At the moment of writing, the gameweek 15 games between Everton and Newcastle and between Spurs and West Ham, still need to be played, so do keep that in mind. Having said that, gameweek 15 has already given us plenty to ponder, including an incredible last-minute Arsenal victory over Luton (which only became even more incredible after Manchester City’s 1-0 loss at Villa Park a day later) and Manchester United’s home win versus Chelsea, courtesy of a Scott McTominay brace. Fulham also shared in the headlines by wiping the floor with Nottingham Forest at Craven Cottage, winning 5-0 with a hattrick of assists by one of last season’s stand-out budget fantasy performers Andreas Pereira.

With just about 38 hours between the final gameweek 15 whistle on Thursday and the kick-off of gameweek 16 between Crystal Palace and Liverpool on Saturday, there is no time to lose in terms of preparation. From an FPL point of view, the Man City visit to Kenilworth Road on Sunday naturally stands out, though the visit of Liverpool to Selhurst Park and the clash between Man United and Bournemouth at Old Trafford are brimming with fantasy potential as well. Considering Sheffield United’s recent form, the visit of Brentford to Bramall Lane on Saturday should have owners of Bryan Mbeumo in particular hopeful for another nice gameweek.

Check out FISO’s FPL Forum for the latest discussion and don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 16 is set at 11h00 (UK time) on Saturday, December 9^th, 2023.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per December 6^th, 2023)

Premium pick

After Aston Villa’s somewhat surprise victory over Man City on Wednesday (we say somewhat, because the Cityzens have been fumbling points of late, struggle without Rodri and Villa look like Champions League contenders at the moment), the reigning champions now find themselves in fourth place, six points behind leaders Arsenal. That’s not something the skyblue side of Manchester has been used to this decade, so we do expect them to regain some of their winning ways soon. The upcoming visit to Luton Town looks like a perfect opportunity to do just that, which is why our premium fantasy pick for gameweek 16 is Erling Haaland (£14.0m). The Norwegian has now gone an unbelievable two consecutive league games without a goal, despite recording an Expected Goal ratio of 0.77 in GW14 and 0.83 in GW15. Despite their recent struggles, we expect Man City to dominate this one and Haaland to add at least one to his current 14 goals from 15 league starts.

Non-premium pick

Sheffield United have conceded 10 goals in their last three league games and the 5-0 defeat at the hands of Burnley back in gameweek 14 felt particularly worrisome for the Blades. They are now bottom of the table with just five points and 11 goals scored, while having conceded a worrying 41 goals. They can therefore be considered the Premier League whipping boys of the moment and Brentford is the side facing them coming weekend. Now, Brentford have had a decent run, winning five games and losing six to get them to their current 11^th place in the league. We are mentioning them here though, because the Bees count on Bryan Mbeumo (£7.1m) for much of their attacking threat in the continued absence of Ivan Toney, and the Cameroon international has not disappointed so far. The attacker, who is listed as a midfielder in FPL, has managed 7 goals and 4 assists from 15 league starts, and lately he has been back in the returns. He provided an assist versus Luton in GW14 and then scored his side’s only goal against Brighton on Wednesday. Our hope is that he can extend this run of consecutive attacking returns to three when Brentford visit Sheffield United on Saturday, despite his current yellow flag.

The budget enabler

We know that we included Wolves forward Matheus Cunha (£5.6m) as our budget enabler in the preview for gameweek 15 as well, but his assist in the 1-0 victory over Burnley made it four consecutive league games with an attacking return in a row. Since his assist against Spurs back in gameweek 12, the Brazilian youngster has collected 22 FPL points for an average of just over 5 FPL points per game. Not bad at all for a starting forward priced at just £5.6m for the moment. From gameweek 17, Wolves’ schedule becomes considerably more difficult, but before that happens, there is still the home game against Nottingham Forest this Saturday. The Tricky Trees are coming off a rather surprising 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Fulham at Craven Cottage, so we don’t expect their defence to be brimming with confidence for their visit to Molineux. Cunha is one of the men in form for Wolves at the moment and we honestly don’t see why he could not make it five returns in five games this gameweek.

