Excuse the headline, thanks.
We’ve turned the corner and the finish line is in sight.
Now it’s time for Fantasy Football players to take the chopping and changing of fixtures in recent months into consideration as double gameweeks rear their beautiful heads.
Both Everton and Crystal Palace have two games within this FF week and we’ve taken the bait.
Here are our picks for Gameweek 33 – take them with a fistful of salt.
Three players to sign
With no Premier League wins to their name prior to Santa Claus’ most recent arrival, it might seem a bit risky to bring a Crystal Palace player into your team and, to be honest, it is.
But Palace showed signs of life against a dangerous team in West Ham last weekend, benefiting from a late equaliser at Upton Park to draw 2-2.
Since returning from injury, it’s taken awhile for Bolasie to begin resembling anything like the tornado of creativity that we’ve come to love but he’s getting there slowly but surely.
In the first fixture of their double gameweek, Palace face a Norwich side who have conceded at least three goals in five games since the turn of the year so surely a healthy victory is on the cards for Alan Pardew’s men.
It’s the perfect opportunity for Bolasie to add to his already dazzling highlight reel and we’ve just got a feeling that he’ll come up with something against either Norwich or Everton.
You may not have heard but Romelu Lukaku is shit-hot.
The Everton striker is much more than a typical big man and he’s in the top three scorers in the Premier League this season with 18 to his name, and six assists for that matter.
The fact that he’ll be coming up against two goalkeepers this week, rather than the one faced by the likes of Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane, would lead you to believe that points are set to come pouring in.
If he doesn’t score against one, he’s definitely going to score against the other so get him in despite his lofty pricetag and popularity.
Playing Villa? Welcome to our Fantasy Football team.
Bournemouth may already be on the beach for the season but Aston Villa are buried six feet under the sand.
The Villains aren’t so much waving a white flag as they are rolling it into a ball shape and figuring out a way to concede with it.
Ritchie has averaged at least a goal or assist in every second game since the beginning of February. He’s gone without in his last two outings so he’s overdue some contribution to the scoresheet while a clean sheet bonus against Villa is something of a gimme nowadays.
Three players to sell
Rafa Benitez, from making Real Madrid no worse to making Newcastle no better. It’s almost as if managers don’t make a blind bit of difference.
The Magpies have yet to win a game under Benitez and the fixtures aren’t getting any easier as the red line atop the relegation zone continues to thicken.
Southampton played admirably at the KP last week and looked defensively solid against the league leaders.
If the Saints managed to contain the likes of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and Danny Drinkwater to just the 1-0 scoreline, we shudder to consider Newcastles chances at St. Mary’s.
Wijnaldum is a decent player, don’t get us wrong, but he simply doesn’t score away from home. Think of him like the exact opposite of John Terry.
Big shout this, we’re well aware.
But our rationale in taking Liverpool’s best player out of our FF team comes from our theory that Jurgen Klopp will not be willing to risk him for the full 90 on Sunday, if he’s not rested for the entire game.
Liverpool really don’t have an awful lot to play for in the league and the biggest game of their season thus far comes next Thursday in the return leg of their Europa League quarter-final.
Klopp is not a stupid man and he knows that a fully fit Coutinho is much more valuable against Dortmund next week than he is against the Potters at the weekend.
And even if he does play, Coutinho is exactly the type of player who Stoke can bully when they revert to plan B, i.e. kicking the little lads up and down the park.
From future England striker to just another moany nuisance, Saido Berahino is having a nightmare.
There’s been just the one goal for the Baggies striker in the league since October and he comes up against one of the most talent-packed squads in England on Saturday evening.
Manchester City will likely have one eye on their return leg with PSG but they’re in the driver’s seat for that tie and stranger things have happened than a late league title bid from Manuel Pellegrini’s men.
Just get rid of Berahino and be done with it.
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