#FPL Gameweek 27 Preview

Written by @CraigHazell

 You can also listen to Craig, Tom and Ash on their Fantasy Football Podcast – The Gaffer Tapes

DEFENDER: Robert Huth, Leicester City

It’s finally happened. We have a game week where not everyone plays and we can now separate the wheat from the chaff. Sadly, despite some excellent tips, I was declared chaff weeks ago and look in no condition to recover. I won’t let that stop me bitterly pass on some advice to you all. After all, Mourinho wasn’t a particularly good player either. The limited fixtures mean that 2 or 3 match ups stand out. One of those is obviously Leicester at home to Norwich. In some bandwagonning of the highest order I have brought in Robert Huth, who grabbed some FPL headlines with a couple of goals of late but has also racked up a fair amount of clean sheet points over the season. He and Simpson offer gret value and Huth is still under 10% picked. If you plan on wildcarding soon then bringing him in seems a legit option. I’m saying legit now, deal with it.

MIDFIELDER: Dimitri Payet, West Ham

I’ve tipped him more than I have the fit waitress at Frankie & Benny’s but Dimitri Payet truly is a little wizard. His turn against Blackburn was nothing short of mesmerising and he’s been upgraded from future Spurs disappointment to future Chelsea disappointment. West Ham vs Sunderland is the second stand out fixture and if Bilic’s men perform as they can then it won;t matter that Sunderland are revitalised because they could absolutely batter them if they turn up. The problem with these enigmatic magicians is that they aren’t quite as invested in hammering Sunderland as we are and could be content with 1-0 and a few nutmegs but fingers crossed he executes a few petronas charms and puts in a legit performance. Legit.

FORWARD: Salomón Rondón, West Brom

Side note. Friday 26th February represents National FPL Day so tweet it. Now.

The obvious other fixture to feature is Spurs vs Swansea but I’ve gone a bit rogue rather than mentioning Harry Kane who has gone worryingly yellow. Palace beat spurs in the FA Cup but still aren’t convincing in the league and are alarmingly reliant on defenders for goals. West Brom, however, can be handy at home and Rondon is out on his own as the Baggies goal threat up front. He’s not a pick for the long term but again if you are planning on a wildcard next week or the week after then he could get you 6 or more points that your mates probably haven’t got. If you have mates. You might not. Lord knows I don’t.

CAPTAIN: Jamie Vardy, Leicester City

If I was to say you should captain Jamie Vardy, you’d probably say “Woah Craig what is this? 2015? IT might have been a legit choice in 2015! It’s 2016! Not 2015!” because everyone is saying legit now. The reason I say pick him is because people have been offloading him in the last few weeks and are stubbornly not putting him back in, me included. His percentage remains high but a lot of those are inactive players and a captain’s performance from him will be double the bang to those who foolish enough to chat sh*t.

OUTSIDER: Emmanuel Emenike, West Ham

I watched the aforementioned West Ham Blackburn cup game and onceI had stopped drooling over Payet I noticed that Emmanuel Emenike actually got some game time. I also had a bet on him scoring 2 or more and to be honest he should’ve had a hat trick. In the absence of what seems like the entire Hammers front line, he must have a shot at starting against Sunderland and he might finally pay back those years of Football Manager and FIFA faith. He’s 0.1 % picked, 5.0m and on 2 points. He is a great pre wildcard pick and in France is known as Le Git.

 by @CraigHazell

Craig Hazell is a television professional, writer and Heart of Midlothian fan who makes up one third of the popular FPL podcast The Gaffer Tapes. As a student, Craig won the BBC Sports Broadcaster and Comedy Broadcaster of the year, before going onto to be a regular on the London open mic comedy circuit. He now writes about anything from TV & Movies, to food and of course football, providing he can shoehorn a 90s pop culture reference into just about anything.

Check out The Gaffer Tapes Podcast Here