Budget picks are to the fore in wins for Crystal Palace and Watford, while a Stoke City midfielder continues to build as a sleeper hit and a well-owned Swansea City striker treats his managers to an unwanted cameo.

Crystal Palace’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek (4.5) started the season as half a million Fantasy Premier League managers’ pick for budget returns from midfield.

A combination of injuries and a team in freefall had reduced that ownership to closer to quarter of a million by the time Gameweek 10 came around, which is when those cut-price points finally started arriving.

The England international has now produced in three of the last four Gameweeks, his goal in yesterday’s 2-1 win over Stoke City backed up by a pair of assists in Palace’s previous two home matches.

The 5.9% who have stayed loyal will be looking for more of the same from an excellent schedule (bha wba BOU WAT lei swa), while the 57% of his owners who benched him yesterday will just have to hope they get lucky with their auto-subs.

Based on his fine recent form, they won’t make the same mistake again in Tuesday’s ‘derby’ at Brighton, although Loftus-Cheek is yet to garner a haul on the road.

Two other Palace punts, goalkeeper Julian Speroni (3.9%) and centre-half Scott Dann (0.6%), will have to wait and see whether they gain redemption after manager Roy Hodgson appeared to bench both for their errors in Gameweek 12’s draw with Everton.

Speroni had been bought by 22,000 in the run-up to the weekend, only for his status as a 4.0-priced starter now threatening to be short-lived.

Dann (4.7), meanwhile, has always offered a goal threat – he’s scored 14 goals across seven top-flight seasons and his 14 efforts in the box this term is still the most of any defender – but he was replaced by James Tomkins (4.3) for the Stoke clash.

Post-match, Hodgson explained his decision…

“Both Julian [Speroni] and Scott [Dann] might feel a little disappointed to lose their place because they haven’t lost it by giving bad performances. But James Tomkins has been doing extremely well for a period of time now, and although Scott Dann hasn’t done badly at all, they are different types of players”

“I thought we’d have quite a lot of the ball today in the back area and I think James [Tomkins] was very good for us there.”

Meanwhile, Hodgson also stated that Speroni’s lack of stature – he’s just six-foot – was a factor behind Hennessey’s recall…

“The goalkeeper [Wayne Hennessey] has one massive advantage over Julian [Speroni] and that’s his height, and against teams like Stoke it’s important to have a keeper who can threaten with his height like they do with theirs.”

Yesterday’s match-winner Mamadou Sakho at least offers security of starts, having played seven of Palace’s last eight matches, but that stability comes at a rather more signficant cost of 4.9.

Tuesday’s teamsheet will tell us more about Hodgson’s defensive thinking, though it seems that he will be unlikely to change a winning side for the Amex Stadium visit.

Shaqiri shines again

Another budget midfielder who has caught the eye of many has been Stoke’s Eric Choupo-Moting (5.7), who is now found in 6.3% of FPL squads.

The Cameroonian international has delivered for his owners, producing three goals and as many assists for a 4.2 points per match (ppm) average.

But for just 0.3 more, Xherdan Shaqiri (5.8%) has 4.8 ppm and his strike at Selhurst Park took him to two goals and three assists from a highly productive last four Gameweeks.

Nor is that consistency a recent phenomenon – the Swiss playmaker has now either scored or assisted in seven of his last nine starts.

Much like the team’s performances to date, Stoke’s upcoming fixtures are a mixed bag, but the run through to Boxing Day includes potentially profitable home matches with Swansea City, West Ham and West Brom and a trip to Huddersfield.

That should persuade the pair’s owners to hold for now, with Shaqiri building a strong case as Stoke’s preferred option given his renewed goal threat and involvement on set-pieces.

Abraham frustrates in Swansea blank

The current budget third striker of choice, Swansea’s Tammy Abraham, delivered the worst of two worlds in the Swans’ goalless draw at home to Bournemouth.

His 13.8% ownership would have been pleased to discover he was considered fit enough to be included in the squad, only for their man to be handed a six-minute cameo that produced a single point for the 61% who had started him in their XI.

Nearly 10,000 managers went with Abraham and had Loftus-Cheek as their first sub – a decision that cost them six much-needed points.

Abraham is now ineligible to face parent club Chelsea on Wednesday and has already dropped in price to 5.9 ahead of his next appearance which is likely to be at Stoke in Gameweek 15.

Another Swansea sob story came courtesy of goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski (7.9%), who brought in nine points from a first clean sheet in seven Gameweeks and two bonus – a fine haul that 51% of his owners missed out on by keeping him in reserve.

Team-mate Federico Fernandez (3.1%) was absent on compassionate leave, while Bournemouth’s third successive clean sheet kept the 12% on Charlie Daniels happy, with close to 150,000 acquiring his services over the past two Gameweeks alone.

Richarlison rolls on

It remains to be seen whether Watford midfielder Will Hughes’ purple patch – he’s scored in back-to-back Gameweeks now – can be sustained.

But there’s no doubting the consistency being delivered by team-mate Richarlison.

The Brazilian provided an assist in the Hornets’ 3-0 humbling of Newcastle United, taking him to seven returns from the last eight Gameweeks.

The one thing that continues to elude him, however, is bonus points.

His 72 points for the season contains just four bonus, a source of frustration for his 19.7% ownership when Brighton’s Pascal Gross, for instance, has 14 of them.

That will continue to be a first world Fantasy problem as long as the Brazilian keeps on delivering, although visits from Spurs and Man United over the next two Gameweeks might well slow his output in the short term.

Meanwhile, Marco Silva’s shift to a three-man defence has now delivered successive clean sheets. That has seen his wing-backs produce outstanding returns.

Marvin Zeegelaar, priced at just 4.4, brought in 14 points yesterday, with a shut-out boosted by two assists and maximum bonus. He also picked up two bonus points in Gameweek 12’s 2-0 win over West Ham.

The Dutchman is owned by only 0.2%, while the more popular Kiko Femenia (4.5 and 4.8%) bagged two bonus points and now has nine for the season, picking up extra points in each one of Watford’s five clean sheets of the campaign so far.

Any temptation to tap into the pair’s points potential must be tempered by that tough short-term schedule, but things ease considerably from Gameweek 16 (bur cry HUD bha LEI SWA).

We also need to monitor the situation with 4.0 option Adrian Mariappa; he has been named in the starting line-up for both shut-outs.

As for Newcastle, they’re in a slump involving four straight losses in which they’ve managed just one goal. They’ve kept just a single clean sheet in nine Gameweeks.

That continues to limit the output Rob Elliot (4.2) who, with 26.5% ownership, is the second most owned goalkeeper. Significantly, he has produced just four save points over that barren nine-Gameweek run.

Elliot and Newcastle have just two home matches over the next six Gameweeks (wba che LEI EVE ars whu) to turn things around.