Fantasy Premier League 2018/19: 5 New Players to Watch Out For

FPL
It's time to make your Fantasy team for the new Premier League season

Every year of FPL brings different challenges along with it. The first challenge every player will face is of the players to include in their team. Top performers of last season will surely be bumped up in their prices.

Managerial changes and arrival of new players can have an impact on game time of players. So, just including the performers of last season is not the solution.

We need to look at all the parameters involved. Have they featured in the World Cup? When will they return? Even if they return will they feature for the first GameWeek?

Also, not every player performs like he did in the previous season. The selection of players is made difficult by addition of players in the league from the newly promoted sides too. They offer comparable returns being priced significantly lower than the existing players.

Here is a list of five new players added to FPL this year who can make an impact in the Premier League.

Note: All the prices mentioned in this article are from the official website of FPL


#1 Andriy Yarmolenko (West Ham United) - £7.0m

Wycombe Wanderers v West Ham United - Pre Season Friendly
West Ham's main man next term?

Manuel Lanzini's (£6.5m) long-term injury and Marko Arnautovic's (£7.0m) reclassification as a forward makes Andriy Yarmolenko a go-to option in midfield for West Ham United. There are doubts involving Arnautovic being a West Ham player next season too.

According to the reports, he is looking to move out of London. This could see Yarmolenko playing as forward ahead of Hernandez.

Yarmolenko has an eye for a goal which makes him an attacking threat and always makes those attacking runs. He will benefit by the presence of Felipe Anderson (£7.0m) in the side who will always try to find him.

This will increase Yarmolenko's threat playing as a wing or as a forward and will surely return attacking points who produced three goals and two assists for Borussia Dortmund in 18 Bundesliga appearances.

Also, he has scored 35 goals in 77 appearances for Ukraine and is their second highest goalscorer. Yarmolenko is already the most-owned player from West Ham in FPL.

#2 Barry Douglas (Wolves) - £5.0m

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Sheffield Wednesday - Sky Bet Championship
Potential to be a top-scoring defender?

Barry Douglas (£5.0m) is a defender, but he has scored 5 goals and produced 14 assists for Wolves last season in Championship.

Wolves kept 24 clean sheets in the Championship last season. This is the highest any team had in the Championship last term. They conceded just 39 goals in 46 matches. Imagine the return of points for a defender with stats like these.

Douglas plays as a left wing-back for Wolverhampton Wanderers. He is also on set-piece duties for them, due to which he gets more opportunities to create goal-scoring chances for his team.

This is an added benefit for the Bonus Points System (BPS) in FPL, as the number of chances created by a player is one of the parameters.

Surely, Douglas is one of the new players to be looked at closely as he has the abilities to deliver at both ends of the pitch.

#3 Ryan Sessegnon (Fulham) - £6.5m

Aston Villa v Fulham - Sky Bet Championship Play Off Final
Fulham's talisman in the Championship will be looking forward to delivering in the Premier League

Ryan Sessegnon produced 8 assists and scored 16 goals for Fulham last season and was their top scorer. He plays on the left-hand side of midfield and is their highest-priced player in FPL at £6.5m.

He started the season as a left-back for Fulham but played as a left-winger in the second part of the season. Sessegnon is classified as a midfielder in FPL.

Fulham signed Jean Michael Seri (£5.5m) this season and many FPL managers will see Seri as an alternative to Sessegnon who can rival him in price, creativity, and Bonus Points System (BPS).

But considering a return of 16 goals as compared to Seri's two will have managers scratching their heads over that £1.0m difference in the pricing.

Sessegnon played in all of 46 matches last season, which indicates his fitness level and also how important part of that Fulham side he is. He brings energy into the midfield and has shown this throughout last season.

His work rate helps him contribute at both ends of the pitch which is an added benefit in BPS.

#4 Sokratis (Arsenal) - £5.5m

Borehamwood v Arsenal: Pre-Season Friendly
Arsenal's new leader at the back?

Sokratis is surely a go-to option in Arsenal's defence. Unai Emery has focused on making the team strong defensively having signed Stephan Lichtsteiner (£5.0m) and Bernd Leno (£5.0m).

He has also invested in the defensive midfield area by signing Lucas Torreira (£5.0m). This increases the chances of Arsenal keeping more clean sheets this season.

Also, Sokratis is a threat on set-pieces, especially when Arsenal have Mesut Ozil (£8.5m) doing that job. Therefore, he has a potential of returning attacking points too.

No team has scored more goals on set-pieces than Arsenal last season. They scored 16 set-piece goals. Arsenal also scored 13 headed goals last season. These stats just show how good the service will be when Sokratis is in that Arsenal side.

The Greek is also a good passer of the ball, which gives him an advantage in BPS among his teammates. All these abilities will make him the best buy in FPL from that Arsenal defence.

#5 Diogo Jota (Wolves) - £6.5m

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Sheffield Wednesday - Sky Bet Championship
A budget goal-scoring midfielder and a regular starter

Diogo Jota was the top goalscorer for Wolves last season in the Championship. He featured 44 times for his side last season, scoring 17 goals and grabbing 5 assists.

The 21-year-old is a midfielder in FPL but plays at the left of the front three. This will give him an advantage in points over mid-range strikers as he will get an extra point for scoring a goal and also when his team keep a clean sheet.

He brings an attacking threat from the midfield for Wolves and FPL managers crave players like him. Wolves also have a favourable run of opening fixtures; only two of their first 10 matches have a score of more than 3 according to the Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR).

FDR is decided by FPL scouts and is available on the official site. Jota is the highest priced player of the newly-promoted side, priced at £6.5m, but his statistics suggest that he is quite a bargain at that price.

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