Patrick van Aanholt is a bargain Fantasy Premier League buy at just £5.6 million for gameweek 5.
Crystal Palace have surprised nearly everyone after four Premier League matches. The Eagles, who fought relegation for much of last season, sit fourth in the Premier League table after four matchdays. Crystal Palace have collected seven points from 12 possible showcasing a steely defence that has conceded just two goals.
Manager Roy Hodgson has needed Crystal Palace’s defence to step up as the attack has only found the back of the net three times. Two of those three goals came away at Old Trafford in a 2-1 win against Manchester United.
Fans can be forgiven for thinking Crystal Palace’s defence would struggle without Aaron Wan-Bissaka after he was sold to Manchester United in the offseason. However, 29-year-old Dutchman Patrick van Aanholt has stepped up in Wan-Bissaka’s absence to anchor the defence in the early part of this term.
Patrick van Aanholt by the numbers
Signed from Sunderland in 2017, Van Aanholt has played 86 times in all competitions for Crystal Palace scoring 12 goals. The Dutchman has really impressed in the early stages of this term playing all 90 minutes in each of Crystal Palace’s matches and scoring the winner against Manchester United in second-half stoppage-time.
Van Aanholt has scored 24 Fantasy Premier League points (six points per gameweek) with his best performance so far coming against the Red Devils (10 FPL points).
The left-back has been a part of two Crystal Palace clean sheets. The Eagles started the season with a nil-nil draw against Everton and went into the international break following a 1-0 win over Aston Villa.
Can Crystal Palace continue their form?
Crystal Palace’s form has been surprising. They haven’t scored many goals but aren’t allowing teams to score either. The fixtures become far more difficult in the coming gameweeks, however.
Gameweek 5 sees Crystal Palace visit Tottenham Hotspur. The Eagles haven’t won in the Premier League against Tottenham Hotspur since 2015. They did won in the FA Cup twice in the last four seasons against Spurs. One of those FA Cup victories came last term at Selhurst Park.
Tottenham Hotspur did show they are beatable at home. Newcastle United went to north London and got a 1-0 victory. Spurs are winless in their last three matches and haven’t won since opening day.
Crystal Palace will face off with Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool between 20 October and 23 November. The season is about to get more difficult for the Eagles.
Their start to the 2019-20 Premier League season can be compared to Watford’s start 12 months ago. The Hornets were red-hot to kickoff the term, but as the season wore on, fell down the table until finishing in dire form.
If Crystal Palace can sort out their goalscoring, then they can stay in the upper half of the table throughout the campaign. FPL managers know that the squad has a very strong defence that can keep teams out of goal. It is scoring that is the issue.
Van Aanholt is just £5.6m ahead of gameweek 5. He was selected by 594,396 FPL managers for gameweek 4. This week his is the eighth-most transferred player into teams in FPL.
Watch out for a big week from Crystal Palace’s Patrick van Aanholt.
