Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 24

Welcome to Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 24. Play at casino not on Gamstop no deposit bonus instantly!

In charge of your picks this week is OddDane, Swirly and Matt. Let’s see who they’ve selected.

Goalkeepers & Defenders – by OddDane

Let’s start out this week’s tips from the backline, it’s time for defenders and goalkeepers.

Don’t worry we’ll keep it light… (Ha! Right…)

Firstly – and this’ll come as a bit of a shock – when picking a points-worthy backline it helps to weigh in your odds for clean sheets and below is a summary of some of the top expected odds. These are loosely collected online and may not cover your preferred bookies’ odds, so do sense check yourself and as always – you are doing the picking, our (ill-advised) tips are just inspirational to add to the decision paralysis!

Yes, we know, Liverpool also has a GW25 double… You DO know this is just the defence section? And it is Liverpool? OK – by all means see if you can get assists from Gomez’s chances created. For the opposition. No? Right, so let’s move on to a few other players shall we?!…

Manchester City have two away games in a row coming up and are in the midst of their UCL campaign, but since it’s Nottingham Forest this week and Bournemouth the next, we think it’d be silly to look past their defence as an option. Despite having conceded more than most expected – and that match stats such as xG-Allowed have suggested – they still have amongst the best defence stats in the league with xGA of 0.8 per game. The problem is rather finding a player who will start! Ederson, the £5.4m goalkeeper springs to mind, just don’t expect save or bonus points as there traditionally aren’t many. However, if you can live with the suspense of rotation (and 59-minute-mark substitutions as Potter and Pep chuckle in the background), then we would probably point you in the general direction of the defenders Akanji or Aké, coming in at £5m and £5.1m respectively, despite their recent rotation. If you have the £3.9mLewis, then perhaps keep the lad? Feels like these are fixtures where he could be given time to prove himself yet again.

Wolves are playing at home against Bournemouth, followed next week by a double of Fulham and Liverpool. Those are decent fixtures and Bournemouth at home is tipped as one of the easier ones, from a defensive perspective at least. Perhaps it’s because the Cherries are amongst the least goalscoring teams so far this season – and worst by team xG – with just 0.9 goal per game? We fancy the £4.3m Kilman for his price and past playing time, but recent signing Dawson, who will set you back £4.8m, as also worth a shot as he should bring a bit of set-piece threat too. In the net, Wolves have Sá who many will remember from his decent 21/22 season which saw a score of 142 points and 11 clean sheets. So far, there’s only six occasions he’s not had to pick up the ball from the back of the net – out of 22 games, which is okay(ish) but nothing to write home about. He has been getting decent bonus points so far though, nine of them to be precise. Bueno the £3.9m budget enabler has recently lost his full-time minutes as he was benched against Liverpool and only saw 45 mins against Southampton. Unfortunately, he may no longer be a starting option, but you could wait and see if you have other options this week.

Chelsea are welcoming Southampton for a game of football at Stamford Bridge this Saturday. Barring the odd free kick screamer from JWP, odds are good for a clean sheet. In fact, the bookies seem to rate Chelsea the highest this week. Much like the aforementioned Bournemouth, the Saints’ goal scoring is quite poor having put away just 17 in 22 games. The Blues are playing Dortmund this week, so watch out for rotation and injuries. This is Potter managing them, remember? One who should play is the £4.6m goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga who has managed a trio of clean sheets from his last six games. From defence, we like the new signing Badiashile who would set you back £5m. He has played well and managed three clean sheets in the four games he’s played. Watch out for the Champions League campaign though. For your inner daredevil – read as masochist – you could go with thr £5.8m James who is back in the starting XI – what could possibly go wrong there?! Anyhow, he of course adds a lot of attacking potential to the odd clean sheet. If the player gets past the 60-minute mark that is. Furthermore, Chilwell is back in training too and has been seeing a few minutes’ game time in the past two, so the rotation wheel is spinning fast for Cucurella and we dare not suggest either. Thiago Silva, who costs £5.5m, is an expensive way into their backline, but like his aforementioned centre back-buddy, he is playing well and typically starting.

Arsenal are facing the Villains on the Midlanders’ home turf. Still, it should be a decent chance for a clean sheet. If the VAR referees are awake… We jest! Arteta is fuming and his troops will be wound up to win, especially after that 3-1 defeat against Man City. It almost feels like he may well put himself into the starting XI at this point. From the back, we have Ramsdale who costs £4.9m and is a sound choice if you’re in for a keeper. He’s also good for the odd bonus and save point, mind you that’s not why you pick him. In the defence we favour Gabriel or Saliba, coming in at £5.1m and £5.2m respectively, who both offer something going forward, along with steady minutes. Really though, it should be safe to go with either of Zinchenko or White as well – the risk from substitution just seems slightly greater due to their congested game calendar.

