Fantasy Premier League Tips Gameweek 13

Fantasy Premier League Tips Gameweek 13

Welcome to Fantasy Premier League Tips Gameweek 13. Hello and welcome to the TIPS article for Game-week 13. Now, we all know that resident Tips guru Mr Kop Warrior hates writing intros but does he like having intros written ABOUT him? This is the week we find out as it simply can’t go unmentioned that his Tips for Game-week 12 were generally quite amazing. I usually refer back to the previous week’s article before I begin to write my own. Now I wish I hadn’t!
Analysing it, to begin with Kop gave us Fraser Forster for between the poles who provided a clean sheet in Southampton’s draw with the normally lethal Liverpool. Two of his mid-priced midfielders (Juan Mata and Gylfi Sigurdsson) obliged with goals in their respective matches. Wilfried Zaha picked up an assist for Palace. Crystal Palace? THAT Crystal Palace! Yes ladies and gents, he’s only going and tipping Palace players as well. For the love of our Lord (sic.)
His headline act Harry Kane brought home a double for his buyers. If that wasn’t enough, along came another striker with a double in Victor Anichebe. Most remarkable of all, Kop somehow knew that Sunderland were going to score at least two goals. That’s seismic punditry right there!
Shifting on to Sunday and he only went and tipped Courtois AND Alonso – another two clean sheets right there and the glaze on the cherry on the icing of the cake was on Monday evening, tipping Chris Brunt for West Bromwich Albion (clean sheet and a bonus point) and somehow even more impressively, his club mate Allan Nyom (clean sheet, assist and TWO bonus points).
Wow.
So here I stand on stage with a pair of spoons, a squeaky microphone and a croaky throat waiting to entertain you after you’ve just had The Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones as a warm-up.
Wish me luck.

Goalkeepers

[three_fifth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fifth]The premium choice keepers for me this week and of course the weeks ahead are Thibaut Courtois and Petr Cech. Cech has four clean sheets already this season and you would have to bank on him getting a couple more in the weeks ahead as Arsenal welcome Bournemouth and Stoke to the Emirates and travel to West Ham and Everton in the next four. The Czech is a good alternative (despite the missing Bellerin) to the central pair in front of him, Koscielny and Mustafi, who indeed do seem to be forming a very decent partnership. He has an ownership of 16.5% which is a little larger than the 10.5% of the Belgian Courtois. When you factor the ownership level being smaller and consider that Chelsea just look impregnable at the moment, it has to be the Chelsea stopper, for the second week in a row, who gets the Tips nod. Don’t be put off by Tottenham and City ahead, everyone should have Chelsea coverage yesterday!

Loris Karius is the Liverpool goalkeeper who has 20 points in the last five games including clean sheet points last time out against Southampton. Could Liverpool actually pull it together defensively after realising they (shock horror!) MIGHT not score every game? Their next six opponents don’t exactly strike fear in any huge terms (Sunderland, Bournemouth, West Ham United, Middlesbrough, Everton and Stoke City) and you could steal a little march here by backing the German. He can be picked up for as little as £4.9 and a differential in that only 1.2% of us own him. A little gamble perhaps but I’ve heard crazier ideas.

Fraser Forster was mentioned by Kop last week and for the reasons given last week plus his latest clean sheet, he is retained on the Tips list (I actually did want to include him and I’m not just tagging on to Kop’s coat-tail!)

That Sunderland eventually kept a clean sheet last weekend was only just reward for the England Under 21 goalkeeper who has been keeping Sunderland in games every week since the season started. Jordan Pickford also seems to always be in my tips but he is by far and away the best value budget keeper (still just £4.1m). Take for example his performance in the Hull City match – not only did he get clean sheet points but he also collected yet another save point. Pound for pound he is fantasy value in its barest form.

Defenders

[three_fifth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fifth]Marcus Alonso was mentioned last week and simply remains in here because he had two shots on target against Middlesbrough, kept a clean sheet and deserves to be considered owing to the average positions he is taking up on the pitch. More of a winger than a defender who has broken his duck already and collects clean sheet point’s week on week, I’m struggling to see a downside to owning the Spaniard to be honest.

I considered including Joel Matip, the Cameroon international, picked up by Liverpool on a free from Schalke because he looks very good every time I see him so I thought I’d mention him. Then I looked at the rest of the Reds defence and I found Dejan Lovren at £0.5m less than his colleague and who has actually scored two points more. He has two goals to Joel’s one so I’ll tip the Croatian here purely down to value. Again this is a calculated gamble but at £5.0m and the fixtures as mentioned above, Liverpool could be a bit of a curve ball.

