Our Gameweek 3 Sleepers XI article provides Draft managers with a lineup of Fantasy EPL hidden gems. Our starting eleven of Draft Premier League differential picks will help you find a golden ticket to a big score this weekend! These hints and tips will give you a better chance of picking up an all-important victory, as any one of these under-the-radar picks could make the difference in a head-to-head game!
We'll be focusing on players that will bring us not only attacking returns or clean sheets, but also those players that score Ghost Points in the sophisticated and statistics based Fantrax Scoring System!
Fantasy EPL Gameweek 3 Sleepers XI
For this article, we use the percentage rostered calculation from Fantrax and Sleeper. Our only rule is that each player we highlight is rostered in 60% of leagues or fewer at the time of writing. Therefore, there's a good chance some of these players will be free agents in your Draft league! As always, we'll take form, fixtures, projected points, and a healthy dose of intuition into account to make our selections.
GW2 didn't really go to plan as the team continued its Jekyll and Hyde look with a 75.75 final score. What do I mean by that? A grand total of 46.5 points were scored by just 3 players and the rest only managed 29.25. Pathetic. The boys need to do better. Wolves bigman Strand Larsen aided our studs Adama and Flekken with the monster scores. Let's hope, for the competitiveness of all Fantrax leagues, that I am going to have to start looking for new players at GK and FWD and Flekken and Traore finally rise above the 60% rostered mark for GW4 as they really should be closer to 100% as opposed to where they are currently.
The Sleepers XI table below includes a full team of Starters, as well as 5 Reserves -- high-upside players with some question marks around whether or not they'll start in Gameweek 3. Keep an eye out when lineups are announced and pick them up if you see them starting and need to fill a spot on your roster. Read on below for the rationale behind each of the Starter selections.
Mark Flekken (G, Brentford)
The Dutchman is one of the 2 players who have become mainstays in the first 3 weeks of the Sleepers XI. Without wanting to sound like a broken record, I want to reiterate, that Flekken looks very much like, he could be a season-long-keeper-keeper. He showcased his shot-stopping ability in GW1 and GW2 by putting up 6 saves in each game. While he will continue to make a lot of saves, it is his clean sheet potential that earns him his third and hopefully final inclusion in this team. Southampton have yet to score a goal in their first 2 games in which they have attempted 24 shots, only 4 of them on target. The few SoTs Flekken will face this season, I bet he will save.
Jacob Greaves (D, Ipswich Town)
Our first Ipswich inclusion of the season comes in the form of 23-year-old Englishman J. Greaves, who despite only being 185 cms tall, is in the 96th percentile for aerials won with an average of 4.08 per 90. While he has only managed 4 AER in 180 minutes played so far (90 mins against City is somewhat of a mitigating factor), he made up for it with 15 clearances. Those less-than-stellar numbers must be caveated by Ipswich facing Liverpool and City in the first 2. But he has already shown the potential for bigger scores in more closely contested matchups. This weekend against Fulham should be just that as Fulham have had the 4th most crosses so far in the EPL, so his aerial dominance will come to light.
Jake O'Brien (D, Everton)
Everton have been pretty poor so far with 2 losses and no goals scored. With Branthwaite out injured, they have started the season with former Burnley super-duo Keane and Tarkowski. But a change might be on the cards to turn their fortunes around. New boy O'Brien is ready to go if he is called upon and should split aerials with Tarks when they face Bournemouth, who have had the second most crosses in the first 2 games. There is still a chance that Keane continues in the Starting XI; if so, he should be an easy replacement for the Irishman.
Levi Colwill (D, Chelsea)
There is no need to check Colwill's scores from the last 2 games. They aren't good. I am inclined to give him a go and Drafltad agrees based on his projected score on 8.3. So where does the confidence come from? Pinnock and Collins in GW1 and Mavropanos and Kilman combined for 7 aerials for each partnership when facing Palace. So it is safe to assume that CBs are expected to have solid days facing Mateta and co. Although Chelsea have yet to keep a clean sheet, Palace have not looked their end-of-last-season self in the first 2, so even a clean sheet isn't out of the question either.
Lewis Cook (M, Bournemouth)
Cook put in a great all-round performance against Newcastle, typical of an engine-room midfielder of his type. Ghosts came from all over the place. He had a successful cross, a key pass, an interception, a clearance, tackles and even an aerial. It would have been perfect if his last-minute assist stood (it was chalked off by VAR) to cap a brilliant performance. With Bournemouth travelling to dead-last Everton, I expect him to continue his rich vein of form and help shore up fantasy managers' midfields. His lack of attacking return and box office scores means that he is most likely available to pick up in most leagues, even when lineups are announced.
Mathias Jensen (M, Brentford)
A similar player to Cook in many ways, Jensen's inclusion in this XI is less about his unspectacular 6 and 5-point outings in GW1 and 2 and more to do with the win-less, goalless opposition, Southampton. Jensen has taken some of the set-pieces for Brentford this season, but we know that with such an efficient set-piece heavy offense, like Brentford, even a small slice of the set-piece pie gives players the chance to nab an assist on one of them.
Pablo Sarabia (M, Wolves)
All of us who drafted Sarabia were anticipating the player we saw last season when he took the chance with both hands after Neto went down injured. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found in the starting Xi when the season kicked off. Two games later, the Wolves team is looking very much in need of a creative spark. Rumours surfaced of a move away, but fell silent by Deadline Day. My bet is, once it is clear that he is staying, he will be back in the XI. Sign him up.
Sammie Szmodics (M, Ipswich)
The former top goalscorer in the Championship got his dream move to the Premier League by signing for newly promoted Ipswich Town. He started in GW2 Vs City and got the surprise go-ahead goal from his LM/LW position. They face Fulham this weekend, who have conceded in both their games and will likely do so again. Szmodics is likely to keep his place despite some last minute moves and could turn out to be a decent hold for the long run in this season's ultra thin midfield pool.
Ilman Ndiaye (F, Everton)
I punted on him for GW1 and he didn't start, but this time around I feel a bit more confident based on Dyche's comments after his first goal in the mid-week cup game. Draftlad brought back one of our classic articles, the Mid-week Cup Review and touted him for a start after his goal and 13 ghost point performance. A slight shift in system could see him feature as a number 10 with possibly Doucoure missing out.
Adama Traore (F, Fulham)
Here is our second three-peater of the team, one I am even more baffled about. It looks like Fulham will fail in their pursuit of bringing in a ready made RW player to directly threaten Adama's spot, so those who punted on him late or got him for FAB will be reconsidering their plans to trade him out after an impressive performance (like his 20+ pointer in GW2). Hopefully all leagues will realize he needs to be 100% rostered. His days on the Sleepers XI are surely numbered.
Ben Brereton Diaz (F, Southampton)
The Stoke-born Chilean has managed to jump from one sinking ship (Sheffield United) to another (Southampton) for this season. That said, he feels like the only one who might actually do something on Southampton. While I will be pretty confident running out my Brentford defenders this season, I have to admit, the Londoners haven't looked mighty impressive in defense either. His 8.6 projected points feel like the best case scenario. But we needed a punt in this team anyway and the big fella fits the bill.
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