Our Gameweek 8 Player Rankings are here to outline the current prospects of key Fantasy EPL players. The ‘Hot’ or ‘Cold’ status will help take away your emotional attachment to certain Draft Premier League players and bring in the players that you need to help you dominate your Fantrax Draft League!
Use these hints and tips to increase your chances of success! New kid on the block hitting good form? Early draft pick not performing? Use this article as an objective way to influence your transfer and trade activity!
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🔥🔥🔥 Gameweek 8 Player Rankings: Hot List 🔥🔥🔥
These are Fantasy EPL Draft players that have risen in our rankings! These are potential free agents on good form or established players that you should be looking to trade-in. Keep an eye on these players, and bring them into your Fantrax squad if you can!
Joao Cancelo
Position: Defender
Team: Manchester City
Ownership: 96%
Next 5 Fixtures: LIV (H), tot (A), BUR (H), FUL (H), mun (A)
What’s Changed?: I love Joao Cancelo. The Manchester City full-back was performing really well towards the end of last season, and Pep was full of praise for the Portuguese defender. I placed Cancelo in 12th position in my pre-season Defender Draft Rankings, but based on his recent form this should have been higher! After missing the first four games through injury, Cancelo has gained 55.75 points across the subsequent three games.
I drafted Cancelo in the 7th round of the Community League, and I couldn’t be happier after sticking with him through a rough first few weeks of the season. It may be too late to trade him into your roster, but give it a go and try and convince the other manager he’ll suffer from rotation. I personally can’t see that happening considering the injuries/form/fitness of Mendy and Zinchencko.
James Ward-Prowse
Position: Midfielder
Team: Southampton
Ownership: 99%
Next 5 Fixtures: NEW (H), wol (A), MUN (H), bri (A), SHU (H)
What’s Changed?: Another player that I love. James Ward-Prowse started the season rather steadily with scores of 7, 12, 7, 12.5, and 3.5. After the score of 3.5 points in Gameweek 5, we were flooded with questions about what to do with the Saints captain. We told them all to stick by him. Ward-Prowse was averaging 8.4 PPG at that time and our advice was that his current PPG is actually pretty good all things considered. If he adds attacking returns then he’s going to be scoring exceptionally well.
Fast forward two weeks and the midfield maestro has added four attacking returns, and 54 Fantrax points to his tally! Ward-Prowse was touted as a third-round draft pick during pre-season, and he’s showing exactly why right now. Consistent performer, and not dependent on attacking returns.
Pedro Neto
Position: Forward
Team: Wolves
Ownership: 85%
Next 5 Fixtures: lei (A), SOU (H), ars (A), liv (A), AST(H)
What’s Changed?: Perhaps it’s becoming clear why Wolves were happy to sell Diogo Jota to Liverpool. Pedro Neto was ready to feature in the Premier League on a full-time basis. The young Portuguese winger has always looked very talented from his limited minutes in the Premier League, but it was a bit of an unknown to whether he could perform to a consistently high level.
This season has changed that perception. Neto is currently the 10th highest scoring forward in the whole of Fantrax and has a PPG of 11.93. To gain an average points score in this range after “only” gaining three attacking returns so far is impressive. Very impressive. Neto looks to have established himself in the strongest XI after gaining most of his minutes in the Europa League during his debut campaign last year.
Gameweek 8 Player Rankings: More Hot Players!
Fantasy EPL Defenders
- James Tarkowski (93%, Burnley) – The Fantrax favorite is back to what he does best. Aerials galore and helping solidify that Burnley D.
- Kurt Zouma (89%, Chelsea) – Continues to perform at DEF1 level. Was close to making the main write up above!
- Aaron Creswell (85%, West Ham) – 3 Assist, 11 KP, set piece duty. Schedule gets easier. Get him in if you can.
- Nelson Semedo (85%, Wolves) – Semedo is performing very well after a poor debut. The most in-form defender in Fantrax right now!
- Jannik Vestergaard (78%, Southampton) – This guy continues to perform extremely well. Clean sheets, goals, ghost points… The Great Dane does it all.
- Matty Cash (74%, Aston Villa) – Possesses a solid base with a good chance for some attacking returns. Ignore the Gameweek 7 disaster!
- Vladimir Coufal (39%, West Ham) – A poor display in Gameweek 7, but the fixtures now turn for the better, and the new WHU right-back has been playing really well.
- Rayan Ait Nouri (27%, Wolves) – A debut goal and clean sheet for the young Frenchman. Pick him up from waivers if you can!
- Antonee Robinson (22%, Fulham) – The American left-back has worked his way into the team and is a really tidy Fantrax asset.