Yet again, Patrick van Aanholt or ‘PVA’ to us in the abbreviation-strewn world of FPL (see what I did there?), is the top point scorer defender for the Black Cats of Sunderland. He has two goals so far and in his last match he again assisted (he has nine assists in his past two seasons) and played his part in the clean sheet versus Hull which garnered him ten points. He is a bit pricey for a Sunderland defender you might say but if you look at his goal-scoring and assist stats, he is proving yet again how valuable he could be to you. If you are looking about for a defender to spend your £5.0m on, then you could do an awful lot worse.

Cedric Soares returned from injury in the goalless draw with Liverpool and the Saints kept yet another clean sheet. The only blot on the copybook was a booking but that can be forgiven as it was only his first of the season. I remember writing in pre-season that Cedric is a fairly attacking full back and I’m intrigued that this might be shown sooner rather than later in FPL. If you are looking for coverage from Southampton and your goalkeeper spots are sewn up, then a second look at the Portuguese is worth it – he is the cheapest way in to that particular backline. The fixtures aren’t bad but more of that later when I cover the attackers . . .

Gareth McAuley is on old favourite of the fantasy veterans and is mentioned here off the back of the clean sheet win against Burnley and with an eye on the Baggies forthcoming matches. West Brom have Hull, Watford and Swansea in their next four (and ahem . . . *coughs* Chelsea). McAuley personally is 17 points clear as the top scoring defender for the Midlanders on 45 points which includes an eight point performance and a brace of 7 and 6 point hauls to this point. At £4.7m I reckon he is cracking value at this stage. He could be a very good pick-up this week.

Nathan Ake grabbed the headlines with his match-winner against Stoke which netted him a haul of fifteen lovely FPL points. His price is £4.2m and he is a Chelsea player so you may be forgiven for thinking that this could be the find of the season. However, the downside is that the Dutchman had only played fifteen (that number again) MINUTES in total during his loan spell at the Cherries. Simply, he was playing because Adam Smith was suspended and may well find himself back on the sidelines now that Smith has completed his suspension. Bournemouth have Arsenal and Liverpool next and then Southampton, Chelsea and Arsenal (again) on the horizon. So why mention him? At £4.2m, he could be an excellent enabler to fund another move and you know, he might just have a chance of sticking in the team.

Midfielders

[three_fifth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fifth]‘Eden Hazard is back to his best’ is something you’ll see written everywhere these days so I won’t say it. Damn, too late. Well it does appear to be true in any case. Conte and more likely the 3-4-3 system the manger has adopted appears to get the best out of Chelsea’s no. 10. He is threatening that ’must have’ status once again. OK maybe more so after the Everton game than the Middlesbrough one latest, but he does seem to be in top flow more often than not this season and it is always a worry when you see him in the mood if you are a non-owner. He is the top pick premium for this week in my book. I don’t own him but I could well do by the time this weekend kicks off. An Alderweireld-less Tottenham and a Manchester City, who only have two league clean sheets, holds no fear for me. Unless something goes drastically wrong, you should be buying this guy for the season in any case.

Yaya Toure was always going to appear in every tips article this week. Said no one ever! Where did this one come from? He said sorry on behalf of his agent, Pep was true to his word, Yaya plays against Palace, looks slimmed down and scores too fantastic goals in an away win. Easy this management game isn’t it? Aside from the flippancy, in the cold light of day it looks like Yaya and Gundogan may well be substituting in for each other this season. In Yaya’s favour for FPL purposes only, is the fact he isn’t in the City squad for the Champions League where Gundogan is so you’d expect Yaya could play in the league a bit more in the near future. The thing is, City only have two more Champions League games and then that will be them until February so Gundogan and Yaya will be fighting it out over the Christmas period. I honestly feel neither will be worth having now due to this rotation. I’m not sure Yaya is a Tip this week but I just had to write about it! In all seriousness, if he plays the next couple then serious consideration of him needs to be undertaken. Just make sure you have decent substitute cover.

Gylfi Sigurdsson is undoubtedly the main man that new coach Bob Bradley has to have everyone in harmony with if the Swans are to have any hope of staying in the Premier League. The Icelandic talisman has three goals, two assists and six bonus points already this season for a team sitting bottom of the league. He will cost you £7.2m but is on set plays including direct free kicks from which he scores his fair share and is about to benefit from a very reasonable run of games to which he might utilise to strengthen his points tallies for the season. Leaving Spurs in two weeks aside, Swansea and Sigurdsson face up against fair opposition until the middle of January. If you are not going with a 3-5-2 with five huge hitters in the middle, then it may be worth including this old fantasy golden boy in your squads as a little Chrimbo present to yourselves.

