Chilwell or James? Who is a better FPL pick?

Both Chilwell and James have reduced in price for the 23/24 season. Their potential under new manager Pochettino is proving an attractive prospect for FPL managers. Over on Fantasy Football Scout Deputy Editor Tom Freeman has been taking a look at who is the better FPL pick – Chilwell or James.

Reece James (£5.5m) and Ben Chilwell (£5.5m) have been priced up equally in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) for the 2023/24 season.

Both players have dropped in price by £0.5m after injury-hit campaigns but will surely have big roles to play under new Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino, who likes his full-backs to get forward at every opportunity.

Some Fantasy managers will be tempted to punt on a Blues defender given their appealing run of opening fixtures, but who is a better FPL pick?

Availability

When fit, there are few better FPL defenders to own than James and Chilwell, but neither of them are reliable.

In their past three seasons with Chelsea, they’ve missed 30 and 38 matches respectively through injury per Transfermarkt, averaging roughly 20 and 16 starts per campaign.

In 2022/23, knee and hamstring injuries disrupted James’ season, limiting him to just 14 Premier League starts, while Chilwell was also hit by hamstring problems which ruled him out of the FIFA World Cup, meaning he only fared slightly better.

2022/23	James	Chilwell
Starts	14	15
Subbed on	2	8
Minutes played per start	84.9	83.5

2021/22	James	Chilwell
Starts	22	6
Subbed on	4	1
Minutes played per start	80.3	77.7

2020/21	James	Chilwell
Starts	25	27
Subbed on	7	0
Minutes played per start	74.8	84.5

It means the sample size for their data in 2022/23 is of course limited, but they were available enough of the time to demonstrate just how important they can be under Pochettino.