Fantasy EPL Midfielders
- Bruno Fernandes (100%, Manchester United) – An extremely consistent asset.
- Jack Grealish (100%, Aston Villa) – An insane player this season. 4th highest scoring player, and has played a game less!
- James Rodriguez (94%, Everton) – Continuing his magnificent start, although missed out in Gameweek 7 due to injury.
- Bukayo Saka (93%, Arsenal) – Is he nailed? No. But he is hungry and exciting. Put him in, if he starts.
- Daniel Podence (90%, Wolves) – Continues to score extremely well, and is keeping Adama out of the side.
- Ross Barkley (88%, Aston Villa) – On fire since his move to Villa, and adding decent ghost points.
- Theo Walcott (48%, Southampton) – Two starts, two assists. Ousted Redmond from the side this weekend.
- Tom Cairney (42%, Fulham) – Questionable in real life, turning into a bit of a beast in Fantrax.
Fantasy EPL Forwards
- Mohamed Salah (100%, Liverpool) – Obviously.
- Harry Kane (100%, Tottenham) – On ridiculous form this season!
- Heung-Min Son (100%, Tottenham) – Just keep scoring. Just keep scoring.
- Dominic Calvert-Lewin (100%, Everton) – Continues to score goals, even without colleagues James and Richarlison alongside him.
- Callum Wilson (92%, Newcastle) – I’ll admit I was skeptical on Wilson this season due to his horror show of a season last time around. Performing extremely well for the Magpies so far though!
- Ollie Watkins (90%, Aston Villa) – Destroyed the Champions with a hat trick, has been solid in all his starts.
- Che Adams (85%, Southampton) – Three double-digit performances in a row.
- Ademola Lookman (62%, Fulham) – Scoring pretty well, a decent FWD3 option for most!
- Karlan Grant (17%, West Brom) – Goal dependent, but he’s WBA’s only striker.
❄️❄️❄️ Gameweek 8 Player Rankings: Cold List ❄️❄️❄️
These are Fantasy EPL players that have fallen in our rankings. This may be due to poor form, they have been dropped from the best 11, they have suffered an injury, or received a suspension. It’s time to consider dropping these players from your squads!
Romain Saiss
Position: Defender
Team: Wolves
Ownership: 96%
Next 5 Fixtures: lei (A), SOU (H), ars (A), liv (A), AST(H)
What’s Changed?: Saiss was dropped to the bench for Gameweek 8 after playing the last couple of games at left wing-back. The big Moroccan is not a natural wing-back, so it wasn’t all that surprising that he was replaced by a player more suitable to this position in Alt Nouri. However, the fact that young defender Max Killman kept his place in the back three has the alarm bells at Saiss HQ going. The Wolves man was a solid mid-round draft pick, but he’s now seemingly lost his place in the side!
Recommendation: Hold tight and hope that Saiss gets back into the team at the expense of Killman. Nuno’s lineups are so hard to predict at the moment, its worth keeping Saiss for now. He has too much value to drop to the free-agent pool.
Jarrod Bowen
Position: Midfielder
Team: West Ham United
Ownership: 95%
Next 5 Fixtures: FUL (H), shu (A), AST (H), MUN (H), lee (A)
What’s Changed?: This is painful to write, as I’m a huge fan of Jarrod Bowen. His form last season after arriving from Hull City was amazing, and I was excited to see what he could do in a full season in the Premier League. But this season has been very poor for Bowen so far. Take away his two goal-scoring appearances in Gameweek 3 and 4, and his scores are as follows: 0, 4, 2.5, 1, 0.5. That’s 8 points from those five games. Shocking.
Of course, it’s easy to take away a player’s goals and say that his points scoring has been bad. But elite level Fantrax assets need a steady stream of ghost points to enable them to consistently score good points. Bowen just doesn’t have that right now.
Recommendation: The good thing here is that West Ham’s fixture schedule is about to turn very good. Which means that even if Bowen is now dependent on attacking returns, he’ll have plenty of chances to add to his tally of 3 goals so far this season. If you own Bowen, you’ve got to stick by him. His trade value is too low to make a deal. If you don’t own Bowen, send over some cheeky offers like Saka, Walcott, Soucek, or March for him.
Neal Maupay
Position: Forward
Team: Brighton
Ownership: 94%
Next 5 Fixtures: BUR (H), avl (A), LIV (H), SOU (H), lei (A)
What’s Changed?: Neal Maupay started the season incredibly well, gaining five attacking returns between Gameweek 2 and 4. Many Fantrax managers bought into this, as his numbers were very impressive. Delve into those numbers a little further though and you’ll reach one conclusion. Maupay doesn’t score well without attacking returns. I was always skeptical about his long term prospects because of this.