The differential

In more or less any way you look at it, Chelsea are having a horrid season. Despite spending almost a billion (!) pounds on new blood in about two season, the Blues currently find themselves in tenth place in the league, no less than 11 points behind the top four. Manager Mauricio Pochettino’s men got a bit of a boost of confidence when they beat Brighton 3-2 back in gameweek 14, but that confidence was brittle as the Blues went under against Manchester United a few days later. The upcoming run of fixtures should inspire hope in the Chelsea faithful though, as the Londoners have one of the best schedules of all teams for the foreseeable future. We are therefore highlighting Levi Colwill (£4.5m) as an interesting budget enabler on both the short and the long term. The left-back position seems his to lose at the moment, which is great news for owners with Everton away, Sheffield United at home, Wolves away, Crystal Palace at home and Luton Town away in the next five. With Ben Chilwell’s return from injury unknown, we would not be surprised to see Colwill feature in more than a few wildcards over the coming gameweeks.

The (vice-)captaincy

As far as we are concerned, Erling Haaland away at Luton Town screams captaincy. He already has 14 goals and 5 assists to his name so far, and despite Luton’s encouraging first half of the season, we find it hard to see them make it three consecutive league games without a goal for the Norwegian.

As usual, Mohamed Salah provides probably the best alternative to Erling Haaland. Liverpool visit a Crystal Palace, who have 21 goals in 15 league games so far, while Salah has already bagged 10 (plus 6 assists) this season. Other interesting though riskier picks for the armband are Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo away at Sheffield United, Wolves forward Matheus Cunha at home to Nottingham Forest and even Man City’s Phil Foden.

With gameweek 14, we have kicked off what’s going to be an action-packed December month of Premier League football. Including GW14, we’ve got no less than seven rounds of fantasy football joy and frustration waiting for us this month. We are now in the first period of quick turn-arounds, as gameweek 15 is set for kick-off on Tuesday evening, followed by gameweek 16’s kick-off Saturday at noon. Add to that the final rounds of the European group stages the week after next and you kind of get the idea of what fantasy managers are up against in the short-term. And soon after that, there is the infamous Christmas period…

First up is gameweek 15, starting with Wolves hosting Burnley tomorrow (Tuesday) at 19h30. That same day, current league leaders Arsenal visit new boys Luton Town and that’s not the only favourable fixture for FPL managers to keep an eye on this gameweek. Sheffield United, who were just hammered 5-0 by Burnley, host Liverpool on Wednesday, which should bring key Reds players on your scouting radar, if you don’t have three of them yet. Gameweek 15 offers the more neutral viewer some world-class fixtures as well, including in-form Aston Villa versus Manchester City, Spurs against West Ham, and of course, Manchester United versus Chelsea at Old Trafford on Wednesday evening.

Check out FISO’s FPL Forum for the latest discussion and don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 15 is set at 18h00 (UK time) on Tuesday, December 5^th, 2023.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per December 3^rd, 2023)

Premium pick

In gameweek 14, Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah (£13.1m) both failed to score, but they still managed to match each other’s pace in terms of total attacking returns. The former got 2 assists against Spurs plus a yellow card for 7 FPL points, while the latter picked up a single assist without a yellow card for 5 FPL points. This shows that fixtures don’t really apply to these guys, though in our opinion, the smart money went with Salah at home to Fulham. Our thinking is very similar for GW15, when the Egyptian is visiting a battered Sheffield United side and Haaland will be traveling to Villa Park. Salah has now made it three consecutive league games with at least one attacking return, and a total of 10 goals and 6 assists in the Prem overall so far, and Liverpool face Sheffield United, who just shipped a surprising five goals at Turf Moor. If Zeki Amdouni can record an impressive 11-pointer, imagine what Salah can do on Wednesday.

