Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 38

Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 38

11, 24, 49, 8, 33, 2 & 9. What are they I hear you ask? Well they’re my numbers for the EuroMillions draw on Friday night. You’re probably wondering why I’ve shared my numbers with you? Well I’ve got about as much chance of predicting what will happen in GW38 as I do of winning the EuroMillions so I’ve decided to share my numbers with you all! If I can give you one piece of advice ahead of the final day of the season it is that you should try and ship out any players who definitely will not play on the final day of the season. A number of managers will most certainly take the opportunity to play one or two of their fringe players, so it is extremely important that you have a strong bench as it will be needed. As it’s the final gameweek of the season we have decided to change the tips article a little this week and rather than simply picking a number of players we have instead picked a team for GW38. There were no budget constraints adhered to and we haven’t picked any substitutes, we have simply picked a team of players whom we feel can deliver on Sunday afternoon. We hope you enjoy it!

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Goalkeeper

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[/three_fourth]There were quite a few contenders for the goalkeeping spot such as Kasper Schmeichel who has conceded just three goals in his last six games, all of which came against Chelsea, while he has kept clean sheets in each of the five other games. Thibaut Courtois was also considered as Chelsea have conceded just 31 goals to date, keeping 17 clean sheets over the course of the season and we feel that they’ll be eager to go out on a high note in front of their fans. However, in the end our choice was David Ospina. Having put three past the champions on Monday night we feel that West Brom will have taken that as their cue to pack their bags and head for the airport, and therefore we reckon the Gunners defence will have a relatively easy time of it on Sunday afternoon. With the Cup final just around the corner we’re pretty sure that Wenger will choose to rest a couple of players on the final day of the season, the problem is we cannot be sure who it is he will rest. However with Wojciech Szczesny having played in all of the Cup games barring the 3rd round Arsene will surely start him in the final in what is likely to be his last game for the club, meaning Ospina is a safe enough bet to start GW38.

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Defenders

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[/three_fourth]As we have highlighted above, with 17 clean sheets and just 31 goals conceded Chelsea have the best defence in the league as we head into the final day of the season. Their form since they won the league has been rather patchy to say the least, but that’s hardly surprising and apparently it wasn’t their fault they lost to West Brom on Monday night, rather it was the fault of their rivals for allowing them to win the title so early! Jose has already stated that he will play his strongest team on the final day of the season as they are the players who won Chelsea the title. Opponents Sunderland have also just secured their PL status so whether they will be up for this or not is a different matter. With this in mind we have decided to double up on the Chelsea defence and unsurprisingly our tips are Branislav Ivanovic and John Terry. Ivan is currently the highest scoring defender in the FPL with 177 points although he leads Terry by just two points. The Serb is always a good bet for some attacking returns thanks to his constant forays up the right wing, while he is also a threat from set pieces and this has resulted in him chipping in with four goals and six assists this season. Should Terry play the entire game against Sunderland he will become only the 2nd outfield player to win the Premier League and play every minute of the season (answers on a postcard as to who the first player was). He might now be 34 but he has had possibly his best ever season and if it wasn’t for the fact he’s such a pikey he might even have had a chance of winning the PFA player of the season. Like Ivanovic he’s always a threat from set pieces, scoring five times this season with two of them coming in his last four games.

Between gameweek’s 20 & 30 Leicester City won just one game and following their 4-3 defeat to Spurs in GW30 if someone had suggested that going into the final day of the season the Foxes would be 14th in the table and safe from relegation we’d all have had a good chuckle at their expense. But this is exactly the case and this has been built on a defence which has conceded just three goals in their last six games, keeping five clean sheets in that period. Their defence has been expertly marshalled by club captain Wes Morgan who has weighed in with two goals and an assist in his last nine games. This weekend they face a QPR side who have managed just six goals in their last six games and two of those were against Newcastle! Aside from the two Chelsea lads and Morgan we also considered a Villa defender as they play Burnley, but decided against it as they are likely to rest a few with the Cup final on the horizon and the fact that they conceded six against Southampton didn’t help either!

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Midfielders

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[/three_fourth]The first midfielder into our GW38 team is none other than City’s David Silva who with a goal and five assists in his last three games is clearly the leagues form midfielder. The Spaniard had a slow start to the season, but following his return to the team from injury in GW16 he has picked up 10 goals and 10 assists to bring his tally to 12 for both goals and assists, while he has also picked up 28 bonus points to bring his total points to 188 which happens to be his best ever FPL points haul. Since losing the Manchester derby back in GW32 City have gone on a five match winning streak and are perhaps playing their best football of the season, it’s no coincidence that following that result Chelsea had the league all but wrapped up meaning City were basically playing without any pressure for the first time this season. City wrap things up this weekend with a home tie against Southampton and with the Saints having secured European football for next season we suspect it will be an open game which will suit Silva & Co. If you fancy a punt you could go for Yaya Toure who is likely to play his last game for City and will be keen to go out on a high.

The next name on the teamsheet is Chelsea’s golden boy Eden Hazard. The Belgian goes into the final game of the season with 14 goals & nine assists, meaning he is just one assist short of last season’s tally. He is however 24 points up on last season and this is thanks to a phenomenal 40 bonus points. In previous seasons Hazard was never known for his consistency rather for hitting those really big scores, but this season he has become Mr Consistent hitting double figures for a gameweek on nine occasions, and he has certainly become Chelsea’s talisman. He has unquestionably taken his foot off the gas in recent weeks, scoring just once in his last five games but as we have alluded to above we fancy Chelsea to try and turn on the style in front of their own fans on Sunday afternoon. If they manage to do so we suspect the Belgian will once again be central to everything they do.

