As part of FISO’s special series of weekly articles on FanTeam, Europe’s biggest daily fantasy football provider, we will actually be entering the team we write about each week into the game. Our article will focus on an Early Entry for their Fantasy Premier League tournament held each week in order to help you identify game rules, tactics and the most promising players per gameweek, so you can win some of that large prize money.

Our FISO team below will be entered into this week’s €20 entry (€75k prize pool) Main Event. The winner takes home a cool €7,500 (or £6,750 if you prefer). FanTeam also offer a €2 entry Weekly Monster with a lower prize pool for those who prefer to play with lower stakes. Join the discussion on FISO’s FanTeam forum.

Before moving onto our team selection, we want to highlight a couple of FanTeam rules that they apply to their Weekly Monster competition and that represent some of the major differences when comparing the game to the FPL. Do though check out the Predicted Line-Ups for the Premier League clubs as well as the latest injury news (click on ‘Team’ to sort per club rather than the default ‘date’) before finalising your picks.

Number one is that FanTeam have a rule called the ‘safety net’. The safety net comes into play when a selected player does not start in the Weekly Monster, because the game will then automatically replace this player with the next lowest-priced player from the same position (GK, DEF, MID, FOR) in the same team. This is regardless of whether or not your selected player does take to the field later in the game. This rule helps people who have entered a team into the Weekly Monster not to worry too much about whether their selected players will start or not, particularly if they know there are cheaper players for that same club in that same position who should start instead.

Number two is that FanTeam also have a ‘stacking penalty’ for the Weekly Monster, which penalises teams that have selected more than one defenders/goalkeeper from the same club. The stacking penalty comes into play when you pick more than one defensive player (defenders or goalkeepers) from a particular club and this club records a clean sheet. The points awarded for this clean sheet will decrease by 1 point for each additional defensive player from the same club that you have selected. The stacking penalty has a maximum of minus 3 points. This rule helps stop multi-entrants from gaining an advantage by submitting block defence teams. A reasonable tactic can be to select two players from two different clubs for your Goalie and Defenders, which would see you incur just 2 single-point deductions if you nail both clean sheets correctly.

Gameweek 26 €75K Weekly Monster matches

Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 26

Formation: 3-4-3

LEICESTER

The Foxes have entered what looks like another purple patch with three victories in their last four Premier League games, a run that included a home game against Liverpool, and away games against Wolves and Aston Villa. They currently share second place in the league with Manchester United and they have got a major clash with Arsenal at the King Power coming up. The Gunners are not going through their best period at the moment with just a single victory in their last five league games, a run over which they conceded 6 goals. It could very well become a tightly contested encounter on Sunday, but we’re favouring the Foxes to get something out of it, which explains our triple-up.

In the attacking department, we have picked Harvey Barnes, who is listed as a midfielder on FanTeam, and the undeniable Jamie Vardy. The former has been on fire of late with 2 goals and 2 assists in his last two games against Liverpool and Villa, while Vardy is Vardy. When he plays, he’s dangerous, and when he’s dangerous, he’s very likely to return. It’s that simple. The former England international scored a goal and provided an assist in his last two games, and his record against Arsenal is something to behold: 12 games, 11 goals and 1 assist. He is also our captain for this round.

Our third Fox is fantasy favourite Ricardo Pereira, who has finally left his serious injury struggles behind him and seems to be part of Brendan Rodger’s plans going forward. He has started the last five Premier League games for Leicester and often occupied a spot on the right wing, in front of Timothy Castagne. After the win at Villa Park last weekend, Rodgers had the following to say about his plans with Ricardo in attack: “It’s been something I’ve been waiting to do for quite a long time, but this is the first period where both of those boys (Castagne and Pereira) were fit to play. Castagne will run more without the balland penetrate, and Pereira’s the one who can be inside and manipulate the ball.”. The Portuguese defender/winger therefore completes our Leicester trio.

