FPL Week 24 + 25 – Fantasy Premier League Preview – The Own Goal

Following on from our semi popular Premier League predictions, we introduce our weekly EPL Fantasy preview – The Own Goal FPL Week 24 & 25

Each week we’ll attempt to give a quick round-up of some of the points of interest in Fantasy Premier League.

We used to do a podcast through our Fantasy United team, but who’s got time for that these days.

So enjoy The Own Goal FPL Week24 & 25 preview. We’ve combined the midweek and following weekend into one.

Or cut out the middle man and go straight to the official FPL website here.

Disclaimer: We are Ipswich Town fans, so have no prejudice against any side in this division. Or the next, come August 2019.

WHO’S HOT

MO SALAH (Last Week 15pts – Form 10.0) the man knows how to find the net, and it doesn’t matter how the goals go in. He and Van Dijk are the difference at the moment. It’s a big price tag, but it brings a big return. Has scored double figures in six of his last eight games. Those two games were against both Manchester sides.

MARCUS RASHFORD (Last Week 8pts – Form 9.5)  Talking of Manchester, Rashford is leading the charge for Utd with a fine recent run. A good, cheap striker scoring goals is the perfect combination. Scored in his last four league games.

LEROY SANE (Last Week 12pts – Form 7.8) Hard to know which Man City midfielder to feature here, but Sane is doing quite the job for Man City right now. 30 points in his last three games.

CRYSTAL PALACE  AWAY FORM – beaten Man City and Wolves away from in recent away games, and scored three goals against Liverpool at Anfield. Scored eight goals in the last three away games. Have only scored six goals at home all season.

DIEGO JOTA (Last Week 19pts – Form 5.0) – Those loyal, savvy, or lucky players who ahd the Wolves forward were rewarded with a hat trick against Leicester and big points. Could this be the turning point, or will his big swag O goals sucker a few in for his next lean run? He did score 11pts in Week 16 (1 Goal 1 Assist), the last time he started and played 90 mins.

WHO STINKS

HUDDERSFIELD AT HOME – face Everton at home (who have their own troubles) but have lost six in a row at home. Need the new manager bounce, but hard to see where the goals / points will come from.’

FA CUP 4th ROUND LOSERS – although they named squads not at full strength, but Everton and West Ham should be beating lowly Championship club Millwall and last place third tier club AFC Wimbledon respectively. The big worry is for Everton who may start to worry about a second half fade with Marco Silva. FPL favourite Richarlisson has scored only 2pts in his last 4 matches.

FPL WEEK 24- THE BIG QUICK QUESTIONS

Do you race Son back into your team straight after his arrival back from the Asian Cup? Looks like they’ll need him after going down to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup.

Will the Manchester United juggernaut ever end.

After conceding three goals at home to Crystal Palace, is Liverpool the defensive player certainty of earlier in the season? Especially if Van Dijk is in doubt. Leicester did score three against the usually tight Wolves last week.

Do you take Higuain? Read on for our thoughts.

FPL WEEK 24 – HIGUA-IN OR OUT?

The Argentine International has made the big loan from Milan / Juventus to Chelsea with a view to going permanent. But big moves in January don’t always work out. Higuain is a great players, but whose sweet spot of form was a little while ago. We’ll go through the pros and cons.

Higua-IN

• His best season was under Sarri at Napoli in 15/16, where he scored an incredible 36 goals with 2 assists.
• He is quite reliable injury-wise, he rarely misses games.
• His arrival means that Hazard could be pushed into his favoured position. Where he scores points.

Higua-OUT

• He has only scored 6 goals this year, and one goal since having a shocker against his parent club Juventus. He missed a penalty, then lost his mind, then got sent off.
• January Transfer don’t often work when buying strikers – look at the examples. Although it appears to work for defenders with Laporte and Van Dijk among the recent mid season transfer for Man City and Liverpool.
  • Fernando Torres @ Chelsea for 50M
  • Andy Carroll @ Liverpool for 35M
  • Wilfried Bony @ Man City for 27M
  • Juan Cuadrado @ Chelsea for 22M
• He has been accused of going missing in big games.
• There is also the thought that he might not be able to handle the pace of the EPL.

Verdict 

At 9.5M he may well be worth the punt. He should score more than Olivier Giroud, but there are doubts. At a minimum he should allow Eden Hazard to move back to his preferred position, so perhaps the key is to get Hazard into your side. If you want to be different take both. Chelsea have Bournemouth (A) and Huddersfield (H) next.

