Just when everything else is starting to wind down ahead of the festive period, the Premier League – and by extension Fantasy Premier League – begins to ramp up.
There is less than a week to go until Christmas Day and less than a fortnight until the curtain falls on 2023, and yet FPL managers still have three separate deadlines to keep on top of. As if we all didn’t have enough on our plates.
This week sees nine fixtures crammed into the calendar with all of the delicacy of your last-minute present wrapping. It is an incomplete round, however, as neither Manchester City nor Brentford have a game, due to the former flying out to Saudi Arabia to contest the Club World Cup.
As tends to be the case at this time of year, the games are staggered across a few days, with the first taking place on Thursday 21 December and the last on Christmas Eve. Much to the delight of basically no-one.
i‘s top scorers in Gameweek 17
- Gabriel Jesus – 9 points vs Brighton: Our differential striker tip delivered in style with Jesus bagging the opening goal and three bonus points in a 2-0 win over Brighton. The Brazilian has a tough fixture coming up before embarking on a very promising run of games.
- Trent Alexander-Arnold – 9 points vs Man Utd: We’re getting to the stage where Alexander-Arnold is almost essential to own. Over the past four gameweeks he has claimed 11 bonus points from a possible 12. The man is an FPL machine.
- Pedro Porro – 8 points vs Nottingham Forest: Another attacking right-back producing the goods on a weekly basis. If Spurs are able to build on their clean sheet against Forest over the festive period, Porro should earn a plentiful supply of points given his assist potential.
Includes players selected in i‘s Fantasy Football newsletter
As always keep an eye out for i‘s Fantasy Football Newsletter which will flutter twice into your inbox over the next few days. The Gameweek 18 newsletter will be sent out on Thursday, with the Gameweek 19 version dropping on Boxing Day. Something for you all to look forward to post-Christmas Day.
This is an extract of i’s Fantasy Premier League tips. Sign up here to receive the newsletter every week this season for our full 11-player team, advice on the best captain and more!
Gameweek 18 fixtures
3pm kick-off unless otherwise stated
Thursday 21 December
Crystal Palace vs Brighton (8pm)
Friday 22 December
Aston Villa vs Sheffield United (8pm)
Saturday 23 December
West Ham vs Man Utd (12.30pm)
Fulham vs Burnley
Luton vs Newcastle
Nottingham Forest vs Bournemouth
Spurs vs Everton
Liverpool vs Arsenal (5.30pm)
Sunday 24 December
Wolves vs Chelsea
Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
Admittedly, backing the fourth-most popular player in FPL isn’t much of a “tip” but plenty of managers are scrambling to buy Ollie Watkins back after selling him for Darwin Nunez a few weeks ago. Suffice to say that that move, borne out of an incredibly short-term “injury” for the Aston Villa frontman, did not work out well for those who took the plunge.
Watkins joined esteemed company in FPL’s ultra-exclusive 100-points club in Gameweek 17 with a late goal against former club Brentford securing a nine-point haul. Mo Salah (130), Son Heung-min (115) and Erling Haaland (112) are the only players to have outscored him so far.
With Haaland again absent this weekend, Watkins has a great chance to move ahead of him in the rankings as Villa host Sheffield United. Watkins is the fourth-highest scoring player in FPL at home this season, making him arguably the standout captain pick against the division’s basement boys.
Price: £8.6m Points: 108 Gameweek 18 fixture: Sheffield United (h)
Dejan Kulusevski (Spurs)
Dejan Kulusevski has delivered a couple of double-digit hauls in the last four gameweeks and is gaining some new FPL managers as a result. At the time of writing, the man in the mask has been bought by almost 100,000 bosses, but he remains a huge differential with an ownership of under five per cent.
Part of the Swede’s appeal is his new role in the Spurs attack. With James Maddison out injured Kulusevski has taken up the creative mantle in Ange Postecoglou’s team, playing as a No 10. Since Gameweek 12, the first match that Spurs played without Maddison, Kulusevski has created five big chances, a total that only Trent Alexander-Arnold can beat.
Kulusevski will need to be at his imaginative best to unpick an Everton defence that has kept four consecutive clean sheets, but he looks a great long-term buy regardless given Spurs’ fixtures. Either side two meetings with the Toffees, Spurs play Brighton (a), Bournemouth (h), Man Utd (a) and Brentford (h) before the start of February.
Price: £7.1m Points: 77 Gameweek 18 fixture: Everton (h)
Djordje Petrovic (Chelsea)
If, like me, you currently have Alphonse Areola and Robert Sanchez as your two goalkeepers, you will need to move at least one of them on pretty sharpish. Areola returned from injury this weekend but was left on the bench as West Ham finally kept a clean sheet against Wolves, while Sanchez is out for the foreseeable future with a knee injury.
Martin Dubravka is the obvious replacement and despite having risen from £4m to £4.2m in the last two weeks remains great value for prospective buyers. However, Sanchez’s No 2 Petrovic is a differential alternative to consider after keeping a clean sheet on his full Premier League debut against Sheffield United.
The Serbian followed that up with some penalty shootout heroics against Newcastle, making a flying stop to deny Matt Ritchie and send the Blues into the last four of the Carabao Cup. Chelsea’s fixtures also look ripe for defensive returns. Their next four games are against Wolves (a), Crystal Palace (h), Luton (a) and Fulham (h).
Price: £4.5m Points: 7 Gameweek 18 fixture: Wolves (a)
Andreas Pereira (Fulham)
Last week we backed Alex Iwobi to continue his purple patch against Newcastle and although he failed to produce the goods he really should have scored when put through one-on-one with Dubravka. Unperturbed we’re picking another Fulham midfielder this week in Andreas Pereira.
Like Iwobi, Pereira brought in a plethora of points during Fulham’s back-to-back 5-0 thrashings of Nottingham Forest and West Ham recently, returning 21 points across both games. All four of his attacking returns were assists and that creative spark is what marks Pereira out as a strong asset this weekend.
The Brazilian has taken 62 corners for Fulham this season – 49 more than their second most frequent taker Willian – and has also attempted 77 crosses, the eight-most among midfielders in the league. Fulham’s upcoming opponents Burnley have struggled badly to defend deliveries into the box; their eight goals conceded from set plays is the joint-most.
Price: £5.3m Points: 61 Gameweek 18 fixture: Burnley (h)
Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa)
Only Newcastle can better Aston Villa’s defensive record in home matches this season and even then the Magpies have played one game more on their own turf. Unai Emery’s side have conceded just five goals and kept three clean sheets in their eight matches at Villa Park so far.
A couple of those shutouts have come in the last few gameweeks and were against two of the best teams in the division in Manchester City and Arsenal. Football works in mysterious ways, but if Villa can prevent those teams from scoring, you’d back them to do likewise against Sheffield United who have the worst attacking record in the league away from home, scoring four times in eight matches.
Judging by the FPL transfer market, Pau Torres is the Villa defender of choice, but with the Spain international yellow flagged at the moment, we are erring on the side of caution and selecting Ezri Konsa instead. The 26-year-old has started all 17 of Villa’s league matches so far, either as a centre back or at right back.
Price: £4.5m Points: 49 Gameweek 18 fixture: Sheffield United (h)