With matchday six just around the corner, fresh off the first midweek Premier League fixtures of the season, now is when things can start to get tricky.
Some regular starters will likely be rested, and some new faces could emerge and force their way into the calculations going forward.
In a sink-or-swim week, it will be important to focus on players considered too important to their respective side to leave out – but who are those players?
Using Opta data, Stats Perform is here to help, with four suggestions of players that are in form that is impossible to ignore.
David Raya (Brentford v Leeds United)
Brentford's David Raya produced one of the more unlikely goalkeeping performances of the season in his side's 4-0 win over Manchester United – although maybe it should not have been unexpected.
The Spain international has only the one clean sheet to his name this season, but he ranks second in saves-per-90-minutes, and since the start of last season, he ranks second in save percentage.
Only Jose Sa (75.7 save percentage) has a higher save percentage than Raya's 74.2, and only Dean Henderson (five saves per 90 minutes) stops more shots per game this campaign than Raya's 4.4.
Joao Cancelo (Manchester City v Aston Villa)
Manchester City's Portuguese full-back has established himself as one of the most reliable fantasy picks as a crucial part of one of the Premier League's best defences, while also proving to be a consistent source of goals.
Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Cancelo ranks fourth out of all defenders for goal involvements with two goals and seven assists, while only Virgil van Dijk (22) is credited with more clean sheets than Cancelo's 21.
He gets a friendly matchup against Aston Villa as well, who this season have scored four goals and conceded nine from their five matches, placing them in the bottom-five in both categories.
Bukayo Saka (Arsenal v Manchester United)
Arsenal are enjoying their best start to a Premier League season since 2003-04, with five wins from five matches, and 20-year-old winger Bukayo Saka is a big reason they are such a threat going forward.
Among Arsenal players, Saka ranks second in both assists (two) and chances created (10) – and it is no product of a small sample size.
Since the beginning of last season, only Kevin de Bruyne (102), Mohamed Salah (84) and Son Heung-min (80) have created more chances than Saka (78) – with a gap back to Mason Mount in fifth (66).
Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham v Tottenham)
It should never be a surprise to see Aleksandar Mitrovic scoring goals, but to be going at a goal-per-game in a newly promoted side is evidence of the special talent the Serbian possesses.
Only Erling Haaland has more goals than Mitrovic's five so far, and he is tied with the Norwegian for the Premier League lead in both shots (22) and shots on target (12).
Mitrovic's hot start follows his Golden Boot win in the Championship last season, where he netted 43 goals in 44 appearances. Out of England's top four leagues, Mitrovic is 19 goals clear of any other player since the start of that campaign.
Haaland out of Brighton clash, confirms Man City boss Guardiola
Manchester City will be without Erling Haaland when they take on Brighton, Pep Guardiola has confirmed.
Haaland missed Saturday's FA Cup semi-final victory over Chelsea with a muscular injury he sustained against Real Madrid last week.
And the issue will also see the striker, who has scored 20 Premier League goals this season, miss out against the Seagulls on Thursday.
"Erling is not ready for tomorrow," said Guardiola, who added that City will be able to call on Phil Foden and John Stones.
"It's not a big issue but he's not available."
Haaland has scored, on average, every 109 minutes in the league this season.
However, the Norwegian has actually underperformed his expected goals (xG) of 23.7.
He has also chipped in with five assists, giving him an overall goal contributions tally of 25. Haaland has created 28 goalscoring chances for team-mates across the campaign.
After Arsenal's 5-0 thrashing of Chelsea on Tuesday, reigning Premier League champions Manchester City sit four points off the summit in third place, albeit with two games in hand.
Second-place Liverpool will aim to move level on points with the Gunners by beating Merseyside rivals Everton on Wednesday.
Liverpool line up Feyenoord coach Slot as Klopp replacement
Arne Slot appears to be at the front of the queue to replace Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager.
Klopp confirmed in January that he would be leaving the Reds at the end of the season.
