Search icon

Football

22nd Jan 2016

Fantasy football cheat sheet: Costa pays the price while Firmino can prove a bargain buy

Liverpool adore playing Norwich

Darragh Murphy

Another week goes by with yet another Manchester United game being 0-0 at half-time and the season is very much beginning to take shape.

Are Leicester going to crack under the pressure? They dropped two points at Aston Villa which is pretty mental.

Can Everton continue to score at will?

And when will Diego Costa get that red card that he’s essentially begging for?

Here are our fantasy football picks for this, the 23rd gameweek.

Three players to sign

Club Brugge v Manchester United - UEFA Champions League: Qualifying Round Play Off Second Leg

Southampton – worldbeaters at home, always beaten away.

Ronald Koeman’s men have lost all four of their last Premier League away games and Manchester United are pretty adept at closing out dreadfully boring games at Old Trafford.

Plenty of FF players have either David De Gea or Chris Smalling in their team but what about that Italian lad. The one they signed in the summer.

He’s not up to much in all honesty but he’s relatively cheap, not many people have him and if Smalling and De Gea can see out a clean sheet then, guess what, Darmian also gets those points.

It’s not exactly a thrilling punt but, hey, what are you going to do?

Liverpool v West Ham United - Premier League

Put quite simply, Liverpool love nothing more than playing Norwich.

In their last seven meetings, Liverpool have won five, drawn two and scored 23 goals.

With no Luis Suarez there to continue that crazy goalscoring average, someone has to take on the responsibility and who better than Roberto Firmino?

He was the best player on the park against Arsenal nine days ago and it looks like he’s finally settling into Premier League life.

He will be well-rested having been given the midweek off and we’re backing him to punish Norwich who have conceded six in their last two.

Everton v Manchester City - Capital One Cup Semi Final: First Leg

Ah, the Everton defender that nobody seems to have.

The Argentine started 11 in a row for the Toffees before starting on the bench against Chelsea but even that worked out well for Funes Mori as he came off that bench to score what looked like the winner before a very offside John Terry saved his side’s skin at the death.

But the FF stats show that he’s brought home a total of twelve points from his last two games which isn’t anything too sensational but for £5.5m, he’s a steal.

This is the kind of purchase that allows you to get a steal on your opponents as a mere 0.1% have thrown their faith behind the 24-year-old.

Three players to sell

Chelsea v Everton - Premier League

Sure, he’s looking better than he did at the start of the season but can you ever really trust Diego Costa in a big game?

The Blues striker has seven Premier League goals to his name this season and six bookings.

And if I was a betting man then I’d put my money on Costa bringing those numbers level rather than stretching the former.

In high pressure games, like this London derby, he’s much more likely to allow his own winding up to get the better of him and we just have a feeling that Arsenal’s mature defence (Gabriel probably won’t play) will be able to keep him under wraps for ninety minutes.

Stoke City v Manchester City - Premier League

The brawn to the ex-Barcelona beauty currently on show at the Brittania.

Many have turned to the muscular nuisance known as Marko Arnautovic in recent weeks due to his four Premier League goals in December.

But the Austrian international has come off the boil since the turn of the year and, in all honesty, looks exhausted.

He hasn’t scored in his last three and, Goodison Park aside, Stoke don’t score very much on the road in general.

Leicester, meanwhile, have turned all of their 2015 thrills into some Pulis-esque resolution at the back, especially at home.

Crystal Palace v Sunderland - Premier League

This is the one we were most reluctant to pull the trigger on but Spurs’ showings in the league this season has made it rather difficult to pick against them in any game.

Alan Pardew has struggled to get the best out of his Eagles since Christmas and Spurs haven’t failed to score in an away game, in any competition, since their first of the campaign, and that was against boring ol’ Manchester United.

So with a Palace clean sheet looking out of the question, there’s not really any point in keeping Scott Dann in your side.

22% of players have done so and you can make them look like fools by ditching him this week.