This article is part of our Ball Watching series.
Give Me an Oscar!
The Chelsea midfielder is in sparkling form, tallying three goals and two assists in his last five matches. He has provided balance in the Chelsea midfield and has Liverpool coming up next. He's worth a shot in weekly formats considering he will likely be the third-most expensive Chelsea midfielder behind Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard. I've said it many times on the podcast, but I love similar production at a lower price.
Tottenham Hates Harry Kane
On a team that struggles to score outside of Nacer Chadli, who scored again this weekend, starting Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldad together and not the young Englishman was baffling. Then, Kane scored on a free kick that gave the North London club the victory. Manager Mauricio Pochettino loved to play a high-energy, pressing game when at Southampton, but has not done it at Spurs. Kane is a young forward who showed that he can be the high-energy forward that can start to press teams at the back. Hopefully, Pochettino sees what we all do, because Kane is a tremendous value in most FPL formats.
No Love for Austin
I am not buying into Charlie Austin, who has four goals and one assist in the last five matches. This is the best five-game stretch he will have this season and it would not surprise me if he only scores four more goals. QPR are not good and Austin's backheel-flick-deflection-off-his-own-teammate's-shot goal will likely never be repeated. If you predicted this level of production at his price, then you got good value and should be applauded. However, trusting in any QPR player is like throwing a blind dart and hoping for the bullseye.
Daniel Sturridge is Angel Di Maria of Liverpool
I'm no longer sure who the second-best option is for Liverpool. Their defense, though better recently, can't be relied upon. No one in the midfield is scoring at a consistent clip and Mario Balotelli has been disappointing, at best. With champion-contending Chelsea as their next opponent, avoid all Reds options this week.
Christian Benteke, We Hardly Knew Thee
Nothing hurts more than seeing a favorite player so dramatically crash and burn. First, Benteke suffers a bad Achilles injury prior to the World Cup, where I tipped him to become of the largest benefactors in the transfer market. Then he comes back slightly earlier than expected (yay!), only to be suspended three games due to violent conduct (boo!).
It's becoming increasingly difficult to continue to root for the talented Belgian striker. Hopefully he can turn things around because Aston Villa's fixture list for the rest of the calendar year provides a tremendous amount of opportunity. Meanwhile, Andreas Weimann, who scored Villa's lone goal against Tottenham, and Gabriel Agbonlahor will be the most likely offensive threats (and are on my radar).
