Fantasy Premier League – Gameweek 28 – Pick of the Bunch

After taking a little break for Gameweek 27 I’m back with some more picks for Gameweek 28.

Here are my thoughts:

Norwich v Leicester

Gameweek 28 kicks off Friday evening with Norwich hosting Leicester. The reverse fixture ended in a 1-1 draw with a total of 28 attempts at goal during the match.  Jamie Vardy (£9.7m) had five shots with next best Teemu Pukki (6.5m) having three attempts including a goal. Vardy walked away with the assist which lead to the Tim Krul (£4.5m) own goal.

It’s fair to say that Vardy is currently experiencing a goal drought.  His last goal came at the Etihad back in Gameweek 18 in a 3-1 defeat.  Since that goal, he has registered 639 minutes without adding to his 17 league goals.  I find this quite remarkable, though until this week, I have not yet owned him in my Fantasy Premier League team this season.  I’ve stuck with my plan to bring him in for the in-form Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.2m), and even giving him the armband over Mohamed Salah (£12.8m).

The Canaries conceded 19 attempts against Wolves in Gameweek 27, who found the net three times. Whilst Liverpool only won one nil the week before, they too created 17 chances.  Even with Leicester not currently firing on all cylinders, I feel this is the perfect game for Vardy to find his feet again in front of goal.

Stats are important to me when making certain decisions, but Vardy has always defied the odds when comparing his attacking returns to the underlying stats. I’m boldly predicting he scores here and scores well.  One player I don’t own who is jumping off the stats page is Ricardo Pereira (£6.3m).  He’s creating lots of chances and getting his fair amount of shots away too. I wouldn’t bet against him getting his 3rd double-digit haul of the season here. If not, it will happen very soon if he keeps getting into the positions he has been.

I’m not sure if Wilfried Ndidi (£5.0m) will feature in this game, but Brendan Rodgers talked up how well Dennis Praet (£5.3m) recently played in that holding role so all is not lost. Norwich have only kept four clean sheets this season, two of those against Bournemouth so I can’t see them gaining a 5th here. I fancy Leicester to start fast and put this game to bed.  For this to happen, James Maddison (£7.4m), who still has an FPL ownership of 20.5% may also need to recapture his form, and I believe he will.

• Norwich 0 – 3 Leicester
• Player to watch: Jamie Vardy

Watford v Liverpool

My confidence in Vardy scoring well this week has forced my hand to give him the armband over Salah.  As it stands, I have an overall rank of 4,697.  I understand Salah will be the runaway leader in the captain’s poll and rightly so. He has scored eight goals in his last five games against Watford.  A brace coming in the reverse fixture this season, and who can forget the four he added at Anfield last season? That said, I’m still backing my aggressive approach. Only two of Salah’s 15 league goals have come away from home this season, that with the return of Sadio Mané (£12.3m) who has two consecutive goals to his name.

One thing I couldn’t help but notice in the West Ham game last Monday is Mane’s reaction to being substituted in the dying minutes. He had just had a goal disallowed and he probably felt he was moments away from getting another chance to seal the game.  That as well as probably feeling it should have been Salah making way instead.

Watford have just two points from a possible 15 in their last five league games and the loss of Ismaïla Sarr (£6.2m) seems to have had a negative effect on their attacking output in their last four. He did return for the last 21 minutes last weekend, so he may well be thrown back into the line-up here. We may see Nigel Pearson’s men have a right go at Liverpool, and even though I own double Liverpool defence, I see goals for both sides.

• Watford 1 – 2 Liverpool
• Player to watch: Sadio Mané

Spurs v Wolves

Wolves didn’t get the “rub of the green” in the reverse fixture when losing 2-1 but I do fancy them to get something out of the game this time around.  One thing I do recall is that Adama Traoré (£5.9m) ran them ragged and was unfortunate to come away with just the one goal from his three shots on target. It has been mentioned that the 3-5-2 which Wolves adopted against Norwich last week means there is no room for Traoré.  I don’t see that being the case here and I believe Nuno Santo will revert to the 3-4-3 with Traoré joining Diogo Jota (£6.2m) and Raúl Jiménez (£7.9m) in a front three.

Make no mistake about it, Spurs have looked dreadful since losing Heung-Min Son (£9.9m) in the Aston Villa game. Dele Alli (£8.4m) showed his petulant side again when taken off shortly after the hour mark against Leipzig, and only got the last 12 minutes in the London derby against Chelsea last weekend. Even when Spurs had been playing badly, they still had Son to turn to who could produce something from nothing in key parts of the games. I can’t see a replacement for him on recent displays. I do believe they have a talent in Steven Bergwijn (£7.5m), and players such as Alli and Lucas Moura (£7.1m) can be devastating on their day.  Though losing key players Moussa Sissoko (£4.8m), Harry Kane (£10.8m) and Son obviously won’t do any good for team morale.

Wolves have kept three league clean sheets in a row, coinciding with the return of Willy Boly (£4.7m). Matt Doherty (£6.1m) is threatening hauls most weeks and they appear to be brimming in confidence at both ends.  Two further Wolves players will be joining Jiménez in my team after this Gameweek, though I wish I had sneaked one more in before now.

With Jota getting a night off in the Europa League it seems very likely that he will start against Spurs. Traoré played 78 minutes so we’ll have to wait and see whether he has another big role to play in the league this weekend.

Although Jota will be eager to continue his fine form on Sunday, I see Jiménez being the main man here. He has two goals and an assist in his last three games against Spurs which is a decent return that I see continuing.

• Spurs 0 – 2 Wolves
• Player to watch: Raúl Jiménez

Good luck to all this week!