And just like that, it’s over. After months of smiles and tears, joy and misery, and relief and frustration, the Fantasy Premier League season 2018-2019 has come to an end. Did City players get you plenty of points despite the extreme rotation risk? Did you jump on the United bandwagon as soon as Solskjaer was appointed interim manager and, more importantly, did you jump off when things reverted to this season’s normal? Did you make every transfer deadline this season? Whatever your answers, don’t worry too much about them. It’s over, and now is the time to look back at yet another thrilling Premier League season and evaluate your own season as a Fantasy manager. Where can you improve next season? Which wise lessons have you learned? Are you happy with the chip strategy you chose just like you need to be with the top casinos online?

It’s been a pleasure for us again to preview each gameweek for you this season and we hope that we somehow, at some point, in some area, have managed to make a positive contribution to your fantasy managerial decisions this year. Seeing as the title decision this season amazingly came down to the very last gameweek, we’ve decided to have a look back at gameweek 38 from a Fantasy Football point of view. After all, not just Man City and Liverpool, but also hundreds of thousands of FPL managers around the world, still had something to play for. In many mini-leagues, a decent score last weekend could mean closing that small gap with your league’s leader or climbing into the overall 1% or top 10,000 overall, just to name a few high-stakes scenarios. We’ll take a quick look at this season’s best performers per position in terms of FPL points and go over last weekend’s deciding action.

Don’t forget that there’s no deadline set for this weekend. It’ll take some getting used to again and don’t worry about the withdrawal symptoms: with the all-English European finals and the Nations League coming up before August, it’ll be FPL time again soon. And if you’re bored, there’s always casino online united kingdom to play and keep you entertained.

An overview of the highest scorers in FPL per position (number of FPL points behind each name):

GOALKEEPERS		DEFENDERS		MIDFIELDERS		FORWARDS
Allison (176)		Robertson (213)		Salah (259)		Aubameyang (205)
Ederson (169)		Van Dijk (208)		Hazard (238)		Aguero (201)
Pickford (161)		A-Arnold (185)		Sterling (234)		Jimenez (181)
Etheridge (154)		Laporte (177)		Mané (231)		Vardy (174)
Lloris (145)		David Luiz (164)		Sigurdsson (182)		Wilson (168)

Gameweek 38: the title decider

Obviously, all eyes were on Manchester City and Liverpool during gameweek 38. The Cityzens collected 95 points after 37 games this season, while the Reds were right behind them with 94 points. The scenarios were clear to everyone and each team knew what they had to do: a victory against Brighton at the AMEX would bring Man City the title regardless of the Liverpool result, while Liverpool had to beat Wolves at Anfield and hope for City slip on the British south coast. As we know now, neither of the two made a mistake, meaning that City crowned themselves champions with Liverpool left behind as the best runner-up in the history of the Premier League and indeed of all five major European leagues. The previous record was set in the 2009-2010 season, when Real Madrid finished La Liga in second place with 96 points, behind Barcelona, at the time coached by… Pep Guardiola.

The Cityzens surprisingly went behind first at the AMEX, courtesy of a goal from Glenn “So experienced fixtures don’t matter anymore” Murray. City weren’t phased in the least, though, because literally a minute later, Kun Aguero equalized, followed by an Aymeric Laporte goal ten minutes after that to put City in the lead. The Seagulls had put up a good fight for about half an hour, but it now seemed like a question of time before the visitors would be crowned champions. Guardiola saw his men net twice more in the second half (Mahrez from David Silva’s second assist of the day and Gundogan), which was more than enough to claim the title for a second year in a row. Well-deserved, to say the least.

In most cases, the position of runner-up is the most bitter one, because you almost made it, but no one will remember you in a few years time. It might be a different reality for this year’s runner-up Liverpool. The Reds have been nothing short of impressive throughout their 2018-19 campaign, which is illustrated by their 97 points in the League and their spot in the Champions League final. Sadio Mané scored two against Wolves on the final day of the season, but an eventually routine victory of their sky blue rivals from Manchester meant Liverpool will have to wait at least another year before lifting their first English league trophy since 1990.

Obviously, both teams have been excellent, both in real life and followed via fiso’s FPL forum. It’s not often that FPL managers can pick, for example, from a defence as reliable as Liverpool’s (22 goals conceded in 38 games, 21 clean sheets) or City’s (23 goals conceded, 20 clean sheets). At the same time, the likes of Mo Salah, Kun Aguero, Sadio Mané and Raheem Sterling, just to name a few, have shown on a weekly basis why the Premier League is the most competitive league in world football. In other words, both these teams have been exceptional and both deserved the title. We couldn’t have wished for a more thrilling title race.

Gameweek 38: the European spots

The title race wasn’t the only event of importance on the final day of the season. Below the top two, four more teams had to battle it out for two more Champions League spots and two Europa League spots for next season. Thanks to a Spurs draw at White Hart Lane against Everton, a draw at the King Power was enough for Chelsea to claim third place, while their London rivals remained in fourth. For both teams, these positions will feel satisfactory, considering the fact that the former has gone through some slumps throughout the season and the latter has had to deal with several injury crises. On top of that, both of these teams have made it to a European final, with Spurs battling Liverpool for the Champions League and Chelsea facing Arsenal in the Europa League final.

As far as FPL goes, these two teams were up and down for most managers. In the rankings for best players per position in terms of FPL points, only three players from these two teams make the cut: Eden Hazard (238 points), David Luiz (164) and Hugo Lloris (145). Of course, Harry Kane’s misfortune on the injury front this season is a major reason for him not being amongst the top-scoring forwards, but for the rest, neither of these teams have offered mini-league-winning consistent value over the course of the campaign. Hopefully next season, Maurizio Sarri freshens up the starting eleven that he tinkers so little with even if he has transfer restrictions and Mauricio Pocchetino gets the chance to add serious title-challenging quality to his squad.

Just a tier lower, Arsenal and Manchester United took fifth and sixth place, respectively. The Gunners did what they had to do by beating Burnley away from home, courtesy of an Aubameyang double to give him the Golden Boot (shared with Sadio Mané and Mo Salah) and a late goal by Eddie Nketiah. United, on the other hand, ended the season in a fashion that, unfortunately for them, illustrated the disappointing campaign they’ve had. The general consensus was that, despite their horrid form, the Red Devils were going to use the home game against relegated Cardiff in the final gameweek as a way to finish the season on a positive note, but no… Instead, Solskjaer’s men put in another unacceptable performance, this time one ending in an embarrassing 0-2 home loss.

Neither Arsenal, mainly due to Unai Emery’s love of rotation, nor United, mainly due to their unpredictable form, offered much joy to FPL managers this season. Sure, Aubameyang jumps out with his 22 goals and 5 assists in 36 games, but he has the £10.5m+ price tag to go with it. The likes of Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba enjoyed a brilliant month or two following the appointment of OGS as caretaker manager, but outside of that period, there were many better options available for your teams. Neither team was consistently stable enough in the back to make their defensive assets essential for FPL managers, while fluctuating form and at times maddening rotation up front (we’re talking to you, Unai Emery) limited the FPL potential of most of the Arsenal and United forward options. Both teams will be playing Europa League football next season and when comparing them to the current top four, that’s probably a correct reflection of the season.

Gameweek 38: three goodbyes

Unfortunately for the teams involved, the relegation battle did not need to be decided on the very last day. Huddersfield surprised many fans and pundits last year when they managed to avoid relegation in their first season amongst the elite, but this season they became the joint-earliest relegated team in Premier League history. Their 2-0 loss at Selhurst Park in gameweek 32 confirmed their relegation and the end-of-season stats show us why: 38 games played, 3 victories, 28 losses and a goal difference of minus 54. Goalkeeper Jonas Lössl (99 FPL points) proved to be a wanted cheap goalkeeper option in the official game, while Christopher Schindler and Aaron Mooy (both 76 points) were probably the best outfield options for those managers who really wanted a Terrier in their rosters. Overall though, there wasn’t much joy to be found here for FPL managers this season.

Fulham FC are probably the disappointment of the season. After a stellar season under Slavisa Jokanovic in the Championship that ended with promotion to the elite and a transfer summer in which more than £100 million were spent on new recruits, the 2018-19 Premier League campaign soon turned into a nightmare for them. With just two victories over the first half of the season and the increasing number of FPL managers basing some part of their transfer strategy on “Who’s playing Fulham this week?”, Fulham looked well on their way back down already before Christmas. Current manager Scott Parker was appointed after Claudio Ranieri couldn’t manage to turn around the club’s horrible start under Jokanovic, but despite improving performances under the young English manager, Fulham will be playing in the Championship again next season. No matter how many Mitrovic’ or Babel’s you bring in, when your team ends the season with 81 goals conceded and a goal difference of -47, you kind of deserve it.

