Gameweek 7 was a brutal one for the FPL template, with a blank from Erling Haaland, an own goal by Pervis Estupinan and Bukayo Saka relinquishing penalty duties.

Some managers are reaching for the wildcard button, while others have big hits planned to shake up their squads following blanks from Kaoru Mitoma, Mohamed Salah, James Maddison, Marcus Rashford and Bryan Mbeumo.

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With Arsenal facing Manchester City this weekend, it feels like we are hitting an FPL crossroads, so which highly owned players should we keep and which are disposable?

Forwards

It seems utterly bizarre to me that some FPL managers are considering selling Erling Haaland (£14.1m) following his blank against Wolves because of his fixtures.

Manchester City do have a trickier spell over the next eight gameweeks, as besides Arsenal they also play Brighton, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Aston Villa, with the other game coming at home against Bournemouth.

It’s entirely viable to drop some of their assets for this run, but Haaland remains indispensable – dropping him as a captain for some of the more challenging fixtures on that list should be the differential route.

He has eight goals already this season from 15 big chances on goal, his nearest rivals in this latter metric have had eight. He’s also significantly ahead in the non-penalty xG stakes at 6.4, with the player in second place for this stat on 3.8.

Haaland is simply undroppable, as he is capable of scoring against all of the sides he faces. City do lack a little bit of class in their midfield right now to supply him, but there’s still a gulf in quality where Haaland is concerned.

It is certainly more viable to move his team-mate Julian Alvarez (£7.0m) on for this more challenging run, especially given the recent form of Ollie Watkins (£8.0m). Alvarez is involved in set pieces, though, and generally plays the 90 minutes, so while the move to Villa’s Watkins is favourable given the contrast in their fixtures, there are probably more pressing moves elsewhere in our squads.

Midfielders

Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka (£8.6m) has suffered his first price drop of the season given his yellow injury flag earlier in the week. He’s now likely to be given another injury flag after going off injured in Tuesday night’s Champions League game away to Lens.

I can only imagine that the almost 150,000 managers who transferred him out assumed he was a doubt for the game against Bournemouth last weekend and viewed him as an easy route to Son Heung-min (£9.3m).

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While Son seems essential right now, as an out-of-position player being used up front in a very exciting Tottenham attack, Saka remains the highest-scoring midfielder in the game. He has seven attacking returns from the first seven games and has barely missed a minute, while also dominating set pieces for Arsenal. It has been frustrating to see him relinquish some penalty duties, but I expect him to be the first choice for their next one, especially if it comes in a high-pressure situation.

But with Saka having to be replaced due to injury on Tuesday night, keeping an eye on Mikel Arteta’s press conference before the weekend would be wise.

With Brighton, the intensity of the midweek schedule at home and in the Europa League seems to be catching up with them as they tumbled to a surprise 6-1 defeat away to Villa on Saturday.

Midfielder Kaoru Mitoma (£6.6m) has seen justified fire-sales this week after blanking in three of his last five Premier League starts, with those two goals from the bench against Bournemouth in Gameweek 6 the one highlight. While Mitoma still carries high potential for the upcoming games, especially comparing him with other players at the same price point, a move up to the mid-priced category carries more appeal right now.

The same can be said for Bryan Mbeumo (£6.8m) after three successive blanks, with over 200,000 managers having already sold the Brentford man in Gameweek 7 at the time of writing. He remains a sound pick at this price point, but I prefer Moussa Diaby (£6.7m) of Villa, who has the form and the fixtures.

Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) has seen his fair share of transfers out this week after being robbed of continuing his hot streak by that incorrect VAR call in Liverpool’s defeat away to Spurs, but seven attacking returns in the first seven matches is still impressive.

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Given the demands on our budget right now, it is difficult to own Salah, Haaland and Son, but there are ways of doing it which could be very fruitful.

Salah scores Liverpool’s second goal against Bournemouth (George Wood/Getty Images)

Salah can provide a genuine alternative to Haaland for the captaincy in the coming weeks and we know he is still Liverpool’s first-choice penalty taker, which helps his cause.

Liverpool’s schedule for Gameweek 9 through Gameweek 12 is particularly appealing as they face Everton, Nottingham Forest, Luton and Brentford, with three of those games coming at Anfield. Keep hold of him.

Manchester United midfielders Marcus Rashford (£8.8m) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.4m) are becoming increasingly difficult to hold right now, with the injury list growing. The general situation at United is a challenging one — just one win and three defeats in four in the league — and that’s been reflected in the recent performances from these two, with a solitary goal each in that spell.

If you own both, it’s certainly time to move one of them on for Son if you don’t own him already, with Rashford the more dispensable as he doesn’t have set-piece involvement or penalty duty. If selling Fernandes allows an easier route to Son, I would advocate that, too, with the Spurs skipper having the potential to outscore him in all of the next four gameweeks.

Defenders

The popularity of Pervis Estupinan (£5.3m) seems to be dwindling at a similar rate to Ben Chilwell (£5.5m) a few weeks ago, with both left-backs finding themselves dropped by Brighton and Chelsea respectively because of being too attack-minded.

Estupinan put the ball into his own net at Villa last weekend before finding himself substituted at half-time and is now a sell given his rotation risk, which has already been a problem around the international breaks as he makes those long-haul trips home to South America and back to play for Ecuador.

Pervis Estupinan scans the field (Howard Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Aston Villa’s Matty Cash (£4.9m) and Kieran Trippier (£6.8m) of Newcastle are among the top replacement options given their attacking qualities.

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Those holding the injured Sven Botman (£4.7m) should look to hold him on their bench this week, with the hope that he returns for Newcastle after this month’s international break to start at home against Crystal Palace in Gameweek 9. He remains the best budget route into Eddie Howe’s defence, with a double-up viable.

William Saliba (£5.2m) has seen almost 70,000 transfers out this week already despite two clean sheets in three and should be considered a hold for the long term – Arsenal have conceded just four big chances in three matches since David Raya took over in goal in Gameweek 5 and their defensive assets remain highly investible.

(Top photo: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

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