Fantasy Premier League – Gameweek 17 Review and 18 Preview

It’s good to be back. I loved this round of Premier League games, probably because I got to watch 5 full games, which doesn’t always happen.

We only have a short break between this week and next, so I am merging everything into one article. We will do the top talking points, look at the matches, and do a quick preview of fixtures and buy/sell.

Top Talking Points

• How many dead teams are left?

With the break followed by the restart, it seems likely that a lot of people have abandoned their teams. Gabriel Jesus is still owned by 35% of players, for example, and I think we can reasonably say that all of those are dead.

This is great if you want to improve your OR (which we all do) – a third of teams are no longer playing so, in theory, a well-managed team should be able to climb up the ranks.

• Reece-onable doubt

Reece James punished his owners with a 53^rd minute substitution and added insult to injury by getting, well, by being injured. He’s now out for three to four weeks, so he’s got to go from your squads.

• Mi-troll-vic

By contrast, Aleksander Mitrovic tricked us all into thinking he was injured and then smashed out 15 points.

He is borderline essential going forward, with a lovely fixture at home against Southampton, and a double in 19 making him the de facto captaincy choice. Leicester and Chelsea don’t have awful defences, but with 10 goals and 2 assists in 17 games I think he’s got a reasonable chance of a return in two games.

• Gakpo

After some good old-fashioned international duty tampering, Gakpo has signed for Liverpool.

Gakpo: "Van Dijk called me in the past days, while talks were on. He told me the club is a really big, I think that also the family side is very important for me because I'm a family guy". 🔴 #LFC

"Virgil said only good things about Liverpool, he wanted me to join the club". pic.twitter.com/Fm1fgjXG4x

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 29, 2022

I don’t really understand why they need another attacker. The midfield is where they need strengthening. It makes me think that not only won’t he be a great option, but he’ll also make it harder to trust basically any winger/forward except Salah.

• Premium Wars

Kane, Salah, De Bruyne and Haaland. It was a key debate as to who you went for and how many before this week.

Kane did what he has been doing all season and barely had a shot on goal, but scored anyway. Salah had lots more chances and finished with one goal and one assist. Haaland of course scored twice, and could have had more.

The only one not to get points was Kevin. It’s only been one week, but it worries me that Kev has these games in him – super-involved, but frequently providing the assist to the assist.

Gameweek 17 Review

With the main talking points addressed, let’s jump into some speedy round-ups for all the Premier League gameweek 17 action.

Man United 3-0 Notts Forest

A thumping victory over Forest for the post-Ronaldo Man United team might not confirm suspicions that they will be world beaters again, but it’s a good start.

Martial and Rashford delivered, but Bruno wasn’t that great. They have two good fixtures before the two worst fixtures in the league, so I’d probably hold if I had any of them… but Martial is a tantalisingly easy move to Mitro…

Forest remain awful. A great team to target. No options worth buying.

Brentford 2-2 Spurs

Another typical Spurs performance… going down two goals and then somehow getting back into it.

Of course Kane scored one of the goals. Hojbjerg got the second, but he’s not an option. It was good to see Kulusevski back, and he provided an assist that was chalked off by the fantasy gods for some reason. They didn’t have Lloris, so perhaps the defence improves when he returns… but I doubt it will be a huge change, as Spurs have been conceding first all season, so I am not that interested in their defence.

Ivan Toney scored possibly his last ever professional goal, pending a mega-ban by the FA.

Okay fine, I’m joking. I know nothing about what will happen, and this is pure speculation, but that investigation means I have no interest in him whatever he does in the near future, and neither should you. He was great in the first half of the season, but I think the sensible play is to wait and see how the investigation goes. He has until 4^th Jan to present evidence, so I think we will see something happen in January.

Villa 1-3 Liverpool

Nunez took a lot of criticism for failing to convert any of his many chances. He’s certainly not Kane levels of finishing, he needs a lot of chances to convert. BUT, the good thing is he got lots of chances. The fixtures going forward are okay, and if Liverpool continue to perform like this then I still think he’s a good shout long-term.

The Liverpool defence was crap, but Trent and Robbo were whipping in balls with abandon. If they play like this going forward, and tighten up at the back, then I love them. We just need to see it first.

So, what to do with Villa assets?

If you listened to my advice, you had no intention of playing them in the first two weeks. Going forward, I thought they looked pretty good. Watkins scored and Bailey was involved and played most of the game, so remains a good cheap enabler. At the back, Villa looked appalling. I was so surprised given that Emery had all of them at home over the break. I didn’t expect them to beat Liverpool, but they were just chaotic. I am now waiting to see whether they can improve before considering any of their defensive assets.

Arsenal 2-1 West Ham

Despite my worries that Arsenal wouldn’t be the same without Jesus, they delivered. Nketiah was nowhere near as good as Jesus, as he just doesn’t have the same ability to pass and move. He looked good as a poacher, as usual, but that was it, and that makes me nervous for his minutes. That being said, he took his chance beautifully, and he’s probably cheap enough that you feel good about the risk to value ratio.

Saka was brilliant. Probably the best player in the game. He had a goal chalked off for offside in the second minute, and eventually got on the scoresheet after a mis-hit shot from The Ood (Odegaard – I’m trying to make The Ood happen) who was also good. They were also reasonably solid at the back – the clean sheet was only lost because of a silly decision by Saliba that led to the penalty.

Apart from the penalty, West Ham were not threatening at all. Bowen got on the ball a lot but couldn’t really do anything, and Antonio spent most of his time on the pitch buying fouls (very successfully I might add).