Finally, newly-promoted Cardiff City joined Huddersfield and Fulham on the way down after losing 2-3 at home to Crystal Palace in gameweek 37. As a sidenote, as far as we’re aware, Palace are the only Premier League side ever to condemn two sides to relegation in the same season. Back to the Bluebirds, who started the season in a bad way, losing six of their first eight games. Many people saw them back in the Championship before Christmas, but Neil Warnock’s men got their act together and stayed in the fight until the penultimate gameweek. They can be proud of their season regardless, especially considering the unspeakable drama that unfolded around the transfer of Emiliano Sala during the January transfer window. From an FPL point of view, the Bluebirds offered some serious value as well, especially in goal, where first-choice goalie Neil Etheridge had a fantastic season that culminated in 154 FPL points and a fourth place in the goalkeeper rankings overall. Captain Sol Bamba (despite his unfortunate long-term injury in gameweek 29), midfielder Victor Camarasa (106 FPL points) and even forward Bobby Reid (£5.2m, 5 goals, 3 assists, 80 FPL points) were other Cardiff assets that, at one point or another, enjoyed surges in their ownership as a result of Cardiff’s performances.

After all the EPL matches have now been played, the race for the Telegraph Fantasy Football (TFF) 2018/19 title is down to the last game: the FA Cup Final. This is something I’ve experienced before; finishing 2nd in TFF in 2002/03 and if Ashley Cole had not cleared James Beattie’s header off the line in the Arsenal v Southampton 2003 FA Cup Final the title would have been mine! Back down Memory Lane here was the line up for the 2003 FA Cup Final:

So nerves must be jangling for the leaders, although maybe less so for current leader and fiso member Adrian Frost, who won TFF in 2010/11 and whose father, Roy, then went on to win in 2015/16. With a gap of only 7 points down to David Parker in 2nd and another 18 points to 3rd it’s probably all to play for between the two of them unless someone in the top 10 has a block Man City defence. No doubt they now have a good idea of each other’s teams so will know who to cheer on (and who not to) during the Man City v Watford final on Saturday 18 May. In the unlikely event either have a transfer left then they must gamble wisely with their selection just as you would with best no deposit bonus casinos. Interestingly the two of them (Frost and Parker) were 1st and 2nd in TFF on 18 March so they have been able to keep ahead of the chasing pack for at least the last 2 months

A Telegraph Fantasy Football manager’s task is to assemble a team of 11 players from a budget of £50m who score you fantasy points based on their performances in the Premier League and FA Cup. You have 40 transfers to use for the entire season.

This year the prize pool for season ticket holders (paid teams) is:

• The Champion: £40,000
• Runner up: £2,500
• 3rd: £1,000
• 4th: £500
• 5th: £200
• 6th to 10th: £100

Your first team is free (whichever game you choose to start with) but you’ll need to treat yourself to a Season Ticket to play in more than one of the competitions and be in with a chance of winning the big money cash prizes. As you can see there is a huge difference between 1st and 2nd prizes so the FA Cup Final is going to provide an enormous amount of excitement for one person and disappointment for the rest.

Season Ticket Holders – Top 20 overall with just the FA Cup Final to play

Pos	Manager	Team	Pts
1	Adrian Frost	Live mix	2384
2	David Parker	ENABLE	2377
3	Brian Murnaghan	Captain Cuttle	2359
4	Andrew Garment	Team AG9	2357
5	Andrew Luckhurst	29	2357
6	Marie King	Horse 1	2351
7	Marie King	Horse 2	2348
8	Mark Lemmer	Lem’s 1	2346
9	Andrew Luckhurst	1	2340
10	Liam Buckley	BabsBoys	2331
11	Mark Chadwick	Arnolfini Portrait	2324
12	Lee Fricker	Superman 10 t-ment v	2321
13	Peter Eckersley	Grimbles!	2320
14	Mark Chadwick	The Scream	2320
15	Chris Wilkinson	Horbury diddymen	2319
16	Trevor Fricker	Concorde	2319
17	Graham Dolan	Green clouds invent	2317
18	Elaine Fricker	LIV MCY 2ND	2314
19	Ed Jones	JB Man City IV	2313
20	Jamie Baer	Law 1	2313

The above table is almost exactly the same for All Managers i.e. including the free teams but with one entry in 12th and the other in 19th.

You can follow the TFF action on Saturday on FISO’s TFF Forum and maybe on this TFF FA Cup Final topic.

This Premier League season was one of the most exciting ones in recent history, with many memorable events, great successes and heartbreaks. In terms of fantasy football, it was also one of the most interesting seasons to participate in, with many outstanding individual performances from top PFL players. So, with the gameweek 38 wrap up yesterday, let’s look at the best Premier League fantasy squad for the 2018/2019 season, by each position.

Premier League Top 11

The 2018/2019 season was one of the most popular seasons in terms of fantasy football, garnering a huge following and a massive player base. It was also very popular among sports bettors, with an almost record-breaking season in terms of sports betting wagers. Those who were skilful enough to find a bet365 bonus code and use it to better their online betting budget were also probably able to come about great wins and enjoy this Premier League season even more.

Even though some football fans, fantasy players and sports bettors will complain how this list excludes some quality players that have performed excellently this season, the list mainly consists out of players from two teams who have been the most dominant over this season. Going by the official stats provided by the Fantasy Premier League website, here are our picks for the Premier League fantasy team of the season.

Alisson

Although Alisson and Man City’s goalie Ederson were going neck and neck in the Golden Glove race for the entire season, we’ve decided for the Liverpool goalkeeper over Ederson. On many occasions, Alisson performances were the key reason for his club’s success. His amazing season was crowned with a special individual success of 21 Premier League clean sheets in one season, making him only the fifth player to do so in the highest ranked football league in England.

Andrew Robertson

By many statistics, this fast-rising star playing left back for Liverpool has been showing some remarkable performances this season. Already considered as one of the best left-backs in today’s football, Robertson was a vital factor in 29 of Liverpool’s Premier League wins this season. Robertson notched up 12 assists in the Premier League this season, a record for most assists by a defender.

Trent Alexander-Arnold

Complimenting Robertson from the opposite side, Alexander-Arnold had a stunning season playing the right back position. With only 20 years of age, he garnered over a dozen assists for the team and was an instrumental part, not only for their Premier League push but for the team’s success in the Champions League as well.

Virgil van Dijk

The Dutch centre-back was absolutely dominant all throughout the season. His fantastic performances won him the prestigious PFA Player of the Year award, ahead of a number of other players that performed excellently this year. Along with his defensive teammates, Virgil led the best defence of the 2018/2019 season, with an average of close to 0.5 goals conceded per match.

Aymeric Laporte

Aymeric Laporte has been one of the top FPL performers this year and an indispensable part of Man City’s defence. The centre back has been a favourite of many Fantasy Premier League players, as his style of play has allowed him to fill up the stat sheet with each passing week.

Eden Hazard

One of only two players on this list that don’t come from Liverpool or Man City, Hazard has been a massive factor for Chelsea. Although he has had a tumultuous season with the club, regarding his contract extension, Hazard performances have been near perfect, ranking among the top players in both goals and assists.

Sadio Mane

The lighting fast winger has been an unstoppable force for Liverpool this season and is already considered as a Liverpool legend just a couple of years into his tenure with the club. Playing the wing/forward position alongside Salah, Mane proved his quality night in and night out for the team, scoring 22 league goals this season, jointly winning the golden boot.

Raheem Sterling

With 17 goals and 14 assists this season, Raheem Sterling has shown yet again that he is one of the best players in the league and the future of his club. Sterling had one of his best seasons to date and has been the second most popular fantasy midfield player this year, right behind Eden Hazard.

Mo Salah

Mo Salah was the most efficient player this PFL season, with 22 goals scored. Even though this year has been a bit weaker compared to the last one when he scored 32 Premier League goals, it still proved to be more than enough to win him his second PFL Golden Boot in a row along with two other strikers. In addition to this, Mo picked up a dozen assists this year. All of this helped him come out on top as the most sought-out and most expensive fantasy Premier League player of the season.

