We have chosen our best Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players for Gameweek 29 ahead of Saturday’s 11:00 GMT deadline.
We line up in a 3-4-3 formation and are limited to £83.5m – the small, annual increase to the starting budget that you can read more about here – for our first XI.
Our four substitutes, meanwhile, are always picked from the budget/cheaper crop of players, not to serve as bench fodder but to give some alternative options who don’t cost as much as some of the names in our line-up.
GOALKEEPERÂ AND DEFENDERS
The goalkeeper vote went down to the wire this week, with Everton’s decent-ish home form and superior fixtures almost leading us to Jordan Pickford (£4.9m). In the end, though, with the Toffees a difficult team to trust, we’ve gone tried and tested with Aaron Ramsdale (£5.1m), whose points-per-match average of 4.9 is the best among first-choice goalkeepers. The Gunners’ two fixtures look a bit iffy from a clean sheet perspective, with Leicester and Liverpool ranked seventh and first for goals scored in 2021/22. Ramsdale, at least, can compensate with some save points if he does get the nod: he made 13 in total across the reverse fixtures of Gameweek 29’s matches. The Foxes are also coming into Sunday’s clash in the middle of a two-legged UEFA Conference League tie and with less than 72 hours of recuperation time from Thursday’s win over Rennes.
Andrew Robertson (£7.2m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m) both get the nod, meanwhile. The pair are first and second for FPL returns (goals, assists and/or clean sheets) in the last 16 Gameweeks, with Robertson averaging 8.2 points per match over that time. Saturday opponents Brighton and Hove Albion are woefully out of form at present and while Arsenal may pose a stiffer test, Alexander-Arnold’s highest score of the season came against the Gunners in the reverse fixture.
Matt Doherty (£4.7m) is a serious upgrade on Ben Davies (£4.4m), the initial ‘bus team’ pick from the Tottenham Hotspur backline. Since Antonio Conte took charge, Doherty’s rate of expected goal involvement (xGI) is better than that of any FPL defender – and almost as good as Son Heung-min’s (£10.8m). Doherty has been involved in seven Opta-defined ‘big chances’ in just 496 minutes of pitch-time under Conte, with four falling to himself and the other three created for others. Yes, he’s not completely nailed with Emerson Royal (£4.7m) lurking, but his form is such that it’s his shirt to lose at right wing-back.
MIDFIELDERS
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