FanDuel Focus – Gameweek 25

Welcome to our Friday afternoon assessment of the forthcoming FanDuel contests. As usual, we will run down the available games and prize money, in addition to putting forward our strongest XI for the weekend matches, providing some final tips on player selection.

We also drop in on our FanDuel Social League to relay the latest standings as we enter the final Gameweek.

FanDuel’s weekend contests are again split over three windows.

The full slate contests covers all ten Gameweek fixtures, beginning with Hull City’s visit to the Emirates from 12.30pm tomorrow and ending with the clash between Bournemouth and Manchester City on Monday evening.

The Saturday-only contests begin with the three o’clock kick-offs and span five matches in total, ending with Liverpool’s match against Spurs at Anfield.

There is also a third window that includes the two Sunday matches, plus the Monday night encounter at the Vitality Stadium.

FanDuel are again rolling out an offer for new accounts for this set of fixtures: users that sign up today can receive £5 in free credit, with no deposit required.

Use the promo code “SCOUTFIVER” when registering your account to claim the offer.

If you’re about to create your first FanDuel line-up, you should find our Weekly Shop and player analysis below helpful for this weekend. For further assistance, we recommend that you take in our strategy guide which discusses more of the concepts behind squad selection in FanDuel.

My Strongest XI

David De Gea £6.9m
Omar Elabdellaoui £6.9m
Mamadou Sakho £6.9m
Calum Chambers £8.2m
Alfred N’Diaye £6.9m
Robbie Brady £7.4m
Henrikh Mkhitaryan £10.7m
Gylfi Sigurdsson £11.8m
Jermain Defoe £9.3m
Gabriel Jesus £11.6m
Alexis Sanchez £13.4m

The Key Picks

With such a kind price tag in FanDuel, we couldn’t overlook David De Gea as our preferred keeper.

The Manchester United stopper has conceded just twice in his last five outings and, since Gameweek 10, has not let in more than a single goal in a match.

Only three sides have mustered fewer penalty area attempts (59) than United’s opponents Watford away from home – a significant indicator that Walter Mazzarri’s side have struggled to produce clear-cut chances. The prospect of a fourth United shut-out in six outings looks strong, with the associated 10 FanDuel points making De Gea well worth the outlay.

While clean sheets aren’t a factor in FanDuel for defenders, back-to-back shutouts for Hull City against Manchester United and Liverpool highlight that Marco Silva’s side have made great strides in defensive areas. That has delivered plenty of clearances, blocks and interceptions (CBI’s) for the newly resilient side.

A trip to the Emirates Stadium to doubtless face waves of Arsenal attacks promises more of the same. That has us look to Omar Elabdellaoui as a value option in our three-man defence. He picked up 19 CBI’s against Liverpool last time out, which should hopefully see him retain a starting role, despite Ahmed Elmohamady’s availability. We will be looking out for Silva’s teamsheet with a late swap ready, just in case.

Our next pick, Crystal Palace’s Mamadou Sakho, is another risk but has the potential to shine if granted his debut this weekend.

With Scott Dann sidelined for the Eagles’ trip to Stoke City, Sam Allardyce may turn to the loanee instead and a potential duel with Stoke City’s in-form Peter Crouch should draw an array of defensive actions to score us points.

Again, we will be watching out for the teamsheets, with the Potters’ Phil Bardsley (also £6.9m) ready to replace either Sakho or Elabdellaoui if required.

Our final slot in defence sees us opt for Middlesbrough’s Calum Chambers against a visiting Everton outfit that will surely test the Teessiders’ resilience. Despite his substantial price tag, Chambers put in another impressive shift at White Hart Lane last time out – deployed at right-back, he contributed 13 clearances, seven tackles and even set up a pair of chances to score 34.75 FanDuel points. That’s helped him record a 25.5 average over the last four – a level of consistency that makes us optimistic of another big return against the Toffees.

With four of our attackers costing over £10m, we’ve had to take a chance on a pair of defensive midfielders to act as “enablers”. However, we’re confident that their combative displays can still bring us points.