Sergio Aguero

The last-minute hero of Man City’s 2012 PFL title, Aguero is still pushing strong seven years later. He did finish the season on a bit of a low note, but overall, Sergio Aguero was yet again one of the most efficient forwards in the Premier League. An attractive and flamboyant player, he was also a very popular pick among Fantasy Premier League players this year.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Rounding out this year’s Fantasy Premier League top 11 is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Although many could argue that Arsenal has under-performed this season, Aubameyang has done everything in his power to keep them as close to the top as possible. With 20 goals this season, Aubameyang has quietly impressed this season and ended up jointly winning the 2018/2019 Golden Boot.

And so we’ve come to the end of yet another thrilling Premier League campaign and yet another roller coaster FPL season. The final gameweek promises plenty of emotion, as the championship has not been decided yet, unbelievable but true. With a win at Brighton, Pep Guardiola’s Man City will crown themselves champions with an incredible 98 points from 38 games, after surpassing the 100-point mark last season. Any other result at the AMEX, in combination with a Liverpool victory at Anfield versus a Wolves team that has nothing to play for any more (already assured of 7th place), and the Reds grab the title with 97 points. No matter the outcome, both clubs have been brilliant throughout the season, something that’s illustrated by the fact that the runner-up for the 2018-19 campaign will finish with at least 95 points. In any other Premier League season bar last, that tally would have been more than enough to comfortably take the title home.

The easy thing about gameweek 38 is that there is just one more week to take into account in terms of your FPL transfer plans. The only other remaining relevant games on the schedule are the FA Cup final between City and Watford (May 18th), and of course the all-English European finals: Spurs vs Liverpool in the Champions League final on the 1st of June and Chelsea vs Arsenal in the Europa League final on May 29th. Relevant is a relative term in this case though, because we don’t believe that these games, considering their dates, will have too much impact on the starting line-ups for the Premier League’s gameweek 38. Still, players from any of these six teams with a niggling injury might be spared coming Sunday in order to nurture the injury as well as possible in the build-up to a final.

What could be of more influence on player selection this weekend, is the fact that the majority of teams in the Premier League no longer have something to play far apart from their honour. For this reason, we’ve created a simple overview of what’s at stake for every Premier League club in the final gameweek of the season:

HOME TEAM	GW38 OPPONENT	STAKES
Brighton	Manchester City	Brighton are safe from relegation, City win the title if they beat Brighton
Burnley	Arsenal	Burnley are safe from relegation, Arsenal secure fifth place if they beat Burnley. Arsenal can fall to sixth place if they lose or draw, and Man United beat Cardiff
Crystal Palace	Bournemouth	Nothing at stake but twelfth place
Fulham	Newcastle	Fulham have been relegated and play their last home game of the season, Newcastle are safe from relegation
Leicester	Chelsea	Chelsea secure third place if they beat Leicester, but if they draw or lose and Spurs beat Everton, Chelsea drop to fourth place. If Leicester beat Chelsea and Everton lose away to Spurs, Leicester takes eight place.
Liverpool	Wolves	If Liverpool beat Wolves and City draw or lose against Brighton, Liverpool take the title. Wolves have secured seventh place.
Manchester United	Cardiff	Cardiff have been relegated. If United beat Cardiff and Arsenal draw or lose against Burnley, United take fifth place.
Southampton	Huddersfield	Southampton are safe from relegation, Huddersfield have been relegated.
Spurs	Everton	If Spurs beat Everton and Chelsea draw or lose against Leicester, Spurs take third place.  If Everton lose to Spurs and Leicester beat Chelsea, Everton drops to ninth.
Watford	West Ham	Both teams are safe from relegation, while there is no chance of European qualification for either of them via the Premier League ranking.

*In some scenarios, the goal difference might make a small difference, but we have disregarded this factor when determining the stakes for the table above.

Do not forget that the deadline for gameweek 38 has been set at 14h00 (BST) on Sunday, May 12th, and that all games will kick off at 15h00 (BST). Be sure to check your chips as well: if you have any chips left, this is your last chance to activate them, just like you would if you were playing online pokies in Australia. Now onto our last picks for the 2018-2019 FPL season.

Premium picks

As you probably imagined, our picks for gameweek 38 are dominated by Man City and Liverpool assets, not for the first time this season. With just one game left to go, the title race is still wide open, meaning that we’re counting on both managers to field their strongest possible starting eleven. Seeing as Raheem Sterling is part of our captaincy picks later on, our first premium pick of the week is his team mate Sergio Aguero (£12.0m). The flow of play on Sunday is predictable, as Brighton will most likely sit deep and make disrupting City’s offensive plans their top priority. The Seagulls have conceded 10 goals in their last 6 games, a run that included a collective lapse of concentration in gameweek 34 that ended with a 0-5 drubbing at home to an inconsistent Bournemouth side. As far as Aguero goes, the Argentinian striker has not been on his most productive run over the last few gameweeks, at least in terms of FPL returns. In the last four games, he scored a goal and provided a single assist, while the home game against Leicester last weekend represents the first time Kun didn’t get a return from a home game in which he started this season. Truth be told, fortune wasn’t on his side as he did hit the crossbar in that game and Leicester’s Kasper Schmeichel kept Aguero from the score sheet with an excellent save in the closing minutes. With both the Premier League title and the 2018-19 top scorer’s title on the line for the agile forward (he stands at 20 goals currently, two behind Salah), expect Aguero to start and City to come out with guns blazing.

Our second premium pick for GW38 is Liverpool’s Sadio Mané (£10.3m), as his team mate Mo Salah is our second suggestion for the armband this week after Jurgen Klopp confirmed that the Egyptian will have recovered from his concussion by the time Wolves roll up to Anfield on Sunday. The Senegalese forward did not manage to get directly involved in any of the four goals during the instant legendary comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final during the week, but he played an excellent game nonetheless, providing constant threat to the Barça backline. Mané has been in scintillating form at Anfield this season, scoring 11 goals in 18 home games. Over the last four games overall, he scored 3 and guess where those were scored? Exactly, in front of the Reds faithful. Wolves are far from push-overs, but with seventh place in the PL guaranteed, they may turn up a bit more relaxed than usual for the last game of the season. It’s also possible that manager Nuno Espirito Santo uses the opportunity to give a few of his less regular starters some playing minutes. In any case, considering the stakes for Liverpool, it’s hard for us not to see a victory for the Reds here. On top of that, Salah (first with 22 goals) and Mané (shared second with 20 goals) can still both realistically win the Premier League Golden Boot, which is a great prospect from an FPL point of view.

Our final premium pick of the week, and indeed of the season, is one inspired by… well, hope, or maybe stubbornness. Whatever the case, we believe Manchester United’s Paul Pogba (£8.6m) is worth a mention, despite United’s inexplicable form at the moment. You’d think United assets would be on the way out after their horror show of a performance against Huddersfield last week, but Pogba is actually one of the most-transferred in players in the build-up to gameweek 38. Truth be told, he was relatively one of the less disappointing Red Devils on the pitch versus the Terriers and he did hit the woodwork twice in that game, all of which goes towards explaining his inclusion in our list. United are hosting recently relegated Cardiff on Sunday afternoon, so you’d think (or at least hope) that the locals can bring it one more time, in front of their home fans, to give a largely disappointing season a positive ending. United have scored 33 goals in 18 home games (with Pogba scoring 10 and preparing 3 of those goals), while the Bluebirds have scored just 11 goals on the road this whole season, losing 13 of their 18 away games. Add to that Pogba’s penalty duties and nailed-on starting spot, and it suddenly doesn’t look like such a bad idea to include the Frenchman in your FPL squad, although as we’ve hinted it is a bit of a gamble with other promising options available just like American online gambling sites can be.

The FISO Forum transfer topic for FPL GW38 will give you more ideas.

A differential pick or two

With Southampton safe from relegation and considering their 3-0 loss to West Ham last weekend, a Saints asset might not be top of your transfer targets list for GW38. Still, with their final game of the season taking place at home to Huddersfield, a player like Nathan Redmond (£5.5m) could well be worth a punt. The English forward is a nailed-on starter for manager Ralph Hasenhüttl, despite his surprising start on the bench against the Hammers last weekend. The Austrian coach brought Redmond on after the break though, enough for the Saints star to make four attempts on goal from inside the penalty area. He has scored 2 goals and provided 1 assist over his last five Premier League games, and all of those returns came in the two home games during that period (2 goals vs Wolves in GW33 and an assist vs Bournemouth in GW36). The visiting Terriers have lost 14 of their 18 away games this season and they have conceded a worrying 44 goals over that run. A end-of-the-season haul could well be on the cards for Redmond. It’s also noted that goalkeeper Gunn who was also benched last week will be starting on Sunday according to Hasenhüttl.