LEEDS

Much has been said and written about Leeds United already this season, with most of it boiling down to the same conclusion, namely that the Whites are a guarantee for goals. Only the current top three plus Liverpool have scored more than their 43 goals, but only West Brom have conceded more than them. This makes it hard to predict their results, but in terms of fantasy games like FanTeam, it makes their attacking assets very attractive. Marcelo Bielsa’s men are playing at home against a solid, but most likely Grealish-less, Aston Villa side and we have opted for three of his main men for our €75K Weekly Monster squad in gameweek 26.

In attack, striker Patrick Bamford and winger Raphinha have been the protagonists so far this season. Bamfy is Bielsa’s undisputed number one for the lone striker position and with good reason, seeing as the Chelsea academy graduate has 13 goals and 8 assists to his name already. Raphinha was brought in from Stade Rennais for £14.4 million last summer and managed to quickly cement his place in the Leeds starting eleven as well. The Brazilian is the man on fire at the moment, with 3 goals and 4 assists from his last seven Premier League games. In terms of form on FanTeam, Bamford is the only player who currently scores higher than Raphinha.

As for our previously discussed Leicester trio, our third Leeds pick is also a defender who also plays out of position. Stuart Dallas has been used as a central midfielder of late by Bielsa and the Northern Irishman has repaid that faith in full. Just a few days ago, the fullback/midfielder/winger scored the second of three goals against Southampton to make it 5 goals and 3 assists for him this season. On top of that, and despite Leeds’ risky defensive tactics, he has also been part of 8 clean sheets. This bodes well for the game against a Villa side that will likely be missing their main creative outlet in Jack Grealish.

WOLVES

Wolves have had an underwhelming season so far, with 33 points from 25 games and a current 12^th place. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side has been enormously impacted by the long-term absence of their star forward Raul Jimenez, but they seem to have found some form recently. Of their last four league games, they won three and drew one, and this run included encounters with Arsenal, Leicester, Southampton and Leeds. They scored 5 goals over that run and conceded just twice, so it looks like the Wolves have started to find a way to grind out results. We’re aware of this, but with a game against Newcastle coming up on Saturday, we figured a Wolves triple up could be a shrewd differential move.

At the moment, only four teams in the league have scored less goals than Wolves, but the encounter with the Magpies looks like a good opportunity to work on those numbers. Steve Bruce’s men have conceded 9 goals in their last four games and only West Brom have conceded more than their 43 goals. As a result, we have gone with both Willian José and Pedro Neto for our FanTeam €75K Weekly Monster squad this week. The former was brought in this January to fill in for Raul Jimenez and even though he still needs to find the net for the first time in England, he is nailed-on and seems to be getting used to his new team mates. The latter is listed as a midfielder on FanTeam, but used as a winger by Espirito Santo and he is currently Wolves highest-scoring player on FanTeam with 112 FT points, thanks to 5 goals and 6 assists. Our 3rd Wolves player is the effervescent Romain Saiss who is equally comfortable in midfield as he is in defence and deservedly captain of the Morocco national team.

BONUS

Our bonus fantasy pick for GW26 is none less than Liverpool talisman Mo Salah. Now, you might think that spending a large chunk of our budget on a premium Liverpool asset is not the wisest choice considering the Reds’ form of late, but Salah is Salah. Jurgen Klopp’s men are visiting Bramall Lane on Sunday and despite scoring just 5 goals in their last five PL games, four of those goals were scored by Salah. If any Red is likely to make the difference against the Blades and to get Liverpool out of their slump, it’s Momo.

GOALKEEPER

After selecting the ten outfield players of our choice, we still had a decent part of our budget left to spend on the man between the sticks. We ended up going with Crystal Palace’s Vicente Guaita, who will be featuring in what could be the lowest-scoring game of FanTeam €75K Weekly Monster’s gameweek 26. Palace are hosting an improving, but far from free-scoring Fulham side and the Eagles themselves have, according to Roy Hodgson, taken a more “back to basics” approach since a few weeks ago. That means, a return to more defensive tactics, which bodes well for the Palace defence in this one.

As part of FISO’s special series of weekly articles on FanTeam, Europe’s biggest daily fantasy football provider, we will actually be entering the team we write about each week into the game. Our article will focus on an Early Entry for their Fantasy Premier League tournament held each week in order to help you identify game rules, tactics and the most promising players per gameweek, so you can win some of that large prize money.