Hull City’s Alfred N’Diaye secured points from eight different actions to register 43.5 points on his debut against Liverpool last weekend: an all-round performance that demonstrates he could be well-suited to the FanDuel scoring system.

We’re hoping our next pick makes his first start for Burnley when Chelsea roll up to Turf Moor. Sean Dyche will target set-pieces as a key route to scoring against the league leaders, which leads us to believe that new boy Robbie Brady will earn his full debut. A dead-ball specialist, the ex-Norwich man took three corners and fired two attempts on goal in a second half debut for the Clarets at Watford. We’re also expecting a healthy return of tackles and interceptions against a tide of Blues attacks.

While the dependability of Zlatan Ibrahimovic (£13.2m) was tempting, it proved difficult to find the funds for the Swede up front. However, we’re more than happy to go with his team-mate Henrikh Mkhitaryan for United’s home clash with Watford.

The Armenian has now started the last six league matches – averaging 24.1 FanDuel points over that run. Tallies of 14 chances created and 11 shots (five of which were on target) during that period highlights his growing influence Jose Mourinho’s side.

We’ve opted for Sunderland’s source of goals as our mid-price forward option.

A brace at Selhurst Park brought Jermain Defoe’s tally to 14 goals this campaign, and we’re backing him for more joy against a Southampton defence that’s lacking confidence and the presence of captain Virgil van Dijk. Claude Puel’s side have lost to Swansea, Burnley and Everton in their previous three road trips and we can see a buoyant Black Cats turning them over at the Stadium of Light.

Our next pick was somewhat inevitable. Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus has scored a trio of goals and provided an assist in just two starts and now faces up to the most obliging defence in the Premier League. Eddie Howe’s side are in a dreadful run, conceding three or more in five of their last eight and, with injuries biting, we just don’t see them having the answers to Jesus’ trickery and movement.

Despite Hull’s recent robust displays, we’ve still decided to complete the team with Alexis Sanchez. Following back-to-back defeats, the Gunners just have to get a result, despite having one eye on the midweek Champions League trip to Bayern Munich. The Chilean is unquestionably their main weapon and has struck 17 goal attempts over the last four Gameweeks – more than any other Premier League player.

The Contests

The full weekend slate again supplies the largest pot on offer, with the Fan Favourite stumping up £2500 in prize money. The top placed participant will collect £500, with prizes available down to 120th position.

There’s also a double up game with £1000 available. This has a £10 buy-in and the top 50 players collecting prizes.

The Saturday Special has a £3 buy-in with £300 up for grabs – £75 is paid to the winner, with the top 24 positions claiming prizes.

The Sunday/Monday slate offers a £1400 game with a £7 entry fee; the first prize for this one is £280, with the top 47 places paying out.

The FanDuel Social League

There’s no shifting at Illusions from the top of the overall standings in our free to enter FanDuel social league as the competition reaches its conclusion in Gameweek 25.

A respectable 14^th placed finish in the third Gameweek of this four-part league ensures he retains number one spot going into the final set of matches, with a combined score of 767.75 so far.

However, despite a healthy 38.50 lead over second placed Allezlechef, the race for the overall top prize of a £50 Amazon voucher and £50 FanDuel credit is far from over as only the best three scores across the four Gameweeks are counted.

Others hoping to move to the summit include third place sl8ter.

Anorak, who at 19^th in the overall placings, is the highest ranked member of the FFScout moderators and contributors team, also has an outside chance of top spot if he can excel in the final round.

The overall rankings table can be found here.

With weekly prizes also available, there is still plenty more to play for in the final round, even if you are entering for the first time.

Claiming the top score and a £25 Amazon voucher in the third round is bonz07, who scored 338. Joining bon07 in winning a £10 FanDuel credit as the top five highest Gameweek 2 scorers are adamtattersall, philman, erictheviking and zero.

The deadline for entries for the fourth round of our social league is 12:30pm on Saturday.

You must be over 18 years of age, resident in the UK, and of legal capacity to register with FanDuel and open an Account. If you sign up, always play responsibly.