And now, Maupay was dropped for the Gameweek 7 defeat to Tottenham, didn’t make the bench, and was reportedly not injured. Considering Potter decided to enter the game without a recognized striker would lead us to believe there has been some kind of off-field incident.
Recommendation: If there is a decent free agent out there, I’d probably drop him altogether. Someone like Karlan Grant is the same kind of player as Maupay, but he actually plays. Get rid of and avoid the headache of trying to work out what has happened behind the scenes!
Gameweek 8 Player Rankings: More Cold Players!
Fantasy EPL Defenders
- Trent Alexander-Arnold (100%, Liverpool) – Trent just isn’t picking up the points this year. Stick with him if you own him though, his trade value is too low to trade out!
- Kieran Tierney (88%, Arsenal) – Not producing as a center back in a back 5, look out for lineups and only play him if he is playing wingback/fullback.
- Michael Keane (86%, Everton) – Take away his two goals this season, and he’s been very poor. Not picking up ghost points at all. Drop.
- Ezri Konsa (72%, Aston Villa) – Started the season very well, but it’s not really happening for Konsa at the moment. I would drop him, and any other Villa defender apart from Cash.
- Enda Stevens (57%, Sheffield United) – Sheffield United look to be in a serious sophomore slump and at this point all defensive assists are droppable.
- Joe Byran (26%, Fulham) – Lost his place in the side to Robinson. Drop.
- Charlie Taylor (21%, Burnley) – I’m a huge fan of Taylor as a “hidden gem” pick, but he’s not scoring well this season. Drop him.
- Marcal (15%, Wolves) – The Wolves’ defense/wing-backs are so hard to predict. Marcal probably isn’t going to be first choice.
Fantasy EPL Midfielders
- Christian Pulisic (100%, Chelsea) – Pulisic continues to frustrate as a Fantrax asset. Injured during the warm-up in Gameweek 7!
- Michail Antonio (99%, West Ham) – Out injured for a month, but you’ve got to stick with him. Beast when fit!
- Leandro Trossard (93%, Brighton) – The talented Belgian flatters to deceive as a fantasy asset… struggles for ghost points.
- Jorginho (87%, Chelsea) – Offers nothing other than the odd penalty goal. Deserves 7% ownership rather than 87%!!
- Donny van de Beek (79%, Manchester United) – Don’t be fooled by the big name player at the big name club. Drop him. He doesn’t play.
- Lucas Moura (69%, Tottenham) – Probably my favorite player from the All or Nothing documentary, but he’s not playing regularly this season and Bale is getting fitter.
- Joao Moutinho (67%, Wolves) – Wolves are looking for a settled formation and Moutinho is clearly paying the price.
- Grady Diangana (53%, West Brom) – Struggling so far this season. Borderline droppable.
- Dele Alli (48%, Tottenham) – Not playing. Jose doesn’t like him. Drop.
- Eberechi Eze (46%, Crystal Palace) – Taking his time to get up to speed, but stick with him. He’ll get there soon.
Fantasy EPL Forwards
- Raheem Sterling (100%, Manchester City) – Not performing to his best, but still an elite asset. He will come good!
- Roberto Firmino (100%, Liverpool) – Inconsistent and can’t be trusted for points. Not for me thank you.
- Sergio Aguero (99%, Manchester City) – Rushed back from injury only to get injured again.
- Adama Traore (95%, Wolves) – Nuno seems to like bringing him on to win games against tired defenses. It might be working in real life, but fantasy managers are furious. Do the right thing, Nuno.
- Mason Greenwood (92%, Manchester United) – Disciplinary issues, Cavani as competition. It doesn’t look good.
- Nicolas Pepe (75%, Arsenal) – Same old story for Pepe. And I don’t want any part of it.
- Alexandre Lacazette (98%, Arsenal) – Like Firmino, a player I don’t like in Fantrax. Headache.
- Willian (97%, Arsenal) – We’re going Arsenal heavy here. Willian isn’t performing well for Fantrax managers, and its very disappointing. Stick with him though!
- Chris Wood (70%, Burnley) – Scoring poorly and borderline droppable.
- Rhian Brewster (37%, Sheffield United) – Doesn’t look suited to the Fantrax Scoring System.
- Steven Bergwijn (31%, Tottenham) – Drop.
Previous Editions: Gameweek 2 | Gameweek 3 | Gameweek 4 | Gameweek 5 | Gameweek 7 |
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