Our FISO team below will be entered into this week’s €20 entry (€75k prize pool) Main Event. The winner takes home a cool €7,500. FanTeam also offer a €2 entry Weekly Monster with a lower prize pool for those who prefer to play with lower stakes. Join the discussion on FISO’s FanTeam forum.

Before moving onto our team selection, we want to highlight a couple of FanTeam rules that they apply to their Weekly Monster competition and that represent some of the major differences when comparing the game to the FPL. Do though check out the Predicted Line-Ups for the Premier League clubs as well as the latest injury news (click on ‘Team’ to sort per club rather than the default ‘date’) before finalising your picks.

Number one is that FanTeam have a rule called the ‘safety net’. The safety net comes into play when a selected player does not start in the Weekly Monster, because the game will then automatically replace this player with the next lowest-priced player that starts from the same position (GK, DEF, MID, FOR) in the same team. This is regardless of whether or not your selected player does take to the field later in the game. This rule helps people who have entered a team into the Weekly Monster not to worry too much about whether their selected players will start or not, particularly if they know there are cheaper players for that same club in that same position who should start instead.

Number two is that FanTeam also have a ‘stacking penalty’ for the Weekly Monster, which penalises teams that have selected more than one defenders/goalkeeper from the same club. The stacking penalty comes into play when you pick more than one defensive player (defenders or goalkeepers) from a particular club and this club records a clean sheet. The points awarded for this clean sheet will decrease by 1 point for each additional defensive player from the same club that you have selected. The stacking penalty has a maximum of minus 3 points. This rule helps stop multi-entrants from gaining an advantage by submitting block defence teams. A reasonable tactic can be to select two players from two different clubs for your Goalie and Defenders, which would see you incur just 2 single-point deductions if you nail both clean sheets correctly.

Gameweek 25 €75K Weekly Monster matches

Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 25

Formation: 4-4-2

MANCHESTER UNITED

The core of our team selection for gameweek 25 of FanTeam’s €75K Weekly Monster consists of Manchester United players as the Red Devils are preparing to host Newcastle at Old Trafford on Sunday. Since their 9-0 thrashing of Southampton back in gameweek 22, United have booked two rather disappointing results with draws at home against Everton and away at relegation-threatened West Brom. They are currently 7 points behind leaders Manchester City and their skyblue city rivals have a game in hand as well. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men really can’t afford another misstep against bottom-half-of-the-table opposition.

Seeing as Man United currently boast the league’s most productive attack, we have gone big on their forwards and midfielders. In the midfield we’ve gone with Mason Greenwood and, of course, Bruno Fernandes. The former was rested for the gameweek 24 and is likely to feature from the start as usual against the Magpies, while the latter is irreplaceable for United. The Portuguese playmaker is going through a purple patch once again with 3 goals and 2 assists in his last three games, bringing his Premier League totals to 14 goals and 11 assists. Bruno is also our captain for GW25. The Red Devils will have to face Real Sociedad on Thursday first, so keep an eye on lineups and team news, but in any case, the FanTeam safety net is active.

Our United trio is completed by Edinson Cavani, who looks to have cemented his place in Solskjaer’s starting eleven for now. The Uruguayan goal machine has started the last four league games and completed the 90 minutes in three of those games. Over that same run, he scored 2 goals and recorded 19 FT points. Should he, for some reason, not start against Newcastle, then the FanTeam safety net will replace him with Anthony Martial for us.

BURNLEY

In defence, we have opted for two double-ups, one of those coming from the north of the country. Burnley are one of the sides that has shown most improvement over the season so far and their increased defensive confidence has everything to with it. After 23 games, the Clarets have scored just 17 goals, but they also boast the eighth-best defence in the entire league. They have got 7 clean sheets to their name already, the last of which was booked in their last game against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Sean Dyche’s men will be up against West Brom at Turf Moor in gameweek 25, a game that ended in 0-0 back in gameweek 5.