Whilst the recent form isn’t promising, we feel strongly about stacking up in the Armory for these coming fixtures considering the double against Leicester and Everton next gameweek.

Finally, if you don’t fancy any of these options, you could look towards Goodison Park and their lot at Everton, as Leeds come to town. Fixtures are decent enough, especially considering the double coming up in next gameweek. With ‘Dyche-ball’ making its return, a clean sheet is no longer unfathomable, and the budget friendly £4.2m Tarkowski could perhaps make his way into your starting line-up – or make way for others as you watch him score points on your bench. Similarly, Pickford, who will set you back £4.4m, could just as easily make his way between your two posts. If he can manage to stay between his, that is.

Midfielders – by Swirly

With eight goals and nine assists to his name, Bukayo Saka is rightly at 31.2% ownership, as those who took the risk of placing him in their team over Gabriel Martinelli ahead of the latest gameweek were rewarded with an extra 10 points. Not bad for an extra £2m outlay when that is the difference in just one double gameweek.

Looking ahead to this weekend, he faces a side that has suddenly become very leaky at the back, having conceded seven goals in the last two gameweeks. Aston Villa are a side who, at home, also play particularly badly – something I can attest to having been one of the unlucky 30-or-so-thousand Villa fans who watched their side lose 2-1 to Stevenage in the FA Cup. Having had a selection of poor managers over the year, we do of course have faith in Unai Emery, but that doesn’t stop Brummies from being dour and depressing – much like the local architecture of course. And that has an effect on the players. Much like the city itself, the side is on the up, but it’s cruise control until the transfer market at the end of the season and Arsenal could well exploit this when they come to town. Especially as Man City have now leapfrogged the North Londoners to the top of the league table – they’re going to be angry.

Another reason why it just has to be an Arsenal midfielder as the top pick is the detail that they then face Leicester and Everton in Gameweek 25. While the Foxes are enjoying a resurgence and new-found confidence – having scored the aforementioned four against their West Midlands rivals, before then repeating the same feat against a lacklustre Spurs side – they have also shown themselves to still be vulnerable at the back. Everton, meanwhile, may have enjoyed their 1-0 victory over the Gunners a couple of weeks ago, however the 2-0 loss in the Merseyside derby may well have exposed the task Sean Dyche really has ahead of him. On current form alone, Saka is the most likely Arsenal player to exploit that fact.

Having been flavours of the month in previous seasons, it certainly seems like the Leicester pairing of James Maddison and Harvey Barnes, priced at £8m and £6.7m respectively, have got to a point this campaign of being seriously overlooked.

Starting with Maddison, we have a player who appears in just 4.2% of FPL sides and yet we can see 18 points that have been notched up over the past two goal fests. It is no coincidence that his return has heralded this scoring run – much to Brendan Rodgers’ relief, no doubt. Another string to the bow of those who say that just changing the manager isn’t the answer to all of a team’s problems, as well.

On to Barnes and, believe it or not, he’s scored eight goals and set up two others over the course of this season. That’s seven assists fewer than Bukayo Saka and yet, bizarrely, a 30% difference in ownership, as just 1.5% of FPL managers can say they have him in their side. FF247’s very own Matt would be proud of the differential in this guy.

So, looking ahead for the East Midlands duo, there are two tough games on the horizon in the forms of Man United and Arsenal, however a trip to Southampton – where I still can’t help but think about that 1-9 Southampton v Leicester result of 2019 – could well result in returns for the pair. Even then, Maddison has a record of two goals and two assists in nine against the Gunners. As for the Saints, he has five goals and one assist in 10, while Barnes can lay claim to one goal and two others set up in the eight times he has faced the south coast outfit.

“Mo Salah, Mo Salah, running down the wing” is what the Liverpool fans love to sing, however the Egyptian has had to endure a very quiet time of late, as FPL managers have given up on him in their droves. At the time of writing, he has a ownership of 21.7% which, for the average player, would be respectable. But this is Mo Salah, the scorer of 23 goals and setter-upper – if that’s even a word – of 14 others last campaign. A record of eight and five respectively this season speaks volumes of both his and his team’s performance to date.

While the Reds would have been the favourite to win against the Toffees in the most recent edition of the Merseyside derby, you do now wonder if this is a turning point for Jurgen Klopp’s men, as a couple of wins over the next few gameweeks could then make them realistic contenders for a top four position once again. Sadio Mane’s departure is often put down as the reason for the decline in Liverpool’s form, and the onus will be put on the likes of Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo in supporting the main man in Salah.

