Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 17

Welcome to Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 17

Ok then, so the past few weeks have been a bit…. well, shit? That’s probably fair to say from a fantasy POV. The average for GW15 was 35, and it was 18 for GW16. 18!!! It does however stand that when everybody does poorly then it is of course all relative. But that doesn’t make it particularly exciting now, does it!

Hopefully all that was just a blip and we start seeing some more action over the coming weeks. But probably not for Haaland… which in and of itself may actually mix things up a bit, and if nothing else we may all at least have have a few more quid to spend should we decide to cut ties with the big man for a wee while.

Let’s go see where some of that could be spent.

Goalkeeper – Emi Martinez vs Brentford (a) – by Inittowinit

Ah, the World Cup Wanker. In a good way. If that’s possible.

A couple of confessions here…

Firstly, I need a keeper. I played with 10 men last week, sans a shot stopper, due to an unfortunate set of circumstances which saw Pope succumb to an injury and Alisson recover more quickly than anticipated from one. Hence my sudden burst of interest in investigating this oft neglected spot.

Secondly, Emi is fast becoming my favourite PL player. He’s just such a loveable shit-house. To begin with he reminds me of Al Bundy. (That’s Al, not Ted, big difference.) Not only does he resemble him somewhat, with that cute but hapless, hangdog, shit eating grin like expression, but he also has that aura of someone who we can side with, because we feel like we can almost relate to him. That’s if you can relate to throwing yourself on the ground in faux agony every few minutes, with no real discernible reason why. With Dracula watching on and nodding in approval. His time-wasting antics would make Ben Foster and Tony Pulis blush.

As for his FPL prospects he’s just kept back-to-back clean sheets against Man City and Arsenal and has a pretty favourable run now, all the way through to the New Year with Brentford (a) (no forwards left), Sheffield United (H) (if they can blank City and Arsenal…), Man United (a) (nuff said) and Burnley (H) (ditto Sheffield).

Defender – James Tarkowski vs Burnley (a) – by MattX

I was torn between 3 defenders for this slot to be honest with you all. Pau Torres was one option that I was going to suggest, a 90-minute man is vital during Christmas and one who has two clean sheets in the last two games which were against Arsenal and Man City is nothing to sniff at! He is a solid choice and there wouldn’t be anything wrong with going for him against a Mbuemo-less Brentford but I do think there might be better. And we already sort of covered the Villa bit above.

Marcos Senesi of Bournemouth was a second option I was instantly drawn to due to his massive 7.8 pts over the last 5 games and being bought by 145,000 managers already this week. He improved on Torres’ output with 2 clean sheets AND 2 goals for huge 14- and 15-point hauls. He comes up against Luton next and that could offer another chance for a goal and a clean sheet but the reason I don’t feel he is the best choice is because surely it is not sustainable. Before the last two games, Senesi’s points go above 2 only twice! Basically, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get 1 point this weekend.

The 3rd and my choice for a defender this week is James Tarkowski. Everton have turned into different beasts since their 10 point deduction. 6 goals scored and 0 goals conceded in wins over Forest, Chelsea and Newcastle just show Sean Dyche has put some steel into his Evertonians! James Tarkowski has been doing his manager proud, much like he did during their Burnley days together. Solid returns of 8,6,6 in the last three and a form of 5.2 pts over the last 5 games is a lot more consistent than the aforementioned Senesi, and Tark hasn’t even got back to his goal threat ways. He has only had 1 season without any attacking returns so surely it is only a matter of time before he notches something. This weekend, Everton face Burnley who have only won a single game all year which came against fellow promoted side and relegation fodder, Sheffield United. I think this resurgent, angered Everton team should be able to continue their streak and stop Burnley. Dychey will want to ensure a clean sheet and win against his former employers too. Will Tark get his first attacking return against his former team? I hope so!

Midfielder – Son – vs Forest (a) – by Inittowinit

I will stress that this is not simply being smart after the event. Or indeed simply imploring you to ‘chase’ points. Said event was of course a massive 17 point haul against Newcastle. Which pretty much had the lot for Son – two assists, a pen won, a pen scored, 3 bonus points and a clean sheet point to boot.

In fact I have actively encouraged people on the boards to stick with him, despite having registered a 2-pointer in 4 of his previous 5 games. Which is pretty tough, especially when he costs you the thick end of £10m. Well, ok, 9.6 to be exact, but the point stands – he’s a chunky bit of budget and needs to produce to keep you interested in investing that much. In that respect he has had an odd season then, as he has essentially ‘blanked’ in 9 games, but then also has scores of 20, 14, 14, 10, 10 and that 17, to leave him on 113 points and the 2nd highest scorer in the game, behind only Salah. I guess you just have to put up with the less, to get the more.

As for his future prospects, then certainly playing for Ange is in his favour, as the philosophy there certainly seems to be to attack at all costs, regardless of who or how little other personnel they may have around him. And to have the ‘main’ attacker in such a side, and for him to be such a lethal one at that, seems only wise. He’s been playing centrally but on Sunday was deployed out wide to torment an already, and clearly, spent Trippier. Once done with him he moved back centrally to grab that penalty.

