Fantasy Football – Leicester, Man City and Newcastle make the Preview

Jan 30

FPL Gameweek 25 Preview from @NiallHawthorne

I’m going to level with you here, this ‘Winter Break’ lark is causing way too much kerfuffle than it should. I’m not talking about Jurgen Norbert Kopp sacking off the FA Cup so he can snuggle up in front of a warm fire tickling his dachshund, I’m referring to how the fixtures are spread over the next three weekends where everybody plays twice but somehow everybody gets two weeks off. I’ve gone cross-eyed trying to work it out. Witchcraft!

After GW24 taking a month to complete, and with GW26 on course to finish in April by the looks of it, thankfully GW25 is your good old-fashioned Saturday – Sunday schedule. They’ve got so many games at 3pm on Saturday that Jeff Stelling has had to draft in extra help to cope with the overload! I can’t wait to see Thommo, Merse, and Champagne Charlie Nicholas rub shoulders with the rumoured extra reporters Gemma Collins, Stormzy and Prince Andrew. I wonder which Pizza Express they’ll get their half time pizza from?

GW25 Defender: Aymeric Laporte, Manchester City

This is a no-brainer, and I’m quite frankly shocked that his ownership at time of typing is a mere 2.1%.

This is Aymeric Laporte! His injury is the one and only reason that Manchester City are not 10 points clear of Liverpool with City having captured 80 points from a possible 72! (That’s how that argument works, right???)

Anyway, if all the sages wearing sky blue are correct, Manchester City are about to win their final 14 league games of the season with 14 clean sheets guaranteed, starting at Spurs on Sunday.

Yes please!

GW25 Midfielder: John Fleck, Sheffield United

If you’re of a certain age, and any way like me, then you’ll regularly watch current Premier League footballers and mistakenly refer to them with the first name of their father/uncle who you grew up watching.

For ages I called Daniel Sturridge ‘Dean’.

For ages I called Kasper Schmeichel ‘Peter’.

For ages I called Ashley Barnes ‘John’.

The same has happened with John Fleck, the nephew of ‘Robert’ who graced many a crap Chelsea side back in the day. Well the younger Fleck has taken the Premier League by storm with five goals and two assists thus far. You want him in your squad for this weekend’s fixture v Palace.

..@Arsenal being linked with bid for @SheffieldUnited's John Fleck is one that I am happy to get on board with given I did the same transfer myself in @FootballManager a decade ago and it was marvelous.

Based on that – Guaranteed Success!

Back me up @tonyjameson pic.twitter.com/JfBByr2cb2

— FantasyYIRMA #FPL (@FantasyYIRMA) January 29, 2020

GW25 Forward: Jamie Vardy, Leicester City

Four hundred and twenty-six thousand two hundred and thirteen.

That’s how many FPL managers have transferred out Jamie Vardy this week.

And yet they still think everyone should have a vote! There are swivel-eyed loons all around us!

Leicester City take on everyone’s favourite flakes outside of a Cadbury factory in Chelsea this weekend. They’ll be smarting at missing a trip to Wembley, and they know a home win here will pretty much lock up a Champions League spot for next season. Vardy has had a small dip in form but he was a missed penalty away from a goal in GW23 and a strained arse away from probably piling on the points in GW24.

It’s time for another Vardy party, and 426,213 eejits are not invited.

GW25 Captain: Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City

The pattern for Manchester City this season has been three/four good games followed by one bad game, rinse, recycle, repeat.

Now that we know that City have got their one bad game out of the way in losing at home (again!) to Manchester United, we can look forward to a run of good performances, starting away to Spurs.

The lazy knee-jerk reaction of some FPL managers will be to embark on the standard ‘Jose – Bus – Parked’ train of thought, but recent history has shown that the bus is banjaxed and Jose doesn’t scare his players anymore, so they just don’t bother their arse as much as they used to.

I see City running amok at Spurs, with KDB pulling the strings.

Thunderbirds are go!