I’ve realised that my job is really boring in advance of a double gameweek, or even a series of doubles.
The best advice right now is to be short-term focused and load up on Man United assets for gameweek 22 and keep your City and Arsenal assets for their doubles in gameweek 23. Pretty simple right?
Double gameweek 22 assets
Rashford is clearly the standout pick. He’s super cheap and has scored almost every game since the restart. Shaw and/or Martinez are good picks for the defence. You take the former if you have the money to spare and the latter if you don’t. Or, you consider the risk that Shaw might play CB again as too high so you just get Martinz. Bruno Fernandes has also been good since the restart and since a certain someone left…
Triple captaining Rashford is very tempting this week. He is brilliant, in great form and has two great fixtures. Plus, unlike the next obvious option in Haaland, he doesn’t play against Arsenal.
Double gameweek 23 assets
Naturally, you aren’t prioritising these transfers this week but its good to have it in the back of your mind or even think about it. If you can say, get rid of Reece James and downgrade to Rico Lewis to save yourself a bunch of cash and then bring in Bruno Fernandes then that’s the sort of thing that feels fine.
Starting with City and the FPL God: Erling Haaland is a must own for a double gameweek. Even if the second fixture is against the second best defence in the league. De Bruyne seems like an okay option, his FPL output hasn’t been great since the restart but his underlying numbers suggest he has been underperforming so we can always hold out hope for a reversion to the mean.
Picking a third city asset to buy is hard. With Cancelo now leaving, I think that Lewis is the standout pick. He is only 3.9! In previous seasons we might be concerned with tying up a spot for a 3rd city asset who has a risk of not playing. But with Cancelo gone that risk diminishes. Plus, there isn’t really much else out there.
Riyad Mahrez is the gamblers pick. He has been incredible after Pep decided to consistently start him for what feels like the first time since they signed him. I just don’t trust Pep to not drop him again for no reason, or simply rotate during a double gameweek.
At Arsenal, I think the best player is Saka. He has the most routes to goal and is on pens (though that might change if Jorginho gets himself in the squad). Oedegaard and Nketiah are next in the list – both cheap and in great form. Martinelli worries me but he’s probably not worthing taking out as I’m sure you have other issues to worry about (definitely not for a hit). At the back, Gabriel, Saliba and White all offer cheap ways into a great defence – though White is the cheapest of them all.
Further doubles and blanks
There’s lots of talk about possible blanks and further possible doubles. Its all too much in the air that you have to be a savant or Ben Crellin to work it all out. Personally, I can’t keep this much in my head so I really think its just a simple case of focusing on the short term at the moment.
There is nothing wrong with trying to keep the doubles and blanks in mind but don’t tie yourself up in knots to make the best squad for the future now, its going to be too hard.
So, now that’s done, lets look at something more fun.
Mid-season review
Okay, so its not perfectly mid-season. But this fits our schedule much better.
We are going to go team by team, picking our top fantasy assets before picking our ideal team of the year so far.
So, lets get into it:
Arsenal
Top fantasy Asset: the Ooooed – 117 points
Honourable mention: Bukayo Saka – 109 points
Ask us before the break and I don’t think we would have had Oedegaard as the number one scorer. We called him out earlier in the season as the one to watch, proceeded to get him in our teams and then he did nothing. He’s been incredible since the restart though, even if he’s had a couple of lucky breaks.
Honourable mention goes to Saka, who we think is still the one to own and who neither of us do actually own… He seems to be the one to own because of his goal output putting a higher ceiling than Oedegaard who takes low xG shots from outside the box that go in.
Of course, we both still have Martinelli. He’s also good but not as good as the two above. Trossards move to Arsenal makes us slightly nervous on Martinelli minutes but in no way do we think Tross will start matches ahead of Martinelli.
Jesus was obviously a great pick for the first half of the season but as he picked up that injury until March it’s hard to look past a 6.7mn forward for the top of the league team in Nketiah.
At the back, Ramsdale is probably the one you want the least. Gabriel has the most attacking threat of the defence and Ben White is the cheapest. Saliba is obviously also good. This is the second best defence in the league so having one of these guys going forward feels great. Unless you want to triple up on their attack which might also be the way to go.
Buy ‘em all, they won’t be this cheap again next season.
Aston villa
Top Fantasy Asset: Leon Bailey – 70 points
Honourable mention: Ollie Watkins – 68 points
Bailey is a top troll this year. Remember when there was all the hype about him at the start of the season and then he was useless? Well, with Emery he’s been given a new lease of life (even if it is hard to nail down his returns).
Watkins is the most nailed of the two but certainly not prolific and gets this honourable mention mainly out of the fact there is nobody else.