Our second differential pick of the season is Fulham’s Ryan Babel (£5.6m), who will be looking to leave a good impression in what is most likely to be his last game for the club. Though not enough to avoid the relegation that had been looming over Fulham for many months already, the Dutch international has had a fantastic impact on his team, scoring 5 goals and providing 4 assists since arriving to Craven Cottage in the last winter transfer window. Apart from 2 goals, all of those returns were recorded on his own ground, where Fulham will be hosting Newcastle on Sunday. In his last five home games, Babel got an impressive 39 FPL points: 9 in GW36 vs Cardiff, 14 in GW34 vs Everton, 2 vs City in GW32, 9 vs Liverpool in GW31 and 5 in GW29 against Chelsea. Newcastle, on the other hand, have conceded 23 goals in 18 away games, of which they lost 7. With a price tag of just £5.6m, his FPL position as a midfielder but him being deployed as a forward in real life, and a current ownership of just 1.6%, Babel could be a surprising differential asset in the final stages of your mini-leagues.

The captaincy

As we mentioned earlier in this article, both of our suggestions for the captain’s armband in gameweek 38 are directly involved in the deciding games for the Premier League title. With Mo Salah (£13.3) playing at home and considering his current leading position in the Golden Boot ranking, the Egyptian forward is our first captaincy pick this week. Despite him not being in the squad for the mid-week semi-final against Barcelona in the Champions League due to a concussion, Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that his talisman will be ready for the clash with Wolves on Sunday. Salah has provided attacking returns for his owners in the last six gameweeks, a run over which he scored 5 goals and gave 3 assists. On top of that, there is no other player in the Premier League who has had more shots on target in home games this season than Mo’s 30. Besides the championship, the Liverpool wizard is also defending his lead in the Premier League Golden Boot race, which he is currently leading by 2 goals (22 vs three players with 20 goals in second place: Aguero, Aubameyang, and his team mate Mané). This may result in a bit more selfishness in front of goal than usual, which, considering his underlying stats, is not bad news either for those who own Salah or are planning on bringing him in.

Man City’s Raheem Sterling (£11.7m) was recently elected PFA Young Player of the Season and it’s not hard to see why. The young English forward has been spectacular for Pep Guardiola this season, scoring 17 goals in the Premier League and preparing another 14 goals for team mates. In a deep squad where rotation is an ever-present risk, Sterling is one of Pep’s most-used players (2,680 minutes in the PL alone this season) and we can only see him featuring from the kick-off against Brighton on Sunday. It is true that the City star has been less productive lately, with just a single assist in his last three games to illustrate that, and City have been struggling lately to translate their footballing dominance on the pitch into comfortable victories. Add to that that Brighton are likely to do whatever they can to frustrate Pep Guardiola and his players in their quest to put the game beyond doubt as soon as possible, thereby making the result at Anfield redundant. It’s hard not to see City winning this one though, but it’s unclear whether they’ll do it comfortably or by the skin of their teeth. Both scenarios are real possibilities. In any case, the visitors will be creating chances and when they do, more often than not, Raheem Sterling is involved. His arm is probably one of the safest places for the armband in gameweek 38.

According to the FISO Forum Captain Poll for FPL GW38, Aguero and then Salah clearly lead the way from Sterling and Mane.

One of the biggest sporting events of the year is still a few months away, but it’s never too early to start talking about it. It’s the Rugby World Cup, of course, and this year’s epic event is set to be a whopper.

The championship takes place from Friday, 20th September until Saturday, 2nd November this year. Twenty rugby teams from all over the world will be gunning for that coveted Webb Ellis Cup in this year’s event in Japan.

The exciting first match will kick off on the 20th in the breathtaking Ajinomoto Stadium near the heart of Tokyo Metropolitan. September usually offers the perfect rugby weather in Japan – not too cold or too hot – so it’s not to be missed.

Naturally, not everyone has the luxury of going to Japan to see the mud splatter up close. So for the rest of, streaming will have to do. But more on that later. For now, here are a few interesting facts about the Japanese rugby team, and all the details around the Rugby World Cup 2019.

5 Need-to-Know Facts About the Rugby World Cup 2019

1. A Look Into Japan’s Rugby Team

The Japanese rugby team, known as The Brave Blossoms (yes, that’s really it), is currently ranked 11th in the world. As the hosts, they automatically qualified this year, and they’ll be gunning for a spot against tough competition in the pool stage.

The Japanese team has consistently qualified for the Rugby World Cup over the last 20 odd years, but have yet to see a win. That said, they are seen as the strongest rugby union in Asia, with numerous wins against South Korea, Tonga, and China. They’ve also had some memorable matches against Tier 1 nations.

One of the most noteworthy wins for The Brave Blossoms in recent years was in a World Cup pool match against South Africa. They beat the Springboks 34–32 in 2015, causing an uproar among rugby fans.

While they’re not fan favourites to win this year’s cup, it will be interesting to see how they fare on home ground.

2. The Qualifying Teams

The teams taking part in the 2019 World Cup are:

– Argentina                                          – Australia

– Canada                                             – England

– Fiji                                                     – France

– Georgia                                             – Ireland

– Italy                                                   – Japan

– Namibia                                            – New Zealand

– Russia                                               – Samoa

– Scotland                                            – South Africa

– Tonga                                                – Uruguay

– USA                                                  – Wales

3. The Tournament Schedule

There will be four pools of five teams each. Only two teams per pool will make it through to the knockout rounds.

The Pools:

A: Japan, Scotland, Ireland, Russia, Samoa

B: Italy, South Africa, New Zealand, Namibia, Canada

C: England, Argentina, France, Tonga, USA

D: Australia, Fiji, Wales, Georgia, Uruguay

Here’s the schedule:

The Pools: September 20 – October 13.

The Quarter-Finals: October 19–20.

The Semi-Finals: October 26–27.

The Bronze Final: November 1.

The Final: November 2.

For a full schedule of the match dates, check out the fixtures page on The Telegraph.

4. The 2019 World Cup Mascots

While the World Cup mascots never really do much, they are fun to look at, and the kids always love them. This year, there’s Ren-G, two sacred lion-like creatures called shishi. According to the organizers, this adult and child combo embody the five spirits of rugby – integrity, solidarity, respect, discipline, passion.

5. Where to Watch

Those not fortunate enough to go and see the action live at least get the upside of watching it from a comfy couch. It’s a small consolation, but at least streaming services makes it easy to see everything live. Well, that is, if internet service providers play along. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case when streaming sporting events from other countries. ISP throttling can become a major issue and cause viewers to miss important moments.

The Rugby World Cup will be aired by all the regular broadcast partner channels in over 20 countries. It will also be streaming live in the official site. Those who don’t have cable or access to the official streaming partners will have to get a little more creative.

Regardless of the streaming service of choice, it’s a good idea to invest in a VPN (https://nordvpn.com/coupon/) for the duration of the tournament. A VPN will both thwart ISP throttling and provide access to more streaming sites to choose from across the globe.

Don’t Miss Out

The matches will be played in 12 modern stadiums across Japan. Make sure to catch all the action as it happens this rugby season. It’s set to be one of the most exciting years yet.

Fantasy football is supposed to be fun, with the stress mitigated to calculations and a bit of luck. But there’s a new player on the block – the cyber attacker – and they are not here to play but to steal. Fortunately, there are some tools that can keep them at the start line. Read on to find out how.

Bets used to be contained to private dealings between a bookie, their paper pad, and close acquaintances. Now, it’s a public thing, run by huge companies like New York-based FanDuel Inc. and Boston-based DraftKings Inc.

It’s great news for those who are into both serious and casual betting as it provides a stable platform to do so. However, it’s also attracted the attention of the shadier side of the internet. And unfortunately, where hackers are involved, things can get hairy fast and then they’re gone before anyone’s the wiser.

Cyber Crime is a Huge Threat to Fantasy Sports

Anything that’s popular on the internet is fair game as far as hackers are concerned. The bigger the fish, the bigger the prize and they’re placing their bets on fantasy sports.

Fantasy Football has grown a lot in popularity these last few years, attracting millions of visitors to betting sites every day. But as people happily bet away on their favorite athletes, cybercriminals are busy poking holes in these platforms’ defenses.

Back in 2014, Yahoo saw one of the largest data breaches in history. Users of their fantasy football app were among the largest sections of those affected.

That was 5 years ago. Participation in fantasy sports has increased exponentially since then, with over 15.6 million players in 2017, in the US alone. That’s one big target on the backs of fantasy sports betting companies – that haven’t really focused on upping their security.