The inclusion of this next player in our GW38 team might surprise one or two of you. Why? Well he’s only got two goals and an assist to date and he hasn’t managed 90 minutes even once over the course of the season. We are of course referring to Arsenal’s Theo Walcott! None of us can predict what a voyeur like Arsene Wenger is ever going to do, although it is surely safe to assume that he will rest at least one or two key players ahead of the Cup final. Should Wenger choose to do this Theo is likely to be afforded a start, particularly as he can play in midfield or up front. If you feel the need to take one final gamble in the pursuit of glory then Wally deserves some serious consideration. He features in just 0.2% of teams and we all know he can produce the goods on his day.

The final midfielder to make our team is Gylfi Sigurdsson. Again it possibly appears to be a strange inclusion as the Swans can no longer finish in a European spot and as such have nothing to play for, however nor do their opponents Crystal Palace. In such a game you would usually favour the home side but not in this one, since Alan Pardew took over back in January Palace have taken just 10 points from nine home games while they’ve taken 19 from nine games on the road. Gylfi started off the season in great form with a goal and four assists in his first three games, unfortunately things slowed down after that but he has managed seven goals and 10 assists over the course of the season which isn’t bad for a player who started the season priced at £6.0m. With two goals and an assist in his last five games he has shown some decent form, so don’t be at all surprised should he get himself on the scoresheet on Sunday afternoon. Others considered for a midfield berth were United’s Ashley Young but with Hull battling for their lives we decided against it. We also considered Steven Gerrard as a sentimental pick but following last week’s display from Liverpool sentimentality was thrown out the window!

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Forwards

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[/three_fourth]When he’s on form he’s unquestionably the best striker in the league and one of the best in Europe. When he’s on form he is close to being a ‘must have’, unfortunately he can’t be relied upon to remain injury free for any lengthy periods of time. We are of course talking about City’s explosive Argentine, Sergio Aguero. In fairness to Sergio his injury record has been pretty good this season, he’s missed just five games through injury which is a significant improvement on the past two seasons. This has resulted in him having his best ever season in English football and he currently sits on 25 goals and 10 assists. More importantly he heads into the final game of the season in superb form, he’s registered eight goals and three assists in his last six games. Aguero & Silva have between them carried City to 2nd in the league this season, you do wonder would things have been different if a few of their teammates had stood up to the plate!

As we all know the final day of the season is an absolute lottery so our next pick is someone who has previously turned in a massive performance on the final day of the season, enter stage left Romelu Lukaku. The final day of the 2012/13 season was supposed to be about some Scottish bloke who was manager of United at the time but Lukaku hadn’t read the script knocking in a hat-trick for West Brom in a 5-5 draw with United. Lukaku’s Everton square up to a Spurs side who have lost three of their last six in trying their upmost to finish outside of the Europa League spots. It would appear that Spurs have failed to manage this, but that’s hardly surprising as Spurs specialise in failure. Anyway back to Lukaku. While we’re not expecting him to score a hat-trick this time around, he has shown some form of late with two goals and an assist in his last three games, and therefore we won’t be at all surprised should he find the back of the net on Sunday.

The final spot in our GW38 team is another punt in the form of Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse. Through a combination of injuries and a lengthy suspension the Senegalese striker has just 1068 minutes on the pitch this season. However this hasn’t stopped him scoring 11 times and to put this into perspective these 11 goals account for nearly 30% of all of the Geordies goals this season. Having undergone knee surgery while serving a seven match ban he has returned ahead of schedule in a bid to help save the club from relegation. Unfortunately he appears to be less than 100% fit. So why have we included him? It’s simple really, he’s a goalscorer. The Geordies know that a win over West Ham will guarantee their safety and we suspect they’ll do everything they can to get Cisse into the starting XI. Whether he starts or not we’re backing him to score against a West Ham team who are more interested in working on their tans than playing football. Check in with us on Friday afternoon when Cookie will hopefully have an update. We also considered Christian Benteke but with Villa’s top flight safety secured for yet another season we expect he might be rested ahead of the Cup final. With a goal in each of his last two games Bafetimbi Gomis was also considered but having picked Siggy in midfield we opted against doubling up on Swansea.

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And finally, my Oscars moment…I’d like to thank God, for giving me the strength to put up with the grief I get from…on second thoughts this is probably not the best place to get into all that! In all seriousness I’d like to thank all of you for making the site what it is. Unfortunately I don’t get on the site as much as I’d these days like but I’m always lurking and I love the fact that the site is always such a friendly place with some banter thrown in along the way. I’d like to thank our group of writers, you know who you are and you’ll be namechecked individually in our thank you article, but suffice to say we couldn’t do what we do without you. Finally I’d like to thank my partners in crime, Cookie, Init, Floydeth & Mito…I could blab on here but Cookie & Mito probably have a bet on how long my ‘thank you’ will be, so I’ll just say Ta! 😉

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Thanks for reading Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 38. This article was written by Kop Warrior

Follow @KenLyons79

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WooFBet

We would like to remind you that our official partners, WooFBet, are again running a whole host of prize competitions for DGW38, which will please many of you who are slowly building a lovely retirement nest egg, while others continue to persevere in the hope that this week will be their week! If you haven’t done so yet we recommend you get yourselves over to WooFBet.com as this week they have a whopping €3,000 in guaranteed pots. You also have the option to create your own tournaments and head-to-head challenges. Choose your rules and buy-in fee, and invite friends or leave it open for the public to challenge you.

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Don’t forget to vote in this week’s Captain Poll

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