We’ve put together our ‘early Scout Picks’ for Gameweek 29 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL).
Four clubs are without a Premier League fixture this week: Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Newcastle United.
This is due to the involvement of Liverpool and Newcastle in the EFL Cup final on Sunday.
It’s a smaller pool of players to choose from, then,
ABOUT THE SCOUT PICKS ‘BUS TEAM’
In this selection, we choose a first draft of our regular picks. We will then finalise and publish them much closer to Saturday’s deadline.
Plenty can change between now and then, of course, with European club fixtures and the pre-match press conferences still to come
The upcoming Scout Squad nominations will also help shape the final Scout Picks.
There are certain restrictions for our picks, however:
- An £83.0m budget for our starting XI
- An overall squad limit of £100.0m
- No more than three players per team
GAMEWEEK 29 FIXTURES
Above: The Gameweek 29 fixtures sorted by difficulty on our Season Ticker
THE LIKELY LADS
There will inevitably be representation from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest and Manchester United in Gameweek 29.
They travel to Southampton, Ipswich Town and Leicester City respectively, three of the worst promoted teams in FPL history.
Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.8m) is our go-to Wolves asset. He’s registered three shots and four key passes across his last four starts, decent underlying stats considering he’s faced Liverpool, Bournemouth, Fulham and Everton in those matches. He’s also taking some corners, a potentially significant factor given that Southampton are the worst team for set-piece shots conceded.
Chris Wood (£7.3m), meanwhile, is the stand-out option from the Forest attack. The Kiwi striker has produced three goals and two assists in his last five away matches, blanking only once at Bournemouth.
With back-to-back clean sheets recorded against Manchester City and Arsenal, at least one of Matz Sels (£5.0m), Ola Aina (£5.3m) or Nikola Milenkovic (£4.8m) will be required, too.
Bruno Fernandes’ (£8.4m) resurgence surely makes him the closest thing we have to a nailed pick this week: the in-form midfielder has four attacking returns in three matches, with six shots and seven chances created in that spell. Leicester admittedly looked a bit more compact/solid in their new five-at-the-back system on Sunday, but having conceded at Stamford Bridge, it’s now 21 games without a clean sheet.
Erling Haaland (£14.7m) and Justin Kluivert (£6.2m) also feature prominently in our plans.
Haaland has produced nine attacking returns in nine appearances over the last 10 Gameweeks and is also on penalties, but it is worth noting that opponents Brighton and Hove Albion have won all four of their matches since they were thrashed 7-0 at Nottingham Forest in February. They’ve also tightened up defensively, with the joint-lowest expected goals conceded (xGC) in the top-flight in that timeframe (3.03, level with Crystal Palace).
Above: Teams sorted by expected goals conceded (xGC) in the last four Gameweeks
As for Kluivert, he has produced just four attacking returns in 12 home appearances this season, compared to 14 in 11 away, but like Haaland, he’s also on penalties and was superb at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. Brentford are also second-bottom for key passes conceded from the middle-third in 2024/25, boosting Kluivert’s assist potential.
IN CONTENTION
We could potentially add further options from Wolves, Forest and Man Utd.
Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.2m), Morgan Gibbs-White (£6.5m), Anthony Elanga (£5.3m), Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.2m) and Noussair Mazraoui (£4.3m) are other names in the mix, for example.
Gibbs-White, who has 13 attacking returns in his last 14 starts, is the current frontrunner.
Elsewhere, Josko Gvardiol (£5.9m) comes into the thinking at Manchester City. No FPL defender has scored more goals over the season (five) and Pep Guardiola’s side haven’t looked quite so open in recent times, largely thanks to the arrivals of Abdukodir Khusanov (£5.0m) and Nico Gonzalez (£6.0m). In fact, City have conceded just three goals in their last four games, despite facing Newcastle, Liverpool, Spurs and Forest.
Phil Foden (£9.2m), Savinho (£6.2m) and Omar Marmoush (£7.2m) are options to join Haaland further forward, but there is a definite rotation risk there and an attacking double-up perhaps isn’t worth the risk, especially given Brighton’s defensive improvements.
Fulham’s underlying numbers at the back across the season are solid (third for xGC), so Antonee Robinson (£5.0m) is worthy of consideration. It could perhaps dent the appeal of Tottenham’s attackers, too, particularly with the Lilywhites in UEFA Europa League action against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday. After Spurs succumbed to a 1-0 defeat in the first leg, it’ll surely be Ange Postecoglou’s priority, so Raul Jimenez (£5.5m) really ought to be in the forward conversation, having scored two goals and provided one assist in his last four starts.
Bryan Mbeumo (£8.1m) and Yoane Wissa (£6.5m) are rarely far from our thoughts in this series but Bournemouth have conceded just 10 goals on home turf all season, the joint-fewest in the top-flight. Milos Kerkez (£5.1m), who has now supplied back-to-back assists, Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m) and Evanilson (£5.6m) also have good shouts for inclusion at Bournemouth.
Arsenal aren’t exactly free-flowing right now but they will fancy their chances of bolstering their goal count against a Chelsea side who have banked just one clean sheet in their last 11 away matches, conceding 19 goals in the process (see below). Martin Odegaard (£8.2m), Leandro Trossard (£6.8m) and Gabriel Martinelli (£6.5m) are therefore names to consider, in addition to David Raya (£5.5m), Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m) and Jurrien Timber (£5.6m) at the back.
Graphic courtesy of WhoScored
Everton’s Beto (£5.1m) is another consideration, having scored five goals in his last six outings. That said, West Ham United have improved defensively under Graham Potter, so this clash could be a low-scoring affair at Goodison Park.
THE LONGER SHOTS
Cole Palmer’s (£11.0m) poor run of form continued in Gameweek 28 and given Arsenal’s defensive strength – they’ve conceded just 11 goals at home all season – there has to be a question mark over his inclusion in the Scout Picks.
The likes of Liam Delap (£5.6m), Joao Pedro (£5.5m), Danny Welbeck (£5.5m) and Jamie Vardy (£5.3m) are tough sells, too, given the appeal of other forwards in Gameweek 29.
If we do decide to add an additional midfielder into the mix, there are a handful of possible options that carry appeal.
Admittedly, it won’t be easy for any of Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m), Jarrod Bowen (£7.5m) or Mohammed Kudus (£6.2m) to force their way past others, but they could perhaps become possible shouts.
Bowen is arguably the stand-out selection, having produced two goals and one assist in four games since returning from injury.
Jordan Pickford (£5.1m), James Tarkowski (£4.9m), Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.4m), Alphonse Areola (£4.2m), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.5m), Jose Sa (£4.3m), Emmanuel Agbadou (£4.0m) and Pedro Porro (£5.3m) are outsiders for inclusion at the back.
GAMEWEEK 29: EARLY SCOUT PICKS
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