This has lead to increased reports of sports betting websites being targeted as well as fake sites being set-up to draw some of that traffic. Unless companies step up their security, it’s very likely that these threats will only increase in number.

The Types of Threats Fans Face

The nature of fantasy sports betting sites and apps leaves a lot of room for exploitation from outside forces.

To take part, people have to share personal details and login information, as well as a payment method. These companies collect massive amounts of data – including credit card information, social security numbers, and other consumer data. That leaves fantasy sports fans very vulnerable when the company database gets hacked. Not to mention the massive amounts of money these companies work with on a daily basis. Both these aspects make a sports betting website an attractive target for attackers.

Right now, the threats fantasy sports fans face are:

-Fake betting websites and apps.

-Malware that hides behind ads on fantasy sports betting websites.

-The connection becoming compromised and transactions being intercepted.

-The company data being stolen, which means user login details, personal details, and payment information being stolen, too.

-Hackers rigging the system.

–Ransomware attacks.

-Phishing attempts via email, social media, and text messages.

What Can Be Done?

Right now, it’s up to each individual to protect themselves. Even if the betting industry gets their act together cybersecurity-wise, it’s still better to be safe than sorry.

Luckily, there are a few steps a person can take to make themselves a harder target. Hackers work smart, not hard. If they can’t get in, then they’ll move on to an easier target.

Get a good antivirus and firewall: These programs will block internet pop-ups, detect suspicious downloads, and automatically delete unsafe files. They’re not infallible, and might not detect everything, but they are the first line of defense.

Use a VPN while online: VPN services are becoming exceedingly popular under those working with online transactions. They employ state-of-the-art encryption methods and hide a user’s IP, making it very hard for an outsider to gain access.

Use a separate Email and password for betting: This way, it’s harder for attackers to get access if any other online accounts get compromised. It also makes it easier to pick out phishing attempts.

Never click on links or download attachments: When it’s possible, go straight to the source. Meaning, type in the website URL or search for the page via the website. Attackers often create fake versions of emails sent by real companies to get people to click on the links. Which is always malware.

In Conclusion

Fantasy sports is a booming industry, but this intersection of tech, money, and data creates the perfect platform for exploitation. So don’t let the fun get spoilt by malicious cyber attackers – bet cautiously with online safety.

We are now truly reaching the end of the 2018-19 Premier League campaign. With gameweek 37 upon us in about 24 hours, we’ll be entering the final two gameweeks of the season and rarely has an English title race, or indeed any football title race, been as tight as this year’s battle of titans between Man City and Liverpool. The way it looks now, the Cityzens seem to be in pole position, as it seems unlikely that they’ll drop points against Leicester at the Etihad or versus Brighton away. You never know, though. One thing we do know, is that Jurgen Klopp’s men won’t give up until the very end.

That will also be the main thought for FC Barcelona’s Ernesto Valverde after he led his men to a (flattering) victory over the Reds in this week’s first leg of the Champions League semi-finals. After Spurs succumbed to a brilliant opening half hour from the visitors from Amsterdam a day earlier, the other English semi-finalist had to recognise Barcelona’s superiority at the Camp Nou. Or maybe better said, Lionel Messi’s superiority. Considering the flow of the game, it can be considered a miracle that Liverpool didn’t score, but that’s what happened and now they have the daunting task of coming back from three behind against one of Europe’s best outfits. Still, not so long ago, PSG showed that incredible turn-arounds against Barça are possible. If they could do it, why not the best Liverpool in ages?

On to FPL. The upcoming return matches in the Champions League, as well as the upcoming games in the Europa League semis, will have their impact on team selections this weekend, so we will be taking that into account. Before moving onto our picks for gameweek 37, we’ll provide a simple overview of the two games that each team still has to play, as well as a summary of how last week’s picks performed. With just two rounds to go, it’s all or nothing for those chasing in their (mini-)leagues, while the fortunate ones in the lead need to hold on for just a little longer. Just like for Liverpool, for most FPL managers, it’s all coming down to the final games.

Don’t forget that the deadline for gameweek 37 has been set at 19h00 (BST) tomorrow Friday, May 3^rd.

The remaining fixtures list for each Premier League team this season

Team	GW37	GW38		Team	GW37	GW38
Man City	Leicester (h)	Brighton (a)		West Ham	Soton (h)	Watford (a)
Liverpool	N’castle (a)	Wolves (h)		Palace	Cardiff (a)	B’mouth (h)
Spurs	B’mouth (a)	Everton (h)		Newcastle	Liverpool (h)	Fulham (a)
Chelsea	Watford (h)	Leicester (a)		B’mouth	Spurs (h)	Palace (a)
Arsenal	Brighton (h)	Burnley (a)		Burnley	Everton (a)	Arsenal (h)
Man United	H’field (a)	Cardiff (h)		Soton	W Ham (a)	H’field (h)
Wolves	Fulham (h)	Liverpool (a)		Brighton	Arsenal (a)	Man City (h)
Leicester	Man City (a)	Chelsea (h)		Cardiff	Palace (h)	M United (a)
Everton	Burnley (h)	Spurs (a)		Fulham	Wolves (a)	N’castle (h)
Watford	Chelsea (a)	W Ham (h)		Huddersfield	M United (h)	Soton (a)

(a) = away ; (h) = home

Before moving onto our picks for GW37, here are the results of last week’s picks

TYPE	PLAYER (Club)	POINTS
Premium	Andy Robertson (Liverpool)	14
Premium	Mo Salah (Liverpool)	19
Premium	Christian Eriksen (Spurs)	2
Differential	Bernardo Silva (Man City)	3
Differential	Jamie Vardy (Leicester)	13
Captain	Sadio Mané (Liverpool)	13
Captain	Heung-Min Son (Spurs)	2

Premium picks

After an unusual drought in terms of attacking returns for Raul Jimenez (£6.9m) that lasted three gameweeks, the Mexican striker got back on the score sheet against Watford at Vicarage Road last week. Wolves are facing relegated Fulham at home on Saturday, and especially at home, Jimenez has been a man of extremes since gameweek 24. They played six home games over that stretch and the Mexican recorded three double-figure hauls, while returning 2 points on the other three occasions. Including away games for that period, Jimenez has scored 7 goals and provided 3 assists, bringing home 76 FPL points for the 38.1% of managers that own him. Fulham meanwhile still boast the worst defensive record in the league this season, but they did shut out their last three opponents (Everton home, Bournemouth away, Cardiff home). Nevertheless, Wolves are expected to aim everything at securing the seventh spot in the League in these last two games, as a Man City victory in the FA Cup final versus Watford would mean that the seventh spot equals Europa League football next season. Raul Jimenez is a nailed-on starter and one of the best performers of the season, so try to bring him in for this one if you can.

As could be seen against West Ham at home last weekend and mid-week against Ajax in the Champions League, Spurs are not going through their best phase, in big part due to injuries. Still, they are fighting to keep hold of their current third position in the table, which is why our second premium pick of the week is Heung-Min Son (£8.9m). The Korean attacker was suspended for the first leg of his team’s Champions League semi-final clash, and even though many eyes will be on him to lead a potential comeback against Ajax coming Wednesday, he’s more than likely to start at the Vitality Stadium coming Saturday. Considering Spurs’ current struggles to break down rival defences, he might even be the one to decide that encounter. Son’s last attacking return came in gameweek 34, an assist in just four minutes of playing time, and followed his goal against Palace a round earlier. Bournemouth’s home form is reasonable, with 7 victories and 6 draws in 18 games. They did concede 25 goals over those 18 games and their recent results have been fluky. Between gameweeks 33 and 35, for example, a 1-3 loss at home to Burnley was followed by a 0-5 victory versus Huddersfield, which subsequently was followed by a 0-1 home loss to Fulham. Despite their injuries, form, and hectic schedule, Spurs should come away with three points this weekend, and if they do, Son will be instrumental.

Our final premium pick for gameweek 37 is based more on fixture than current form, though we can’t really say that Man United’s Luke Shaw (£5.0m) has been in bad form of late. It’s more a team-wide issue at United, it seems. The young English left-back played a good game against Chelsea last week and provided an excellent assist for Mata’s goal, earning him the full 3 bonus points for a total of 8 points. On Sunday, the United defence faces the League’s lowest-scoring attack when the Red Devils roll up to Huddersfield’s John Smith’s Stadium. The Terriers have scored just 9 goals in 18 home games this season. Nine. Despite a top-four finish depending on the results of their rivals as well, United can be expected to aim for a comfortable victory and hope for a mistake by Chelsea or Arsenal. With Cardiff at Old Trafford as his last game of the season, Luke Shaw could very well record two clean sheets to end the campaign in style. Add the potential of an assist in one of those games and maybe a bonus point or two, and you’ve got a defender who could represent 12+ points over two games without stretching our imagination too much.

