Fantasy Premier League: What we learned from Gameweek 8 – Son Assist controversy and an FPL cartel

With only one game left, Gameweek 8 was one of the most memorable I can remember.

Highlights included a fantasy Premier League manager’s trip to the hotel where the Arsenal players were staying before their away game against Bournemouth to try and get a glimpse of the injury risk Bukayo Saka (£10.1m), to FPL content creators being accused of being part of a “cartel” by having inside information and not sharing it with their audience. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

There was also controversy regarding an assist award Son Heung-min (£9.8m) in Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-1 win against West Ham United, which has now been revoked.

Gameweek ends with Nottingham Forest hosting Crystal Palace tonight (8pm UK time; 3pm ET), but here we’ll discuss the key talking points from the weekend’s nine games.

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Son’s controversial assist is canceled

For Tottenham’s third goal against West Ham on Saturday, the assist was initially not credited to anyone, but after a review, the FPL decided to give it to Son on Saturday, whose shot led to an own goal from Alphonse Areola.

The South Korean’s shot was parried by Areola before bouncing off West Ham defender Jean-Clair Todibo and touching Areola again on its way into the net.

However, in a statement published on the Premier League website on Monday afternoon, FPL confirmed that Son’s assist would be withdrawn before the end of the eighth matchweek.

It states: “If an opposing player makes significant contact after the blocked attempt, no assist will be granted.”

“As the goal was attributed to Areola, the last significant touch before the own goal scorer (Areola) was made by teammate Todibo and not Son. Therefore, no assist can be awarded to the attacking player.”

The fact that Son was credited with an assist over the weekend caused a stir in the FPL community, as it is an unprecedented situation for a player to receive the three points for an assist after his shot hit two opposing players.

Also on Saturday at 2:02 p.m. the official FPL X account posted that there was “no assist” for the Areola own goal, even though Son was awarded an assist in the game. A later post confirmed that Son was credited with an assist, but it was deleted.

The FPL’s final decision was made on Monday.

Aside from that, Jarrod Bowen (£7.4m) He was not awarded an assist for his cross Mohammed Kudus (£6.3m) scored the first goal of the game for West Ham. FPL assumed that Bowen’s delivery was intended for Michail Antonio at the near post and that it was a deflection from Micky van de Ven (£4.7m) brought the ball to Kudus at the far post.

Does the “FPL Cartel” exist?

If you follow ‘FPL Twitter’, you may have seen many content creators releasing Saka ahead of Saturday’s deadline for Son.

As a result of this move, many of them were accused of knowing that Saka would be out for the game against Bournemouth but withholding this information for personal reasons, leading to rumors of an ‘FPL cartel’ online. Apparently all the major content creators are together in some sort of group chat where they share insider information about FPL updates.

This is of course wrong, and the move from Saka to Son made sense for a number of reasons. On The England striker would miss the game. Although none of this can be called conclusive evidence, the signs were there and, to be honest, the transfer was doable even if Saka was fit.

Arsenal’s upcoming games weren’t the best as they had three away games in their next four games (including the trip to Bournemouth), while Spurs faced West Ham (H), Palace (A), Aston Villa (H) and Aston Villa (H) Ipswich (H) had a much better run.

These “cartel” suggestions just show how much FPL has grown over the years, and its popularity naturally brings with it more competition and rivalry.

Saka misses Arsenal’s first defeat of the season

Arsenal then lost 2-0 to Bournemouth William Saliba (£6.0m) was sent off in the first half. He will now miss the next game against Liverpool on Sunday. However, the big talking point in FPL was that Saka wasn’t even in their squad – despite a positive update from manager Mikel Arteta in his pre-match press conference.

If you own Saka, get fired up now as Arsenal play Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League tomorrow and the winger could feature there. But if he is out again and there are doubts about taking part in Gameweek 9, selling is an option. Arsenal play Liverpool (H), Newcastle (A) and Chelsea (A) in their next three games. Cole Palmer (£10.8m) The latter and Spurs’ Son are, in my opinion, the two best replacements for Saka.

Despite the gaps, is it time to support Haaland?

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City scored the winner in stoppage time against Wolves on Sunday, but in their third league game in a row Erling Haaland (£15.4m) He failed to record a single offensive setback. This is the first time he has scored in three consecutive Premier League games.

However, I don’t have to tell you that there is no need to panic and that Haaland is worth keeping – especially for the next home game against second-bottom Southampton on Saturday. This is arguably City’s best game of the season. At least on a par with Ipswich, where Haaland scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 home win in Gameweek 2.

This is another opportunity to use the triple captain chip here with the Norwegian. We know he won’t miss every game and, unless he gets injured, he will probably finish the season as the Premier League’s top scorer again.

More than 477,000 FPL managers used their triple captain chip against him in Gameweek 2 and were richly rewarded for it. This is arguably the better time to play it if you want to make progress on the pitch, as many managers won’t even think about doing so after these three gaps in a row.

City play at home against Sparta Prague in the Champions League on Wednesday. I will monitor Haaland’s minutes and fitness carefully.

(Top photo: Benjamin Cremel/AFP via Getty Images)