Mondogoal Picks – Gameweek 24

With a couple of red-hot derby encounters taking place in Merseyside and North London, we’re looking elsewhere when constructing our Mondogoal line-up. The top two teams dominate our thoughts, then, as Chelsea and Manchester City go head-to-head with struggling Aston Villa and Hull City respectively this time around.

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.

As always, you can enter a free contest for Gameweek 24, 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 12.35pm on Saturday afternoon, ahead of the North London derby at White Hart Lane.

Furthermore, Mondogoal have announced a £30,000 Final Championship which takes place on the last day of the season. This will consist of a one-day league, where the top manager earns a princely £10k, second place receives £5k, with the top 30 Fantasy managers all in the money.

To qualify for the Championship, you need to win a specially designated qualifier contest – these will run every week from now until that last fixture. There are six of these contests per Premier League week, where you can enter a £2, £10 or £50 league – essentially, this means someone could turn £2 into £10,000 come the season’s conclusion! Finish first in one of those qualifiers and you are in the final. You can have up to ten entries in the final so if you qualify once, be sure to keep trying to earn additional entries to increase your odds of taking home the £10k first prize.

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 retain a four-man defence again this week and turn to Burnley’s Tom Heaton between the sticks. The Clarets welcome a West Brom side that’s scored just a single goal in three outings under Tony Pulis and could well be in line to earn a fifth shut-out at Turf Moor, with the new Baggies boss clearly needing time to calibrate his team and instil the tactical diligence that made Stoke such a resolute outfit. At a price of just 3.5 million, Heaton’s budget-friendly cost is too good to ignore.

Manchester City may have failed to earn a clean sheet in their last six league matches but with visitors Hull failing to score in seven of their previous nine, the omens look good for the champions. Captain Vincent Kompany looks a tantalising prospect for tomorrow’s Etihad showdown, then, and sets you back just 5.9 million against the toothless Tigers.

Neil Taylor recorded his ninth clean sheet of the season on Sunday as the Swans dispatched of Southampton in impressive style. Sunderland arrive at the Liberty in high spirits having recorded a convincing win over Burnley last time out, yet the Black Cats struggle to score away from the Stadium of Light, with just nine goals in 11 road trips – setting you back a mere 6.5 million, the left-back could help Garry Monk’s side to rebuff their visitors’ advances.

Chelsea’s trip to Aston Villa also looks a likely source of defensive returns. Paul Lambert’s side have scored a single goal in their last eight league fixtures and square up to a defence that has already kept out their opponents on 11 occasions this term. We’re banking on young Kurt Zouma (8.0m) to retain his starting role ahead of Gary Cahill as Jose looks to chalk up another win at the summit.

Our final defender is Southampton defender Matt Targett. With Ryan Bertrand suspended for three matches, the youngster is set to be handed the left-back berth as Ronald Koeman’s side make their way to managerless QPR this weekend – the R’s have scored just once in their last three at Loftus Road, suggesting the visitors could be in line for an eleventh clean sheet of the campaign. At just 6.2 million, Targett is another value option this weekend.

The Midfield

Chelsea’s trip to Villa looks a likely source of goals but Eden Hazard’s price of 18.5 millions is a little too high for our liking. Instead, we’ll turn to team-mate Oscar, who comes in at a far more reasonable 12.4 million – the Brazilian makes his way to the midlands in better form, having served up three goals and an assist in his last three compared to Hazard’s single assist over the same period.

Jason Puncheon, much like the majority of Crystal Palace’s attack-minded players, seems to have profited from the forward-thinking philosophy Alan Pardew’s appointment beckoned in. The former Saints winger has delivered two goals and an assist under the new man in charge and pays visit to Leicester rearguard that possesses the second-worst home defensive record in the league. At a price of 8.4 million, he looks an in-form option for the King Power showdown.

David Silva completes our three-man midfield for City’s home encounter with Hull. With two goals in his last three, the little playmaker (priced at 12.8 million) boasts an average of 9.82 points per appearance in Mondogoal this term – that’s fifth highest amongst midfielders this season and serves notice of his potential against Steve Bruce’s strugglers.

The Forwards

By overlooking Hazard and snapping up some budget defenders, we’ve plenty of budget to bring Sergio Aguero on board. Despite the steep price tag (£16.0million) and three-match goal drought, selecting the City striker is a no-brainer for us this week – Hull have conceded three times in each of their last two matches and going without the Argentine this weekend looks a very risky tactic.

We expect goals in the north London derby as Spurs tussle with Arsenal on Saturday lunchtime. With Santi Cazorla’s 18.0 million price tag proving too much of a deterrent, we turn to Olivier Giroud as a route into the Gunners’ attack – five goals and an assist in his last six suggests an 11.4 million price tag is a little on the kind side.

Our final pick is Swansea’s Bafetimbi Gomis. Available for just 8.9 million, he welcomes Sunderland to the Liberty as Garry Monk’s side look to build on the back of last week’s win at Southampton – the Frenchman has posed a significant threat of late and despite failing to find the net in the last four Gameweeks, he’s produced more attempts on goal than any other forward over that period.

The FFS Weekend XI