A differential pick or two

Exceptionally, we’ve included two defenders in this week’s list, as our first differential suggestion is Wolverhampton’s Jonny (£4.3m). Wolves are facing Fulham at home on Saturday and despite the improvement in composure and form displayed by the Cottagers over the past few weeks, a clean sheet and a victory seem to be on the cards for the locals. As we mentioned earlier, a Man City victory over Watford in the upcoming FA Cup final would mean that the seventh place in the Premier League represents a spot in next season’s Europa League, and Wolves are currently in seventh. Fulham have been far from prolific in front of goal away from home this season, scoring just 12 goals in 18 away games. Wolves, on the other hand, boast excellent home form, with 9 victories out of 18 games, and just five losses. Their starting left-back Jonny is currently owned by just 3.5% of FPL managers and has recorded 19 FPL points over the past three League games, courtesy of a clean sheet against Brighton in GW35 and two assists against Arsenal the week after that. The young Spaniard is facing Liverpool at Anfield next week, so this would really be a one-week differential pick, but one that definitely pay off.

Paul Pogba (£8.5m) is our second differential pick for gameweek 37. There, we said it. Sure, he’s not a differential in terms his current FPL ownership (31.4%), but considering United’s recent form and alleged dressing room issues, we do think that counting on United’s current form is kind of a punt. In other words, more than 31% of managers might own Pogba at the moment, but how many will be spending a free transfer or even 4 points to bring him in? The Frenchman has averaged just 3.3 FPL points over his last ten Premier League games, but his 90 minutes are practically assured and he’s on penalties as well. He’ll be up against Huddersfield on Sunday, who have conceded 30 goals in 18 home games. What’s more, the last time the Terriers conceded less than two goals in a game was back in gameweek 29. In the seven games that followed, they conceded a staggering 23 goals. Pogba’s last attacking returns came against West Ham in GW 34 (2 goals and 15 FPL points) and the game against Huddersfield looks like the ideal opportunity for a next haul.

The FISO Forum GW37 transfers topic has further ideas for you to have a look at.

The captaincy

Man City are on course to decide this year’s thrilling title race in their favour, all they need is to win their remaining two games against Leicester (home) and Brighton (away). Besides the FA Cup final on the 18^th of May, City have no other obligations, which means they can list their strongest starting eleven without a problem this weekend. Kun Aguero (£11.9m) is definitely part of their strongest eleven. This weekend’s home game against Leicester won’t likely be a walk-over, but few teams can withstand a Man City at full force. As far as Aguero goes, he has delivered attacking returns in every home game so far this season, including two hat-tricks. Also, his crucial goal against Burnley in gameweek 36 was his 20^th of the Premier League campaign, meaning that the Argentinian assassin has now reached at least 20 goals in the PL in each of his last five season. This man is fixture-proof and even though Brendan Rogers has done really good work in relatively little time at Leicester, it’s hard to not see Aguero making a considerable contribution to Man City’s title chances, both this weekend against the Foxes and in gameweek 38 at the AMEX in Brighton.

If you feel that Leicester might be the proverbial banana peel for Pep Guardiola’s men, than you can look at their main rivals for an alternative. Liverpool’s Mo Salah (£13.3m) seems to have returned to top form for the business end of the season, illustrated by his huge 19-point haul against Huddersfield last week, making him the highest-scoring FPL asset in the game (249 points in total). Considering the intense encounter at the Camp Nou this week in which Salah failed to have an impact on the scorelines despite a few chances to do so, Jurgen Klopp will still count on Salah to bring the tricky away game versus Newcastle to a satisfying end coming Saturday evening. They’ve still got everything to lose in the League as well. Mo has scored 4 goals and provided 1 assist in his last five Premier League outings, including a double strike and an assist last week against Huddersfield. Liverpool have scored an impressive twenty times since the start of gameweek 30, while Newcastle played three home games over that period in which they conceded 4 goals. It won’t be an easy game for the Reds, but considering the stakes, one would expect Liverpool to score a few here and come away with the three points.

The weekly FPL Captain Poll has for GW37, has Aguero currently with over 50% of the votes.

Gameweek 35 was probably, in an overall sense, the round with the most impact on the 2018-19 FPL season. Teams with lots of popular assets like Arsenal and Man United disappointed enormously, while several teams with interesting differential assets performed well, including Watford and Wolves. Title candidate Man City had a great double week as well, beating both Spurs and United, but their big (read: most-owned and most-captained) guns were not the ones to shine brightest. Instead of Sterling and Aguero, we find Ederson, Laporte, Walker and Bernardo Silva in the GW35 Dream Team.

That Dream Team also confirms what’s been said before by more than one FPL pundit: when a double gameweek is coming up, don’t automatically discard the teams and players with one game. Last week’s Dream Team includes three single gameweek players after impressive performances: Sigurdsson and Digne (14 points both) from Everton, after their 4-0 destruction of Man United, and Newcastle’s hat-trick hero Ayoze Perez (17 points). That is, of course, wise advice for next season, because we are now just three (single) gameweeks away from the end of the 2018-19 Premier League season. Already betting interest on the 2019/20 Premier League season is increasing at places like wearebettors.

With the races for both the Premier League title and the remaining two Champions League spots in full swing, and the continued involvement of no less than four PL outfits in the final stages of the European tournaments, FPL managers will need to stay on top of their game until the very end. Fatigue, injuries and heavy rotation are having more and more effect on the starting line-ups of Spurs (who are facing Ajax Amsterdam in the Champions League semi-finals), Liverpool (facing Barcelona in the CL semis), Arsenal (facing Valencia in the Europa League semi-finals) and Chelsea (facing Eintracht Frankfurt in the EL semis). The Europa League has now reached the stages that can make coaches prioritise those games over the Premier League games in that period as well. Whether it’s to make for a final push up the ranks or to consolidate your current position in your mini-league, be sure to keep a regular eye out for team news in order to get the drop on those FPL managers who don’t.

There are less than 48 hours between gameweek 35’s last games and gameweek 36’s opening game, so here are our recommended picks for the upcoming weekend. Don’t forget that the transfer deadline for GW36 is set at 19h00 (BST), tomorrow, Friday the 26th of April.

Premium picks

Our first premium pick for gameweek 36 is a defender and one that you should probably get into your team ASAP until the end of the season, if you don’t have him yet and can afford him. Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson (£6.8m) is the highest-scoring defender in the game at the moment (192 points), followed by team mates Virgil van Dijk (188 points) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (150 points). The reason we’ve gone with Robertson instead of VVD or TAA is the Scot’s higher assist potential in comparison to the former and his higher chance of being in the starting line-up in comparison to the latter. That being said, if you can double up on Liverpool’s defence, you should consider that. The Reds boast the league’s best defensive record (20 goals conceded in 35 games) and they are facing Huddersfield at Anfield on Friday, the lowest-scoring team in the division (20 goals in 35 games). After that, it’s Newcastle away and Wolves at home for Liverpool, both games with clean sheet potential. Of course, Liverpool are facing Barcelona next week, but the fact that there are four days of rest (five when counting the match day) between that game and this Friday’s game against the Terriers should put rotation worries regarding Robertson to rest. The right-back has already got an impressive 10 assists to his name in the PL, a tally he might well improve upon further against Huddersfield.

We’re sticking with Liverpool for now, because we believe that Mo Salah (£13.2m) has tapped into a rich vein of form and he might continue that trend on Friday against Huddersfield. Not only are the Terriers the team that has scored the fewest goals in the division, they are also the team that has conceded the most goals (69 in 35 games) after Fulham (74 conceded). The Egyptian forward has returned 2 goals and 2 assists in his last four Premier League games, while he was responsible for the only goal in the reverse fixture (0-1 victory for the Reds) in gameweek 9. Over the campaign until now, Salah has scored 19 goals and provided 11 assists, making him the highest-scoring player in FPL. The fact that his form this season seems a bit more volatile than it was last season, just shows how extraterrestrial he was last season. Like his partner in attacking crime Sadio Mané, Salah also represents an excellent option for the captain’s armband. We’ve gone with the Senegalese machine, as you’ll see later on in this article, but the Egyptian could just as well bring home a huge haul for the roughly 35% of FPL managers that own him.

