ONLY Erling Haaland (£9.1m) has scored more goals than Jean-Philippe Mateta (£3.3m) this season.
Manchester City’s No9 is in a league of his own having raced to NINE in the blink of an eye but the Crystal Palace striker leads the chasing pack with four.
Granted, two of the Frenchman’s goals came against Norwich in the Carabao Cup second round but Dream Team famously encompasses all competitions and such match-ups are there to be exploited.
Mateta bagged a brace against Leicester on Saturday to help the Eagles come from 2-0 down to rescue a point.
His first poacher’s effort was initially flagged offside but proved to be valid by VAR.
He then sealed a draw with a stoppage-time penalty, which came as a surprise as Eberechi Eze (£4.7m) was considered the club’s first-choice spot-kick taker prior to kick-off.
Ultimately, Mateta banked 16 points to catapult him up the rankings.
At the time of writing, only the aforementioned Haaland and Mohamed Salah (£7.6m) have more points to their name among Dream Team forwards.
TOP DREAM TEAM STRIKERS
- Erling Haaland – 77 pts
- Mohamed Salah – 49 pts
- Jean-Philippe Mateta – 41 pts
- Jarrod Bowen – 38 pts
- Yoane Wissa – 33 pts
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It’s been feast-or-famine for Mateta so far this season as he mustered just five points collectively from his games against Brentford, West Ham and Chelsea.
In contrast, he took Norwich and Leicester for a combined 36 points.
Incredibly, the 27-year-old has scored with all of his shots on target so far in 2024/25.
Mateta’s bright start to the new campaign is a continuation of the form he has shown ever since Oliver Glasner took charge at Selhurst Park.
He’s now scored 18 club goals in all competitions since the start of February.
And he may get the chance to build on his impressive tally if selected against QPR this evening.
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Looking further ahead, it may be difficult for Mateta to keep pace with the most-prosperous forwards as Palace don’t have European commitments to pad out their schedule.
Progression to the next round of the Carabao Cup would go some way to levelling the playing field but Dream Team bosses really should be prioritising the European competitions in the coming weeks.
Palace are due to face Manchester United, Everton and Liverpool in the league before the next international break.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
