Double Gameweek 26: They Just Keep On Coming!! Written by @NiallHawthorne With the news that ‘Frasier’ is coming back to our screens, joining the likes of Sex And The City in making a comeback, it seems that the 90’s are back, baby! I, for one, welcome this development. Obviously, I’m going to tell you why… […]
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Double Gameweek 25: Official Fantasy Premier League
Feb 19
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Double Gameweek 25 Preview: Written by @NiallHawthorne Anyone else overwhelmed by the sheer volume of questions swirling around in their head right now? For instance, when will the schools reopen? When will I get my vaccine? Who is going on holidays now and thinking they’re not utterly selfish wallopers? Do they care? Am I […]
Fantasy Football Gameweek 23 Review: And Much More Important Things
Feb 11
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Dear All… Before I hand over to @JackAGoodwin for what is a great article… I’d just like to say I don’t care about this great article. Jack received some genuinely fantastic news today and I want him to share it with you guys that read his work on a daily basis. To Jack and the […]
Fantasy Football Gameweek 23: Brighton, United and a Southampton Defender?!
Feb 5
Written by Niall Hawthorne. Regular readers of this column will know that I have paid close attention to the Brexit negotiations over the years, with particular emphasis on the capability/mental capacity of the UK Government ministers involved. Thankfully for you all, Brexit is now done and dusted. Except, it’s not. Right now, right now the […]
The Fantasy Review – Lads, Poopers and Lingard
FPL GW22 REVIEW – Written by @JackAGoodwin
It’s been a minute since we spoke. Since, I’ve ventured into writing about wrestling for Inside The Ropes. I’ve been positive with Covid and then fortunately recovered. I’ve spent a couple weeks in the top 10k of FPL only for my team to collapse following a poorly timed Wildcard.
Needless to say, it’s been eventful.
But you guys, smashing through GW’s quicker than Martial can hit the deck just thinking about contact! What are we up to now? GW22? Madness.
ED: Ladies & Gentlemen… Jack’s Back
Double Decadence
No, not the fantastic, beautiful, long-lost double crusted delight from Domino’s Pizza. But Double-Digit Dudes (copyrighting that, it feels right). 8 Players bagged double figures in GW22.
A 17-point haul for United pair Fernandes & Wan-Bissaka. This was Bruno’s 9th double digit haul of the season, AWB only his first in a steady season so far for the right back.
Just behind with 15 points was United fall guy Jesse Lingard who on his Hammers debut smashed home 2 goals. For just £5.9m and a couple tasty fixtures incoming it could be a punt to take (but only do so if Niall tells you it’s right).
Also on 15 was the ever-present Leicester defender James Justin, a whopping 28% of managers owns him so this was expected. He grabbed his 2nd goal of the season after a couple of blank GW’s. Fixtures are wavy at best though.
Martial grabbed 13pts with 2 goals (after blanking the last 5 GW’s), Brighton’s Alzate oddly scored 11 (I know, who!) and Maddison with yet again more returns took home 11pts in Leicester’s win over Fulham.
Last but not least, it was Palace’s Riedewald (only £4.4m and 0.9% owned) with 10pts after his goal against Newcastle. His game time is as rare as a day without a running update from Ryan, so it’s pretty rare indeed!
ED: Following a consistent knee problem, I had to take 3 days off running to try and let it recover. 3 Dark Days. I appreciate that information is not why you’re here, so if it’s of interest check out the FantasyYIRMA Running Blog over at….. nahhhh i’m not that bad (yet)
Point Poopers
The guys you love to hate. The ones who crapped all over your GW’s. The scum, FPL scum (for this GW). 7 players. SEVEN PLAYERS scored MINUS figures this GW. Yes you guessed it, Arsenal and Southampton.
Leading from the back it’s Bednarek. -7 points. MINUS SEVEN. The 10% owned Saints midfielder had one of the worst GW’s on record after he scored an own goal in the 9-0 drubbing at the hands of Man United, but that’s not all folks! Chuck in a red card! What. A. Day.
Fellow Saints defenders Ramsay and Stephens took home -3 points after the 9 goals conceded plus a yellow card each. Joined in the -3 point club by Arsenal villain David Luiz after his controversial red card against Wolves.
