It’s getting down to the business end of the Fantasy Premier League season and there’s still time for one final push to move up in your leagues and finish as high as possible.
With just 11 weeks remaining in the competition managers must remain vigil and alert to the best transfers and opportunities to utilise their remaining chips.
Whether you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on a triple captain and figuring out the best time to deploy the new assistant manager chip the basics remain the same and selecting in form players is the true way to build high-scoring squads.
There were some surprising inclusions in the team of the week from Gameweek 27 including Ispwich’s Jaden Philogene and Everton’s Jake O’Brien but other options were almost guaranteed to notch up big scores.
Below we’ve selected five players who we think could come good this weekend and may be useful for the weeks ahead:
Goalkeeper – Mark Flekken (Brentford, £4.4m)
A cheaper option which may prove useful to differentiate your team from those around you in the league. Clean sheets have been hard to come by for most goalkeepers this season with plenty of goals being scored left and right in the English top flight.
Flekken is is good form though having shut out both West Ham and Leicester in two of Brentford’s three most recent games (and he only conceded one against Everton). The main draw here is the Bees next couple of opponents. Aston Villa will be a tough test but they will have one eye on their Champions League last-16 second leg next week and may rest players.
Gameweek 29 sees Brentford take on Bournemouth and, though the Cherries are playing well, both these games could end with cleansheets for Flekken if he continues his good form.
Defender – Marc Cucurella (Chelsea, £5.1m)
I would usually advise against selecting a player who massively excelled in the previous week – Marc Cucurella scored 15 points versus Southampton thanks to a goal and a clean sheet – but I’m making an exception here. That’s because Chelsea face Leicester City who will play right into Cucurella’s hands.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side have conceded eight goals in their last three matches and Chelsea’s flowing style should be more than enough to hurt them. Cucurella is Enzo Maresca first choice left-back and the Blues will be favoured to keep a clean sheet. His bombing overlapping runs may also bring points from an attacking sense so it’s worth a risk bringing him in to see if he can replicate last week’s form.
Midfielder – Hwang Hee-Chan (Wolves, £6.1m)
This choice is a big risk. Hee-Chan has only played a total of 69 minutes across Wolves’ last six matches and hasn’t featured in any of the last three games. However, Matheus Cunha is serving a two-game suspension and Goncalo Guedes hasn’t fully recovered from a knee injury meaning Hee-Chan should feature as an attacking threat.
Two goals and one assist this season don’t breed a lot of confidence but under Vitor Pereira Wolves have been creating chances to score and they’ll do so again against Everton. Thinking longer term, Wolves face Southampton next week where there’ll be even more opportunities to impress and at just £6.1m Hee-Chan is a cheaper option which not many will look at.
Forward – Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest, £7.2m)
Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood has been the surprise pick of the season and should already be in your team!
He’s been one of the more reliable forwards and has accummulated 170 points so far beating Erling Haaland and Alexander Isak. This week’s opponents are Manchester City who could take Forest’s spot in third if they win. Wood is the target man and will play in the match, probably for the full 90 minutes unless Forest are cruising.
City have been vulnerable of late and Wood has proven he can score against big clubs with goals against Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea already to his name. Forest also face Ipswich in the next gameweek so if Wood blanks, he should recoup those points agains the struggling side in the long term.
Forward – Beto (Everton, £5m)
It feels like a no-brainer to select the Everton striker at this point. 40 points tallyed in his last six games at an average of 6.7 per game is a fine return for someone so cheap. David Moyes seems to have unlocked Beto’s eye for goal, or at the very least found him some decent shooting boots, with five goals scored in his last five games.
A blank week against Brentford last time out may point to his purple patch being over but with Wolves missing players and Everton want to propel themselves up the league table Beto could be the key to the Toffees being successful or not.
