A Glorious Return – Our FPL Gameweek 17 Super Mega Preview

We are back baby! Another half a season of disappointment awaits us in Fantasy Premier League! 

A lot has happened, and we are all on a free wildcard up to the deadline (no need to activate it). Price changes are still not happening, but be careful on your tinkers as you can still lose value if you transfer a player out. 

With that in mind we have a Fantasy Premier League mega preview for you, going through all the options, talking about fixtures, yellow cards, team structure and the effect of the World Cup on players.

Before we get into all that though, lets look at the key talking points… 

5 Talking Points 

1) Cristia-NO Ronaldo

With Ronaldo leaving United under a dark cloud, Man United assets suddenly look more interesting.

Rashford could be the starting forward playing out of position at only 6.7, though Martial started there in the League Cup and he is similarly cheap (but counts as a forward in FPL).

Most importantly, Fernandes should be back on set pieces and the key figure in the team again. As a reminder, he got 18 goals and 14 assists two years ago when Ronaldo wasn’t playing at United – and he’s only 9.8 now. 

2) Pray for Jesus

Jesus is set to be out for around three months after suffering a knee injury at the World Cup, leaving Nketiah as Arsenal’s only remaining striker.

Nketiah could be amazing value for that, or he could be a flop and the whole team could look worse. It’s probably a wait and see for me on the whole team. Having said that, my first draft has Nketiah in it because I just have so much money and so many good players I can afford to leave him on the bench. 

For the record, however, Arsenal fan and Full 90 FPL co-conspirator Joe doesn’t even think Nketiah will start… so who the hell knows.

3) Beyond all Reece-onable doubt?

Reece James is on his way back to full fitness. Apparently he is training, and he made an appearance in a behind-closed-doors friendly prior to the restart.

He was playing well before the injury, even he was getting rotated. Try and look out for news. 

4) Toney, or not Toney

Terrible play on words. I love it.

Toney has been charged by the Football Association over 232 alleged breaches of betting rules. At the time of writing, we have no idea what the FA will do, but it could be a lengthy ban. Trippier was banned for 10 weeks for a much smaller offence, so it could end his season. On the other hand, Chelsea and Arsenal are in the market for a striker, so watch this space.

I’d probably go without him right now. 

5) Richarlis-out

Richarlison has picked up a hamstring injury from the World Cup. These are notoriously hard to recover from and get over. Kulusevski is therefore probably nailed on for 90 each week. 

Fixture Corner 

Like every year, there is a Christmas fixture pile up, with three gameweeks between 26th December and 5th Jan. 

This is followed up by a couple of double gameweeks that are coming: 

None of the teams listed above have great doubles… but they are still doubles.

Gameweek 19 is super long as it starts on 3rd Jan and finishes with Fulham playing Chelsea on Thursday 12th Jan. I’m a bit concerned about rotation of City assets in 20 and 23, and have no faith in Phil Foden, for example, playing all the games. 

The Five Week Fixture Ticker 

City, Chelsea and Spurs should be heavily targeted, looking at the fixtures, though I’m not sure I trust Chelsea fully yet. For Fulham there are only two players really, and Southampton just suck regardless of fixtures. 

One other notable fixture run: 

• Man United play NFO, wol and BOU in their first three games back. It’s the two after that which suck – at home to MCI, and away to ars. 

Yellow Cards Rule 

In the past, any yellow card received in the Premier League, EFL, FA Cup, or Carabao Cup was totaled. A player would be disqualified from the following game, regardless of the competition, after receiving five yellow cards. The player would lose the following two games if they received 10 yellow cards. 15 would result in a three-game suspension. 