On level -2 we see Saints pair Bertrand and Jankewitz just behind Bernd Leno who after his red took home a cool -1 point for his 8.5% owners.
Return of The Lads
Form is everything in FPL, some pick it up, some drop it and fumble it all over the place until suddenly your in the Championship and still called Josh King.
Here’s a few select lads from GW22 who rose from the depths of poor form.
Hey lads, remember Dominic Calvert-Lewin? Last seen scoring against Burnley in GW11, he now has the baby-faced James Rodriguez delivering finesse all over the pitch again. DCL (as we love to call him because his name is annoyingly long) finally found the net once again after that 8 game barren period. United, City AND Liverpool in their next 4 matches…Unlikely you’re bringing him in.
It’s been 6 games since Marcus Rashford scored, now I know it was a weird result, but he looked sharp! A goal and an assist in the 9-0 win, they have a favorable next 3 games, but will you risk bringing him in now?
Wolves Joao Moutinho scored his first goal of the season and took home literally his first FPL returns of the season. After 7 assists last season, is this the revival of his 19/20 form? Or a blip in the Matrix. All I know is Wolves boss Nuno Santo looks a bit like Morpheus. Do with that what you will.
King of the screamers, Jonjo Shelvey is back! Scoring his first goal of the season against Palace. After his first assist last GW, is this a sign of a more attacking threat coming from Toon Dr Evil?
Form, Form & More Form
Some can’t be ignored, for good reason. Here are some of your top in-form players and how they got on this GW.
West Brom’s Matheus Pereira is arguably the most in form in the League, this apparently didn’t faze Sheffield who shut him out for the 1-point return. With Spurs and Man United up next are you prepared to keep hold of him? He scored a total of 2 points in the reverse fixtures.
Ilkay Gundogan is on a mad one. Who many thought was a defensive midfield player is suddenly cracking out FPL returns more than we see bloody syringes on our FPL timelines (thanks Bhuna). An assist this GW against Burnley which was actually his first of the season only adds to his 7 goals so far. I still believe he is related to Jimmy Carr, but that debate is for another day.
6 clean sheets on the bounce is bound to grab FPL attention, so City defenders Stones, Dias, Cancelo and Zinchenko are hot right now – only Pep Roulette getting in the way! With Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Man United in the next 6 GW’s this will be the biggest test of their defense – MOST will stick with them, the attacking returns are just too attractive.
Finally I want to focus your attentions to Leeds midfielder, Raphinha. 4 goals 4 assists this season, half of which all coming in the last 3 GW’s alone. Including a goal this past GW against Everton. Leeds have kind fixtures, and with Bamford also firing it’s a great time to invest in the attack minded Prem newbies!
Differential Potential
Those FPL players who sit under 5% ownership but still returned! Are any of them worth looking at or was it just a one off like seeing the film Tenet, which, I guarantee if you decide to watch ever again in your life after first visit you may need to reconsider your life entirely – horrendous. Anyway…
1.5% owned Jesse Lingard, £5.9m, 15 point return on his West Ham debut. Invest.
4% owned Gabriel Jesus. Yeah, 2 goals in as many games but has the worlds most punchable face. Bin him.
0.6% owned Leandro Trossard from Brighton is (ironically) one of the only bright sparks in the squad. At just £5.7 he is slowly picking up form with the key assist in the win over Liverpool just after the goal scored to beat Spurs last GW. Coming up he has Burnley, Villa, Palace and West Brom. Real tempting to bring him in for those, an attack minded midfielder who if Brighton are going to score, he will be involved.
Billy Sharp? McTominay? Pepe? Benrahma? If you transfer these IN this week (and got this far in the review to even see this note) and they have attacking FPL returns in GW23 I will personally mail you some exclusive FPL stickers in the post. THAT’S how confident I am that they suck (in FPL).
Jack’s Final Fort (thought, but Northern)
Manchester United and Manchester City have confirmed that they’re up for the battle of not just Manchester this season. Leaving London (and Scouseland) in the dust for now.
Will it maintain? Most likely not, the biggest test for the Blue side of Mannie is this weekend against Liverpool who themselves are teetering on being out of the race after 2 defeats on the bounce.