STAT ATTACK

Potneital points Higuain would have scored tansferring his goals, assists, and cards from Italy. We haven’t includedBonus points of course. Too hard.

STAT ATTACK

His current points would be around 51 (not incl bonus), so this is the selected company he could be keeping. out of the forwards. To see if the 9.5 price tag is worth the risk

Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) – 64pts – Cost 6.7
Ayoze Perez (Newcastle) – 63pts – Cost 6.3
Ashley Barnes (Burnley) – 57pts – Cost 5.6
Gabriel Jesus (Man City) – 56pts – Cost 10.2
Chicarito (West Ham) – 51pts – Cost 6.1
Chris Wood (Burnley) – 50pts – Cost 6.2
Dominic Calvert-Lewin – 48pts – Cost 5.3
Alvaro Morata (Chelsea) – 46pts – Cost 8.4
Olivier Giroud (Chelsea) – 41pts – Cost 7.7

FPL WEEK 24 – SIBLING RIVALRIES

With two rounds so close together some of the decisions come down to picking one player out of a group from the same team. Here then are a few choice internal battles for the new few games.

Verdict: Can you take Son v Watford and Eriksen v Newcastle?

Verdict: Tightarse says take Sane.

Verdict: Neither

FPL WEEK 24 – MIDWEEK FORM + POST FA CUP FORM

Midweek games don’t come around very often, so we thought it would be interesting to see if some teams perform better than others. We also have stats on teams performances straight after the third and fourth round of the FA Cup given this round follows the weekend of FA Cup clashes. Just in case you were in two minds about 

STAT ATTACK – MIDWEEK FORM FROM LAST 5 SEASONS

Each team’s average points per game listed.

STAT ATTACK – FORM AFTER FA CUP ROUND 3/4 SINCE 2010

FPL WEEK 24 – CAPTAIN? MY CAPTAIN?

Eden Hazard – six goals in seven against Bournemouth, but a wait and see with Higuain coming on board.

Mo Salah – playing Leicester at home, who are hard to predict. Salah’s ability to find the net isn’t.

Paul Pogba/Marcus Rashford – Man Utd playing Burnley at home should give Pogba, Rashford and co more chance at serious points. Burnley are coming off a 5-0 thrashing in the FA Cup, Man Utd were impressive beating Arsenal with their “second string” side.

Sane/Sterling – away to Newcastle who have proved a little tougher to beat against the top sides than their league position shows. Perhaps not the day for these two. 

Sergio Aguero – A real left field choice here, as not sure he will even play – but he does have 14 goals and 4 assists against Newcastle in 10 games.

We suggest: Mo Salah / Paul Pogba / Sergio Aguero

FPL WEEK 25 – MAN CITY + EVERTON BONUS GAME

Premier League Week 25 brings the first double up for two teams, as Manchester City and Everton face on a Wednesday evening UK time. 

So, the question is whether you load up for one game week.

In the case of Man City, you are mad in general if you don’t have at least two of their players at the moment, so adding an extra City player makes sense for EPL week 25 and beyond. Perhaps bring in Aguero with Kane absent, or grab a little extra Silva, or if you can afford it, both Sane and Sterling.

Man City’s two games are Arsenal (H) and Everton (A), both are capable of allowing some big scores against them. Recently, refer Spurs for Everton, and Liverpool for Arsenal.

As for Everton, given they are seemingly in a little bit of a drift form-wise, it would certainly not be too wise to load up on Everton players. If you already have Richarlisson, Sigurdsson or Digne, probably not a bad idea to keep them and hope for more points than usual. 

Although given that the two games in Gameweek 25 are Wolves (H) and Man City (H), you probably can’t expect to big a glut of points.

FPL WEEK 24 – OUR TEAM

You can’t give off tips without putting your money where your mouth is, so our team details are here for your information. Feel free to pick our team apart at your leisure. We used the wildcard this week in honour of Harry Kane’s injury.

FPL – Electric Higuita Exp

FPL WEEK 24 STATS AND STUFF

Here’s some slightly useful information about upcoming games for each team. Who has the most games against the current Top 6 and Bottom 6. Following on from that, we have designed a measure to rank each team’s next 6 games in difficulty. Using opposition ranking, points, factoring in home and away fixtures.

With thanks to Transfermarkt for and WhoScored most of the above stats.