Mondogoal Picks – Gameweek 23

The fixture list is undoubtedly dominated by the battle of Stamford Bridge which finds Chelsea and City go head-to-head. An encounter to build your weekend viewing around but not one to consider when forming your Mondogoal lineup. For once, then, we’re turning our back on assets from the top two in fear of an unpredictable cocktail of drama and tension down in West London. That grants our Mondogoal XI a rather unfamiliar look in certain areas.

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 usual, you can enter a free contest for Gameweek 23, 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.

Furthermore, Mondogoal have just 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 cool £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

Once again we’re going with four at the back, putting a great deal of faith in Mark Hughes’ Potters at home to QPR. Harry Redknapp’s side continue to toil on their travels, while Stoke have kept three clean sheets in their last five. We’ve seen enough to back the reasonably priced Asmir Begovic in goal at 6.7 million, with skipper Ryan Shawcross taking his place in the heart of our defence; Phil Bardsley, at just 5.8 million, is the alternative if you need to shelve some funds.

Elsewhere in our defence, we have to get behind Arsene Wenger’s backline at home to Villa. The visitors may have sparked in the FA Cup but are without a league goal in their last five outings and will surely struggle to make an impression at the Emirates. Laurent Koscielny is our pick, here, with his superior record of 6.63 points per game (ppg) in the Gunners’ rearguard.

Southampton’s defence is always a consideration, particularly when garrisoned at St Mary’s. Swansea turn up on the south coast without Gylfi Sigurdsson and with Bafetimbi Gomis still settling into Wilfried Bony’s sizeable boots: I can’t see them finding a way past Ronald Koeman’s ultra-organised unit. Ryan Bertrand gets the nod, then, just ahead of the identically priced Nathaniel Clyne at 8.6 million.

We turn to an unlikely source to complete the defence. Billy Jones is back installed on the Sunderland teamsheet, as Gus Poyet deploys him at wing-back in a new 3-5-2 system. Jones is a risk at home to Burnley but, given his more attacking role and a very kind price of 4.9 million, he’s an enabler with benefits that we can’t ignore.

The Midfield

We’ve opted for a three-man midfield, retaining a tri-force up front. That meant that midfield spots were at a premium, leading us to consider form options to fill the shirts.

Jason Puncheon’s recent CV proved too difficult to ignore. Handed a brief sub role for the recent FA Cup win at Southampton, he’ll surely return to Alan Pardew’s swashbuckling Palace XI for the visit of an obliging Everton defence to Selhurst Park. Given Pardew’s recent all-out-attack approach, this tie promises goals at both ends which should find Puncheon delivering further value for his kind 8.2 million Mondogoal price tag.

Eljero Elia’s twin strikes at St James’ Park last time out sent Fantasy managers into a spin as they scrambled for his services: while we’re reserving judgment long-term in the light of Sadio Mane’s return from the African Cup of Nations, it’s hard to look past the Dutch winger for Saturday’s meet with Swansea. Koeman will surely retain Elia in his starting lineup, leaving the fatigued Mane in reserve for now. Swansea’s defence will be smarting from the 5-0 Chelsea reverse and, while the Saints will likely find some improved resistance, we see the goals and result going Southampton’s way with Elia, at just 6.8 million, in the thick of it.

The final spot in the engine room goes to Santi Cazorla – another player who has earned recognition with recent form who, in the long-term, may find himself marginalised with limited pitch time. Arsene Wenger’s options for the attacking midfield positions ensures that Cazorla has to maintain his recent level of performance and that should be enough to deliver further points from Arsenal’s home meeting with Villa. The Spaniard is a premium selection at a hefty 16.1 million but the dazzling form warrants the outlay.

The Forwards

Despite neglecting both Sergio Aguero and Diego Costa, our forward line boasts some reliable scorers that appear to offer strong value ahead of the weekend contests.

The Wayne Rooney pick comes with plenty of caveats given his recent role in midfield but, with Leicester the visitors to Old Trafford and Louis van Gaal’s side struggling for a cutting edge, I feel that United will turn to their skipper for inspiration. He’s without a goal in his last four outings but I think that run will be halted with the visit of the Foxes.

Olivier Giroud’s selection is far less risky given his recent form. He’s fired four goals in his last five outings and will lead an Arsenal attack fed by the prompting of a midfield bristling with creativity and confidence. At just 10.2 million, it was impossible to ignore the Frenchman’s charms.

Our final striker spot rolls back the years to the days when Jermain Defoe was a feared Premier League marksman, packed with goal threat. Having returned to these shores this month, Defoe isn’t quite up to speed in his new north east surrounds but I feel he’ll get his Sunderland account in swing when Burnley pay visit this weekend. The Clarets’ defence remains suspect and, with Gus Poyet tweaking tactics to feed his new striker, I expect Defoe to get chances. At just 8.9 million, Defoe could be a handy differential.

The FFS Weekend XI