We have chosen our best Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players for Gameweek 8 ahead of Friday’s deadline.
We line up in a 4-3-3 formation this week and, as ever, are limited to £83.0m for our first XI and, new to 2022/23 after a viewer vote, an overall price cap of £100.0m for our 15-man squad, too.
GOALKEEPER
Rate My Team’s projected highest-scoring goalkeeper of Gameweek 8 is, unsurprisingly, Nick Pope (£5.2m). The Newcastle United number one faces the team who have had the fewest goal attempts, efforts in the box, shots on target and big chances next, while St James’ Park has become something of a fortress this calendar year: just six goals have been conceded in the Magpies’ last 10 home fixtures, and four of those were scored by Manchester City and Liverpool.
DEFENDERS
The form and favourable fixture of Newcastle are enough for us to double up on Eddie Howe’s defence in the form of Kieran Trippier (£5.3m), who has averaged 6.7 points per home game since he returned to the Premier League in January. FPL’s second most-creative defender, who has supplied 11 opportunities for his teammates already this season, will this weekend be up against a Bournemouth backline that has the worst record for chances and crosses conceded from their left flank in 2022/23.
With Messrs James and Alexander-Arnold having the weekend off, the third member of the premium trinity stands alone in the Scout Picks. Joao Cancelo (£7.2m), unlike the other two heavy hitters, isn’t actually wowing on the underlying stats front: pretty much every metric, from final-third touches to shots and chances created, is down on what he delivered 2021/22, but he still remains the most attacking defender in the division’s best defensive side. Wednesday’s sumptuous assist against Dortmund whetted our appetites further for an encounter with a Wolves side that has scored the joint-fewest number of goals this season.
Kurt Zouma (£4.5m) makes a rare Scout Picks appearance this week. West Ham boast the fifth-lowest expected goals conceded (xGC) tally in the last four matches, despite a tricky run of games, while Gameweek 8 opponents Everton have allowed more headed chances than any other team. Zouma, rested in the UEFA Europa Conference League on Thursday, is joint-third among FPL defenders for headed attempts from set plays this season.
The ‘upsides’ are unquestionably with the wing-backs in Antonio Conte’s 3-4-3 set-up and we really wanted Ivan Perisic (£5.6m) this week but with nagging doubts over which touchline-hugging pair the Spurs boss plumps for, we’ve chickened (cockereled?) out with the decidedly less sexy Cristian Romero (£4.9m). But four shots in the box and five penalty area touches in just three appearances suggests the Argentina international does pose some goal threat of his own from set plays, an area where Leicester have really struggled for some time now. The out-of-sorts Foxes, meanwhile, are uncharacteristically third-bottom for expected goals (xG) in 2022/23, too.
MIDFIELDERS
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COMMUNITY CHAMPION
Each week, a member of the Fantasy Football Scout community takes on the Scout Picks.
The community member who beats our team by the largest margin will win a £100 Amazon Voucher and a place in our Moderators and Contributors League for the following season.
Our champion this week is Camzy, who has gone with this selection:
Pope
Trippier Targett Cancelo Perisic
Foden Gibbs-White Gordon
Haaland Kane (c) Jesus
The Community are 4-2 up on the Scout Picks this season, with Boleyn Boy‘s 81-54 victory in Gameweek 6 giving them the biggest winning margin (27 points) of 2022/23 so far.
FOLLOW THE SCOUT’S WEEKLY TRANSFER PLANS
We’re running a Scout community team in FPL this season, with regulars like TopMarx, Geoff, Tom Freeman and more contributing to the weekly decisions.
And we’re not just looking one week ahead like we are with the Scout Picks but instead planning in advance for the weeks and months to come.
You can follow our team via the Premier Fantasy Tools Pro Planner, which you can learn more about here.
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