After playing my wildcard last week I had this planned from the start. Free Hit in 29 to fill up on BGW players and then back to my regular team again the week after.
Triple Brighton, Leeds, West Ham and it was triple Spurs until Son gained a late doubt to start the match. I decided to risk Grealish on the odds he doesn’t play, Antonio comes on from the bench in his own acceptable fixture against Arsenal.
Brighton’s #1, Sanchez has a clean sheet in half of his last 10 where he faced the likes of Tottenham, Leicester, Liverpool and Villa. Newcastle have only scored 3 in their last 8 and are without several key men, namely Almirón, Saint-Maximin and Wilson. Dunk always has had aerial threat and no surprise this season sports the second highest attempts on his noggin, against Newcastle who are poor at conceding headed attempts, it’s all stacking up. Finally Veltman is top among defenders for shots on goal, shots on target and passes the eye test. Lovely.
I’m always going to be biased with Leeds, but I feel we should trounce Fulham. They are in the relegation zone for a reason, despite recent defensive form. Their attack leaves much room for improvement and so Dallas is an obvious pick, and potential captaincy shout if you are up for risky pickings. He should feature in midfield again especially with news Rodrigo is not fit to play, and Klich on bad form. Bamford and Raphinha continue to get opportunities and after 3 painful matches without a goal they will want to let loose at Craven Cottage. Raphinha is first on chances created and second on shots in the box over the last 4 gameweeks, while Bamford is top on away form this year with the most shots on target and shots in general of all players in FPL!
Lingard is a prospect this season with a huge surge of form since joining West Ham, he’s only blanked once in 6 appearances and averages more than any other player per match this season. He’s the guy on top of shots inside the box these last 4 weeks.
Aubameyang is a risky choice. He did not play well in the midweek, he isn’t guaranteed to start, but he is Arsenal’s talisman. He did get a hattrick the other week and I think has 8 goals in the last 6 or so starts. It’s more of a defensive pick because he was a popular Free Hit choice, I would not want to miss this guy’s potential hauls.
Spurs don’t leave much to say about Bale and Kane, they are both very highly owned, going to be very highly captained and they do look a mix of hot and cold. I expect one of them to grab a goal, but I couldn’t predict how well Spurs will perform given their strange performances of late, and Kane will be tired. An easy captain this week (just to contradict myself!) as he will surely reach an EO of like 165%. Most players don’t have a full 11 this week, so any points will be made up on extras.
Finally Grealish was a small punt I figured after seeing the Villa pressers. He is back after injury, but there are huge doubts over his level of fitness. He’s been away for weeks. I wouldn’t expect him to play, but if he does their could be a huge upturn of Villa attacking potential with a rather cheeky alternative for Antonio to come on if he doesn’t play. Antonio is the sort of player who could always nick something in any game so it wasn’t an easy benching, but this method makes me confident because it’s still up in arms who I’ll get to enjoy points from!