Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 35

Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 35

DGW34 was proving to be a rather disappointing affair with Liverpool delivering very little, but a few goals from Chelsea and Leicester, a Vardy assist, an Ivan assist, a Terry goal and a Fabregas assist may have just rescued it for a few! Many will now say that loading up on Liverpool players was a bad idea, it wasn’t, it was the right thing to do. It’s just unfortunate that Liverpool didn’t live up to expectations, again. But enough about DGW34, that’s behind us and there’s no use crying over spilt milk. With only four gameweeks remaining one would hope that things would at long last become somewhat easier, but unfortunately that’s unlikely to be the case. One look at the league would suggest that there’s at least 10 teams with nothing left to play for and predicting what these teams will do between now and May 24th is anyone’s guess. One thing is for sure and that is that a strong bench is going to be needed as we all deal with players being unexpectedly left out of their respective starting XI’s. That’s probably enough waffle to cover the intro, so let’s move onto the main event!

Goalkeepers

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[/three_fourth]Perhaps unsurprisingly we start this week with David Ospina. Given Arsenal’s rather benign run in and the fact that they’ve got a DGW around the corner we suspect that the Goonies will prove rather popular over the coming weeks. With four of their remaining five games against Hull, Swansea, Sunderland & West Brom, who between them have scored just 24 goals in their last six games there are surely at least a couple of clean sheets in Ospina’s gloves. The Colombian has enjoyed an impressive start to life in the UK and has kept seven clean sheets from 13 appearances, three of which have come in the last six games, while he has been beaten just three times in the last six. At £4.9m he is the cheapest guaranteed starter from a defence which now boast the 3rd best record in the league, conceding just 32 from 33 games.

Despite both teams conceding in the Chelsea v Leicester game we feel both Thibaut Courtois and Kasper Schmeichel deserve some consideration for the remaining four gameweeks. Obviously Courtois didn’t actually play in that one but he should be back for the weekend. From an FPL point of view the Chelsea defence had begun to look rather suspect, keeping just two clean sheets from eight games. However when it came to the crunch Jose reverted to type and went with a safety first approach meaning they have kept three clean sheets on the bounce prior to the Leicester game. There has been some talk that Jose will rotate his players once the league is won, but this can’t happen now until GW35 at the earliest and he’s unlikely to change things the following week against Liverpool. In all honesty I see Courtois starting three of the last four games, and I wouldn’t bet against two or three clean sheets. On the back of consecutive clean sheets Schmeichel appears to be a bargain at just £4.4m. Following tonight’s game with the champions elect the Foxes face Newcastle, Southampton, Sunderland & QPR, and with none of the four scoring freely of late we wouldn’t bet against another couple of clean sheets for the Dane. Who’d have thought back in mid-March after Spurs put four past him that Schmeichel would look like one of the most solid picks for the final four gameweeks? Not us!

The final two keepers who we feel are worth a shout this week are West Ham’s Adrian and Everton’s Tim Howard. While West Ham’s recent form hasn’t been great their final four games aren’t the worst and with Adrian there’s always the chance he’ll stop a penalty. The fact that he’s stopped three this season is surely no fluke and thanks to these three saves he’s now the 2nd highest scoring keeper in FPL. Just when it looked like Everton were about to be sucked into the relegation battle they decided to start playing some decent football, it’s déjà vu for poor old Roberto. The Toffees sit 2nd in the current form table, thanks in no small part to four clean sheets in their last six games during which time Howard has conceded just two goals. On paper their remaining fixtures are all winnable and we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Howard pick up another couple of clean sheets.

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Defenders

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[/three_fourth]Having started our goalkeeper’s roundup with Ospina we now start our defensive roundup with the Arsenal defence, I can see this getting boring over the coming weeks!! Both Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker are pretty much guaranteed starters at centre back as long as they’re fit. There is little to separate the two, they’re both priced at £6.0m, with Mertesacker on 106 points and Koscielny on 105, however it should be noted that the German has played nearly 800 minutes more than the Frenchman and that tips the scales in favour of the Frog! Koscielny has proved a threat in the opposition penalty area this season and has found the back of the net on three occasions, the only defenders to score more are Ivanovic & Smalling(!!!) with four apiece. Koscielny’s underlying stats in recent weeks are also more impressive than Mertesacker and therefore Kos is certainly our defender of choice from the Arsenal defence. Hector Bellerin has proved to be one of the finds of the season. While he has had one or two extremely poor games it must be remembered that he is still only 20 and more often than not he has impressed when called upon. The recent return of Mathieu Debuchy to the Arsenal squad appeared to suggest that Bellerin’s season was over, however Bellerin started last weekend against Chelsea with Debuchy on the bench. Obviously we can’t be certain that Bellerin will start each of the remaining five games, however at just £4.6m we feel he shouldn’t be ignored particularly as he does enjoy getting forward.

