Fantasy Football

Theo Walcott continues fine form for Everton

Theo Walcott continues to thrive this season for Everton. The Everton winger has tallied 22 points in three gameweeks. Last weekend’s seven-point performance against Bournemouth has influenced a flood of Fantasy Premier League managers to buy Walcott. As of Monday evening, Walcott had been purchased by over 342,000 FPL managers. Can Walcott keep up his fine form?

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Theo Walcott continues fine form for Everton

Walcott started the season slowly with a mere two points against Wolverhampton Wanderers. His poor performance was magnified by the excellent play of Richarlison on the opposite wing. Gameweek 2 against Southampton saw Walcott improve his play as the winger scored a goal and tallied an assist.

Richarlison’s red card on Saturday against Bournemouth has caused more than 469,000 FPL managers to sell the Brazilian. Surely, many of the managers that removed Richarlison replaced him with Walcott.

Are Theo Walcott’s best years behind him?

Walcott’s 2017-18 was highly disappointing. The winger tallied just 62 points for the entire season. It came on the back of a 122 point season the year prior. Walcott has the potential to fool FPL managers. The former England international is now 29. Only twice in his Premier League career has Walcott tallied double-digit goals. The 2012-13 and 2016-17 seasons saw Walcott score 14 and 10 goals respectively.

Not since 2012-13 has Walcott tallied more than eight assists in a single season. Last term saw the winger register just three. Since that season, Walcott’s assists have decreased, and in the last three years, he has registered just three in each term. Except for the 2016-17 season in which Walcott scored 122 FPL points, the last five years haven’t seen great production from the winger.

Is there hope for Theo Walcott?

Manager Marco Silva has favoured a 4-2-3-1 formation this season. Walcott has been played on the right wing with Richarlison on the left. Silva has an aggressive style that has played to Walcott’s strengths. In previous gameweeks, Everton attacked down the left-hand side. Without Richarlison, FPL managers should expect more of Everton’s attacks to come from the right.

Silva’s consistent selections in the starting XI should also give FPL managers reason to pick Walcott. The Portuguese manager likes to keep things the same from game to game. Walcott has played in all three games for Everton. He is averaging 88.3 minutes per match. His average game time last term was just 61 minutes a game. The added time per match should help him tally more points each gameweek.

Theo Walcott is a great alternative for Richarlison this week for FPL managers. With Huddersfield and West Ham due up in consecutive gameweeks, Walcott should be able to get the best of their defences. Huddersfield and West Ham have collected one point between them and conceded 18 goals. Walcott should enjoy playing against both opponents.