In Scotland’s last two competitive matches, no Scotsman has scored. In West Bromwich Albion’s last two competitive matches three Scotsmen have scored FIVE goals. Yeah there is a god of comedy after all. So West Brom have some value in James Morrison and Matt Phillips that much is clear (Morrison is valued at £4.6m and Phillips £5.1m). Morrison has played almost both of the last two matches and scored a goal in each of these to record scores of 8 and 9. Winger Phillips who can’t get near the Scotland squad incidentally, has bettered that with a goal and an assist in each of his last two. Unsurprisingly, he has cleaned up all six bonus points available in this period. Both of these guys provide wonderful differentials being under 1% – Phillips is 0.8% and Morrison a meagre 0.1%. Phillips gets my vote though.

Harry Winks is definitely worth keeping your eye on. I couldn’t resist that one sorry. No, let’s focus. Sorry I’ll stop now. OK, so this guy is a very promising midfielder of the Tottenham academy. A star ‘pupil’ if you will. That’s definitely it I swear. OK so if you are still reading this, thanks! The third most famous ‘Arry at the Lane, announced his full arrival in competitive league terms last weekend against West Ham by producing a very complete midfield performance and scoring a goal to cap it. As this is written, and as if almost to justify his inclusion in this Tips article, he is starting against Monaco in a must-win match for Tottenham in the Champions League. (Ed – they lost). So Pochettino clearly has faith in the young player. He’s mentioned here as he is only £4.5m and if he can hold on to his place, would prove a brilliant fifth, possibly fourth midfield selection.

Forwards

[three_fifth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fifth]Harry Kane – You’ve had your warnings boys and girls. Penalty equalisers against Arsenal and Monaco and a winning double against West Ham have announced the return of the golden boy of Walthamstow. Heck remember that Kop tipped him, so that means he is a must have! It is looking like a popular move to bring Kane in for Lukaku, it’s been mentioned some might bring him in for Aguero. That would be bold but there would be few if any better as a replacement for Aguero currently. You know everything you need to know about Kane. But I’d remind you that he scored in each of his last two league matches before his injury this season and was on 49 premier league goals in little over two seasons before this one. The goals are just ‘there’ when he is playing. He is £10.8m but is well worth it in my view.

This is a tricky one but I’ll give you Olivier Giroud. He has come off the bench three times in the last three league matches and has no more than 22 minutes in any of them. BUT, he has scored three goals and swiped 5 bonus points. The question is can you risk bringing in a player who may well be on the bench for the first match you buy him for? Well the reason he has been mentioned here is the rumours surrounding Wenger’s planned resting of Alexis. Whether this comes to fruition and how it will actually take shape is of course anyone’s guess but with the Christmas period due, the calf strain suffered already by Alexis, I can see Giroud starting in the very near future, perhaps as early as Sunday but if not, he could come off the bench and with the attacking talent supplying him at Arsenal, he is going to get chances. I’m just putting it out there!

Charlie Austin has to take his place amongst the Tips this week and to justify this I give you the fixtures for Southampton with home games in CAPS (EVERTON, Crystal Palace, MIDDLESBROUGH, Stoke City, Bournemouth, TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR, WEST BROMWICH ALBION, Everton, Burnley, LEICESTER, Swansea, WEST HAM UTD, and Sunderland). This takes us to the end of February and whilst I appreciate form comes in to the equation as we move on, I think Southampton coverage, especially as they are a very strong team in their own right anyway, is essential as soon as possible. I would probably suggest a defensive option and Austin as penalty taker. I will offer that the former-QPR man has only scored one in his last four but you need to consider that in the three games he blanked the opposition was Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool and he’ll not face that calibre in the months ahead.

Salomon Rondon is interesting when you consider who West Brom play in the next few weeks and how well Tony Pulis spoke of him – “I’m pleased for Salomon, who has upped his game this season”. With Saido Berahino in France (or peeking over the wall of Tottenham’s training ground), Rondon is the lead striker for now. A man of the match performance vs Burnley including a goal and some fantastic hold-up play, the South American proves a lovely alternative to Austin, Vokes and Wilson and others around that £6.5m mark. The form of West Brom’s midfielders (see above) means that Rondon could be picking up the assist points in coming weeks.

So I’ll finish with another one of Kop’s tips of last week in Victor Anichebe. This is for those who are playing or planning to play 3-5-2. David Moyes appears to like pairing the former Everton man with Jermain Defoe in an old-fashioned 4-4-2 and it appears to be working. There is not much else going at his price and if you want a reliable third striker costing next to nothing then Anichebe is your best bet.

I hope my plagiarism was well masked in the article but to be honest imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as they say so if any of my tips find you well, thank Kop.

Have a great week everyone and good luck with your selections.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Premier League Tips Gameweek 13. This article was written by The Gallant Pioneer

Follow @MitchellC_FF247