GW22 we had FOUR 2-1 results, FOUR clean sheets and one being a record equaling 9-0. We saw “top six” Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs drop points whilst Sheffield continue their fight to lift themselves off the bottom of the table.
Next week I predict….Villa to beat Arsenal, United drop points to Everton and Liverpool to finally pick it up a gear with a win over Man City – but I’ll leave Niall to work out how they’ll go about doing so!
Tata for now.
Fantasy Football GW20 Preview: Leeds, United and Chelsea
Jan 26
Gameweek 20 Preview – Written by @NiallHawthorne The debate about how best to handle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic rumbles on almost a year after it began. It’s only now that the UK and Ireland have decided that it might be a good idea to stop thousands of people flying into the country and wandering freely […]
Fantasy Football Gameweek 19: Make Mine A DOUBLE
Jan 15
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The Gameweek 19 Preview Written by @NiallHawthorne We’ve finally made it to the halfway point of this frankly bizarre season that will no doubt, when the history books are written, have more asterisks next to it than the memoirs of the 45th President of The United States (which is nailed on to be a […]
We approach blank GW18 during blank January at the start of what looks like being blank 2021. At time of writing, some games are still scheduled but could be scrapped just hours before kick-off.
The President of the United States is trying to overthrow his own government, constitution and society, while almost every country on earth is bemoaning the slow rollout of vaccinations that will restore normality to the planet.
It seems to me that we could all use a Free Hit chip this week for our lives, not FPL.
Onto GW18!
Defender: Kieran Tierney, Arsenal
Gary Neville may proclaim that nobody grew up wanting to be Gary Neville, but how else do you explain the absolute plethora of class full-backs in British football these days?
England have more quality right-backs than they have Pfizer vaccines. Scotland have two genuinely amazing left-backs at the same time. Poor Kieran Tierney must be cursing his luck to have emerged at the same time as his national team captain and arguably the world’s greatest left-back Andy Robertson.
Whether this happened because of, or despite, Gary Neville, the good thing for FPL players is that they all play for different Premier League teams. Tierney has two clean sheets in a row and faces home fixtures against a Crystal Palace side who have drawn four blanks on the road this season, and Newcastle United who are starting to play Andy Carroll up front.
Oh, and he’s decent going forward too.
Midfielder: Heung-Min Son, Tottenham Hotspur
(DISCLAIMER – This match no longer exists but Spurs now play Fulham so we’re sticking with it)
This is the game that is seemingly under the most threat of a postponement but seeing as the Premier League are making up the rules as they go along, and Jose Mourinho is far scarier than Dean Smith, there’s every chance that Spurs will face a second game in a week against an opponent they can steamroller in their sleep.
The Villa kids gave a fine account of themselves against Liverpool on Friday night, but ran out of steam after half time, and I reckon their little legs will still be gone if forced into action midweek. Heung-Min Son could do terrible, terrible damage to them.
So, you should probably own him, just in case.
Forward: Edison Cavani, Manchester United
I was going to tip Dominic Calvert-Lewin this week as he faces a Wolves side who haven’t kept a clean sheet for ten consecutive league games, amazingly. He’s also trying to come out of his biggest slump this season, stretching back an almost staggering two games without a goal or assist. The fraud.
However, the Burnley v Manchester United match intrigues me. I know many Free Hitters will be looking to triple-up on United assets, but here’s your word of warning – Since Ben Mee returned to the team following injury, Burnley have conceded a grand total of three goals in nine games when Mee and Pope have been together in defence. They’ve faced teams such as Everton, Villa, Wolves and Leeds in that time, teams who have an ability to put the ball in the back of the net with reasonable regularity.
So, I see this game being a bit more of a struggle than some might think. However, it’s United, so Cavani will come off the bench and win it in the 87th minute. Nailed. On.
Captain: Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City
KDB racked up his fourth double-digit haul against Chelsea last time out, then spent the weekend tormenting Birmingham City like a tabby cat playing with a shrew.
Brighton tend to concede more than one goal against ‘Top 6’ opposition this season (with one notable exception against Liverpool), and they went the full 120 minutes plus spotters against Newport County at the weekend. Hardly the ideal preparation for the run-around they’re going to get at The Etihad.
