Most transferred-out player Bukayo Saka leapfrogs Erling Haaland to become Dream Team’s best performer this season
THERE’S a new king in town!
Since Erling Haaland (£8m) joined Manchester City, he has spent most of time at the top of the Dream Team rankings but the Norwegian poacher was dethroned this past weekend.
Bukayo Saka (£6.4m) took Bournemouth for ten points to leapfrog his rival as the treble-winner mustered just three points against Wolves.
Arsenal’s No7 now has 81 points overall, two more than Haaland at the time of writing.
Dream TeamTop of the pile[/caption]
This development was particularly engrossing because the England winger was the most transferred-out player prior to Gameweek 7!
Only Kevin De Bruyne (£6.7m) has been removed from more teams in one week than Saka was recently – following the Belgian playmaker suffered a long-term injury on the opening weekend.
A sizeable chunk of Dream Team gaffers were duped by Mikel Arteta, who confirmed that Saka had not trained all week prior to the Spanish tactician’s press conference on Friday.
The 22-year-old has been playing through an Achilles injury for some time and he looked seriously hampered at the back end of the North London derby in Gameweek 6.
He then skipped the Gunners’ Carabao Cup game at Brentford in midweek, leading many to assume he would be given time to recover at the weekend.
However, come Saturday, Saka was once again selected to start and while he appeared in discomfort at times before he was substituted in the 76th minute, his opening goal initiated what was ultimately a comfortable win for Arsenal over the Cherries.
GettySaka scored his side’s first goal on Saturday[/caption]
Needless to say, many of the Dream Team bosses who used a transfer to ditch Saka were left feeling shortchanged.
Except those who followed our advice and brought in Martin Odegaard (£5m) as a direct replacement – the Norway international banked 16 points at the Vitality Stadium.
It will be interesting to see what team Arteta selects to start against Lens on Tuesday night.
The French side are currently 15th in Ligue 1 and while Arsenal will undoubtedly want to try their best in the Champions League after a few years absent from the prestigious competition, Man City are due to visit the Emirates this coming Sunday.
The Gunners probably wouldn’t need Saka in the initial line-up to take three points from their trip to France but he generally starts if available, even if only half fit, as evidenced by his presence at Bournemouth.
Arteta must know he’s taking a risk heaping more minutes on his star player’s problematic Achilles but perhaps this just underlines Saka’s importance to the team.
GettySome fans have criticised Arteta for not resting Saka[/caption]
Dream Team’s top performer has five goals and four assists to his name but he’s also earned eight points from tackles a great effort for such an attack-minded asset.
He’s also pocketed 13 bonus points, an aspect of the game in which he has a clear edge over Haaland, who is rarely involved in the action outside penalty-box chances.
No doubt many, many Dream Team gaffers will be transferring Saka back in this week…
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