Manchester City and Tottenham will be looking to close the gap at the summit with home clashes against Crystal Palace and Sunderland on their respective agendas. Intriguingly, the ten teams who faced midweek home comforts are set to play in front of their own fans again, which could prove a disadvantage to those on their travels so soon after the arduous festive schedule.
After scoring their first goal in four outings, Leicester City visit Aston Villa, who picked up a rare midweek win over Palace. Arsenal’s enthralling clash at Anfield is followed by a visit to Stoke – a tricky tie after such a high intensity match, particularly as the Potters have won four of their last five at the Britannia.
Elsewhere, Everton travel to Chelsea, having held City in a goalless encounter at the Etihad. Whilst a similar scoreline would not be a bad result for Roberto Martinez’ men, they’ll be expecting to net against a Blues defence that just conceded twice to West Brom. Manchester United go to Liverpool on the hunt for a second away win in seven outings, though Jurgen Klopp’s side are unbeaten in four home encounters in light of Wednesday’s six-goal thriller with the Gunners.
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MY TEAM
Hugo Lloris (5m)
Charlie Daniels (4.5m)
Virgil Van Dijk (5.5m)
Aleksandar Kolarov (6m)
Dele Alli (5m)
Dimitri Payet (7.5m)
Sadio Mane (7.5m)
David Silva (10m)
Odion Ighalo (5.5m)
Harry Kane (9.5m)
Sergio Aguero (13m)
KEY PICKS
Hugo Lloris The Frenchman has kept five clean sheets at home this season and the visit of Sunderland represents a good chance of yet another shut-out. Certainly, the Spurs defence should offer much more of a challenge to the Black Cats attack than Swansea managed in midweek, having conceded just eight times at the Lane this term.
Charlie Daniels Bournemouth had conceded just four times in six matches – picking up three clean sheets – prior to Tuesday’s defeat to West Ham, and Eddie Howe will see the visit of Norwich as a must-win match as they are without a victory in four outings. The Canaries have scored just three times in their last five road trips, whilst Daniels – who has two assists and a penalty to his name so far – offers the chance of returns at both ends of the pitch.
Dimitri Payet: The Hammers have missed their midfield playmaker, with Payet’s goal and assist against Bournemouth highlighting his top class talents. Unbeaten in eight, Slaven Bilic’s side now travel to Newcastle looking for a fourth successive win, and, having scored twice against the Magpies at Upton Park, Payet could be in the points again.
Odion Ighalo: The striker may have blanked in the last two but has not gone three league outings without contributing for the Hornets since August. Watford travel to a Swansea side that have just leaked four goals to Sunderland and could become unstuck again against the Nigerian, who scored the winner at Vicarage Road in the reverse fixture.
THIS WEEK’S GAME PICKS
As always the best place to start if you’re new to FantasyBet are the free-rolls. there is a £50 pot available for this Gameweek in both the standard and Flash mode.
For the six Saturday matches there’s a Double-Up game game for £3.30 entry with a guaranteed prize pool of £120 and also FantasyBet’s biggest game, the Grand Saturday, where your compete for a £1000 guaranteed prize pool on a £5.50 buy in.
There’s also a £250 pot in the Flash weekend contest which leaves out the fixture at White Hart Lane, so you can wait for team news from the 3pm kick-offs. This also has a £5.50 entry fee.
LAST WEEK
I recovered some of my stake with winnings from the Double-up and the weekly freeroll, but nothing spectacular. In the big pot, only Marko Arnautovic and Branislav Ivanovic (both picked up six points) scored more than Sergio Aguero’s four points as my captain, in what was an underwhelming Gameweek.
Leong86 and Riksheim shared first place on 63 points. They both went with some differentials that really paid off – Leong86 had Christian Fuchs’ 12 points and Riksheim picked up Jermaine Defoe’s 17-point haul.
THIS WEEK’S STAKE
I will enter the Saturday Double-Up, the Grand Saturday contest, the free-rolls and the FFScout Picks League for a total stake of £11. I’m also considering the Flash game that has a £250 pot but as the squad cannot be changed after the three minute selection countdown, I will make a decision closer to the deadline once more team news is in.
In addition, I’ll be going up against FantasyFootballFrog, the Community champion in this week’s Scout Picks. He will be taking me on in a specially set up head to head game for a chance to win free entry into a £500 Guaranteed ‘Big Weekly’ game worth £22.
Also the eligible Community Champion who beats the Scout Picks by the highest margin every month will win a free entry into the £500 guaranteed ‘Boss’ game worth £55. Lateriser21 beat the picks by 52 points to 42 midweek so gets an entry into the ‘Big Weekly’ game.
FFSCOUT PICKS LEAGUE
ChrisCross topped last week’s Scout Picks league with 66 points; Wayne Rooney provided 32 points as captain, while Marko Arnautovic (six points) and Dimitri Payet (12 points) also contributed.
Once again, FantasyBet have provided a £100 pot for the FFScout Picks League, with a £1.10 stake for entry – it is now possible to enter two teams into this contest. I will enter our Scout Picks as closely as possible, given a 15-man squad is required with the 100m budget. In addition, a captain also needs to be selected.
Feel free to go up against them this week and pick your own squad on FantasyBet.