Seeing as we’re hoping for another low-scoring affair on Saturday, we have picked Matt Lowton and James Tarkowski for FanTeam €75K Weekly Monster team. Neither of the two have offered much in an attacking sense this season, though Lowton did score his first goal of the season last weekend, but they are both nailed-on parts of Sean Dyche’s defence. Against a Baggies team that has scored just 19 goals all season, chances of an eighth clean sheet are real and the Clarets know that this one they simply cannot lose if they want to stay clear of the relegation battle.

BRIGHTON

Our second defensive double-up for this weekend comes from the south of England, from Brighton & Hove to be exact. The local pride has finally started to convert decent to very good performances into points and they have been steadily moving away from the very bottom of the table ever since. While scoring goals is still a major point of concern for the Seagulls, their defence is second only to Manchester City’s at the moment. Over the past six games, they have kept no less than 5 clean sheets and it should be noted that this run included encounters with Leeds, Spurs, Liverpool and Villa.

Up next is a home game against Crystal Palace for Graham Potter’s men and the Eagles will once again be without their star man Wilfried Zaha. This considerably increases chances of a sixth clean sheet in seven for Brighton, as their opponents have not yet managed to score a goal in a game in which their Ivory Coast talisman did not start. Hence, our selection of Lewis Dunk and Dan Burn for our gameweek 25 fantasy team. Both defenders are secured of a start on Monday and just coming off a very sturdy 0-0 draw at Villa Park, so we’re hoping they will carry their solid form into the clash with Palace.

SHEFFIELD UNITED

This could very well be the first time this season that we have considered Sheffield United players for our FanTeam €75K Weekly Monster team and certainly the first time that we have opted for a double pick from Chris Wilder’s side. At the moment of writing, the Blades are bottom of the league, where they have been for most of the season, but budget constraints from our side and some promising signs of improvement from their side plus a positive fixture convinced us to take a punt on them. They have become more competitive compared to the start of the season and even though it might be too late to save them from relegation, it makes them an interesting differential for fantasy managers.

The Blades are playing fellow relegation-zone settlers Fulham on Saturday night and the Cottagers haven’t really felt at home in Craven Cottage this season. They have scored just a single goal in their last six home games, while conceding just five at their own end. For both teams, this game is a must-win and we feel Sheffield United have got a bit more momentum at the moment, so we have added David McGoldrick and John Lundstram to our side. This encounter has all the makings of a low-scoring affair, but the Blades know that victory at the Cottage is needed to maintain any hopes of Premier League survival.

BONUS

With the shape they’re currently in and keeping the fact that they seem to be running away with first place, it’s odd not to include any Manchester City players in our team. Even without Kevin de Bruyne who is on the comeback trail, the Cityzens are the best and most consistent team in the league right now. The only downside to their assets is that they are facing Arsenal at the Emirates this weekend. The Gunners are a bit unreliable at the moment and the game could end 0-1 or just as well 0-4. In case of the latter scenario, we figured it would be smart to cover at least some of our bases by picking Raheem Sterling for our gameweek 25 selection. The England international has scored 3 goals and provided 2 assists in the last five league games, and we’re expecting him to turn up from the start against Arsenal as well.

GOALKEEPER

Gameweek 25 offers us plenty of nice fixtures, but from a fantasy point of view, many of them are hard to predict. Lots of this weekend’s match-ups are quite evenly matched when it comes to squad quality and form, which has led to a high average player price on FanTeam. Our outfield picks stretched our budget considerably as a result, which is why we have gone for a cheap starter in goal again. Newcastle’s Karl Darlow is facing our three Man United aces coming Sunday and though we’re hoping for a few United goals (from our captain Bruno, preferably), we wouldn’t be surprised for Darlow to come off with a few save points as well. He is currently ranked third on FanTeam when it comes to saves and he has been one of the best Magpies in an otherwise up-and-down season for them.

As part of FISO’s special series of weekly articles on FanTeam, Europe’s biggest daily fantasy football provider, we will actually be entering the team we write about each week into the game. Our article will focus on an Early Entry for their Fantasy Premier League tournament held each week in order to help you identify game rules, tactics and the most promising players per gameweek, so you can win some of that large prize money.

