Fantasy Premier League Tips – Gameweek 26 FPL
Ours tears of joy or despair relating to GW25 are not yet dry and GW26 is already upon us and with it the trials and tribulations that a midweek game-week brings. Some will revel in the short time between game-weeks as they are forced to make quick decisions while other will struggle as they don’t have the necessary time required to analyse all of their options. Whichever category you fall into one thing is for sure and that is that GW26 is another chance for each and every one of us to move up the rankings. As a result of the short time period between game-weeks we have once again decided to take a slightly different approach to our weekly tips article and rather than tipping specific players we have instead decided to discuss a number of current issues.
The West Ham Defence
It’s hard to believe that West Ham have now kept more clean sheets in the Premier League than any other team but with 12 clean sheets from 25 games that is exactly what they have done. The great news for us fantasy managers is that four of these clean sheets have come in their last five games! With stats like these it’s hard to believe that none of their backline feature in more than 3% of teams so it’s clear that the entire Hammers defence represents a differential. So who do you choose? Goalkeeper Adrian is in great form and has picked up 37 points from his last five games, there are plenty of forwards who haven’t scored that well and at just £4.3m he represents a great bargain. Picking one of their defenders does present one or two difficulties as no one is 100% certain as to what their first choice back 4 is! However once again our tip is James Collins who has started the last four games and it’s worth noting that he has picked up bonus points in each of the last three and at just £4.1m, like Adrian, he is a bargain. If you have a little extra cash to spend you might want to consider Guy Demel who has spent considerably more time on the pitch than any of his defensive colleagues. Finally, not only are the Hammers in great form defensively they also a number of relatively straightforward fixtures coming up with three of the next five at Upton Park.
The Manchester City Attack
City have now gone two games without scoring!! While this might not be news for the majority of teams it should be remembered that City had scored 68 in their previous 23 games which is basically three goals per game. Granted Sergio Aguero is injured but you would have expected Negredo & Co to have too much for Norwich, perhaps they are more reliant on the Argentinian than we imagined. The loss of Fernandinho has also been felt as it curbs Yaya Toure’s ability to surge forward. So where does that leave us fantasy managers? Given the fact that they have back to back home games against Sunderland and Stoke before their blank in GW28 we fully expect them to be back amongst the goals. Against Norwich, Pellegrini started with Jovetic & Negredo, with Dzeko replacing Jovetic after 61 minutes and Negredo being replaced after 77 minutes and after the game he admitted that neither Negredo nor Dzeko were 100% fit. Should you have either Negredo or Dzeko in your side our advice to you would be to stick, however should you not have any of the three but want one of them for the next two games we would suggest Jovetic. The Montenegrin will be eager to prove he has a future at the Etihad and he signifies a superb differential featuring in just 0.4% of teams.
Problems at Arsenal?
Despite being hammered 5-1 by a rampant Liverpool side in Saturday’s early kick-off, Arsenal are 2nd in the table just one point behind Chelsea and they haven’t turned into a bad team overnight. However, how should they be viewed from a fantasy football perspective? If you were to look at their upcoming league fixtures in isolation you would probably think that there was nothing to be concerned about as three of their next four are at home. What the league fixtures don’t show is the fact that they have an FA Cup tie this coming weekend against Liverpool and next Wednesday they host Bayern Munich in the Champions League. So which if any of their players can still be considered a fantasy asset? Aside from their calamities against City and Liverpool the Gunners have been pretty sound defensively keeping 11 clean sheets and despite these two big defeats they still boast the 2nd best defence in the league. As a result the likes of Szczesny, Mertesacker & Koscielny have proved quite popular and many managers have doubled up on Arsenal at the back. Our advice to those of you who still have double Arsenal coverage at the back is that it might be time to drop one of them and if we had to tip an Arsenal defender for the coming game-weeks it would be Laurent Koscielny as we feel he represents the best value for money. Moving into midfield and Arsenal have been hit hard with injuries to both Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott, while Mesut Ozil has been a massive disappointment since GW15. Should you feel the need to have an Arsenal attacker in your side for the coming weeks our recommendation would be Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin who impressed in the recent win over Crystal Palace and while his more senior colleagues wilted against Liverpool, the Ox at least attempted to take the fight to them. Up top Olivier Giroud has picked up three goals and an assist in his last six games which isn’t actually that bad, but when you take a look around there are a number of strikers who offer better value for money than the Frenchman who is currently priced at £8.8m.
