An early look ahead to Gameweek 21
| Saturday | 12:30pm | Arsenal v Man City | ||||
| Saturday | 3:00pm | Leicester v Norwich | Watford v Tottenham | |||
| Saturday | 5:30pm | Crystal Palace v West Ham | ||||
| Sunday | 2:00pm | Brentford v Aston Villa Everton v Brighton | Leeds v Burnley Southampton v Newcastle | |||
| Sunday | 4:30pm | Chelsea v Liverpool | ||||
| Monday | 5:30pm | Man United v Wolves |
Fantasy Premier League (FPL) deadline is 11:00am (GMT) on Saturday 1 January
STRONG FIXTURE
LEICESTER
Immediately following their win and clean sheet over Liverpool is a fantastic fixture at home to Norwich. Despite ranking amongst the league’s worst defence in many categories, the Foxes somehow caused Jurgen Klopp’s side to be scoreless for the first time since early March. The injury status of James Maddison will be studied heavily by many because (as seen below) he has been in brilliant form and will want to continue that against his former club. He limped off after 68 minutes on Tuesday. The rest of the squad is injury-stricken but there is still reason for active Free Hits to include Jamie Vardy or Kelechi Iheanacho.
TOTTENHAM
Defensively, Spurs look good under Antonio Conte, keeping four clean sheets from seven to boost the appeal of Sergio Reguilon and Ben Davies. Further up, Harry Kane has rediscovered how to score goals by netting in three successive matches – albeit without ever bringing home more than six points. Son Heung-min is a superb option and, although the draw at Southampton was his first goalless game since Gameweek 12, he still laid on an assist and is the obvious route for those selling Mohamed Salah. Put these two established attackers against a Watford back line still to keep a clean sheet and expect goals to flow.
ASTON VILLA
Those who bought Ollie Watkins after his 12-point return against Norwich have had a frustrating time – two postponed matches from their last three, with the other being against Chelsea. However, should the trip to Brentford go ahead, his 18% ownership will be confident of a goal at his former club. In a time of depleted squads, those with cheap midfielder Jacob Ramsey may be relying on him to produce, while the promising back four of Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and Matt Targett are capable of shutting out the Bees.
TRANSFERS SO FAR
As of Thursday morning, 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 Jarrod Bowen as the top transfer in, following a 14-point haul at Watford that took him up to a league-high of 11 assists. Team mate Michail Antonio is showing signs of an FPL recovery and managers are trying to anticipate a return to his early-season form, although those purchasing Emmanuel Dennis may not be aware of his likely departure to the African Cup of Nations. Son and Maddison are both having a great time – the Leicester man has four double-digit returns from six matches (16, 10, 16, 10).
As for transfers out, Conor Gallagher missed Crystal Palace’s 3-0 win over Norwich due to illness and Reece James sales have quickly escalated after he limped off early on Wednesday night with a hamstring problem. Bernardo Silva has not been involved in Man City’s last 18 goals, whilst Cristiano Ronaldo is simply not justifying his premium price tag.
