Double Gameweek 25 is announced, Blank Gameweek 26 is confirmed, and the weekend’s FA Cup draw gives us a better idea of who will be without a fixture in Gameweek 29.
The medium-term planning can now step up a gear – and as you may have seen on the sidebar, we’ve updated The Watchlist for Gameweek 22 and beyond.
If you’re new to this series, we attempt to pick out the stand-out Fantasy Premier League (FPL) transfer targets over the coming weeks and months.
This is in contrast to the Scout Picks, which deals only in the upcoming Gameweek.
In this case, we’re extending the lookahead to Gameweek 28 – the final round of fixtures before the big blank. We do factor in Gameweek 29 with some of the picks, specifically from the four clubs who are already guaranteed to play on that decimated weekend.
MORE ABOUT THE WATCHLIST
We rank players according to factors such as club injuries, form (last four Gameweeks), underlying numbers, forthcoming fixtures, Rate My Team’s points projections and whether or not the player in question is likely to be a bargain in FPL.
Arrows before the name indicate whether a player has increased in appeal or fallen in our reckoning since the previous Gameweek or if they are a new entry into the tables.
The key for the factors you’ll see in the below tables is as follows:
THE WATCHLIST: GOALKEEPERS
The ‘form’ ratings you see above give an indication of how sporadic goalkeeper returns have been of late. This isn’t something new, either, thanks to the season–wide drop in clean sheets.
Even more so than ever, Fantasy managers can be forgiven for not spending more than the bare minimum on the men between the sticks.
It’s fortunate then that Alphonse Areola (£4.2m) has been one the best performers over the season, averaging more points per match (4.3) than any other first-choice goalkeeper bar Alisson (£5.7m, 4.4).
The upcoming fixtures aren’t too bad for Areola: five of his next seven games are against sides in the bottom half. One of the other two matches is against Manchester United, who are ranked joint-16th for goals scored in 2023/24.
Areola is Rate My Team’s best-value goalkeeper over Gameweeks 22-28, while West Ham will be one of the teams to have a fixture in Blank Gameweek 29 if Chelsea beat Aston Villa in their FA Cup fourth-round replay.
Top for projected points over this period by some distance? The Fantasy managers’ bete noire, Ederson (£5.5m). He’s sunk to new depths this season, delivering fewer points than James Trafford (£4.5m), but there’s no escaping the fact that he has a Double Gameweek coming up very soon and some excellent fixtures around it.
Favourable fixture runs for Aston Villa and Fulham see Emi Martinez (£5.2m) and Bernd Leno (£4.8m) remain high in the thinking, with Leno also guaranteed to have a match in Blank Gameweek 29.
Martin Dubravka (£4.2m) will likely rise up the Watchlist once Newcastle’s trip to Aston Villa is out of the way, with a nice run beyond it.
THE WATCHLIST: DEFENDERS
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