If only Leighton Baines was still on penalty duty! With Everton having rediscovered the art of keeping a clean sheet he’d be an excellent end of season pick, but even without the penalties he could prove to be an interesting purchase for the remaining gameweeks. Against United last Sunday he picked up his 9th assist of the season and while it was his first since GW21 we feel that Everton will have gained a huge amount of confidence from such an impressive performance and this will see Baines given licence to get forward over the remaining games. At £7.1m Baines isn’t cheap and many managers might be reluctant to make such an investment at this stage of the season and if you’re one such manager you could always consider John Stones. Now obviously the youngster is not going to pick up 15 points every week but he is priced at just £5.2m and has started 13 of the last 14 games, while he also features in just 1.2% of teams.

Three other defenders who we feel warrant a mention this week are City’s Aleksandar Kolarov, West Ham’s Aaron Cresswell and Leicester’s Wes Morgan. Now we know that Kolarov has in the past been the scourge of many a fantasy manager due to rotation, however following a goal & an assist last time out against Villa he’s once again back on our radars. Gael Clichy has missed the last two games and is currently red flagged so how long Kolarov will remain in the side is anyone’s guess but given City’s remaining fixtures we feel as though he’s worth a punt. Cresswell has enjoyed a great debut season at West Ham and from an FPL perspective he’s been a rather solid performer with two goals, four assists and eight clean sheets. There’s a possibility that clean sheets may be at a premium over the remaining games and if this is the case it might be worth considering those attacking defenders such as Cresswell. Morgan has been superb in recent weeks and has picked up five bonus points in his last two games prior to Chelsea, to go with the two clean sheets and an assist. If you decided to overlook the Leicester defence ahead of the DGW don’t be to downbeat, they might yet pick up a couple of clean sheets over the remaining gameweeks and if that happens Morgan could prove great value at £4.4m.

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Midfielders

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[/three_fourth]Ok, so let’s start with the Arsenal midfield. But where? There’s at least four of them you could argue deserve a spot in your team. On current form Aaron Ramsey is in our opinion the best option. Since his latest return to the side he has made a significant impact and his runs from deep have seen him pick up two goals, three assists and six bonus points in five games. Aside from his FPL returns his all-round displays have been pretty impressive and given the stop start nature of his season we reckon he’ll be keen to finish the season on a high (not that kind of a high Raheem!). He currently features in just over 11% of teams but in reality a significant proportion of this is likely to be ghost teams who picked him at the start of the season. Alexis Sanchez has undoubtedly been Arsenal’s player of the season, thanks to 14 goals and eight assists. Since the turn of the year his returns have somewhat dried up, but of late he has shown signs of recapturing that form. He claimed a goal and an assist as the Gunners trounced Liverpool, while he also proved to be the match winner in the Cup semi-final with two goals. With seven double figure scores to his name to date it would take a brave manager to do without him as we approach DGW37!

Just when it looked as though United had turned a corner they went and turned in what was possibly their worst performance of the season. Whereas United appeared to have had found a degree of consistency their noisy neighbours across the city haven’t known what consistency is for a number of months at this stage. Both teams are all but assured of Champions League football at this stage but both will be eager to finish 2nd or at least 3rd so that they are not forced into a Champions League qualifier. Therefore they will both be eager to finish the season with a number of impressive performances. With that in mind we look to their Spanish midfielders in the hope of some FPL points. In a season of mediocrity David Silva has proven to be a shining light and he has claimed 11 goals and seven assists, in fact this has been his most successful season for City in front of goal. City travel to Spurs this weekend and then host QPR, and we expect goals in both games meaning there’s an excellent chance that Silva will once more be in the points. Juan Mata is certainly more of a risk than Silva as we’re still not convinced that LvG has 100% confidence in him, he has been hauled off shortly after the hour mark in United’s last two games. Despite this he is still one of United’s more creative players and a home fixture against West Brom this weekend is the ideal opportunity to once again prove himself to the Dutchman.