Xabi Alonso, who has led Bayer Leverkusen to their first Bundesliga title, was swiftly established as a leading candidate to take the helm at Anfield, where he starred as a player for the Reds between 2004 and 2009.
The 42-year-old, however, is staying put in Germany, and Liverpool's search for Klopp's successor has taken them to Feyenoord's door.
Slot has been previously linked to jobs in the Premier League. Leeds United wanted to appoint him last season before their relegation to the Championship, while he was targeted by Tottenham before they appointed Ange Postecoglou.
The Dutchman intimated when linked with Spurs: "A normal next step would be to go abroad and I've always said that the best league in the world is the Premier League."
Ideally, Liverpool will be aiming for a coach who can come close to replicating Klopp's style of play, and in particular has a flair for working with and developing young players.
Slot has enjoyed fantastic success in Rotterdam. He became Feyenoord head coach in December 2022, after leaving AZ, and went on to win the Eredivisie title in 2022-23, having reached the Europa League final in the previous season.
The 45-year-old has a 64.4 per cent win record from 146 games in charge, winning 94, drawing 29 and losing just 23.
His Feyenoord team have scored 329 goals, an average of 2.2 per match, conceding 147 in return. Slot's points per game is a hugely impressive 2.13.
Feyenoord are, though, set to relinquish their Eredivisie crown, as they trail leaders PSV by nine points. They have, however, won the KNVB Cup this term.
As there is no break clause in the Dutchman's contract, it has been reported that a compensation fee in the region of €10million (£8.5m) could prise him away from Feyenoord.
Sporting CP boss Ruben Amorim is another coach who has been heavily linked with the Liverpool job, albeit he is reportedly in talks with West Ham.
Grant McCann hails ‘outstanding’ response as Doncaster close on play-off spot
Grant McCann was a proud man after Doncaster won 4-1 at Colchester to register a 10th straight victory and move into the play-off places.
Colchester took a ninth-minute lead through Jayden Fevrier, who converted Tom Hopper’s cross at the far post, but remain in relegation danger after Rovers’ emphatic comeback.
Luke Molyneux equalised after collecting Jamie Sterry’s short free-kick and scoring with a low 25-yard shot and Doncaster took a 22nd-minute lead through Harrison Biggins, who netted from close range from Molyneux’s delivery.
Tom Anderson netted a third in the 76th minute at the near post from Hakeeb Adelakun’s pass, and Joe Ironside sealed victory when he converted after Sam Hornby had tipped James Maxwell’s shot onto a post.
A point on the final day against Gillingham will seal a play-off spot regardless of results elsewhere and McCann said: “I’m really proud.
“Obviously conceding early wasn’t ideal for us but the response was outstanding.
“We scored two very good goals, the first one from Mols (Molyneux) and the second one was another very good goal and something we knew could help us in the game, Biggo’s (Biggins) runs from the centre circle in between the posts after good play by Mols.
“In the first half, we were a little bit edgy and it was a little bit even Steven in the game.
“But in the second half, we were really comfortable and scored another couple of really good goals.
“We always play for more goals; we never sit tight and take what we’ve got – that’s just the way we like to go about things.
“We came up against a team that’s obviously down the wrong end of the table and we knew it was going to be tough.”
Fevrier had Colchester on track to secure survival but they go into Saturday’s final game just three points above the drop zone, with their goal difference superior by four over Sutton.
Colchester boss Danny Cowley said: “It was a tough night for us.
“We have the ability to self-harm, to self-destruct, in a game where we let four terrible goals in.
“For 75 minutes, it was 2-1 and they’ve had three shots at goal, two from 30 yards, and somehow they’re winning the game.
“We were 2-1 down at half-time where we felt we shouldn’t have been, as we’d done a lot right.
“We were in total ascendency and they don’t even want to score any more goals, they want to hang onto what they’ve got and we gift them another two goals.
“I’ve just looked back at the goals and they’re very hard to defend.
“We actually played well box to box but you can’t say you’ve played well when we’ve conceded the goals that we have.
“It’s a damaging night and I’m really angry. We just did the basics so poorly.”
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