Can Emiliano Buendia offer better value than Jack Grealish in FPL?
New Aston Villa signing Emiliano Buendia has been priced up at a tempting 6.5m by Fantasy Premier League (FPL) ahead of the games relaunch. The summer recruit from newly promoted Norwich City will begin the new campaign some 1.5m cheaper than the Villans talisman, Jack Grealish (8.0m), who has been handed a price hike. Villa start 2021/22 with an appealing set of matches against Watford (a), Newcastle United (h) and Brentford (h) and sit top of our Season Ticker for ease of fixture in Gameweeks 1-3 as a result  although things quickly turn sour after the September international break. Well assess his FPL credentials in the article below, with subscribers also able to access his player profile and much more in our Premium Members Area  and theres a 20% off subscriptions right now. THE TRANSFER  Buendias move to the Midlands cost a club-record 33m in real-life terms, with the 24-year-old Argentinian signing a five-year deal. His new manager, Dean Smith, said:  Emiliano has just completed an outstanding season in a championship-winning Norwich side with 31 combined goals and assists and was named player of the season across the league. He is equally capable as a wide attacker or as a number 10 and is a great addition to our attacking options. We are delighted to have made such an exciting signing so early in the summer and look forward to Emi joining up with us for a full pre-season. THE HISTORY  Buendia is, of course, someone we Fantasy managers have encountered before. The Argentina under-20 international previous crossed our paths in 2019/20, with the yo-yo Canaries enjoying a brief stay in the Premier League before dropping back down to the second tier. Buendia started his career with Getafe, debuting for the Spanish outfits B side at the age of 17 towards the back-end of 2014/15. Moving back and forth from the reserves to the senior side, he made only 13 league starts for Getafe in his time in the south of Madrid. His breakout loan spell with Segunda B club Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa came in 2017/18, with 18 attacking returns arriving in 40 second-tier appearances. More of a supplier of goals than a prolific scorer of them, the assists continued to arrive upon his move to Norwich City in June 2018. Buendia departed Carrow Road having created 36 league strikes, finding the back of the net on a further 23 occasions. He also claimed the EFL Championship Player of the Season award in his farewell campaign, having passed the 30-mark for goals and assists combined. BUENDIAS RECORD AT NORWICH CITY  Starts Sub Apps Goals Assists 2018/19 Championship 35 3 8 12 2019/20 Premier League 28 8 1 7 2020/21 Championship 39 0 15 16  Above stats from WhoScored  2020/21 CHAMPIONSHIPS STATS  Total (rank v other Championship players) Goals 15 (=7th) Assists 16 (1st) Shots 111 (6th) Shots on target 38 (=7th) Chances created 122 (1st)  Above stats from WhoScored  Buendia was both the leading assist maker in the English second tier and the top chance creator, supplying a remarkable 36 more key passes than any other Championship player. Only 29 of those 122 chances were created from set plays, too, so he wasnt overly reliant on dead-ball duties  something we dont know for certain will be handed to him at Villa Park. Goal threat-wise, over half of his shots (60) and a third of his goals (five) did come from outside of the box. Just three of his 111 efforts were from inside the six-yard box, so theres a distinctly De Bruyne-esque feel to the numbers he has posted recently: a prolific creator of chances and an opportunistic shooter from distance. COMPARISONS WITH VILLA ASSETS IN 2020/21  Become a Member and get unrestricted access to our data and articles  Full-year memberships, monthly subscriptions and a FREE trial are all now available. Join now to get the following:  Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker. Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model. Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers. Get access to over 150+ exclusive members articles over the season. Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers. Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats. Enjoy our brand NEW Flat-Track Bully feature which introduces an opposition filter to your tables. View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player. Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head. CLICK HERE TO START A MEMBERSHIP ACCOUNT