Non-premium pick

In our preview for gameweek 14, we spoke about Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka (£8.8m), about him not scoring a league goal since gameweek 7 and about the fact that he still ticked along at an acceptable pace with 4 goals in his last five games. We also figured that his fixtures in GW14 and GW15 looked like a great opportunity for the England international to get his name back and on the scoreboard, and he promptly did just that. Saka needed just six minutes to get the Gunners off the mark and he ended up with 8 FPL points, thanks an added bonus point as well. As a result, we’re sticking with the Arsenal star for gameweek 15 when the Gunners visit Luton Town. With his fair share of penalty duties and set-pieces, we expect him to play another key role in keeping his side top of the league, especially now that he’s coming off an excellent performance against Wolves over the weekend. At his current price of £8.8m, he is still firmly in non-premium territory, but that might end soon if he gets another return (or two) on Tuesday.

The budget enabler

When looking at real budget enablers in the official fantasy game in the build-up to gameweek 15, it’s hard to look past Matheus Santos Carneiro Da Cunha, simply known as Cunha (£5.5m). After half a season on loan from Atletico Madrid last season, Wolves made his transfer permanent in exchange for about £45 million over the summer. The Brazilian youngster had a bit of a quiet start to the 2023-24 Premier League campaign in terms of fantasy returns, but he has been on fire of late. He got an assist against Spurs in GW12, followed by a goal against Fulham in GW13 and another goal against Arsenal in GW14. In other words, that’s three attacking returns in his last three league games for a total of 17 FPL points. Not bad for a forward who is currently priced at just £5.5m. It gets even better though, because on top of his current form, Cunha also has two favourable fixtures coming up. Tomorrow it’s Burnley at home, followed by Nottingham Forest at home on Saturday. This places him amongst the stand-out budget fantasy picks, at least for the short term.

The differential

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned Mohamed Kudus (£6.6m) as one of the differential fantasy picks to keep an eye on and the Ghanaian international did not disappoint since then. While it should be noted that he has been overperforming his Expected Goals ratio by quite a bit over the past few games, he did record an impressive 2 goals and 3 assists in his last four league games. He also seems to have conquered a spot in manager David Moyes’ starting eleven, which naturally helps his appeal as a differential fantasy pick with a current ownership of just 2.8%. Kudus has also got a decent run of fixtures coming up on the short term, with a visit to Spurs followed by a visit to Fulham and then a home game against Wolves. The former Ajax man is also listed as a midfielder in the official game, which means that he gets an additional FPL points per goal, plus an extra point for every clean sheet recorded by the Hammers.

The (vice-)captaincy

Our captain in gameweek 15 will be Mo Salah, who has been in good form of late, ahead of the visit to Bramall Lane. After their 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Burnley in gameweek 14, the Blades boast the leakiest defence in the league with 39 conceded goals in 14 games.

Of course, the first alternative to Salah as captain is Erling Haaland, despite his challenging away game against currently fourth-placed for Aston Villa. Other (more than) decent options for the armband include Bukayo Saka away at Luton, Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and even the seemingly inevitable Ollie Watkins at home against Manchester City.

The FPL gods had fun last weekend, that’s what it feels like when looking at the Gameweek 13 Team of the Week. No player boasts an ownership of more than 15% at the time of writing and that player is the much-criticised André Onana. Besides him, no less than four players are owned by less than 0.5% of all managers: Bournemouth’s Marcus Tavernier (no one scored more than his 16 FPL points) and Justin Kluivert, Fulham’s Willian and… wait for it… Manchester United’s Anthony Martial. Another three members of the GW13 Team of the Week sit in less than 5% of all FPL squads, those being Man United’s Diego Dalot, Luton’s Teden Mengi and Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White. Probably the most actively popular player who made it into the team was Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon, who recorded 13 FPL points for the roughly 14% of fantasy managers who owned him.

We can see a couple of highly owned assets returning to the Team of the Week in gameweek 14 though, as the likes of Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool are facing favourable opposition this weekend. The Gunners open the weekend with a home game against Wolves, Villa are visiting Bournemouth and Liverpool welcome Fulham to Anfield. On top of that, Manchester City have a home game against a Spurs side that has lost some of its early-season form. Gameweek 14 is also going to be a big one for the teams towards the bottom of the league, with Everton visiting Nottingham Forest and Burnley hosting Sheffield United on Saturday.