Steven Gerrard
Liverpool’s captain fantastic has to a certain extent polarised opinion amongst fantasy managers since his return to the side from injury. An injury to Lucas coupled with Brendan Rodgers desire to field Coutinho, Sterling, Suarez & Sturridge in attack has led to Gerrard being fielded in a defensive midfield role. Prior to his injury he had scored three as well as assisting seven in just ten games and many felt that his points returns would be somewhat diminished due to his deeper role. However, this has not been the case and in the five games he has started he has scored three and assisted two. Admittedly two of the goals were penalties while the two assists were from dead balls, but we feel the fact that he has the majority of the set pieces in his locker is a massive plus. Granted we are unlikely to see Gerrard breaking forward in the manner in which he has done over the years meaning his goals from open play are likely to take a hit, however as he becomes more accustomed to his new role we feel his assists from open play will be unaffected as he sprays long passes forward for Suarez & Sturridge. Given his current form he represents a great differential as he features in just 8.1% of teams and is also great value for money at just £8.9m.
Is Triple Liverpool a Possibility?
Doubling up on players from the same team in the one position is often frowned upon by many fantasy managers but doubling up on Arsenal or Everton at the back has at times worked quite well this season, while those managers who currently have the SAS up top in their team are probably quite happy. The question now is whether or not to take it to the next level and go for triple Liverpool in attack. The initial response from most managers is likely to be one of derision but let’s take a quick look at this as a possibility. First and foremost is the fact that Liverpool have scored 21 goals in their last eight games with the likes of Gerrard & Sterling chipping in along with the likely lads up front, it should also be noted that Phillippe Coutinho has been in better form of late and has been unlucky not to pick up more fantasy points. Second of all is the fact that their upcoming fixtures suggest that the goals are unlikely to dry up, although four of their next six games are away from home and it is worth noting that 60% of their goals have come at Anfield. Finally and indeed quite significantly, is the fact that the Champions & Europa Leagues both kick off again next week meaning we are likely to see a certain amount of rotation at Chelsea, Arsenal, City, United and Spurs. Unfortunately for Liverpool and their fans, they are not involved in Europe, but this is great news for us fantasy managers as it means that Brendan Rodgers will continue to field his strongest team in each and every league game. So as you can see the notion of fielding three is perhaps not as crazy as it sounds, the only question is which three. We will assume that Suarez & Sturridge are likely to be two of the three meaning you will want to choose one of their midfields. Should you have cash to spare our advice would be to go for Gerrard, whom we have already discussed above. Conversely, should money be tight we would suggest you consider Raheem Sterling who is slowly but surely proving his doubters wrong by turning in consistent displays rather than a moment of magic here and there.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Premier League Tips, this article was written by Kop Warrior.
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So who is everyone captaining this GW?
Everybody is captaining someone Shep. 😉
Raziel
haha no doubt… the question is who and why…
Suarez is due a massive score and who better than a weak Fulham defense
Negredo is also due big and City need to make a statement…
Hazard is on fire going to a weak WBA
Nolan is on fire hosting Norwich
So many options haha
Hmmm. Hazard did nothing for 3 games but he made it up last game by scoring 3 times. WIth him you never know. Negredo is sort of off just like the entire City team. Nolan is on fire and so is WHU, Norwich did manage to keep City from scoring. Best options would be Fulham. United scored 2 times against them and they manage to miss a lot of chances. I have Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling. Suarez Cap and Sturridge vice.
Pellegrini says Nasri, Nastasic and Garcia could be fit for weekend v Chelsea in FA Cup, Aguero and Fernandinho “one more week away”.
That’s great news. I definitely want to get Aguero back in my side, but it’s going to be tricky planning on how to do that with City not playing in GW28 and possibly not playing in GW29 either.
RedTV
I have been trying to save for that. Currently have 1.5m itb and have a plan to get him in
I’m fairly happy with my team right now, but the bad news is, Agüero will struggle to fit his way back in due to funds tied up in midfield…
Ha, sorry Shep- didn’t mean to post that as a reply to your captain question!
I’m between Suarez, Sturridge, and Hazard right now for captain. Probably go with one of the Liverpool boys and give Hazard the VC just in case Fulham call in a fake bomb scare or something to try and get the game postponed.
Hahaha! Fulham would as well..
