The fact that transfer deadline day in Europe occurs a few weeks into the season throws a lot of additional considerations into the mix for fantasy managers. This year we saw quite a few interesting moves and late additions to the English Premier League, in particular to some of the big teams.

Many managers have been quickly snapping up the likes of Mesut Ozil, who in just two appearances amazingly already leads the league in assists. An additional thing to consider though is how the new guys will directly and indirectly effect the players around them. There are opportunities to be found amongst the shuffling and in some of the supporting casts, who can make great acquisitions while fellow managers are looking the other way. 
 
Tottenham were incredibly active on the market this season, spending their Gareth Bale squillions on quite a few premium signings, even long before he was officially gone. Given their usual attacking style of play and the way FPL scoring has traditionally favoured the top half of the pitch, they are always an important team to consider coverage from. They’ve been patchy in an attacking sense during the early stages this season, but if you look at the numbers for chances created, shots and shots on target, they are well ahead of the pack on all of them. It’s just taking some time for that to translate into goals, where they are currently sitting level surprisingly with Hull, well behind Manchester City and Arsenal, the other usual suspects.
 
Lots of FPL managers are starting to lose faith in Roberto Soldado, who was the great hope in the early season, given how safe a pick he is to lead the line for Spurs each week. While he seems so far to be the more of an unselfish type of striker (which for our FPL purposes is not a good thing) there is a good chance he will deliver as the season progresses. When the new signings fully gel, they are likely to have a big effect on his supply line and goal involvement opportunities. Villas Boas is also an astute tactician, who will no doubt be looking intently for ways to get goals out of his man the way Valencia did (59 in 101 appearances).
 
A look at the way Spurs lined up over the past four games shows that Christian Eriksen, the Danish signing from Ajax, is likely to take up an important position behind Soldado, pushing Moussa Dembele deeper down the park.
 
  
 
Eriksen proved straight away that he is going to be a creative force to be reckoned with in the league, starting with an assist and bonus point in his very first outing against Norwich. Interestingly, Glyfi Sigurdsson, who was a great FPL choice while on loan at Swansea last year, benefited greatly in the new set up, racking up both goals that game.  In addition, looking like a budget option who could explode FPL points at any time, Andros Townsend has fired more shots on goal over the past two gameweeks than any other player in the league (Spurs have three of the top six in that stat too, the other two being Sigurdsson and Paulinho). The last piece of the puzzle we need to see is how pacy former Roma attacking midfielder Erik Lamela fits into the picture. It took him only 20 minutes to set up Paulinho for the winner against Cardiff this weekend. He will likely impact upon the minutes of Townsend or Sigurdsson, and that should take shape for us in the coming few weeks.
 
 


Liverpool’s signing of Victor Moses wasn’t as big a headline, joining from Chelsea where his speed and talents had languished somewhat amongst the Mourinho midfield riches (if Juan Mata can’t get a game, what chance did he have?!). Despite the comparatively low-key arrival, he is likely to have a big FPL effect over time at Liverpool. Lots of managers had been patiently waiting for Phillipe Coutinho to deliver on his pre-season promise, and there is a good chance that will happen at some stage thanks to the fact that the Nigerian’s signing will allow Rodgers to play Coutinho in the centre of the park. From there he’ll be able to feed Daniel Sturridge and the even more prolific Luis Suarez, who should return from his lengthy suspension this weekend, making them a formidable attacking front line. Unfortunately, Coutinho’s injury last week means we’ll have to wait to see that one play out, but in the meantime at a bargain basement price of $6.3M and with a goal in his debut game, Moses is helping many managers free up funds for luxury Manchester United frontline options ahead of their very favourable run of fixtures.
 