With Christian Eriksen (£9.3m) as our third premium pick of the week, we’re continuing this trend, in the sense that he’s an excellent candidate for the captaincy as well, but we’ve gone with his team mate Son for the armband later on in this piece. The Danish midfielder saved the Spurs in the last game against Brighton by scoring the only goal of the game in the 88th minute, an excellent left-foot effort from outside the area that resulted in a decent 7 FPL points. Over his last five Premier League games, Eriksen has scored 2 goals and gave 3 assists for a total of 35 points. Since gameweek 20, he hasn’t missed a minute of PL action, not even during the double gameweeks and the periods in which important European games were coming up. Considering his crucial role in the team, he looks safe from rotation until the end of the season, though it remains to be seen how the Champions League semi-finals against Ajax will pan out. This coming Saturday, Tottenham are hosting an unreliable West Ham who have lost 10 of their 17 away games this season. The Hammers conceded 27 goals in those 17 games. After that, a visit to the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth and a season-closer at home to Everton are on the agenda, and both of those are games in which Eriksen could record some attacking returns.

A differential pick or two

With Kevin de Bruyne’s misfortune confirmed, it looks like the rotational risk for Bernardo Silva (£7.6m) as a part of City’s starting eleven has decreased even further. The Portuguese magician can be deployed more or less anywhere in the centre or on the right side of the midfield and attack, and despite the difference in FPL potential that his positioning can make, a more or less nailed-on spot in Pep Guardiola’s goal machine can be worth it. After all, we know that City can score goals anywhere and at anytime, and for just £7.6m, Bernardo Silva can be your ticket into the goal-scoring festivities. He has scored 2 goals in his last four Premier League games, including the opener at Old Trafford this week, and his totals for the season currently stand at 7 goals and 8 assists in 2579 minutes of Premier League football. Man City crashed out of the Champions League against Spurs, so they can now place their full focus on the remaining league games (Burnley away, Leicester home, Brighton away). With an ownership of just 8.9%, the Portuguese Silva could provide your FPL team with some serious differential power.

Our second differential pick for gameweek 36 also boast an ownership of less than 10% at the time of writing (9.7% to be exact). Leicester’s Jamie Vardy (£9.0m) has been on fire since a month or two, but he seems to have stayed somewhat under the radar nevertheless. Perhaps the fact that the Foxes did not have any double gameweeks has something to do with it. In any case, we’re betting on the hard-working Englishman to cause Arsenal’s defence plenty of trouble when the two teams face off at the King Power Stadium on Sunday. He has scored 9 goals since gameweek 26 and also provided 2 assists over that period. Thanks to two 16-point hauls (in gameweeks 30 and 33), Vardy returned 71 FPL points since GW26 as well, including 9 points last weekend against West Ham (courtesy of a goal and three bonus points). Arsenal have kept just one clean sheet on the road this season, in gameweek 34 against a Watford team that played with 10 men for about 80 minutes. To make matters worse, the Gunners went through a nightmare gameweek 35, losing to both Palace and Wolves, and conceding 6 goals in the process. Add to that the upcoming Europa League semi-finals and the struggle for fourth place in the Prem, and we might just have a cocktail that allows Vardy to book his fourth double-digit haul of the season.

If you’re in need of help or advice with your GW36 transfers then check out the FISO Forum GW36 Transfer topic.

The captaincy

When it comes to the captaincy, we’ve already mentioned our two top picks for gameweek 36: Liverpool’s Sadio Mané (£10.0) and Tottenham’s Heung-Min Son (£8.8m). We consider the match-ups of these two teams, at home against Huddersfield and West Ham respectively, to be very favourable this week, although Man City assets should not be overlooked for their away game at Turf Moor. Back to our captaincy picks, though.

Sadio Mané has rather quietly been more than sensational for the Reds this season. He has scored 18 goals and provided 3 assists this season, and although he didn’t record a return away to Cardiff in gameweek 35, he did return a healthy 91 points over the 12 gameweeks before that (10 goals, 1 assist). At home to Huddersfield and in the middle of a thriller of a title race with Man City, Mané’s arm is probably the safest place to put the band this weekend. Considering his schedule after this weekend (Newcastle away and Wolves at home), the Senegalese winger is nothing short of a set-and-forget kind of transfer option, bar any exceptional news regarding injuries or rotation.

If you feel that Huddersfield at home might represent the proverbial banana peel for the Reds, then you can opt for Tottenham’s Heung-Min Son as your captain this weekend as well. The Korean attacker was a popular captaincy pick for the double gameweek 35, but his return of just 5 points (no attacking returns against City and Brighton) was a kick in the gut for many FPL managers. In gameweek 36 he’s up against West Ham, who have conceded 27 goals in 17 away games so far. Son scored a goal against Palace and provided an assist against Huddersfield in the two rounds before gameweek 35, and he’s been directly involved in a total of 20 goals this season (12 goals, 8 assists). Considering he just played 4 minutes in gameweek 34 and the fact that he’s suspended for the first leg at home to Ajax in the Champions League semi-finals, we believe that Son is a nailed-on starter up front for a team that still has everything to play for in terms of the Champions League spots for next season. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him excel against the Hammers on Saturday.

Looking at the FISO Forum GW36 Captain Poll, Mané and Salah are leading the way with around 85% of the votes between them (so far).

Author: Jonathan Turner

It’s the business end of the season for Fantasy Premier League managers around the world, whether you’re fighting for the title, bragging rights or making a last-ditch effort to not finish bottom!

With that in mind, here are five players worth recruiting to give your team a push until the end of the campaign.

Son Heung-min

FPL managers love a player who’s listed as a midfielder but really plays as a forward, as it is the case of Tottenham’s Son Heung-min. The South Korean star will play a pivotal role for Spurs until the end of the season as the lead striker in the absence of injured Harry Kane.

Tottenham not only have an extra game, but three of their five remaining fixtures are at their new stadium – a place where Son has already scored once and assisted once in two Premier League games.

Apart from the trip to Manchester City (who Son scored three times against in two Champions League games to guide Spurs against the odds into the semi-finals), Tottenham’s run-in is kind, with matches against Brighton (H), West Ham (H), Bournemouth (A) and Everton (H).

With top-four still a four-way battle, Mauricio Pochettino can’t afford to rest any of his key players, and Son is set for a key role until the end of the season.

Trent Alexander-Arnold

Granted, this may not be the most surprising of picks, but valued at just £5.5 million and a guaranteed starter, Liverpool’s right-back is certainly worth considering. Despite still fighting for both the Champions League and Premier League titles, Jurgen Klopp has shown in recent weeks his reluctance to tinker too much with his line-up, particularly in defence and attack. The Reds also have a favourable run-in, with Cardiff (A), Huddersfield (H), Newcastle (A), and Wolves (H).

Given how tough Liverpool’s defence has been this season, it’s not too difficult to imagine clean sheets in all four remaining fixtures, and therefore points galore for Alexander-Arnold.

He may not have raked in the points of left-back colleague Andrew Robertson, but the England international is still the sixth best-performing defender this season, is selected by 16 percent less teams and is significantly cheaper.

Nathan Redmond

Far and away Southampton’s highest points-scorer in FPL this season, Redmond could be a decent pick for a number of reasons. Southampton are one of a few teams with four matches left and the South Coast club are still fighting for survival, so manager Ralph Hasenhüttl is highly unlikely to rest his best players between now and the end of the campaign.

Saints also have the best fixture list of any side in the bottom half, starting this week with trips to Newcastle and Watford, before Bournemouth (H), West Ham (A), and Huddersfield (H). Southampton may not necessarily win all of these games, but they should pick up a few points, with Redmond central to any success they have.

The English winger, who is coming off a 15-point game week following his two goals against Wolves, is also available at a bargain £5.3m, freeing up budget for more expensive players. He is only selected by 3.4 percent of teams so any points he earns are not likely to also boost your rivals.

Diogo Jota

The obvious pick when looking at Wolves players is of course Raul Jimenez, but with the Mexican striker selected by nearly 40 percent of FPL managers, he is unlikely to give you an upper hand on your competition. Portuguese midfielder Jota, on the other hand, has gone under the radar this season but has still had a hand in 14 goals (seven goals, seven assists, plus seven clean sheets).

Wolves are another side that not only have four games left, but also face a less-than-tricky run-in, with Brighton (H), Arsenal (H), Watford (A), and Fulham (H), before a tough final trip to Liverpool.

After their FA Cup semi-final heartbreak, Wolves should be focused on winning the four-way fight for seventh, which – should Manchester City win the FA Cup – would earn them a spot in next season’s Europa League. With something tangible still to play for, expect manager Nuno Espírito Santo to stick with his best players, and Jota is certainly one of them.

