Picks of the Week — Gameweek 13
Gameweek 12 was a tough one for Fantasy Premier League managers. If you scored well last week then you likely made some big jumps in your fantasy league. Gameweek 13 doesn’t look to fair any better for us managers with no fixture jumping out for goals.
Nonetheless, we keep looking for a team that will score points. Our Gameweek 13 Picks of the Week sees us pack the midfield with big names in the hope the trend of good midfield points continues. We keep the faith with Agüero but drop Hazard ahead of a tough fixture against Spurs.
Goalkeeper
The two stand out teams if you’re looking for a clean sheet are Chelsea and Spurs. Unfortunately, they face each other in Gameweek 13 and we’re not brave enough to back a winner. Instead, we think the fixtures point to WBA’s Ben Foster (£4.7) as the best option.
West Brom enjoyed a comprehensive 4–0 against Burnley in Gameweek 12. Gameweek 13 sees them host Hull and honestly, it’s hard to find Hull goals in this one. Hull currently have an unwanted double stat of having scored the fewest goals (10) and conceded the most goals (27) in the league.
Defence
In the defensive ranks this Gameweek we’ve looked to get some of those elusive clean sheets. Our defensive line has representatives from Man City, Southampton and West Brom.
The first name in our defensive line is Man City’s John Stones (£5.0). Despite their occasional defensive lapse, Man City still have a decent defensive record. They have conceded the third fewest goals so far in the Premier League (11).
A word of warning for anyone thinking Man City will breeze a clean sheet against Burnley after their Gameweek 12 performance. Burnley appear to be a totally different team at home, their average goals conceded per match drops from 2.6% away to 0.86% home.
A slightly uncomfortable pick is Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand (£5.4). Bertrand has been drafted into our Gameweek 13 Picks of the Week following Southampton’s strong defensive showing so far. Southampton have conceded 12 goals this season but see them face Everton in Gameweek 13.
The reason that this pick is uncomfortable is that Everton have a good attacking unit, despite poor performances the last two weeks. Southampton are good at home, conceding an average of 0.83 goals. The main draw to Bertrand over Fonte or van Dijk is that only 0.9% of managers have him in.
The last position in defence is taken by Gareth McAuley (£4.7). Yes, I know its another West Brom player but their fixture against Hull looks good for points. We have already explained about Hull frailties either end of the pitch so we’ll skip over that.
McAuley is the highest scoring defender in the West Brom ranks and is cheaper than the second highest, Craig Dawson (£4.8). The downside, McAuley has a selection percentage of 25.2% compared to Dawson’s 1.7%.
Midfield
Gameweek 13 sees us pack the midfield with big names, but leaving space for the in form Matt Phillips (£5.1). Last week Phillips was a Risky Business selection, now he’s been promoted to our starting XI.
Two bumper Gameweeks has seen the Scotsman become West Brom’s highest Fantasy Premier League scorer. It’s yet to be seen if this bout of form is temporary, we all remember Etienne Capoue (£5.0). We’ve included him for his cheap price, up coming fixtures and his 1.0% selection percentage.
We are dipping back into one of last weeks posts, this time is Kevin De Bruyne (£10.8) from Dare to be Different. Last week the Belgian scored 7 points courtesy of an assist and 2 bonus points. Gameweek 13 squares Man City against Burnley, who are no slouches at when at home.
De Bruyne is the highest scoring Man City player and only has a selection percentage of 10.7%, which is insane comparing it to Agüero’s 46.3 & and Stones’ 26.5%. Guardiola has given De Bruyne a regular starting spot despite City’s savage midfield options, grabbing 9 Fantasy Premier League assists does make you irreplaceable really.
Now we have our obligatory Liverpool midfield option, Roberto Firmino (£8.8). We’ve been a strong backer of Firmino all season and we are sticking to our guns with Philippe Coutinho (£8.7) seemingly missing Adam Lallana (£7.2).
Liverpool were held to a 0–0 draw to Southampton, who have a strong defensive outfit. This week Liverpool host a Sunderland team on the up. The stats tell us that at home Liverpool score an average of 3.4 goals and Sunderland concede 1.33 goals while playing away.
Despite having to go way back to Gameweek 1 to find the last time Swansea won we have drafted in Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.2). Sigurdsson has been scoring decent FPL points all season but has been overlooked with a few cameo performances by Leroy Fer (£5.0) and a poor run of results for the Swans.
Swansea play Crystal Palace at home this week who have troubles of their own. Palace have lost the last 5 games in a row and now face a slightly improved Swans team. There should be a goal for each side here and Sigurdsson will be Swansea’s outlet either creating or scoring a goal himself.
One space left and you must be expecting Alexis Sánchez (£11.3) here if you read the intro. And you would be absolutely correct. Arsenal face Bournemouth at home and will look to continue their impressive scoring form.
Sánchez has chipped in to Arsenal’s impressive start to the season with 6 goals and 4 Fantasy Premier League assists. Sánchez’s work ethic is incredible and is always looking to score. Arsenal average 2 goals a game and home with Bournemouth conceding 1.67 goals away.
Attack
Despite being dethroned as the most selected player in the Fantasy Premier League Kun Agüero (£13.2) is our first attacking option. We are affording him one more chance to provide the goods or we’ll be cashing in on the premium priced asset.
Agüero is still here for the same reason he is still in 46.3% of teams, you cant risk not having him. On top of that, who do you replace him with? The points are coming from midfield at the moment. City have a patchy run of fixtures ahead and Burnley will be a decent warm up team to face Chelsea in Gameweek 14.
The final spot in our Gameweek 13 Picks of the Week squad sees us jumping on the Victor Anichebe (£4.6) bandwagon. Now, this pick was partly motivated by his explosion in the last two Gameweeks but also his price.
Liverpool aren’t the most defensively stable team in the league but it’ll be hard for Sunderland to find three goals again. But, strange things happen in football and it means our team comes in at £99.5 including subs.
Bench
New for this week, we have added fours subs to make this article as realistic as possible. The guys who didn’t quite make the cut are:
Fraser Forster — SOU — £5.0–4.3%
Jordi Amat — SWA — £4.1–13.0%
Ben Gibson — MID — £4.7–6.7%
Modou Barrow — SWA — £5.0–1.7%
Originally published at THREE AT THE BACK.
