FPL tips: Arsenal’s Saka and Spurs’ defence hit form ahead of top four showdown

Underlying FPL data shows Arsenal and Tottenham are hitting form heading into the final stretch of the season.

Threat is a metric introduced by the FPL to measure the quality of the opportunities a player enjoys in front of goal, with a score of around 100 usually accounting for a goal’s worth of chances.

By totalling the Threat scores of an entire team it is possible to see how much Threat a team scored and conceded in any given game.

And there were positives in the data to back up wins on the pitch for both Spurs and the Gunners.

Saka chatter

Arsenal’s player of the season so far, Bukayo Saka again made the difference for his team by hitting the winner against Aston Villa at the weekend.

Arsenal triumphed 1-0 on the scoresheet and by 125 to 71 in the Threat stakes against Steven Gerrard’s side, just about edging the contest.

Saka meanwhile scored 36.8 per cent of the Gunners’ Threat total in the game, and has now crossed the 1,000 mark for Threat scored this season, becoming one of just eight players to do so at present.

The £6.7million man’s goal earned him 11 FPL points in GW30, his third double figures return in his last six games, while he now has nine goals and six FPL assists this term.

Saka ranks ninth for Creativity among midfielders this year and fifth for Threat in what is proving to be an excellent season for the young England attacker.

If Arsenal are to qualify for next season’s Champions League, he will likely be a key player – more than 30 per cent of FPL bosses also think he is one to have in your squad.

Hot Spurs

Currently three points behind Arsenal having played one game more, Tottenham also registered an impressive victory in GW30, beating fellow European hopefuls West Ham 3-1.

They triumphed in the Threat stakes too by 192 to 52, numbers which prove they were deserving of their impressive victory.

In the attacking third, new signing Dejan Kulusevski registered a Threat score of 44 to lead the way for Tottenham, while Harry Kane has around a quarter of Spurs’ total Threat this season.

But it is in the defensive third where Antonio Conte’s team excelled against the Hammers – Tottenham conceded just 52 Threat on Sunday, their second best defensive score of the season.

Two players then who may be worth considering are Matt Doherty and Sergio Reguilon, who could earn points in defence and attack.

Both men have four assists this season, more than any other Tottenham defender, while they cost just £10m combined on the FPL website.

Reguilon ranks in the top 10 for both Threat and Creativity among defenders, and Doherty scored 32 points in GW27 and GW28 thanks to a goal, three assists and two cleans sheets.

Spurs meanwhile face Newcastle, Aston Villa and Brighton next.