This Friday it is Forest who have conceded 28 goals so far, and Spurs have 18 on the road – the most in the league. Dare we say it – that’s captaincy material right there. Beyond that it is Everton (H), Brighton (a) and Bournemouth (H) over Christmas. I don’t have any handy stats to back this up, not that they would actually matter, but from memory Son does seem to thrive at this time of year, maybe Newcastle on a plate was just his warm up.

Forward – Dominic Solanke vs Luton (H) – by MattX

The Norwegian robot seems to be malfunctioning and Pep has sent him back to the workshop for repairs, doesn’t he know the elves are busy at this time of year? No Christmas miracles please, Santa! Leave the gift until after the holidays! We want some variety back in FPL!

Now that Haaland looks to be out and then GW18 being a blank, you might as well join me in selling him. If you have done that already or are thinking about it then you will see we have plenty money in the bank to get literally anyone we want up top. The obvious contenders would be Watkins, who has been on fire this season, Alvarez, who will just step into the empty City slot but still has the blank, or the one who I like and has a nice fixture coming up, Big Dom Solanke.

Bournemouth have turned a corner it seems in recent weeks having gone from GW1 to 9 without a win they have 5 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw in their last 7 games. This is a great run of form and they have claimed some solid scalps in that time with wins against Newcastle and Man United, and a draw against title contenders Aston Villa (bet you weren’t expecting that before the season, Swirls?) wedged inbetween.

A big part of the team’s good fortunes this season is their main man up top, Solanke. Even when the Cherries were losing, Big Dom was firing. During the first 9 games, he nabbed 4 goals and 1 assist but lots of FPL managers ignored him as they just saw the team as a whole were doing poor. Now Solanke has scored 4 goals in the last 7 games, the team is winning and managers are finally starting to take notice. There are a few factors that would make Solanke a big plus for bringing into your teams this festive period that I will try and convince you of right now. The top reason is he is THE main player for Bournemouth. He isn’t going to be rotated, he hasn’t played less than 84 minutes all season and that talismanic tag is exactly what we need over the Christmas chaos. They do have two other forwards listed on the FPL site in Semenyo and Moore but Semenyo has been getting used on the wings rather than as that lone striker. When Solanke gets subbed off it is for Kieffer Moore but I don’t see Andoni Iraola having much faith in starting with the Welshman up top on his own.

To add to his nailed-on status, Solanke is also the penalty taker for his club, and we have seen on many occasions this season they are important to own (looking at you Salah!). There is one massive caveat to this positive though and that is down to the fact Bournemouth have not been awarded a penalty in the Premier League since the 26th of July 2020! They haven’t been awarded a penalty in any league game since 26th of April 2022. I am writing this on the 11th of December so that means Bournemouth haven’t been given a penalty in 594 days! Surely, they are due and you might have noticed the last two penalties they have got were on the 26th of the month…. they just so happen to play on the 26th of this month too! Maybe the stars will align and Solanke will get that elusive penalty?

You might as well take a punt on him because the next few games of Luton, Forest and Fulham are all games that could provide plenty goals at both ends of the pitch!

Left field – Alex Iwobi vs Newcastle (A), by Matt X

Now you didn’t think you’d get away without a differential from the differential Elf, did you? Now this one might be pushing it and there are a lot of options in this team and actually they are all (at time of writing) priced the exact same! Willian, Andreas Pereira, Harry Wilson and Alex Iwobi are all £5.3m so there is value there if you are looking for a 5th midfielder. Each one has their own merits and each one has been getting points. I am zoning in on Alex Iwobi though. Owned by only a mere 0.7% this is an ultra-differential. He is the one in the best vein of form with an average of 6.4 points in the last 5 games. He struggled at the start of the season coming into a new side, new manager and let’s be fair he hasn’t exactly set fire to the world with his performances over the years. Last season at Everton was his most prolific with 2 goals and 8 assists in 38 starts. He has 10 starts in 16 this season but they have been spread out. Since GW10, he seems to have nailed down a spot in that XI and has not played less than 74 minutes. This has improved his output with 3 goals and 1 assist in his last 4 games. This run has coincided with Fulham’s own run of being the best goal scoring team over the last 5 games. They have scored 17 goals over those which helped them to 3 wins and 2 losses. The 2 losses came against the table’s top 2 Liverpool and Villa. They are about to come up against Newcastle who have lost their number one Nick Pope, and in the last 2 games they have conceded a massive 7 goals! That is not great reading and with Trippier gone too due to his suspension things aren’t looking good for Howe’s men. Iwobi, Jimenez and co. could have a field day based on current form. The issue isn’t whether Fulham going to score, the issue is more who is going to score them. They have had 9 different goal scorers amongst those 17 goals, so there is a case to be made but it’s a bit of a roulette on who will be the best 5.3 Fulham midfield. My gamble is on the Nigerian winger!

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 17. This article was written by Init and Matt X

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