How'd things turn out for you in the first double matchweek of the ESPN Fantasy Soccer Premier League season?
If you had Mohamed Salah on your fantasy team, you probably did pretty well. Salah scored a hat trick in Liverpool's 4-0 win over Bournemouth on Saturday, and finished the week with a league-high 57.0 fantasy points.
However, you took a very big gamble, given that Salah didn't start in Liverpool's first game of the week against Burnley. There was no guarantee Salah was even going to play in that game. In fact, if Liverpool had been comfortably in front in the second half, my guess is Salah would have gotten the entire day off.
I would never pick a player for my fantasy team under those circumstances. You're giving up way too many minutes, and not maximizing your points potential. In a double matchweek, I'm picking players who I expect to start and play in at least the majority of both games.
The same thing happened with Harry Kane this week, except Kane didn't start in Tottenham's second game. You couldn't have known that by the time you set your lineup, but you might have suspected it given that Tottenham had a crucial Champions League game against Barcelona three days later.
Kane played just 16 minutes off the bench in Tottenham's 2-0 win over Leicester City on Saturday, and finished with only 1.5 fantasy points. Those with Salah on their roster were much luckier -- he played 25 minutes as a substitute and managed to pick up an assist in that time, finishing that game with 13.7 points.
There were some other surprising names at the top of the fantasy points leaderboard for this double matchweek, too. Tottenham's Heung-Min Son was second overall with 44.6 points, after scoring a goal in a 3-1 win over Southampton, followed by a goal and an assist against Leicester City.
Son has now scored a goal in three of the past four league games, and has taken 16 shots in that time, with nine of them on target.
He's definitely a Tier 1 midfielder to consider right now, with Tottenham's next five games being against Burnley, Everton, Bournemouth, Wolves and Cardiff City.
Abdoulaye Doucoure was an even bigger surprise, scoring a goal in Watford's 2-1 loss to Manchester City, and another in their 2-2 draw with Everton, finishing with 44.4 points.
However, those were Doucoure's first two goals of the season, and he is not one of Watford's primary attackers. If Doucoure was still a Tier 3 midfielder, as he was earlier this season, I'd probably pick him at times. But now that he's in Tier 2, I'd rarely if ever do so.
Marcus Rashford was next behind Doucoure, but the vast majority of his points came via his one-goal, two-assist performance in Manchester United's 4-1 victory over Fulham. Rashford hadn't scored a goal in his previous six games, including Champions League fixtures -- in fact, he had only scored one goal since September.
Given that Fulham have now conceded 40 goals in 16 games, eight more than any other team, I'm not ready to jump on the Rashford bandwagon, or get excited about any Manchester United player for that matter.
The next three players on the list are more intriguing, starting with Robert Snodgrass. He scored a goal in West Ham's 3-2 win over Crystal Palace, and had two assists in their 3-1 victory over Cardiff City.
Snodgrass also had an assist in their previous game, a 3-0 win over Newcastle. As you can see, West Ham are flying right now. And Snodgrass has played a big part -- he also had 11 chances created in those three games.
Playing an even bigger part is fellow midfielder Felipe Anderson. He didn't crack the top 10 in fantasy points for the double matchweek, but Anderson did score a goal against Crystal Palace. And since the start of November, Anderson has scored five goals in six games -- he's second in the league in fantasy points during that span, behind only Manchester City's Leroy Sane.
Anderson is a much more attractive option than Doucoure at Tier 2 midfielder, especially considering West Ham's next five fixtures are against Fulham, Watford, Southampton, Burnley and Brighton.
There are two more emerging players to mention before we wrap this up. Everton fullback Lucas Digne finished sixth in fantasy points for the double matchweek, thanks in part to his stoppage-time equalizer for Everton against Watford on Monday.
Digne, like Anderson, is in his first season in the Premier League, and may just be settling in as we approach the halfway point of the campaign. He likes to get forward, with seven chances created in his past two games, and he's had at least two chances created in eight straight games.
The goal was Digne's first of the season, but it came via a beautiful free kick. And he may get more set-piece opportunities now, after Gylfi Sigurdsson failed from the penalty spot for the second time this season earlier in that game. Digne's now one of the top options at Tier 2 defender.
Another new Premier League player is Lucas Torreira, who finished right behind Digne in the double matchweek, thanks to scoring the goal in Arsenal's 1-0 win over Huddersfield Town, and picking up an assist in their 2-2 draw with Manchester United.
Torreira also scored a goal in Arsenal's previous game, a 4-2 win over Tottenham. They were his first two goals of the season, and Torreira is more of a defensive midfielder than an attacker. That being said, he has taken three shots in three of the past four games, so perhaps Torreira's role is evolving -- just as Arsenal is evolving into a Premier League force once more.