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The Fantasy Premier League season continues unabated with a full round of fixtures this midweek.
The pick of the games are on Wednesday night with Tottenham Hotspur hosting Manchester City and Liverpool entertaining Newcastle United in a preview of next month’s Carabao Cup final.
Elsewhere, Chelsea, Manchester United and West Ham are all at home against bottom three sides, while Arsenal will look to get their flagging title challenge back on track away at top-four hopefuls Nottingham Forest.
This week’s deadline is at 6pm on Tuesday, 25 February:
Matz Sels (Nottingham Forest)
Picking a goalkeeper is exceptionally difficult this week, particularly when we’ve selected defenders from West Ham and Chelsea for their home fixtures against Leicester City and Southampton respectively.
We’re not confident enough about either defence to go with a double-up so when in doubt, pick the top-scoring keeper in the game.
Matz Sels has kept more clean sheets (10) than anyone else and faces an Arsenal attack decimated by injury. The Gunners had 20 attempts against West Ham without scoring on Saturday.
Price: £5m Points: 110 Gameweek 27 fixture: Arsenal (h)
Aaron Wan-Bissaka (West Ham)
Like Scott McTominay in Naples and Antony in Seville, Aaron Wan-Bissaka is living proof that players can reinvent themselves upon leaving the Manchester United circus.
Wan-Bissaka’s assist for Jarrod Bowen against Arsenal took him to four direct goal involvements this season (two goals, two assists). Only once during his Premier League career has he bettered those numbers (six in 2020-21: two goals, four assists).
West Ham’s next opponents Leicester have scored only nine goals in 13 league games under Ruud van Nistelrooy, drawing a blank in eight of them.
Price: £4.4m Points: 77 Gameweek 27 fixture: Leicester (h)
Daniel Munoz (Crystal Palace)
There is a dearth of attacking talent in the defender spots this season but Daniel Munoz is an exception to the general rule.
The Colombian wing-back ticks all the boxes. He scores goals (three so far); he sets them up (four); he keeps clean sheets (eight); he’s relatively cheap (under £5m). What’s not to like?
Crystal Palace are a team in form and their upcoming schedule looks prime for more Munoz returns with fixtures against Aston Villa (allergic to clean sheets), Leicester and Southampton (both going down) in their next three.
Price: £4.9m Points: 102 Gameweek 27 fixture: Aston Villa (h)
Marc Cucurella (Chelsea)
Chelsea’s goalkeeper issues continued against Aston Villa with Filip Jorgensen allowing a tame Marco Asensio finish to squirm underneath him and condemn the Blues to another defeat.
Enzo Maresca’s side have only kept four clean sheets all season, but they have a good chance to add to their tally against goal-shy Southampton, who have scored only 10 away goals this campaign.
Marc Cucurella has scored twice and assisted another in a dozen appearances at Stamford Bridge and is the best pick from their backline.
Price: £5.1m Points: 61 Gameweek 27 fixture: Southampton (h)
Jarrod Bowen (West Ham)
Goals against Chelsea and Arsenal in the last three gameweeks make Jarrod Bowen a player of interest ahead of West Ham’s home fixture with freefalling Leicester.
Playing as a striker under Graham Potter, Bowen has registered five shots inside the box and had two big chances in his last three matches. That data is encouraging considering the Hammers have faced Chelsea and Arsenal away in that period.
Leicester were shambolic defensively against Brentford and have been very leaky under Van Nistelrooy in general, conceding 32 goals and keeping zero clean sheets in 13 games.
Price: £7.3m Points: 112 Gameweek 27 fixture: Leicester (h)
Mo Salah (Liverpool)
Mo Salah is on course to shatter the Premier League record for the most direct goal contributions in a season – and obliterate his long-standing FPL points record in the process.
With 41 goal involvements (25 goals, 16 assists) already, Salah is just seven away from matching totals set by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole in the early 1990s; and both did it in 42-game campaigns.
In FPL terms, Salah is now only 19 points away from eclipsing his historic 303-point total set in 2017-18. Indeed, he’s on course to break the 400-point barrier.
An incredible player having an incredible season.
Price: £13.7m Points: 285 Gameweek 27 fixture: Newcastle (h)
Cole Palmer (Chelsea)
Following a string of disappointing two-pointers, FPL managers are starting to turn on Cole Palmer.
Chelsea’s talisman is the fourth-most sold player this week, behind a possibly injured Morgan Rogers, a definitely injured Amad Diallo and Cody Gakpo, who returned from injury at the weekend.
That is incredibly hasty. Sure, Chelsea have been poor and Palmer has looked a little lost of late, but selling him before Southampton (h) and Leicester (h) could so easily backfire. He’s a hold until Gameweek 29 at least.
Price: £11.1m Points: 177 Gameweek 27 fixture: Southampton (h)
Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford)
Are Bryan Mbeumo’s exploits this season being slightly overlooked?
Only five players in the league can better his number of goal involvements (19: 15 goals, four assists) in the Premier League and he is the only representative from a bottom-half club (Brentford are currently 11th).
Mbeumo produced a goal and an assist as the Bees demolished Leicester on Friday and it was the fifth time this season that he has contributed at least two goals in a game.
Price: £8m Points: 166 Points: Everton (h)
Pedro Neto (Chelsea)
The aforementioned midfielders are either extremely highly owned (Salah, Palmer and Mbeumo) or feature prominently in the most-bought charts for this week (Bowen).
Pedro Neto fits in neither camp but could be a cracking differential over the next two gameweeks. He is currently selected by less than one per cent of managers.
Neto started up front against Aston Villa on Saturday and impressed by setting up Enzo Fernandez’s goal and having four shots on goal.
Price: £6.2m Points: 54 Gameweek 27 fixture: Southampton (h)
Liam Delap (Ipswich)
Considering Joshua Zirkzee and Rasmus Hojlund have scored a combined five league goals this season it’s unsurprising that there is a clamour from Manchester United fans for a new No 9 to join in the summer.
Liam Delap would be a popular pick and The i Paper understands he is a target. Ipswich have struggled but their battering ram forward has adapted seamlessly to the top flight, scoring 10 goals and setting up two more.
The 22-year-old has scored in two of his last three games and was desperately unlucky to not continue the streak against Spurs after hitting the crossbar early on.
Price: £5.6m Points: 103 Gameweek 27 fixture: Man Utd (a)
Matheus Cunha (Wolves)
Only three forwards (Chris Wood, Alexander Isak and Erling Haaland) have outscored Matheus Cunha in FPL this season, but his ownership is comfortably the lowest of that quartet at just over 13 per cent.
A one-match ban in December allied to a tough run of matches for Wolves prompted plenty of FPL bosses to sell the Brazilian. With goals in each of his last three games and good fixtures until the end of the season, now is the time to bring him back in.
Price: £6.9m Points: 141 Gameweek 27 fixture: Fulham (h)
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