Defensively West Ham were fine – not good but not awful. They were just outclassed, and thank God for that, because they really didn’t deserve a result. Basically, as before, I don’t think there are any options to consider from this team and I hate watching them.

Leicester 0-3 Newcastle

Leicester didn’t have a shot on target until ten minutes from the end, so that should tell you something about how lacklustre the attack was. Their defence seems to have gone from awful, to amazing, back to awful again.

Newcastle were brilliant once more. Trippier and Almiron remain the standout picks. It’s hard for many of us to wrap our heads around Almiron being good, but just don’t overthink it and keep him in your team. Wilson had a mysterious illness which pissed a lot of managers off, but that doesn’t mean Wood is worth buying as Isak should be back soon.

Palace 0-3 Fulham

Palace were awful – even Viera said so. Defensively poor, and nothing really happening in attack, although since they ended the game with only 9 men perhaps we can give them some slack. Zaha was playing OOP striker, but even then you can’t be interested on the basis of this performance.

Business as usual for Fulham. Mitrovic – as discussed earlier – is great. Pereira remains an easy choice for your backup/rotation midfielder – he was involved again in this game, and nearly scored with a free kick.

Southampton 0-3 Brighton

Southampton continued to be woeful. This is one of the defences to target.

Brighton remain good, but it’s tough to find the right pick. Trossard played as an OOP striker again, but didn’t look particularly threatening. If you have him though, hold him, because I have enough faith that he will play himself back into form.

Everton 1-2 Wolves

Both of these sides are hard avoids for me. Neither looked good, the defending at the end for Everton was just pathetic. Wolves had a couple of nice moves, but there are no options there that are reliable enough.

The only places to look for either side are the budget enablers of Patterson and Bueno. In this case, both got 0 points, and – as a kicker – Bueno showed why we shouldn’t trust him and went off on the 59th minute.

Leeds 1-3 Man City

The Leeds defence remains poor, even gifting a goal to City. It’s hard to judge them too harshly given the opposition… but they were also shipping plenty of goals before the World Cup against worse teams.

Man City were brilliant as usual. They just plugged away for 90 minutes and took three goals. Foden didn’t start, so I was pleased I called that correctly – I remain distrustful of his minutes, but I guess I would hold him for a week if I had him. It’s likely he starts the next game. Cancelo also didn’t start, so I didn’t get that one right, but this is only the second time this season he has come off the bench. Therefore, I’m hopeful he starts to play 90 or 60 again.

FPL Gameweek 18 Preview

Right, that’s enough about the past. Where do we go looking forward?

The Five Week Fixture Ticker

It’s hard to look past Mitrovic. He’s probably going to be my first transfer in after the mid-season break. I might wait until next week, just because I don’t mind playing Martial against Wolves, but I think Mitro at home to Southampton is a better shout.

I hope you are already tripled up on Man City, because they are obviously class, but this is just a reminder to do so. I don’t think Foden would come into my team because of the fear of rotation, but Cancelo and Kev are both fine for your non-Haaland spots.

Chelsea are just really uninteresting. They aren’t that good, and with James out I don’t fancy anyone at the back besides Kepa, because he is so cheap. Mount is fine, but he’s not very exciting.

In terms of Spurs, Kane and Kulusevski are the only ones of interest.

Southampton could be top of this ticker and I still wouldn’t want any of their players.

Should I Sell?

• Reece James – Yes. He’s out for ages.
• Dalot – Yes. No idea when he is back but hamstring injuries are tough to get over,
• Trossard – No. Unless you’re upgrading the spot, just hold him. He’s only 7.1, and plays OOP striker.
• Maddison – Yes. Injured for God knows how long.
• Zaha – Yes. Playing OOP striker but still… He’s not consistent enough. Fine to hold against Bournemouth, but the fixtures are terrible after that.
• Darwin – No. He’s gonna continue to get loads of chances… and he might miss 90%, but because he gets so many he will score points and maybe even haul one week.

Should I Buy?

• Cucurella – Meh. I don’t love it. I doubt he plays both games in the double and the defence isn’t great.
• Robertson – No. He is too expensive until that defence is solid.
• Shaw – Shaw, why not? Get it!? Yeah, I like him, but I’d prefer to see him at wing back and not centre back.
• Rashford – I don’t think so. You will want to sell him by gameweek 20 anyway, because they play City and Arsenal… He’s a good player though, so a good hold if you’ve got him.
• Almiron – Yes. Don’t overthink it. He’s the cheat code this year.
• Odegaard – Hard one. I like him and he’s exciting, but I think there are three other players at Arsenal I would rather have – Martinelli, Saka and a defender.
• Mitrovic – Yes. Great player and an upcoming double. Practically fixture-proof.
• Toney – No. Wait to see the outcome of the investigation.
• Havertz – No. The doubles don’t make him much better. We have two seasons of data to know he’s not that great an FPL asset (despite Joe and me both thinking he was gonna be class when he arrived).

My Moves

I really want Mitro… it’s just whether I transfer him in now or next week.

The thing is, he is clearly playing with a bit of an injury, and is on the edge of being booked. So, I think the sensible thing is to let him play in 18 and see whether he gets injured or banned before bringing him in. I don’t want to use two transfers to get him in and then out straight away. Plus, this is what I would normally do at the start of the season – hold for one week for the benefit of a mini-wildcard the next week – and this feels like the start of the season.

The trouble is, I think he is more reliable for a return this week than Martial, so maybe I will get rid… One for deadline day, I think…