Check out FISO’s FPL Forum for the latest discussion and don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 14 is set at 13h30 (UK time) on Saturday, December 2^nd, 2023.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per November 30^th, 2023)

Premium pick

As far as the premium fantasy pick for gameweek 14 goes, there is practically no looking past Mohamed Salah (£13.0m). The Egyptian forward is back at it again this season, having scored 10 goals and provided 5 assists in thirteen league starts so far, and his recent form is red hot as well. He bagged a brace at home to Brentford to clinch the Player of the Week honour in gameweek 12 and then went on to provide the assist for the goal against Man City last weekend, in a game that ended 1-1. Up next are Fulham, who are having a decent first half of the season so far, but who we nevertheless can’t see getting much from their visit to Anfield on Saturday. The Cottagers have conceded an average of just under two goals per away game up until now, which will be like music to the ears of Salah. With Haaland facing Spurs on Sunday, Mo is looking like the stand-out captain for gameweek 14 even with Spurs’ current defensive issues.

Non-premium pick

It has been a fair few gameweeks since Bukayo Saka (£8.8m) scored a goal in the Premier League, as his last one came back in GW7 versus Bournemouth, but that doesn’t mean the England international has been entirely quiet of late. A total of 4 assists over his five league starts since then kept him ticking along quietly, recording 26 FPL points over that run. At his current price of £8.8m, an average of about 5 points per game is somewhat underwhelming, but look at it this way: he’s still involved, he’s still a starter and Arsenal are still top of the league after thirteen rounds. On top of that, Saka has his share of penalty and set-piece duties, and his upcoming two opponents qualify as “favourable” on paper. On Saturday, the Gunners host Wolves and three days later, it’s time for a visit to Luton Town. As far as we’re concerned, a perfect little run for Saka to get his name back on the scoreboard.

The budget enabler

When Andy Robertson got injured a few weeks ago, the Liverpool roster offered us Kostas Tsimikas as a great (short- to medium-term) enabler, and now the Reds are doing it again. That is, if you’re willing and able to make a short-term move for a real bargain goalkeeper. With first-choice goalie Alisson Becker out for at least two gameweeks, according to manager Jurgen Klopp, and possibly more, his back-up Caoimhin Kelleher (£3.9m) can help you free up some funds. Liverpool are amongst the more solid defences this season, having conceded 11 goals in thirteen games so far. An even bigger factor for considering a move for Kelleher though, in our opinion, is the upcoming run of fixtures. As we wrote just above, Kelleher should be between the Liverpool sticks for two to three league games at least, which means he will be there for the visit of Fulham this weekend, and the away games against Sheffield United (in GW15) and Crystal Palace (in GW16).

The differential

When recommending Bukayo Saka as our non-premium fantasy pick for gameweek 14, we mentioned Arsenal’s upcoming favourable fixtures, first at home to Wolves this weekend and then away at Luton next Tuesday. Seeing as Gabriel Jesus (£7.8m) got his first start against Brentford in GW13 after missing three consecutive league games due to injury, we want to highlight the possibility of getting to a potential major differential pick early. The Brazilian has not had a great season so far, as injuries have prevented him from recording more than a single goal and assist up until now, but when fit, he should be part of manager Mikel Arteta’s starting eleven. At the moment, Jesus is sitting in just 2.4% of all fantasy teams in the official game, which has put him firmly on our differential radar. He’s not cheap, but if you’re looking for a player to help you catch up in your mini-league, bringing in the Brazilian attacker, who got on the score sheet during the week in the CL drubbing of Lens, could be a shrewd move.

The (vice-)captaincy

Both Mo Salah and Erling Haaland are playing at home this weekend, so you can expect the captaincy discussion to be dominated by these two powerhouses once again. Seeing as Salah is facing Fulham, while Haaland faces Spurs, we have gone with the former, but in reality, either one could deliver a big double-digit haul this weekend.

If you’re looking for a Fantasy Sports Betting option outside of the usual two suspects, Bukayo Saka at home to Wolves could be a good choice, as could Bryan Mbeumo at home to Luton. Ollie Watkins could also deliver the goods when Aston Villa play Bournemouth on Sunday, if you feel like punting on a proven goalscorer with an away game on the agenda.