For the second defender in our new ‘Player Value’ series, we ask: should van Aanholt be the first name on our team-sheet?

One eye on the past – in the long-term, he has averaged 2.7pts per game (goals, assists and bonus points), which smashes our target of 1.9pts per game (3.9 including appearance points). So who cares what he can do defensively – we have a defender who has proven he can score points like a midfielder.

He is also ranked second to Zaha, in terms of his forecasted influence at his club, for both share of goal-involvement and games involved-in goals.

One eye on the future – defensively, Palace are likely to concede 1 to 2 goals per game in their opening three fixtures, but should tighten up in games four and five versus Southampton and Huddersfield respectively.

Also worth noting, is van Aanholts history versus similar opposition to his opening five, where he has an average of 0.8 big chance involvement and a 0.3 to 0.8 goal involvement – all of which suggest these are the type of fixtures he thrives in.

What to do? – The case for owning PVA looks very strong indeed. At £5.5M you’d be delighted with him as a midfielder never mind as a defender, so you should be ecstatic that he is a defender with the potential of clean sheet points as well.

The watch-out is that he scored all of his goals and got his assist in the last ten games, but this could be more to do with Palace’s improvement in Hodgson, as opposed to van Aanholt being patchy.

FPL Tip: A defender that plays in a side that keep regular clean sheets and who is a regular goal threat, is an FPL points gold mine.