Our FISO team below will be entered into this week’s €20 entry (€50k prize pool) Main Event. The winner takes home a cool €5,000. FanTeam also offer a €2 entry Weekly Monster with a lower prize pool for those who prefer to play with lower stakes. Join the discussion on FISO’s FanTeam forum.

Before moving onto our team selection, we want to highlight a couple of FanTeam rules that they apply to their Weekly Monster competition and that represent some of the major differences when comparing the game to the FPL. Do though check out the Predicted Line-Ups for the Premier League clubs as well as the latest injury news (click on ‘Team’ to sort per club rather than the default ‘date’) before finalising your picks.

Number one is that FanTeam have a rule called the ‘safety net’. The safety net comes into play when a selected player does not start in the Weekly Monster, because the game will then automatically replace this player with the next lowest-priced player from the same position (GK, DEF, MID, FOR) in the same team. This is regardless of whether or not your selected player does take to the field later in the game. This rule helps people who have entered a team into the Weekly Monster not to worry too much about whether their selected players will start or not, particularly if they know there are cheaper players for that same club in that same position who should start instead.

Number two is that FanTeam also have a ‘stacking penalty’ for the Weekly Monster, which penalises teams that have selected more than one defenders/goalkeeper from the same club. The stacking penalty comes into play when you pick more than one defensive player (defenders or goalkeepers) from a particular club and this club records a clean sheet. The points awarded for this clean sheet will decrease by 1 point for each additional defensive player from the same club that you have selected. The stacking penalty has a maximum of minus 3 points. This rule helps stop multi-entrants from gaining an advantage by submitting block defence teams. A reasonable tactic can be to select two players from two different clubs for your Goalie and Defenders, which would see you incur just 2 single-point deductions if you nail both clean sheets correctly.

Gameweek 24 €75K Weekly Monster matches

Our team suggestion for the Weekly Monster in gameweek 24

Formation: 4-3-3

GOALKEEPER

Our goalkeeper was actually the last pick for the upcoming FanTeam €75K Weekly Monster tournament, as we first wanted to see how much budget would be left after filling out the outfield part of the squad. To our pleasant surprise, we had enough left in the bank to bring Hugo Lloris into the side. Of course, Spurs are visiting an in-form Manchester City side and will be heavy underdogs for that encounter, but Lloris is still one of the best shot stoppers in the league. City will dominate the match and Spurs will be looking to strike on the counter, especially now that the heroic Kane-Son tandem is back in business. The French goalie will get plenty of opportunities to stand out with saves and who knows, maybe Spurs can even cause an upset. These are José Mourinho’s favourite games, after all.

WEST HAM

Our ten outfield players are neatly divided into five duos from five different clubs. Our four-men defence is made up of two double-ups, the first of which consists of West Ham’s Aaron Cresswell and Craig Dawson. With 39 points from 23 games and a current sixth place in the table, the Hammers are flying high this season and their defence plays a major part in that success. They have recorded 8 clean sheets already and just six teams have conceded more than their 28 goals so far. West Ham are up against Sheffield Utd in London on Monday, who are improving of late, but still bottom of the league. The Blades have scored just 15 goals this season and a defeat without netting looks like a realistic scenario against the in-form Hammers.

As far as our fantasy picks are concerned, Aaron Cresswell was one of the first names on our team sheet. He is combining consistent form with a favourable fixture and is currently the second-highest-scoring defender on FanTeam. Craig Dawson was chosen with his price tag in mind, it being 0.4m lower than Vlad Coufal’s. Still, he has started the last eight league games and scored twice over that run. Let’s hope that at least one of them can get involved in the attacking returns this gameweek, on top of a clean sheet.

BURNLEY

Our two Hammers are joined in defence by two Clarets as they prepare for an away game at Zaha-less Crystal Palace. With 29 conceded goals in 22 games, only eight teams in the league boast a better defensive record than Sean Dyche’s men and Zaha missing for the Eagles plays a big factor as well. To give you an idea of just how big a factor: Palace have not scored a goal yet when the Ivorian didn’t start. Burnley were kicked out of the FA Cup by Bouremouth on Monday, so their full focus will be on the Premier League now and they will have marked the upcoming game as one where vital points can be won.