Mings and Digne and Cash at the back all could have been the mention but the defence just hasn’t solidified as much as we expected when Emery came.
Bournemouth
Top fantasy asset: Phil Billing – 65 points
Honourable mention: Dominic Solanke – 62 points
As you can tell, there aren’t many relevant FPL options that have emerged from Bournemouth. Solanke has made a couple of appearances in some FPL teams but he, along with the rest of the Bournemouth team, appears to be injured currently.
Only 2 clean sheets for the season, means the defence has just been irrelevant.
Brentford
Top fantasy Asset: Ivan Toney – 110 points
Honourable mention: David Raya – 91 points
Toney has been a revelation this year. The guy can’t miss a penalty (unlike FPL rival Mitro). If he only hadn’t gambled on his future… (Get it?)
Raya has been surprisingly good this year even though Brentfords xGc is bad.
Wissa could be interesting if Toney gets banned. We’ve not heard anything yet about it so won’t speculate about the outcome.
Brighton
Top Fantasy Asset: Gross/March – 90 points
Honourable mention: Leandro Trossard (lol) – 84 points
The post-potter era is certainly different. Ferguson and Mitoma have emerged as options under De Zerbi so it’s kind of like we are looking at two different teams (though the former appears injured. Similarly, Solly March seems to have been given a new, more attacking role.
These guys have two games in hand so it seems easy to jump on but we don’t exactly know when they are coming and they still have a possible blank in 25 and 28.
Estupinian has started every game since gameweek 14 and I like him. The defence hasn’t been that solid in general though so I don’t think it’s a great pick.
Trossard gets an honourable mention because it’s funny and it gives me an excuse to talk about him again.
Chelsea
Top fantasy Asset: Mason Mount – 75 points
Honourable mention: Kepa – 63 points
This team is a huge source of fantasy disappointment. There’s no attackers of relevance and only Mason Mount is worth owning and only then at rare times. With their slew of transfer activity maybe they improve but I’d wait to see it before I jump on. (Just as an aside £110mn for a player who has barely played in Enzo Fernandez looks like a disaster waiting to happen).
The defence is the way to go then? Well… Somehow Kepa keeps getting 9 pointers. It’s not because the defence is good, actually the opposite. They concede so many shots that he gets save points. Reece James had us fooled earlier in the season but he’s far too injury prone, rotation prone etc.
Crystal Palace
Top Fantasy Asset: Wilfred Zaha – 78 points
Honourable mention: Eze – 76 points
Yawn. Would be nice to see an actual option here. Zaha has Zaha-ed this season and it’s not reliable (as always). I don’t even really know who to give an honourable mention too so I’ve just given it to three people who have all done something this season but barely seem fantasy relevant. It’s not like it’s a bad squad it’s just meh.
Everton
Top Fantasy Asset: Alex Iwobi – 70 points
Honourable mention: Nathan Patterson – 24 points
Hilariously, Iwobi is the top scorer. He’s not a bad player or anything but he hasn’t done anything in aaaaaaaaages. He just had a good spell earlier in the season.
Honourable mention goes to Nathan Patterson just because, when he is fit, he is a 3.9 starting defender. Don’t actually play him though – he doesn’t get any points.
Personally, I’m very glad they fired Lampard. I think he’s a shit manager playing on the fact that he used to be a good player. But its not just him, the whole structure of the club is a shambles and they have just chucked money without thinking in the past. Let’s see what Dyche does but for the timebeing this is a fantasy deadzone.
Fulham
Top Fantasy Asset: Aleksander Mitrovic – 83 points
Honourable mention: Andreas – 78 points
The penalty misser extraordinare takes the top spot. 11 goals halfway through the season from someone so cheap is brilliant. Toney is winning the battle of the third choice striker but to be fair, Brentford are just better.
Andreas obviously gets the honourable mention. We, and many others, called him at the start of the season as your cheap mid. 2 goals and 7 assists for 4.5 is fantastic.
Leeds
Top Fantasy Asset: Rodrigo – 92 points
Honourable mention: ???
Rodrigo is basically the only option here. And now he’s injured… Is there an honourable mention I’m not thinking of? They’re all crap right?
My heart breaks for Bielsa Bamford. But we don’t really think any of the rest of them are any good in fantasy.
Leicester
Top Fantasy Asset: James Maddison – 78 points
(Dis)Honourable mention: Ward – 69 points
James Maddison has had a lacklustre season but I’m sure he will pop up with a run of consecutive returns at some point this season. It’s just not clear when.
