The best premium forwards for the FPL restart

Our position-by-position analysis of Fantasy Premier League assets reaches its conclusion as we profile premium forwards.

We’re looking at strikers costing more than £8.0m in this article, with nine ‘active’ players falling into this category.

All of those attackers will get a mention below.

You can access the other price brackets and positions via these links:

READ MORE: The best budget goalkeepers
READ MORE: The best mid-price and premium goalkeepers
READ MORE: The best budget defenders
READ MORE: The best mid-price and premium defenders
READ MORE: The best budget midfielders
READ MORE: The best mid-price midfielders
READ MORE: The best premium midfielders
READ MORE: The best budget forwards
READ MORE: The best mid-price forwards

PIERRE-EMERICK AUBAMEYANG

• Price: £11.1m
• Ownership: 28.2%
• Next four Gameweeks: mci + bha | sou | NOR | wol

Arsenal’s fixtures are good enough around the Double Gameweek to consider their players more than just one-week purchases.

Form might be completely redundant now but Brighton and Hove Albion have gained fewer points than any Premier League team this calendar year and are the only top-flight side who are winless in 2020.

Southampton, who the Gunners then face at St Mary’s, have the worst home record in the division in 2019/20, while Norwich City, Arsenal’s Gameweek 32+ opponents, are the league’s worst travellers.

Those investing in Mikel Arteta’s troops for the medium term can perhaps just look upon their Wednesday night match at Manchester City as a bonus, then, given what’s to follow.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.1m) is by some distance the most-bought Arsenal player of Gameweek 30+.

The Gabon international is one of five players who have started every match in which they have been available since Mikel Arteta took charge in Gameweek 19, only missing out in Gameweeks 23 and 24 due to suspension.

He hasn’t been substituted in any of those eight starts, either.

Aubameyang has six goals to his name in that period, a total that only two forwards can better.

This is despite the Gabonese attacker being deployed on the left wing, too, although that is a bit of a fallacy given that whoever is playing left-back for the Gunners tends to push up and provide the natural width, leaving Aubameyang free to drift infield.

First in line for penalties, Aubameyang doesn’t need too many chances to be among the scorers: his goal conversion rate of 26.2% is the second-best of the forwards featured in this piece.

Alexandre Lacazette (£9.4m) is the more maverick route into the Arsenal attack, with game-time far from assured: Eddie Nketiah (£4.4m), for example, started the Gunners’ three previous league games up front.

Three attacking returns for the Frenchman across two substitute appearances in Gameweeks 26 and 29 does illustrate that he is capable of doing damage even when benched, however.

SERGIO AGUERO

• Price: £11.8m
• Ownership: 20.3%
• Next four Gameweeks: ARS + BUR | che | LIV | sou

Sergio Aguero (£11.8m) is top of many FPL managers’ shopping lists ahead of Wednesday’s deadline, with only Jack Grealish (£6.4m) attracting more transfers in.

On course to crack the 20-goal mark for the sixth season running, it doesn’t take a genius to explain his appeal for Double Gameweek 30+ at the very least.

Game-time has been the main downside to Aguero, with seven benchings being handed to him in the 24 matches he has been available for.

On only eight occasions in 2019/20 has he lasted 90 minutes.

However, one would suspect that the Argentina international would get 90 minutes at the very least over City’s two Double Gameweek 30+ matches combined, even if he is only a substitute in one of them.

And that is perhaps crucial: when we filter FPL assets using our new ‘per 90’ tool, Aguero is towards the top of the pile.

The City striker averages 0.99 goals per 90 minutes this season, which beats every other forward in this article by quite some distance.

Indeed, it’s a City one-two between Aguero and Gabriel Jesus (£9.6m) for shots in the box, big chances, efforts on target and penalty box touches when we apply the ‘per 90’ filter to premium forwards.

The Brazilian himself is an intriguing differential for this opening double-header, given that he will surely be handed a decent amount of pitch-time across the two fixtures against Arsenal and Burnley.

Jesus averages 0.63 goals per 90 minutes this season, the same as Aubameyang, and boasts a better rate of assists per 90 minutes (0.31) than the eight other strikers in this piece.

RAUL JIMENEZ

• Price: £8.1m
• Ownership: 31.5%
• Next four fixtures: whu | BOU | avl | ARS

Wolverhampton Wanderers are perhaps the pick of the ‘single Gameweek’ clubs over the next three match rounds, with Nuno Espirito Santo’s side about to face three of the bottom five.

West Ham United, Bournemouth and Aston Villa have just one clean sheet between them in 2020 and are the three clubs who have conceded the highest number of Premier League goals this calendar year.

The ever-present Raul Jimenez (£8.1m) has been the safest route into the Wolves attack both this season and last, with 28 of his 29 appearances in 2019/20 coming from the start.

On penalties and a permanent fixture whether Santo adopts a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2, the Mexican is a player we don’t have to be overly worried about, minutes-wise, on a week-to-week basis – unlike Adama Traore (£5.7m), for example.

Jimenez’s all-round appeal particularly catches the eye.

Not only has he had more attempts on goal and shots in the box than any other FPL forward this season, he has also created more big chances than any of his positional rivals.

That dual threat was borne out in his numbers last season, when he hit double figures for goals and assists – a trick he may well repeat in 2019/20.

If there’s one criticism, it’s that he isn’t particularly clinical.

His shot accuracy (the percentage of shots that land on target) is the worst of the nine forwards in this piece, while only one premium striker – see below – has a worst goal conversion rate.

Still, we can probably expect plenty of chances to come his way in the next three Gameweeks given the calibre of opposition, which could offset that wastefulness.

