Mondogoal Picks – Gameweek 22

Arsenal’s assets let the Fantasy Football Scout Mondogoal lineup down last weekend: Olivier Giroud’s blank and Mathieu Debuchy’s injury preventing us on improving on a credible 88-point return and 11th spot. The double-figure returns from Jason Puncheon, Danny Ings and Chelsea pair, Branislav Ivanovic and Diego Costa went unrewarded, then, but a new Gameweek presents fresh opportunities to stake a claim for contest prize money.

Mondogoal is a daily and weekly Fantasy Football game – a brand new offering for this season. It hosts contests based on the Premier League as well as all the major top-flight leagues – Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Major League Soccer (MLS). You can even play global contests that span across all the leagues.

Backed by an ever-growing number of clubs including Manchester City, Liverpool, West Ham and Roma, Mondogoal has recently announced a partnership with Spanish giants Barcelona, as they continue to broaden their horizons.

As usual, you can enter a free contest for Gameweek 22, with a £100 prize pot up for grabs and there’s also a £5 entry game with a £1,000 guaranteed pot on show.

Mondogoal are also running additional guaranteed contests with entry fees of £2, £5, £10, £25 and £50 – if you fancy your chances, there’s over £2,000 in cash to be won this weekend. You’ll need to compile and enter your starting XI by 2.50pm on Saturday afternoon.

If you’re looking to get involved, we’ve written up a full strategy guide to the game. Read on as we pick over the fixture and player lists ahead of another round of Premier League matches.

The Defence

We’re going to change tact for the Gameweek and deploy a four-man defence in a 4-3-3 setup. That will enable us to exploit what appears to be a “gimme” clean sheet with West Ham hosting a Hull City side bereft of confidence and ravaged by injuries in attacking areas. Steve Bruce’s Tigers have struggled for goals when they have their strikers fit; with both Nikica Jelavic and Abel Hernandez sidelined, their cause at the Boleyn Ground on Saturday looks a little desperate.

We’ll go with both full-backs here: Aaron Cresswell and Carl Jenkinson both bristle with attacking intent and they warrant the combined 15.9 outlay.

Elsewhere in the rearguard I’m going to put faith in the Everton revival, backing Joel Robles in goal and John Stones in the Toffees defence. Both are priced kindly and offer plenty of potential against a West Brom side settling under the stewardship of Tony Pulis. The new Baggies boss will likely set his side up to contain and frustrate Everton but I can see Roberto Martinez’ side edging this and building on recent performances. While I’m tempted to invest in the attacking verve of Leighton Baines, Robles and Stones are “enablers” that allow me to spend more in attacking areas.

The final spot in my defence goes to Tottenham’s Federico Fazio – Mondogoal have made him the cheapest option in Mauricio Pochettino’s back four and while Spurs are hardly the most reliable defensive unit – their opponents Sunderland looked woefully short on firepower and creativity against Liverpool. We’re backing a comfortable home win here. Fazio, at just 5.8 million, allows me to reserve funds for further forward.

The Midfield

With three slots to fill, we’re backing Everton, Liverpool and Spurs for victories with profit for a trio of midfield assets.

Raheem Sterling will be expected to return to Brendan Rodgers’ starting lineup for the trip to Villa and, equally, will be expected to make an impact having been refreshed in Jamaica on an extended leave. Villa will be without both Ron Vlaar and Ciaran Clark here – ripping the heart out of their defence. Liverpool have demonstrated a significant upturn in form and results and we can see Sterling profiting from this – certainly at just 11.5, he looks good value with a 9.92 points per game (ppg) return thus far.

While Nacer Chadli is the man in form for Spurs, his 12.1 million price tag is a little rich for our blood. We’ll revert to selecting Christian Eriksen (10.2) once again, backing the Dane for a return to form having notched just a single goal in his last five outings. We can see Spurs overwhelming the Black Cats at the Lane and Eriksen’s craft and eye for goal should have a say in the outcome.

Our final midfield slot was tricky but, in the end, we opted for Kevin Mirallas (10.3). Benched against City last time out, we reckon he’ll return to the starting lineup as Roberto Martinez continues to shuffle his attacking midfield three behind Romelu Lukaku. Mirallas sparkled in Tuesday’s FA Cup replay at West Ham and, when is on the pitch, offers an obvious goal threat at Goodison against the Baggies.

The Forwards

We’re keeping faith with Burnley’s Danny Ings at home to Crystal Palace. The Clarets hitman has shown such great consistency of late and Sean Dyche’s side continue to offer the potential of attacking returns. The Eagles will provide an obstacle but with Alan Pardew emphasising attack in his opening league encounter against Spurs, we’re expecting an open match on Saturday. That should play into Ings’ hands and allow him to notch for the third successive league outing to warrant the relatively modest 10.7 valuation.

Andy Carroll looks an even bigger bargain. His world-class strike at the Liberty Stadium last weekend was not a goal you’d normally associate with the big Geordie and underlined his burgeoning confidence. We’re expecting the Hammers to dispose of Hull City on Saturday and anticipate that Carroll will be at his unplayable best. At just 8.1 million, we can’t look beyond the West Ham spearhead.

Harry Kane grabs the final shirt in our three-man frontline. We don’t need to justify this selection given his current form, both at the Lane and on his travels. Again, we’re backing Spurs to ease their way past Sunderland on Saturday, with Kane in the thick of it once more. The 13.3 million price tag is steep but looks justified in order to ensure Kane is heading up our Mondogoal attack.

The FFS Weekend XI