Yellow cards, however, will only be counted in the competition in which they are obtained starting this season. So now, the rules work like this: 

• One-match ban if five yellow cards received before 19 Premier League fixtures (Dec. 26 round) 
• Further two-match ban if 10 yellow cards received before 32 fixtures (weekend of March 30) 

• Further three-match ban if 15 yellows received (no fixture limit) 

Besides those who are already banned (which the game tells you) beware of these players who are close to a ban: 

FPL Players Who are Only Just Back From the World Cup 

All these players were still in Qatar for the World Cup semi-finals and final, or third-place playoff: 

All of these guys are gonna be late to return to their teams, so I wouldn’t have any of them in my team for the first week. I think Mac Allister has been given a week’s holiday (/time to find a new club), and won’t re-join Brighton until the new year, for example. 

Man United’s defence is not looking good for the first game, based on who is left. Probably not something to take into account, as I know a lot of us will be looking at them for the great fixture against Forest. 

Perisic is probably out for a while, but we don’t want him anyway because he can’t play 90 mins twice in a week and there is a fixture pile up. 

Everyone else will probably be fine in terms of fitness and availability. 

Team Structure – Time for Threemium? 

A number of managers are looking to build a threemium squad including three of: Salah, De Bruyne, Haaland and Kane. I’ve looked at it because, in principle, we have so many cheap options available. But, I still can’t make it work. I always end up with a weak spot. 

The only way I can make it work is more of a ‘two-mium and a half’, with Bruno Fernandes as the half. I kind of love him, and I really think Ronaldo leaving should make United better. I’m disappointed with my 900k rank, but it also gives me the freedom to go mad and get Bruno. His ownership is so low (2.6%) that he could be an excellent differential. 

Great Options for Your FPL Team 

Goalkeepers 

Danny Ward is pretty much a given. He’s only 4.1 and nailed on. I said something similar earlier in the season and was proved horribly wrong BUT Leicester’s defence has massively improved and he’s gonna sit on our benches most weeks, so its fine. But if he’s the bench fodder, who is playing? 

Kepa Arrizabalaga looked to have got himself in the first team for Chelsea. He has two double gameweeks with middling fixtures, but his other fixtures are much better. The only concerns are his nailed-ness (although Mendy carried on looking a bit rubbish in the World Cup), and he is currently carrying an injury. 

Pope has decent fixtures, but more importantly plays with a good defence, and you can hold him to the end of the season and not make transfers here. 

Ederson could be excellent as an option, but you lose the flexibility of having a third city player outfield. 

Defenders 

Trippier is just in forever. The number one scoring defender and you probably only paid 5.0/5.1 for him. Now 65% owned because he is just so damn consistent. Seems to always get a return. I don’t even mind the double up with Botman, but a triple up if you have Pope is probably too far. 

As for Cancelo, even though his fixtures aren’t great, I can’t look past him right now. He is the best premium defender in the game. Similarly likely to get rotated at some point, but when money isn’t really a concern we go for points and he brings them. 

Reece James is great value for an attacking defender in a good-enough defence. He probably gets rotated in the double gameweeks though, and we need to see him fit first. Similarly, Fofana at Chelsea has injury concerns, but is only 4.3 for a much less exciting asset – someone to consider if you are going for three premium attackers. Thiago Silva is the anchor at the back and one to consider… but again, I’m not sure he plays the doubles. 

Gabriel and Ben White are excellent options also. Top defence and great value. Saliba is very close to a ban because of his yellow cards, so these two are much better. Gabriel probably the best option due to his attacking threat at set pieces compared to White’s limited attacking threat from wing-back, but White is 0.5 cheaper. 

The Brighton lads don’t have excellent fixtures but are solid enough options. Dunk is probably the standout option. Estupinian could be fun with assist potential but he frequently doesn’t play 90 mins. 

Crystal Palace offer very good short term value, with the likes of Andersen or Guehi the best of the bunch. Unfortunately, their fixtures are super bad after the first two. 

They do rotate with Villa players quite well in that regard. Cash and Digne are clearly the best options there. Villa were crap, but we’re trusting Emery to have got the back line sorted and both of these offer attacking threat. 

And then there are the budget enablers. Patterson at Everton and Bueno at Wolves are both less than 4.0. They’re probably permanently on your bench though, and at this point I’d rather spend the extra 0.4/0.5 to have someone better. 

