An early look ahead to Gameweek 18
| Saturday | 12:30pm | Man United v Brighton | |||
| Saturday | 3:00pm | Aston Villa v Burnley Southampton v Brentford | Watford v Crystal Palace West Ham v Norwich | ||
| Saturday | 5:30pm | Leeds v Arsenal | |||
| Sunday | 12:00pm | Everton v Leicester | |||
| Sunday | 2:00pm | Wolves v Chelsea | |||
| Sunday | 2:15pm | Newcastle v Man City | |||
| Sunday | 4:30pm | Tottenham v Liverpool |
Fantasy Premier League (FPL) deadline is 11am (GMT) on Saturday 18 December
STRONG FIXTURE
MAN CITY
Fresh from City’s 7-0 win over Leeds, relegation-threatened Newcastle will be petrified for this visit from the league leaders, having conceded the most goals of everyone. Kevin De Bruyne announced his FPL return with two goals and 16 points, whilst much-cheaper Phil Foden continued to show his outstanding points potential by notching a goal and assist. Highly-owned Bernardo Silva has been bought by many over recent weeks but managed to collect only one point in the 7-0, having been replaced at half-time because of “a niggle”. At the back, Joao Cancelo returns from suspension and will not only want, but expect to deliver points at both ends of the St James’ Park field.
WEST HAM
They have the good fixture – at home to Norwich – but David Moyes’ side haven’t scored in two matches and looked tired as Wednesday’s defeat to Arsenal dragged to a close. Does Michail Antonio need a rest? It’s remarkable that, despite only scoring one goal in the last 11 Gameweeks, Antonio still has 40% ownership throughout FPL. This could be the occasion to get him back amongst the goals again – a side he scored four times against when they last met, in 2019/20. Jarrod Bowen‘s ownership almost trebled between Gameweeks 15 and 16 but the subsequent two returns have been blanks. Vladimir Coufal is suspended, following his red card at Arsenal.
ASTON VILLA
The 450,000 new owners of Ollie Watkins will have been delighted with his 12-point return at Norwich on Tuesday night. He was bought in anticipation of a fantastic fixture run, conjoined with a great bounce under new manager Steven Gerrard. Midfield alternatives are difficult to find, despite John McGinn having decent underlying stats, but £4.5m enabler Jacob Ramsey can also add attacking points to his appeal having scored the opener at Carrow Road. Villa’s defence have quickly adopted the ways of Gerrard’s strong Rangers back line and there is a range of options to cover these fixtures – the rampaging runs of Matty Cash, the cheaper wing-back Matt Targett, or the set piece threats of Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa.
TRANSFERS SO FAR
As of Thursday lunchtime, these are the most transferred in and out players of the week.
These tend to remain very similar by deadline, unless a major injury or return develops.
No surprise to see Watkins and Foden amongst the most-purchased, although it’s curious to see Antonio show up in both lists – highly bought, highly sold. The West Ham striker is a true case of form versus fixtures as, without it looking good on paper, he’d likely now have been ditched by many. Emmanuel Dennis continues to be bought at a monstrous rate, although you’d have to think Watford’s weekend clash with Crystal Palace will be in danger, with the late postponement of Tuesday’s Burnley trip. Plus, we still don’t know if he’ll soon be off on Nigeria duty for several Gameweeks.
FPL managers can be so, so fickle. Midfielder Bernardo delivers five goals and one assist from his previous six matches, yet one blank and some vague comments about being substituted as a precaution has quickly led to him gathering almost 100,000 sales. At least the Andros Townsend foot injury is known to be a bigger problem. The reasons for Jamie Vardy‘s sales are likely to be because of raising money for elsewhere, wanting Watkins or seeing that he’s not started his last two matches.
