We have chosen our best Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players for Gameweek 25.
The earlier deadline – Friday at 18:30 GMT – means we’ve brought forward the Scout Picks by a day, so there is the caveat that an injury or two could emerge from the remaining press conferences still to come.
This upcoming round is unique, as it is both a Double Gameweek (for Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers) and a Blank Gameweek (for Manchester United, Newcastle United, Brentford and Brighton and Hove Albion).
But extraordinary circumstances or not, we are limited to £83.0m for our first XI. And, after a reader vote ahead of 2022/23, an overall price cap of £100.0m is in place for our 15-man squad, too.
GOALKEEPER
Manchester City’s Ederson (£5.4m) is our chosen goalkeeper in Gameweek 25, ahead of a favourable away fixture at Bournemouth. The Brazilian has failed to return in each of his last four matches but now faces a Cherries side struggling for goals, having found the net just three times in their last eight games. As for the champions, they are generally defending well but conceding more often than perhaps they should, with 10 goals allowed from 8.74 expected goals (xG) since the restart.
DEFENDERS
While Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m) has looked a shadow of his former self at Anfield this season, he has shown improvement in his last two Premier League matches, returning 18 points. He produced an excellent assist in the 2-0 win at Newcastle United last weekend, with another clean sheet kept against Everton in the Merseyside derby. In that time, he’s created five chances and whipped in 20 crosses – more than any other defender bar Kieran Trippier (£6.0m). The performance of Liverpool’s back four against Real Madrid in midweek was abysmal, but they won’t be up against world-class performers like Vinicius Junior and Karim Benzema in Double Gameweek 25. Indeed, Crystal Palace have scored just six goals in their last nine matches, while Wolves have netted only eight times on the road all season.
Gabriel Magalhaes (£5.2m) was selected by three of our Scout Squad panel. The 25-year-old maintained his ever-present record in the Premier League this season at Villa Park last weekend, having combined two goals with nine clean sheets across his 23 starts. Granted, ‘big Gabi’ hasn’t quite been at his top level of late, but he’s nailed-on and carries more goal threat than any of his defensive teammates, which is why we like him so much. A clean sheet at Leicester City may prove a tough ask, but Everton have scored just two goals in their last three matches.
James Tarkowski’s (£4.3m) appeal has already been covered in various articles this week, including this one which I particularly liked. In the piece, Neale highlighted the centre-half’s set-piece appeal – he betters all of his teammates for expected goal involvement (xGI) under Sean Dyche – whilst also discussing Everton’s much-improved defensive organisation, albeit from a tiny sample size.
Emerson Palmieri (£4.0m) has now started four games in a row for West Ham United, a period that has seen him average 4.75 points per match, courtesy of a goal, clean sheet and two bonus. In that time, he’s registered a couple of shots inside the box and created four chances for his teammates, a decent return given his budget price tag. We’re hoping David Moyes’ wing-back system remains in place for this fixture, which sees the Hammers meet Nottingham Forest. The visitors have the joint-worst away record in the division this season, having found the net just three times in 11 games away from the City Ground.
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.
Boleyn Boy’s 81-54 victory in Gameweek 6 gave them the biggest win (27 points difference) of 2022/23 so far.
Our champion this week is Merlin Magic who has gone for the following: Sa; Alexander-Arnold, Tarkowski, James; Odegaard, Saka (c), Salah, Foden, McNeil; Nketiah, Haaland
The Scout Picks are 12-11 up on the community this season.
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.
