If it's in the game, it's in the game
A quick note on the EA Sports Index – the Fantasy Premier League’s new statistics engine that is responsible for doling out the always controversial ‘bonus points’ this season.
We’re nearly complete with our Gameweek 1 matches (Manchester City and Swansea kick-off momentarily) so it seems a decent time to analyze who impressed in the eyes of EA Sports and briefly summarize:
Goalscorers galore: The top 7 EA Sports statistics index scorers for the first gameweek all scored. Cahill, Klasnic, Fletcher, Muamba, Ward, Suarez and Rooney all benefited from finding the back of the net. They were well rewarded in the bonus department. What does this mean for fantasy managers? Perhaps not much after just one week, but it certainly points to a 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 formation as a preferred option this season – stick three on-form strikers in there and watch the EA Sports bonus points roll in?
Bolton baby, Bolton: Bolton benefited greatly from a blowout 4-0 victory with 6 players ending up in the Top 13 of the EA Sports Index. Klasnic and Cahill impressed and could be ready for big seasons, but stay away from the likes of Fabrice Muamba (4th) and Zat Knight (9th) despite their early successes.
Goalkeepers suffer: It looks like despite picking up clean sheets, the likes of Jaaskelainen and Given didn’t blow the roof off the bonus point committee. EA Sports skewed heavily to goalscoring and attacking players in week one, so it’s worth monitoring if this trend continues.
We’ll keep you updated with news and analysis as the week goes on, but that was just a brief taste and early look at the opening weekend. Good luck to all managers.
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Looking at the criteria for measuring the EA sports index it seems that the bonus points this year will just be added to those who scored goals or assisted, who already get points for those acts, as so little of the index takes into account other key factors such as tackling, passing, distance covered, dribbles/crossing completion. There are such a wealth of statistics available on every game nowadays that surely they could come up with a better system than this. Somehow De Gea was ranked the third best keeper this weekend when the only goal his team conceded was clearly his mistake. His team won in spite of him not because of him. It seems likely that in a few weeks we will all be pining for the old ‘phantom’ bonus points committee because, by and large, they did reward those players who just ‘had a good game’, regardless of how unscientific that approach may be.
Defenders got bonus points too. I owned DeLaet and A Cole who both got 2 bonus points for some reason. S Taylor of Newcastle got 3! So it’s not just goal scorers who get BPs although they get the highest share of them