This weekend, a packed Boxing Day has a full slate of ten fixtures for our post-Christmas enjoyment. FantasyBet offers the chance to take a break from the template teams of Fantasy Premier League and make some festive differential picks.
In a reverse of last year’s table, Leicester City sit in first place and will travel to Anfield heavily backed to pick up their first league win against the Reds since 2001. Arsenal will be planning to stay close to the Foxes by picking up a fourth consecutive league win as they visit an out-of-sorts Southampton. Manchester City and Spurs complete the top four and both have home encounters that should provide victories, as Sunderland and Norwich pay visit respectively. At the Bridge, Guus Hiddink’s second spell in charge of Chelsea kicks off against a Watford side in exhilarating form that sees them in seventh spot.
If you are unfamiliar with FantasyBet it is particularly accessible for those who play Fantasy Premier League, as it uses a similar scoring system.
The players’ prices were originally identical to those of the official game but have now been updated, with players such as Riyad Mahrez and Mesut Ozil costing at 1m more to include in our squads.
Check out this video to see how team creation works.
MY TEAM
Joe Hart (5.5m)
Toby Alderweireld (5.5m)
Laurent Koscielny (6m)
Aaron Cresswell (5.5m)
Riyad Mahrez (8m)
Dele Alli (5m)
Ross Barkley (7m)
Mesut Ozil (9.5m)
Sergio Aguero (13m)
Harry Kane (9.5m)
Jamie Vardy (7.5m)
KEY PICKS
Adrian The Hammers number one has kept three clean sheets in a row and visits a Villa side that have blanked in five of their eight home matches. Adrian has averaged 3.5 saves per appearance this season and has made six or more stops three times on the road already.
Toby Alderweireld A home match with Norwich offers Spurs a chance to maintain their top four ambitions this Saturday. The Canaries have the second worst number of shots in the box on their travels, whilst four of Tottenham’s six clean sheets have arrived at White Hart Lane this season, as have both of the Belgian’s goals.
Riyad Mahrez The Foxes winger appears to enjoy playing away from the King Power Stadium and has found the net every 70 minutes while on the road. After scoring twice at Everton, Mahrez travels back to Merseyside to face a Liverpool side that have a single clean sheet in eight.
Sergio Aguero Back in the starting XI for last week’s trip to Arsenal, the City striker looks a prime candidate for points as Sunderland roll up to the Etihad. Aguero has served up seven strikes and an assist in front of his own fans, with his five-goal haul against Newcastle back in Gameweek 8 indicative of his explosive potential.
THIS WEEK’S GAME PICKS
The Grand Boxing Day is FantasyBet’s biggest game, where your compete for a £1000 guaranteed prize pool for a £5.50 buy in. There’s also a DoubleUp game, which has £120 up for grabs – each team costs £3.30 to enter. For the Flash format there is a £200 game for £5.50 and also a £50 free-roll.
LAST WEEK
Not a good week in the £1000 game, a lowly finish arriving with only Romelu Lukaku and Willian picking up attacking points. Naturalfootballfan clinched the top two places – Branislav Ivanovic’s 14 point-haul and a five man-midfield that accrued 44 points providing a winning score of 87 points. I recovered some of my outlay with a narrow win in the double-up leaving me on £116.62 ahead of Gameweek 18.
THIS WEEK’S STAKE
I will enter the Grand Boxing Day contest, the Flash free-roll, the FFScout Picks League and the DoubleUp Game for a total stake of £9.90.
In addition, I’ll be going up against Saint Slaven, the Community champion in this week’s Scout Picks. He will be taking me on in a specially set up head to head game for a chance to win free entry into a £500 Guaranteed ‘Big Weekly’ game worth £22. Also, the Community Champion who beats the Scout Picks by the highest margin every month will win a free entry into the £600 guaranteed ‘Boss’ game worth £55. Both The Red Devil and Shaktimaan recently won entries into the ‘Big Weekly’ game after beating the picks.
FFSCOUT PICKS LEAGUE
Viiiiiid topped last week’s Scout Picks league with an impressive 92 points, Fabricio Coloccini, Pedro and Willian a trio of differentials that paid off with eight points or more each.
The Scout Picks managed 50 points, the defenders picking up just six points in a week where clean sheets were thin on the ground. Once again, FantasyBet have provided a £100 pot for the FFScout Picks League, with a £1.10 stake for entry, it is now possible to enter three teams into this contest. I will enter our Scout Picks as closely as possible, given a 15-man squad is required with the 100m budget and a captain also needs to be selected.
Feel free to go up against them this week and pick your own squad on FantasyBet.