Midfielders 

So many to choose from! Let’s start with the easy one: Andreas at Fulham is sooooo cheap and soooo involved in everything Fulham does. He is your bench fodder, or you could even play based on his performances so far this season. 

Rashford, Bruno – see above. 

Maddison – was in hot form before the midseason break, and with 0 minutes for England is probably feeling quite fit. 

Zaha has good short-term fixtures, but I have no interest. He keeps getting put out wide rather than OOP striker, and is very inconsistent in FPL. 

De Bruyne has two double gameweeks between 17 & 23. Foden similarly, but he just is nowhere near as consistent as Kev. The question is, with fixture congestion, can we trust either? I’m particularly uninterested in Foden because of the rotation. 

Martinelli and Saka are tough. Both were great, but I don’t think I trust Arsenal’s attack enough without Jesus to have both. It’s much more difficult to get rid of Martinelli and bring him back, so I am considering keeping him. He’s not been amazing recently, but there are rumours he could start up top in place of Jesus. 

Salah has had a big rest and was in good form before the break. He could be great, and even counts – kind of – as a differential. But, for me, I just think Kev offers more value and Bruno enables more. 

Mount has been far from excellent this year, but with an early double and some good fixtures around him, I think he’s a good enough pick. 

Kulusevski is great. I’m slightly nervy about the price tag given he’s not played in a while, but with Richarlison injured it’s a good way to go. Kane is better though. 

Almiron – the highest scoring mid in the game. Will it carry on? I have no idea. Statistically it shouldn’t, but he’s so cheap that it almost doesn’t matter. 

In terms of budget enablers, Andreas is clearly the best and proved in the first half of the season that you could start him week in and week out and get a reasonable return. Bailey and Summerville could also offer value, but we can’t have much faith in starting either of them right now, as we don’t know if they are nailed and the latter is possibly injured. 

Forwards 

Everyone will have Haaland, because he is the best thing since sliced ham or whatever Grealish said. 

Kane is the second-highest scoring FPL asset in the game. I don’t understand how Spurs are doing it, but they are. I just think he’s more trustworthy than Salah and De Bruyne. 

Darwin is a great option. He is super-nailed given the injury woes at Liverpool. The official FPL fixtures show their schedule is okay, but I just don’t love the fixtures – Villa are better than they ever were before Emery, and Leicester were amazing defensively in the run up to the World Cup. 

Mitrovic is cheap and has doubles. They aren’t good doubles though, and he’s in danger of getting banned, but he just offers great value and somehow scores so many goals. Martial is probably his biggest competition at that price bracket. 

I’m not that sure about many other options. Wilson will likely soon lose his spot to Isak; Watkins and Ings have terrible first two fixtures; and, Toney might not play another game again. 

James’ Draft 

Okay, it’s a first… second… eighth draft, and there are other players I want but for injuries – probably James and Dalot. But here we go anyway:

Here’s the logic: cheap keepers in Kepa and Ward. Hopefully Kepa is nailed, but if he isn’t they’re both solid choices for keeper. 

I’m playing 3-4-3 for my outfield players.

In defence, Trippier and Cancelo are playing every week. White, Botman and Digne can all rotate into that third spot, based on form and fixtures. 

In midfield, I will play Almiron, Martinelli, Fernandes and Mount most weeks, with the exception of Fulham’s double. I plan to have Kev for City’s doubles, so have left enough money in the bank to turn Mount and Fernandes into Kev and someone. Whilst writing this I’m once again struck with the temptation just to get Ederson and free myself of this dilemma… but this is where I am now. 

In attack, I have the two highest scoring assets in the game with Haaland and Kane. Haaland is permanently my captain until I see reason to change. Mitrovic takes the last spot. Both Kane and Mitro are on 4 yellow cards, which means they get a yellow card about once every five games or 20% of the time, so it’s a risk to have both and watch as one gets a yellow. But, Kane is super reliable this year, so I want him. Mitro has as much chance of getting banned as Martial of getting injured, and I want Mitro for his double.