Raz-i think big sam is being extra careful bringing reid into the side after such a long lay-off
am really hoping he starts.. just makes them even tighter at the back!
Just noticed: the game goes ahead
c’mon S&S!
For me it’s GOOOOOOOOOO SSS! Suarez, Sterling , Sturridge.
That could pay dividends! Good luck this week
who to capp though?
suarez i think is due a big week and is always involved in the game – in recent months he’s been untouchable especially in games against weaker sides.
sturridge is in form and scoring all the time.
personally i have sturridge as my cappo but really am not sure.
i can defo see sturridge at least getting a brace, but i have a feeling suarez could get a hatty or at least a few assists.
my dad’s capping sterling!
Weren’t you saying earlier this week Sterling was shite? 😛
me?
i never said anything about sterling!
i think he’s a great young (English!) player!
what did you think i said? It must have been someone else as i haven’t said anything about him.
must say though, not exactly captain material imo.
Might be Tekno instead. Forgot, who exactly. Someone said he was really overrated though. Sorry mate. That’s why I asked, hehe.
And no, he’s not clinical enough (yet).
Sturridge is on form Bob. Suárez is too, but however, not by his standards.
This is the way I see it: captain Sturridge, a solid 10 points x 2 for you…
…captain Suárez, he could get 5, but he could get 25. If you get me.
Sturridge can hurt you. Suairez can kill you. Luis will be my captain.
yeah i know exactly what you mean, and he really is due a good week!
just feel like i never capped sturridge when i bought him, but i do want to as he has been delivering…
i’ll probably capp suarez in the end!
plus you could see how annoyed he was he didn’t score last game and that will drive him this week i think.
I reckon, if you think he’ll score a brace, the captain him.
It’s just, quite often, Sturridge is a 1 goal + 3 BP specialist – which is great consistency – but it’s not explosive by any means…
…but yeah, go with your gut feeling mate, and good luck!
right KFC .. lol its now almost like .. we will take a point back home from emirates thank you !
I actually think we will…weirdly enough! Can’t wait for that game! Gonna be nail bitting I sense!! Just like a relegation battle! lol
KFC- what are the odds for a RVP show at the emirtes .. !
Owww shite, I totally forgot. RvP playing against his old team. Lol. Might actually be a good idea to cap him over Suarez? Or too big a risk? Hmmm.
Should be interesting but I won’t cap him! Too risky. Last game he barely did anything..he lost a bit of his mojo even though he scores!
Yeah, almost no wondergoals this year. It’s like he’s less eager. Not enjoying the game as much. RvP to Kun when he returns. Spares me money plus I think Kun will do better.
He scored in every match against them hasn’t he?! I feel he might be involved again but this time as a double assister. Feeling a 3-2 dramatic victory for United!
They will boo the shit out of him and laugh at where United is standing now. Shrugs, they’re also coming from a 5-1 loss though, so they should be humble (which fans/hooligans rarely are, lol). Also, doubt the Gunners will win any price this year. 😉
The gunners will be fighting for 4th place if they don’t step up…Liverpool are zooming in on their asses!
KfuC, zooming ? On saturday we were right up them. :big-lol:
Haha I know! I meant that now that you got the taste of it, you kinda like it and I am expecting you to overtake the gunners eventually! And they will be fighting Spurs for 4th place…that would be something!
any word lads from the City press conference re Dzeko/Negredo…..im thinking of one of them for Rooney
what’s everyone going to do when aguero returns?
city are either missing him or ferdindiniho or even both!
i still have the cash for him in the bank but only just after upgrading a few midfielders but i did do so in caution.
i also don’t want to miss out on a ivanovich bandwagon but willl have to use some of that cash up ( i think…) and downdgrade either coleman, fonte (good fixtures) or kos (bad fixtures but could miss out on a bunch of cleanies from other teams).
For me it’s easy. RvP to Kun.
I have Rooney so im not too badly off…..ill swap Rooney tonight for Negredo/Jovetic/Dzeko…..and when the time comes ill swap one of them to Aguero and downgrade Eriksen to get the 0.5mil id be short
I don’t think he’ll jump right back in and be starting and playing 90 minutes a game. And City are definitely not playing GW28 and possibly not GW29 either. I’ll wait and see how GW29 shakes out and bring him back either then if their match against Aston Villa at home is on, or get him in for GW30 if it’s not.