Premier League: Team of Round 19

There were plenty of goals around in the Premier League on Boxing Day and goals do of course = fantasy points. As you can see below, the community average, top score and TOTR score are all very high thanks to the goals managed by many midfielders and defenders. It's not often you see a defender bag a brace or manage a hat-trick of assists but in Round 19 we saw both happen!

Community average score in Round 17: 67.2
Community best in Round 17: 109
TOTR score: 141
Theoretical best legal score: 140

Defence

Lucas Digne and Kyle Walker-Peters are the high-scoring defenders that were referred to in the introduction of this piece though the Liverpool duo of Dejan Lovren and Trent Alexander-Arnold who complete this TOTR's back four both scored very nicely too. Walker-Peters is the standout name as one of two ideal captains this week as it was his first Premier League start this season! Before this weekend, Walker-Peters had made just one substitute PL appearance in 2018/19 but following the three assists he managed does he now stand a chance of keeping his place ahead of Trippier? As well as remaining a very outside of the box option in our full fantasy game, Walker-Peters is now banded in our 5-a-side fantasy game for future rounds for those of you who believe so.

Having managed 13 points in Round 19, Lucas Digne can certainly feel hard done by to not be the highest scoring defender in this TOTR but following his brace at Burnley the left-back is emerging as a top defensive pick. Digne has been starting consistently throughout the season and has the attacking/free-kick ability to make up for the goals Everton have been conceding. A very 'Marcos Alonso' type pick.

Though not the strongest defensive options when compared to van Dijk and Robertson, this week's Liverpool representatives in the TOTR cannot be considered bad options as both Lovren and Alexander-Arnold are likely to keep starting games for the next few rounds and Liverpool have only conceded 7 goals all season.

Midfield

The other ideal captains in Round 19 was midfielder Paul Pogba who, as expected, has returned to form in style following the departure of Jose Mourinho with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer utilising the midfielder in a more attacking role. Pogba followed up the assists he managed at Cardiff with a brace at home to Huddersfield and looks a great option for Round 20 with a home game against Bournemouth. Eden Hazard also managed a brace in R19 as he was the difference for Chelsea against Watford in their 2-1 win. The Belgian is now the second highest scoring player this season in our fantasy game behind Mo Salah.

Talking of Salah, after managing 10 points against Newcastle, the Egyptian was an equally good alternative to Christian Eriksen who makes the TOTR alongside Son Heung-Min (11) after a strong Tottenham performance saw them defeat Bournemouth 5-0 at Wembley. In order to make this XI a legal team in our fantasy game that has less than 3 players from a single club, you would replace Eriksen with either Bernard or Sigurdsson managed 9 points in Everton's game at Burnley this week.

Finally, the star of Thursday's 1-game round in our 5-a-side fantasy game was Felipe Anderson who scored twice to ensure West Ham came from behind to defeat Southampton at St Mary's. West Ham are in fantastic form and don't have the most challenging upcoming fixtures so expect to see the likes of Anderson selected in plenty of teams over the next few weeks.

Strikers

In a round that has been dominated by midfielders and defenders, Jurgen Locadia is the lonely figure leading this TOTR's line as fantasy players don't have the 'Maurizio Sarri' option of playing lots of attacking midfielders and no striker at all. Locadia scored an important equalising goal for Brighton as they earned a point against Arsenal. Aubameyang, who scored Arsenal's goal, was an equally good pick in this round, as was Tottenham's Harry Kane.

Premier League ideal 5-a-side teams by round this weekend:

Tuesday (Boxing Day): Etheridge/Guaita/Lloris, Digne, Pogba, Hazard, Locadia/Aubameyang/Kane (57 points)
Wednesday: Fabianski, Diop/Ogbonna, Romeu, Anderson, Ings/Perez (26 points)

The festive football feast continues tomorrow as Round 20 includes 6 matches on the 29th of December and 4 games on the 30th. That round will be followed by another on New Year's Day. Best of luck with all of those picks!

Click here to play Premier League Fantasy at Superbru

Click here to play Premier League 5-a-side Fantasy at Superbru

Note: For those interested, the Round 18 Team of the Round was posted on our social media accounts (as it always is) and can be found here.