Arsenal got most of the transfer deadline day press, with the signing of Ozil from Real Madrid. Arguably Arsene Wenger already has quite a strong midfield, but Mesut is clearly going to be a very influential player, as this StatZone article demonstrated. Perhaps the surprise beneficiary from that move already though has been Aaron Ramsey. He has since scored a brace against Sunderland, midweek against Marseille, and then again against Stoke last weekend. For a guy who has scored only seven goals over the previous five EPL seasons, it is a remarkable streak. A look at Statszone for the Sunderland game perhaps gives us a clue to what has helped this to happen … the combination with Ozil was the game’s most dominant. You only need ask Cristiano Ronaldo how helpful it is to have the German feeding passes to you throughout a game. When you add into that equation the fact that Ramsey will often lead a game in tackles and passes (and the way those things also feed into bonus point allocations), his budget price of $6.1M while it lasts, looks a steal. 
 
 
 
At this time of the season we start seeing rotation and injuries having an effect, in particular on the top teams who have started their mid-week European campaigns. If you can find regular starters from the other squads who have less mid-week obligations, you could be rewarded while other FPL managers suffer through line-up rotation. 
 
How Romelu Lukaku fits in while on loan at Everton will be really interesting to see for example. The toffees have shown decent signs early in the reign of Martinez, they are third in the league for number of crosses and top six for chances created. If the big Belgian gets on the end of those chances and recreates some of his WBA loan form from last year, he is going to be another great pick to catch early before the crowds sign him up. The other beneficiary of his signing of course, who is no stranger to FPL managers, is the wing back who creates the better part of Everton’s goal-scoring chances down the left, Leighton Baines. He showed his set piece prowess yet again this week, so is bound to tempt many managers to bring him on board…including his teammate Leon Osman, who apparently inspired Baines’ goals this weekend by telling him that he’d ditched him from his fantasy team!
 
Injury Issues


International breaks always throw up some interesting injury issues. Wayne Rooney came out of nowhere with his head gash, which was originally set to keep him out for a few weeks. That, and the way he kept the Robin Van Persie injury this week quiet, showed us that David Moyes can be just as coy and tricky as his Scottish predecessor, who was always causing us FPL headaches. You would be brave to go through a season without coverage from United, but be prepared for game-day line-up surprises like we’ve seen already from them this year all season long.
 
The last two weeks have seen a few prominent injury issues crop up - David Silva (hip), Coutinho (shoulder), Santi Cazorla (ankle), Theo Walcott (pelvis), Glen Johnson (ankle), and Christian Benteke (hip) all look possibilities for some unwelcome time on the sidelines. There could be some joy to be found in Silva’s absence though via Samir Nasri. He showed a lot of attacking creativity against United this weekend, and when in the mood and given the chance he can rack up very big FPL scores. Of course, if taking that punt, keep an eye on Silva’s return date as it’ll likely make him fodder for rotation once again.
 
Fixture Watch and Captain Choices

Looking forward through to the next international break in two gameweeks time, we see that Liverpool have a kind run of games…the wavering Sunderland away (though we might need to now be careful of the new Manager effect there since Di Canio has been sacked) followed by Mile Jedinak’s Crystal Palace at home. With Sturridge scoring regularly, he’ll no doubt be handed the captain armband by many FPL managers. Those playing it safe might want to first see how the Suarez return effects his numbers, and the real gamblers might even look straight to Suarez on his return… he’ll no doubt be keen to remind everybody how good a player he is, brain explosions aside. I predict that in around a months’ time, many of us will be shuffling our teams in an effort to bring in the Uruguayuan.
 
Ricky Lambert has yet to deliver this season, but it’s certainly not the result of a lack of opportunities.  With 38 penalty box touches, he shares top spot for that stat with Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud. Lambert is also tied with Andros Townsend for most shots on target, so it’s arguably only a matter of time before he finds the net. Hosting Crystal Palace – though Palace did look good against United two weeks ago until the send off – and coming off a confidence boosting win over Liverpool, this week could just be that time, particularly if Pochettino can make the partnership with Osvaldo start clicking. 
 
Fulham, Hull, and Stoke also have two positive fixtures coming up each, but it would take a brave manager to find their captain from those squads. Personally, I’ll be banking on the Manchester United frontline to come out firing this weekend after the big loss to City last weekend, and against West Brom, a fixture which saw 10 goals on the final day of last season.