Vardy has 3 nice home fixtures in the first 5 and an away game vs a promoted side with City being his only tough fixture. I've overlooked him myself and he makes a very strong case for inclusion in my GW1 side. Here's why

GWs 1-29 (rank amongst all forwards)

SoT - 35 (joint 2nd)
Big chances - 29 (1st)
xG - 16.04 (1st)
Goals - 19 (1st)
xPts - 150.8 (3rd)
Pts - 167 (1st)

He absolutely smashed it pre lockdown. Let's look at how he did post restart if Leicester were so poor then with GW30+-Gw38+

SoT - 8 (12th)
Big chances - 7 (4th)
xG - 3.99 (6th)
Goals - 4 (6th)
xPts - 50.9 (4th)
Pts - 43 (7th)

First glance shows a definite drop in his performance vs other forwards but let's look at his per 90' stats to see if there was a significant difference there

Vardy GWs 1 to 29 (left) vs GW30+ to 38+

Shots - 2.4 v 3.3 (SiB 2.1 v 3)
SoT - 1.4 v 0.9
BC - 1.2 v 0.8
NPxG - 0.49 v 0.44

We see an increase in no. Of Shots per 90' but slight drops in SoT, BC and NPxG. Not a significant drop though despite how poor Leicester were

Infact his creativity numbers improved post restart
GWs 1 to 29 (left) v GW30+ to 38+
Per 90'

KP - 0.7 v 1.8
BCC - 0.3 v 0.6
xA - 0.21 v 0.38

This is a striker who has scored 20+ goals in 3 out of the last 5 PL seasons. Proven PL goal scoring pedigree, won the golden boot a month ago and has a very good fixture run. With Maddison back, this has made a strong case for Vardy. What are your thoughts on him?