Where Cresswell and Dawson are defensive picks with a bit of an attacking ceiling as well, the same can’t really be said for our Clarets Matt Lowton and Ben Mee. Both have 6 clean sheets to their name, but they have been barely involved at the other end of the pitch. The only attacking returns between the two of them are 2 goals scored by Ben Mee back in gameweeks 16 and 20. We’re counting on a seventh shut-out of the season against Crystal Palace.

MANCHESTER UNITED

Our team is quite balanced this week in terms of budget spread, but the one team we have splashed on is Manchester United. With 49 goals in 23 games, the Red Devils have become the most productive team amongst the English footballing elite and they are up against the league’s worst defence on Sunday. West Brom have conceded a worrying 54 goals in 23 games, 11 of which were conceded in the last four matches. Sam Allardyce will have his Baggies lie deep against United, which is a tactic the visitors have struggled with at times, but the differences in quality and form look simply too big at the moment for this game to end with a West Brom clean sheet.

As a result, we have, of course, gone for Man United talisman Bruno Fernandes in combination with Edinson Cavani. The Portuguese playmaker is both the highest-scoring player overall on FanTeam and the most expensive asset for gameweek 24 of the €75K Weekly Monster, and our captain for this round. He has recorded 28 FT points in his last three games and we’re hoping for (much) more of the same against West Brom. Cavani is a bit more of a punt, though how much of a punt can one of the best strikers to grace European football in the past decade really be? The Uruguayan played 135 minutes of Premier League football in the last two games and scored a goal in each of those games for a total of 13 FT points. Should he for some reason not start at the Hawthornes, then FanTeam’s safety net will bring Anthony Martial into our side.

LEICESTER

After seeing how Manchester City largely dismantled Liverpool in gameweek 23, we decided to get some Leicester assets into our selection for this weekend. The Foxes are outsiders for the Premier League title, though City are heavy favourites at the moment, and a sensational result could be on the cards at the King Power this Saturday. They have taken 14 points from their last seven games with the 1-3 home defeat against Leeds being the only really surprising one. Brendan Rodger’s men have scored 10 goals over that same run, whilst Liverpool conceded 9 in that period. A face-off with a fit-again Jamie Vardy and his team mates could not come at a worse moment for the Reds.

With Jamie Vardy, we have also mentioned our first Leicester pick for gameweek 24. The English striker got 29 minutes of playing time in GW23 after an absence of three weeks and 62 minutes in the FA Cup clash with Brighton on Tuesday, so expect him to start against Liverpool. Against a wobbly Reds defence, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him add to his current 11 goals and 8 assists.

Accompanying Vardy is fellow forward Harvey Barnes, who is listed as a midfielder on FanTeam. The young Englishman is having a good season, and currently sits on 7 goals and 3 assists. He will be coming up against Trent Alexander-Arnold this weekend, so if his team mates manage to launch him into the spaces that will inevitably appear behind the England international, he will get chances to build on those tallies.

EVERTON

Finally, Everton. The Toffees are coming off a spectacular FA Cup win over Tottenham and are facing Fulham next in the Premier League. After an excellent start to the season, they have become a bit of an unpredictable entity once more. In the last six league games, victories were booked against Wolves and Leeds and they drew with Leicester and Man United, but they also lost to Newcastle and West Ham, both at the King Power. For the upcoming home game against Fulham, we have gone with two attacking fantasy assets from Carlo Ancelotti’s side. The Cottagers haven’t won a league game since gameweek 12 and they have conceded 6 goals in the last five games.

Keeping the possible absence of Dominic Calvert-Lewin in mind, we have opted for Richarlison in attack and Gylfi Sigurdsson in the midfield for our gameweek 24 FanTeam €75K Weekly Monster squad. The Brazilian and the Icelandic internationals were two of the stand-out performers against Spurs in the FA Cup on Wednesday. The former scored twice, while the latter scored a penalty and provided 2 assists, including the final pass for Richarlison’s winner in extra time. After a rest of three days, we expect both players to feature from the start against Fulham as well.