First up is a trip to Newcastle, a side that has stuttered of late, with the last three fixtures rolling out as a 0-0 against Crystal Palace, before 1-1 draws with West Ham and, most recently, Bournemouth. When playing against them, the number 11 has found the back of the net six times, setting up four others, in 10 meetings – though all of those, bar one goal, were at Anfield. The Reds then have a double gameweek, with favourable fixtures at that. First will be a trip to Crystal Palace, before a midweek tie against Wolves. The various Eagles goalkeepers over the last few years have had to pick the ball out of the back of the net a ridiculous 20 times in the last six, and it’s been our favourite Egyptian who has been responsible for eight of those. As for the boys in black and gold, they too have conceded three goals and the same amount of assists by the same player.

Talking of the West Midlanders, Ruben Neves – owned by just 1.8% of FPL managers – has shown himself as good value of the £5.4m price tag he currently owns. Looking at the player’s record over the season, ‘explosive’ is certainly one word you would use. ‘Sporadic’ is, admittedly another one too, however the opposition that comes in Gameweeks 24 and 25 could well favour those who are brave enough to take a punt on the Portuguese, as Bournemouth come to Molineux this weekend, before a double gameweek of away days at Fulham and Liverpool. For example, you have to look back to Gameweek 16 for the last time Bournemouth kept a clean sheet in the Premier League, which was in the 3-0 win over Everton.

Believe it or not, Jarrod Bowen is actually joint top when it comes to the form of midfielders, with Kaoru Mitoma – who only sits out of this article because of Brighton’s blank in Gameweek 25 – sitting pretty with him at numero uno. The £8m player has been off many FPL manager radars over this season, as West Ham have been lower down the league table than they would have even feared before the 2022-23 season kicked off. With four goals and the same amount of assists so far this campaign, it’s a far cry from the respective 12 and 17 of the last campaign.

The reason the lad from Leominster – it’s always good to get a local hero to where I live in any article – makes it to this piece is the fact that the two he scored against Everton in Gameweek 21, before the tougher fixtures against Newcastle and Chelsea, gives hope for the possibility of bringing home the points in the near future. That begins with Spurs this weekend, a team that is leaky at the back, before meetings with Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Aston Villa between now and the middle of March. Another differential at 2.6% of FPL teams too!

All these differentials – and that’s before we even hear from the Differential King, who has the forwards…

Strikers – by Matt

My first striker pick of this week is someone who I have really admired watching his playstyle since coming to Chelsea, the £7.5m Joao Felix. The Spaniard has only actually played a game and a half due to that reckless tackle leading to a red card on his debut, but we will ignore that. He put in a phenomenal performance against West Ham, dictating much of the Blues’ play and how they were going about the pitch. He scored a goal and had nine shots, six of which were in the box, so he’s not shooting from 30 yards out. There was also an xG of 1.38 and an xA of 0.55 in the game, for those of you who are into those stats. Chelsea are coming up against Saints this weekend which could be a goal fest. They have sacked Nathan Jones, so are currently managerless, but Jesse Marsch could be in the dugout so keep an eye on that. Still, things are going to be transitioning for Southampton and, as such, I reckon an exciting player with good underlying stats, a fixture in 25 and he’s probably nailed in the side.

Here is my ‘out there’ differential pick for the article, and it is none other than Kelechi Iheanacho. There’s a tricky fixture against United this weekend, but Nacho has shown in the past that he can do damage to anyone he plays. When the £6.1m player gets minutes, he usually returns FPL points and with the return of Maddison, there is some real quality providing the striker with chances. In the last two games, the Nigerian has got two goals and three assists with just six shots. An xG and xA of 1.41 both helped him get maximum bonus points in those ties against Villa and Spurs. With a small price tag and ownership of only 0.7% of manager, he is the literal definition of a punt and differential. Getting him in now for two tough fixtures against United and then Arsenal in Gameweek 25 might not be a move that is screaming “DO IT NOW!” but he does play Southampton a week later, before a decent little run, so you could be getting in on the ground floor of a solid investment.

Eddie Nketiah has been a Godsend for Arsenal and FPL managers since the World Cup. He has four goals and five bonus points in seven games, and this was typed before the Gameweek 23 fixture versus Man City. The youngster has stepped up when Arteta needed him most and with having the highest expected points of any player over the next few games, I fancy him to step up for FPL owners too. The £6.8m player faces Aston Villa who have conceded seven goals in their last two. This is not the Unai Emery defensive masterclass we were expecting and with the Gunners coming up against their former manager, I think there will be a point to prove for both sides. Nketiah is probably the best striker to own right now and, indeed, for the next few weeks until Jesus returns.

A few words on Haaland. We all own him, we will all probably captain him – so I won’t say much except the fact he has a nice fixture this weekend against Nottingham Forest and should be a great captaincy option if City can get their act together. Heck, even if the Cityzens are still out of sorts, the robot that is Erling should still be able to notch some sort of return.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 24. This article was written by OddDane, Swirly and Matt.

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