurs’ chief goal threat, leading the side for shots (21), while his work-rate – attempting 99 pressing duels so far – increases the likelihood of forcing a defensive mistake upon which to pounce.
The only caveat to the 31-year-old’s success so far is that he has overperformed his xG by 3.06 and his post-shot xG by 2.01 – but as the focal point of a gung-ho Tottenham attack, plenty of chances are set to fall his way.
James Maddison (£8m)
If Son is the goalscoring striker spearheading Spurs’ attack, James Maddison is their creator-in-chief.
The Englishman offers a goal threat of his own, having netted twice so far – but it is his creativity that makes him such an appealing asset.
Maddison has featured in 61 sequences ending in a shot – more than any other Premier League player – as well as 250 sequences ending in the final third.
Equally impressive are his tallies of 21 shots assisted and nine completed through-balls, while his position as Tottenham’s primary set-piece taker offers an additional avenue from which he can add to his assist tally.
Pedro Porro (£5m) v Destiny Udogie (£4.8m)
For those eager managers keen to triple-up on Tottenham assets, flying full-back Pedro Porro offers plenty of thrust from defence.
His slightly cheaper team-mate Destiny Udogie can be found in just under 19% of teams at the time of writing, while the Spaniard has been selected by only 7% of fantasy managers.
However, Porro has superior numbers for crosses completed (six to one), through-balls completed (four to none), shots assisted (six to five) and key passes completed (four to three), highlighting his greater creative threat.
Furthermore, the 24-year-old has taken eight shots to his 20-year-old teammate’s one, suggesting the former offers a greater chance of scoring as well.
Managers able to spare the extra £0.2m may find themselves in possession of a differential asset with the potential to outscore his more popular counterpart.
Luton Town
Luton have struggled since earning promotion from the Championship and sit outside the relegation zone on goal difference alone, with just four points from seven games.
They will allow Spurs to dominate the ball – no side has completed fewer passes (1,613) or lost the ball more frequently (788) – and have yet to demonstrate the guile required to exploit the high line Postecoglou’s men will undoubtedly employ, completing the fewest through-balls of any side (four).
The Hatters have been blunt as a whole, also ranking 20th in the league for non-penalty shots on target (15) – boosting the clean sheet potential of any Tottenham defenders.
Luton’s attempts to control the game without the ball have not yielded the solidity they would have hoped for thus far either, with their post-shot xG conceded of 14.82 suggesting their goals conceded tally of 14 is more or less what they would have been expected to record.
Son and Maddison certainly possess the quality to unpick such a porous defence – and fantasy managers would be wise to jump on them ahead of a plum Gameweek 8 fixture.
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