Danny Ward takes the only dishonourable mention. An incredible troll performance from him this year. What an opportunity at the start of the season to own a 4.0 starring goalkeeper. And then he failed to deliver anything until we all transferred him out. Then he proceeded to smash cleans, sucking us all in again. Before proceeding to be crap again. Incredible.
Liverpool
Top Fantasy Asset: Salah – 103 points
Honourable mention: Darwin – 53 points
Is it possible to be the top Fantasy Asset for 5 years and then completely irrelevant? Yes. Salah has broken another thing in FPL. Despite that fact, he’s still the sixth highest scoring mid in the game – the problem is the cost. For cheaper, you can have Harry Kane’s 140 points.
Darwin takes the honourable mention. If you went on his xG he’d be great…
Man City
Top fantasy Asset: Erling Haaland – 169 points
Honourable mention: Pep Fraud-iola
Haaland has four hat-tricks on the season. It’s disgusting. He is possibly the best fantasy asset of all time. On the other hand, he’s also an irrelevant asset and we are playing with ten men every week because this guy is always in your starting lineup and always your captain (almost).
The rest have been subjected to some degree of rotation all year thanks to Pep. De Bruyne is probably the exception but even he hasn’t set the world alight. It’s weird that we only really want or need one player from the team in second in the league. There are plenty of options elsewhere so why bother?
Man United
Top Fantasy Asset: Marcus Rashford – 108 points
Honourable mention: Bruno Fernandes – 87 points
We called Rashy at the start of the season so it’s a pleasure to write this sentence. Of course, he’s only been explosive since somebody left… But regardless he’s been pretty good all year.
This honourable mention is a tough one. De Gea has been good, Shaw has been consistent but we’ve gone for the high upside in Bruno Fernandes. With a certain someone gone, we think he will be a great asset in the second half of the season.
And just a note, Casemiro has been hilariously good. It’s hilarious because Joe’s dad owns him and keeps beating Joe with him even though we have been slagging him off. It’s not gonna last surely?
Newcastle
Top Fantasy Asset: Kieran Tripper – 141 points
Honourable mention: Sven Botman – 85 points
Kieran Trippier. What a hero. I remember selling him for bad fixtures at the start of the season. What an idiot I am. Sven Ro-Botman is a Fantasy robot (get the joke now?) that only gets 6 points every week. Nick Pope could be the honourable mention but he’s just a bit expensive for what he is. Don’t hate a defensive triple up though right now…
Almiron did the thing we all feared and proceeded to fall off a cliff. Sad but expected.
Nottingham Forest
Top Fantasy Asset: Dean Henderson – 82 points
Honourable mention: Morgan Gibbs-White – 72 points
Dean Henderson just loves an FPL return. He plays for one of the worst teams and defences in the league but still manages these numbers. Can’t wait for him to be relevant in a good squad one day.
Gibbs-White gets our honourable mention for being the next highest scoring. There isn’t much to say though as he’s pretty similar in price to your Martinelli’s of the world so he’s irrelevant.
Southampton
Top Fantasy Asset: JWP – 75 points
Honourable mention: erm?
I didn’t think there would be a team I would want to write about less than Crystal Palace but here they are. Ward-Prowse is obviously the man, as we all knew he would be, and is a great FPL draft pick. But let’s be real, this whole team is shit.
Spurs
Top Fantasy Asset: Harold Kane – 140 points
Honourable mention: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg – 79 points
Kane somehow keeps scoring despite the rest of the team being dreadful. 140 points is huge given how crap they look.
And if you need proof of this, look at the next highest scoring fantasy asset – Hojbjerg. Hardly a prolific goalscoring threat but for only 5.5 he’s not been bad value. Especially when you consider he costs less than half of what Son costs for five more points.
West Ham United
Top Fantasy Asset: Jarrod Bowen – 76 points
Honourable mention: Lukasz Fabianski – 73 points
West Ham have been so disappointing this year. Anotonio and Bowen were staples of our teams last year, but this year they’ve been found out and have only shown flashes of the brilliance we previously saw. Bowen somehow still ends up the top asset and Antonio has less than 60 points.
Perhaps unsurprisingly to long-term FPL fans, Fabianski is the second best asset. He’s a great keeper, can make saves and occasionally save a pen. I just wish he was cheaper…
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Top Fantasy Asset: Jose Sa – 82 points
Honourable mention: Daniel Podence – 68 points
It’s like an even shittier version of Chelsea here. The defence isn’t good but somehow Jose Sa is the top scorer for the team.
Similarly to Chelsea, the attack is also woeful. None of the strikers have more than 15 points… So, Podence takes an honourable mention by virtue of the fact there is nobody else…
Well…
There you have it. Reading through this, I’m reminded how fun FPL can be, even in crap seasons like this.