A new Fantasy Premier League campaign kicks off on Friday.
Fantasy Managers around the world will be busy selecting their squads for the new season ahead of the Gameweek One deadline.
And ahead of the new FPL season, we’ve teamed up with Fantasy Football Scout to look at Aston Villa options for your team.
Defence
Tyrone Mings (£4.5m) is currently the most-selected Aston Villa defender. He is owned by over 15% of FPL managers, who are expecting the Villans to be strong defensively this season.
During 2022/23, Mings returned 130 points for his owners. This came from 12 clean sheets, one goal and three assists, alongside 17 bonus points.
Nine of these clean sheets - plus 12 bonuses and all three attacking returns - came after Unai Emery took over. Indeed, from Gameweek 15 onwards, Mings had the highest expected goals (xG) total of Villa’s defenders.
Across all teams, last season Mings was the top defender for interceptions, as well as being fifth for clearances. These stats rate him highly in the bonus points system, meaning that if Villa keep a clean sheet or Mings gets an attacking return, he is likely to receive these additional points.
Midfield
New signing Moussa Diaby (£6.5m) has quickly risen in popularity amongst FPL managers. After a goal in each of his first two pre-season matches, Diaby is currently in over 6% of teams. Indeed, he is proving to be more popular than the likes of Son Heung-Min (£9.0m), Jarrod Bowen (£7.0m) and Luis Diaz (£7.5m).
Managers will be hoping that Diaby can replicate his Bundesliga form of last season. Domestically, Diaby scored nine goals and returned eight assists in 33 Bayer Leverkusen matches. He scored a further two times in the Champions League, as well as three more in the Europa League.
Forward
Ollie Watkins (£8.0m) was a hugely popular pick for FPL managers during the second half of 2022/23. From Emery’s Gameweek 15 arrival, only Erling Haaland (£14.0m) and Harry Kane (£12.5m) accumulated more shots, attempts on target, shots inside the box and goals than Watkins.
In fact, Watkins even registered more big chances than Kane in that time, who is now priced £4.5m more expensive. Over the course of the season, Watkins’ 15 goals and eight assists added up to 23 attacking returns. This was only bettered by four other forwards in the game.