MARCUS RASHFORD

• Price: £8.8m
• Ownership: 12.0%
• Next four fixtures: tot | SHU | bha | BOU

Aguero is the only FPL forward who has been transferred in by more Fantasy managers than Marcus Rashford (£8.8m) ahead of Double Gameweek 30+, despite the fact that the Manchester United striker hasn’t kicked a ball since January.

It’s easy to see why he’s a popular purchase, though.

Manchester United’s fixture schedule for the run-in is among the most attractive in the division, with the Red Devils facing six teams who are currently in the bottom half of the table.

Even the Gameweek 30+ clash with Spurs isn’t completely off-putting, given that the Lilywhites have only recorded three clean sheets in the 17 matches that Jose Mourinho has overseen.

The prospect of Rashford hooking up with Bruno Fernandes (£8.6m) for the first time is a tantalising one, too, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can now even add Paul Pogba (£8.3m) to that chance production line.

Rashford’s underlying stats are very competitive this season, especially considering he plays the bulk of his games drifting in from the left flank.

We discussed just how much penalty-taking duties affects those numbers, however, in a recent piece on the England forward.

Given that Fernandes may now have the upper hand from 12 yards, that is one route to points that could be blocked off – although Fantasy assists could instead be in the offing, given that he won four of the five penalties he has converted this season.

You can read up on Rashford in much more detail in our stand-alone piece on the fit-again forward below:

ALSO CONSIDER

It’d be remiss of us not to mention the Premier League’s leading goalscorer.

Jamie Vardy (£9.7m) has scored on 19 occasions in 25 appearances and ended a three-month barren spell with a brace in Leicester City’s 4-0 win over Aston Villa in Gameweek 29.

With paternity leave and two injuries checking his progress this calendar year, his popularity has taken a bit of a hit.

He is on course to make a net loss of transfers in Gameweek 30+, too, with Aguero and Aubameyang in demand ahead of City and Arsenal’s double-headers.

It’s easy to forget just how superb he was in the first half of the campaign, though.

In Gameweeks 7-18 alone, Vardy scored 14 goals and set up a further four.

A player who has cultivated a reputation as something of a giant-slayer over the years has actually transformed into a flat-track bully under Brendan Rodgers, with 20 of his 25 attacking returns arriving against teams now in the bottom half.

No other FPL asset can match Vardy for that stat.

It’s a particularly pertinent achievement as Leicester’s next four matches are, you guessed it, against teams currently in the bottom half.

Security of starts is presumably another string to his bow, too, given that he lasted 90 minutes in Leicester’s first 19 matches of the campaign when all was well with his gluteus and calf muscles.

Rodgers’ cautionary words near Christmas might be worth bearing in mind, however.

Not a particularly trigger-happy striker (he has had 40 fewer shots than Jimenez this season), Vardy’s off-the-ball movement nevertheless guides him to high-quality opportunities: no FPL forward has had more ‘big chances’ this season.

His goal conversion rate is also head and shoulders above the other eight strikers in this article.

It’s peculiar to think that the number nine of the free-scoring champions-elect is arguably one of the weakest picks of the strikers featured in this piece.

Roberto Firmino (£9.5m) has many positive attributes and his intelligent, often selfless work as the spearhead of the Liverpool front three has been integral to the Reds’ success.

That doesn’t always translate into FPL points, however.

The ever-present Brazilian has fewer of those than five other Liverpool assets in 2019/20 and Lacazette is the only forward in this article who has scored fewer goals; even then, the Frenchman is only one strike behind Firmino having played over 1,000 fewer minutes.

His underlying stats are actually very decent for someone we perhaps think of as more of a link-up man than an out-and-out forward: Jimenez is the only one of our nine featured strikers who has registered more shots in the box this season, for example.

Actually putting the ball in the net has been a problem, though, and Firmino’s goal conversion rate is the worst of any forward in this article.

Indeed, he has never managed to crack the 20% mark for this statistic in any of his five seasons at Anfield.

Always liable to supply a goal, Firmino does at least have more assists to his name than any other FPL forward this season.

Last but not least, Harry Kane (£10.8m) will return from injury in Gameweek 30+ and perhaps re-enter the premium forward equation.

The first in line for penalties in north London, Kane is a near-sure starter providing he is back up to full match fitness – something that may be all-the-more important with so many games to fulfil in such a short space of time.

Spurs have got some decent fixtures, too, with West Ham United, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth to look forward to.

The availability of the cheaper Son Heung-min (£9.7m), who is statistically superior to Kane in many departments in the Jose Mourinho era, does perhaps dent his appeal, however.

Son averages 6.5 points per match under the Special One, with Kane down at 5.2.

Given that we’ve produced stand-alone pieces on both these Spurs players, we won’t repeat much of what we’ve said and instead guide you to those articles via the links below:

Nominated for ‘Best in Fantasy Football – Editorial’ at the Football Content Awards 2020

VOTE FOR FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT BY
CLICKING HERE.

Premier League Restart

Best players by club

Arsenal | Aston Villa | Bournemouth | Brighton and Hove Albion | Burnley | Chelsea | Crystal Palace | Everton | Leicester City | Liverpool | Manchester City | Manchester United | Newcastle United | Norwich City | Sheffield United | Southampton | Tottenham Hotspur | Watford | West Ham United | Wolves

Best players by position and price

Budget GKs | Mid-Price and Premium GKs | Budget DEFs | Mid-Price and Premium DEFs | Budget MIDs | Mid-Price MIDs | Premium MIDs | Budget FWDs | Mid-Price FWDs | Premium FWDs