As a result, it may take until the 60th minute, but I fully expect KDB to haul big against Graham Potters men.
Outsider: Dwight Gayle, Newcastle United
Who fancies one of my patented 0% owned FPL returns? It’s time for another I think, to make it four in less than half a season.
Dwight Gayle away to Sheffield United will score or assist. You heard it here first.
Your move….
Written by Niall Hawthorne.
Drop Niall a follow on twitter. Good thing about Twitter – you can always unfollow again later!
Niall Hawthorne has a strange view on most things.
Check out his blog for proof rantsofarebel.wordpress.com
Fantasy Football: Liverpool, Leeds and WBA
I hope everybody had a peaceful and joyous Christmas, except Sam Allardyce.
Written by Niall Hawthorne.
Onto GW16!
Defender: Charlie Taylor, Burnley
Burnley only tend to concede large amounts of goals when they feel they are the inferior team. They shipped three against Chelsea, five against Manchester City and three against, err, Newcastle United.
Apart from that they’re a solid defensive FPL option having conceded just three goals in seven league games (excluding the City game).
In short what I’m saying is Burnley are like Nelson Muntz. They can pick on the smaller kids, but can get their ass whomped by Jimbo Jones.
This week they face Sheffield United, aka Martin Prince. HaHa!
Cheer up Charlie, this is your golden ticket to a clean sheet!
Midfielder: Sadio Mane, Liverpool
On the third day of Christmas, Sadio gave to you nine FPL points thanks to his goal and bonus points against West Bromwich Albion.
This followed his nine FPL points before Christmas which ended his ‘drought’. We are truly living in biblical times, eh?
Form is temporary and class is permanent. Sadio Mane will always be class, and he likes playing at St James’s Park where he will be on the sixth day of Christmas. Instead of six geese-a-laying, I predict he’ll deliver at least 6 points-a-playing.
Forward: Patrick Bamford, Leeds United
I know that most people would be expecting to see the name of Harry Kane here as they face Fulham at home, but Fulham are undefeated in four with only two conceded. Spurs may face a harder game than most anticipate.
So, I’m plumping for Patrick Bamford against the Baggies, who have just come away from Anfield with a point. However, that’s the third game where West Brom have taken points against one of the ‘Big 6’ and after each of the previous two games, they got spanked. After a point against Chelsea, Southampton mullered ‘em. After a point against Man City, Villa mullered ‘em.
Plus, I really really want to see Big Sam’s face as Marcelo Bielsa’s tactics rip his side to shreds while he sits on a bucket and ‘posh boy’ Bamford runs amok.
Captain: Jamie Vardy, Leicester City
Brendan Rodgers takes his side to Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace, who have hilariously forgotten how to defend, and have now lost their best defender to injury in Gary Cahill.
That’s ten goals shipped in the last two matches and Leicester City possess one of the best away records in the division with six wins from seven trips on the road.
Vardy himself has a frankly ridiculous nine goals and three assists in those seven away matches. It’s almost like Premier League teams don’t realise that Vardy is most dangerous when the other side have the ball and lose it suddenly…
A Vardy Xmas/New Year Party is very much on the cards.
Outsider: Karlan Grant, West Bromwich Albion
Having said all the above, we live in Brexit times, and some good old fashioned British Bulldog Spirit from Sam Allardyce may well put a hole in Bielsa’s bucket.
Grant was a willing front runner at Anfield and perhaps should have scored in the second half, so the not-quite-watertight Leeds defence may get breached.
He’s owned by 0.0% of FPL players right now. You know what my record is like tipping players owned by nobody.
Your move….
Written by Niall Hawthorne.
Drop Niall a follow on twitter. Good thing about Twitter – you can always unfollow again later!
Niall Hawthorne has a strange view on most things.
Check out his blog for proof rantsofarebel.wordpress.com
Fantasy Football: Boxing Day Preview
Dec 24
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Written by @NiallHawthorne This Christmas I want you to stop for a while To think of those who best make you smile Your family, your friends, when you captain Vardy New people we met back when we could party And realise no matter what tier you are in Or how the latest lockdown can get […]