As we suggested last week, Chelsea are boring their way to the title, not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact those of us who don’t support Chelsea would be more than happy if our team was boring their way to the title!! It has however meant that from an FPL point of view their attacking talents have been somewhat restricted. Despite this we feel we once more must include the PFA player of the season, Eden Hazard. The Belgian has started every league game this season and I for one don’t see this changing once Chelsea have the title wrapped up. Once they have secured the league there will be no pressure on them and I suspect the shackles will be removed meaning the opposition had best watch out! Remember what they did to Wigan on the final day of the 2010 season?

Everton sit 2nd in the form table with five wins and a draw from their last six games, scoring 11 goals in that period. We’ve tipped Aaron Lennon a number of times in recent weeks but this week we are turning our attention towards James McCarthy and Kevin Mirallas. McCarthy is one of those players who’s always overlooked, mainly because he’s a deep lying midfielder. He has of late been getting forward more regularly and this has seen him claim two goals, an assist and eight bonus points in his last six games. He has this season become the player that makes the Toffees tick and if they can maintain their current form he could at £4.6m prove to be a cheap differential for the remaining weeks. Thanks to injury and poor form Mirallas has been in & out of the side this season, but that hasn’t stopped him scoring seven times with two of those coming in his last two games. He’s an extremely frustrating player, but there can be no denying his talents and if he can force his way back into the starting XI he could prove a good shout for the last four games.

We’ll finish our midfield roundup with a couple of relatively cheap options, Stoke’s Charlie Adam and Newcastle’s Jack Colback. We tipped Adam last week and we’re pretty sure it raised a few eyebrows but good old Charlie didn’t let us down as he picked up a goal and maximum bonus points. He now has three goals and an assist in his last five games and given Stoke’s remaining fixtures he could be worth a shout. Having lost seven on the bounce Newcastle are now limping to the finish line and it might seem a little bizarre to be tipping Colback. He is however only £4.7m and has a goal and assist from his last two games. Not much more we can say about him!!

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Forwards

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[/three_fourth]We’ve decided against starting every section with an Arsenal player as we didn’t want the Goonies getting big heads! Instead our first forward pick this week is Sergio Aguero. Despite missing five games around the Christmas and New Year period the Argentine currently sits on 21 goals and is only two goals away from equalling his best return in the league since joining City. If only he could stay injury free for an entire season he’d easily break the 30 goal barrier. Having gone through a barren spell he has rediscovered his scoring touch and has four in his last three games. City travel to London to face Spurs this weekend, a game that usually means goals, for City. In their last three league encounters City have put 15 past the Londoners. Aguero also enjoys playing Spurs, scoring nine goals in six games against them. Next weekend they play QPR, before facing a Swansea side who have nothing to play for. Basically, what we’re saying is that we foresee goals over the coming weeks for City and Aguero. Those of you who sold him recently may want to consider getting him back!

Oliver Giroud’s popularity has been on the rise in recent weeks and he now features in 16.8% of teams, hardly surprising given the fact that he’s scored nine goals in his last 13 games. As we’ve indicated a number of times this season, the likes of Sanchez, Ozil & Cazorla will undoubtedly create chances for him, it’s up to him to take them. With no striker of note fit & available for DGW34 many fantasy managers will be hoping that the Frenchman remains fit ahead of DGW37. Given Arsenal’s form and remaining fixtures we actually believe that Giroud could be close to essential over the remaining gameweeks. It could be the best £8.6m you spend this season.

Ahead of GW33 we quietly tipped Graziano Pelle to rediscover his early season form and while many of you may have scoffed at us, who’s laughing now?! Having gone without a goal since GW17 the Italian now has three in his last three, while he also picked up three bonus points last time out against Spurs. Southampton’s next three games are all against teams currently embroiled in the relegation battle and while they will make life tough for the Saints they likely to provide Pelle with a couple of opportunities in each game. Having peaked at £8.5m he has now dropped to £7.4 and at this price he could be worth a punt.

Just two points above the drop zone means Aston Villa are far from safe stage with just four games remaining. If they are to survive it looks like it will be thanks largely to the goals of Christian Benteke. Villa have scored 11 goals in their last six games with the Belgian being responsible for seven of them. Villa have a couple of tricky games remaining but at this stage of the season it’s often a good idea to pick players who still have something to play for and with Villa knee deep in the relegation battle Tekkers certainly has something to play for.

Our final pick tip this week is Conor Wickham! Just like Villa & Benteke, Sunderland and Wickham are also fighting for their Premier League survival. However, Wickham isn’t in quite the same form as Benteke although he has scored in each of his last two games. What Wickham does have in his favour is a double gameweek and at just £5.6m he’s worth some consideration ahead of GW37.

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Thanks for reading Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 35. This article was written by Kop Warrior

Follow @KenLyons79

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