Valued at just £6.2m and selected by only 6.9 percent of managers, Jota could be the sneaky dark horse your team needs to stand out in your league.

Anthony Martial

It’s been a strange few weeks for Manchester United, indeed it’s been a strange season as a whole. Still, even after a poor run of form that has seen them lose two of their last four league games, United are still firmly in the hunt for a top-four place.

Central to their hopes of earning a Champions League spot will be French forward Martial, who has thrived since the arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager.

United have a mixed bag of remaining fixtures, with Everton (A), Manchester City (H), Chelsea (H), Huddersfield (A), and Cardiff (H), but with only the league left to focus on, Solskjaer is expected to field his strongest side.

Since returning from injury, Martial has scored once and assisted in his two starts, and he has a good record against the big teams, so a telling contribution against both or either of City or Chelsea would not be a surprise.

Also, at £7.2m and selected by just four percent of FPL teams, Martial is definitely worth considering.

To all those FPL managers who felt that our recommendation of Shane Duffy, and Brighton assets in general, sounded pretty good and decided to spend a transfer or two on bringing them in, we can only apologise and blame the enigma that is the Fantasy Premier League. Two home games against bottom-half clubs (Bournemouth and Cardiff) resulted in zero goals scored, seven goals conceded, and a ridiculous but very deserved red card for Anthony Knockaert in the first game. Not exactly what we hoped for, especially not after Bournemouth’s lacklustre performance a gameweek earlier and the difficulty Cardiff have in general to score goals. In our Alternative Reality Fantasy Premier League, however, of course Brighton kept 2 clean sheets and Duffy scored twice, putting our fantasy team at the top of the league!

Still, reasonable to good performances from some of the more popular FPL assets such as Callum Wilson (15 points), Paul Pogba (16) and Virgil van Dijk (12), contributed to a week average of 54. The likes of Bournemouth (a 0-5 away victory over Brighton), Southampton (a 3-1 home win over Wolves) and Liverpool (2-0 home victory over Chelsea) showed good form ahead of double gameweek 35. Watford, despite being down to ten men after 11 minutes due to rather stupid and unnecessary Troy Deeney red card (which maybe should have just been a yellow?), still managed to make it a 90-minute contest at home to Arsenal (0-1 loss) and remain around the top of the list for the coming week.

Of course, besides the fact that gameweek 35 is this season’s final double gameweek, with no less than eight extra games of which we’ll provide a simple overview below, there are also six English clubs with European obligations this week. While Ajax Amsterdam added another major scalp to their impressive European campaign, Man United were eliminated by FC Barcelona at the Camp Nou on Tuesday (3-0). One day later, Liverpool booked their spot in the semi-finals by beating Porto 1-4 in Portugal after winning the game at Anfield as well (2-0). The real drama of the night took place in Manchester though, where the local sky blue outfit crashed out of the competition after losing to Spurs on away goals (1-0 loss in London, 4-3 victory at the Etihad) in one of the craziest games the competition has ever seen.

Besides Champions League football, this evening there is also Europa League football this week involving Chelsea (at home to Slavia Prague after booking a 0-1 victory in the Czech Republic) and Arsenal (defending an impressive 2-0 home victory at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples. Like the Champions League games, though possibly to a lesser extent, these games will also have their effects on the starting line-ups for gameweek 35. We recommend to keep an eye out for the line-ups and to take rotation for all teams in consideration, especially seeing as it’s a double gameweek that’s coming up.

TEAM	OPPONENT 1	OPPONENT 2
Brighton	Wolves (away)	Spurs (away)
Cardiff	Liverpool (home)	/
Manchester City	Spurs (home)	Man United (away)
Tottenham Hotspur	Man City (away)	Brighton (home)
Manchester United	Everton (away)	Man City (home)
Wolves	Brighton (home)	Arsenal (home)
Watford	Huddersfield (away)	Southampton (home)
Fulham	Bournemouth (away)	/
Chelsea	Burnley (home)	/
Crystal Palace	Arsenal (away)	/
Southampton	Newcastle (away)	Watford (away)
Arsenal	Crystal Palace (home)	Wolves (away)
Newcastle	Southampton (home)	/
Liverpool	Cardiff (away)	/
West Ham	Leicester (home)	/
Leicester	West Ham (away)	/
Everton	Man United (home)	/
Bournemouth	Fulham (home)	/
Burnley	Chelsea (away)	/
Huddersfield	Watford (home)	/

An overview of double gameweek 35

Don’t forget: the deadline for gameweek 35 is set at 12h30 (BST) on Saturday, April 20^th.

Premium picks

Despite a (short) recent run of disappointing results, our first premium pick of the week is Wolves striker Raul Jimenez (£6.9m). After crashing out of the FA Cup semi-finals against Watford, in which Jimmy did score a goal, the Wolves lost 3-1 to Southampton at Molineux, a game in which he picked up a yellow card and just a single FPL point. As a matter of fact, the Mexican didn’t score in the away game versus Burnley a week earlier either, but the fact that he played just 31 minutes in the build-up to their FA Cup semi-final clash should not be overlooked. Overall, Jimenez has been an excellent performer though, illustrated by his 12 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League so far. Between gameweeks 23 and 30, for example, he scored 6 goals, provided 2 assists and got 57 FPL points. For gameweek 35, he has two home games against unreliable defences coming up: first Brighton, who conceded 12 goals in the last 5 games and haven’t kept a clean sheet since round 9 against Newcastle, and then Arsenal, who only got their first clean sheet away from home last week against a 10-man Watford and have conceded 28 games in 16 away games overall. Jimenez is averaging just over 6 points per home game, so the double gameweek looks like a party for him.

While it’s probably wise to focus on players with two games this gameweek, especially when Wildcarding, Free Hitting or Bench Boosting, the players with a single gameweek shouldn’t be discarded by default. Bournemouth, for example, have just one game, but that game is at home to FC “conceded 44 times in 17 away games” Fulham. The Cherries put in an awful shift at home to Burnley in gameweek 33 (1-3 loss), but then redeemed themselves away to Brighton (0-5 victory). Callum Wilson (£6.6m) scored a goal a provided 2 assists in that game, which brought the roughly 17% of FPL managers that own him a healthy 15 points. He has now scored 12 goals and given 11 assists in the Premier League, and on Saturday Fulham are rolling up to the Vitality Stadium. The English striker has scored 5 goals and provided 6 assists at home, and in the reverse fixture in gameweek 10, he netted twice in a 0-3 away win. There’s no reason why Wilson wouldn’t be able to repeat that feat this weekend.

Our final premium pick of the week is Tottengam’s South Korean gem Heung-Min Son (£8.7m). Despite the insanity that was Spurs’ Champions League quarter-final against City on Wednesday evening, and the crucial role that Son played with his two early goals, it would be surprising to not see him start against City in the Prem on Saturday. Both he and Spurs have shown that they can deal with Pep’s men, but what makes it really interesting is that Spurs have a double gameweek. After City at the Etihad, it’s Brighton at the new White Hart Lane, which doesn’t only considerably increase Son’s points potential but his captaincy potential as well. The Korean forward has netted 12 times and provided 8 assists in the Premier League this season, despite periods in which he was not part of the starting eleven. To put his performances into an even more impressive perspective: he records an attacking return every 63 minutes of game time on average. With Harry Kane out for possibly the rest of the season, the eyes of many will be on Son to compensate the loss, so expect him to feature heavily in this season’s final games. It’s also useful to know that, due to his yellow card in the Champions League clash with City on Wednesday night, Son is suspended for the first semi-final at home against a rampant Ajax Amsterdam on April 30th, which falls in between GW36 (home to West Ham) and GW37 (away to Bournemouth).

A differential pick or two

About 5.5% of FPL managers saw part of their DGW35 plans ruined when Watford’s Troy Deeney’s arm collided with one of Arsenal’s players after 11 minutes of play. The result: a straight red and a 3-game ban. In other words, -2 for the striker in GW34 and no double gameweek 35 (Huddersfield away, Southampton home). Seeing as these fixtures simply have too much potential for a decent outfit like Watford, our first differential pick is Deeney’s team mate in attack, Andre Gray (£5.9m). The young Englishman is not a nailed-on starter for the Hornets as Deeney has played alongside Deulofeu and even Pereyra as well in a 2-man strike force. At present though, with Deeney suspended for three games, Gray looks primed for plenty of minutes in gameweek 35. He has scored 5 goals and provided 2 assists in 1063 minutes of Premier League football so far, and 2 of those goals and all of those assists were recorded since his return from injury in gameweek 25 (an average of about 87 minutes per attacking return over that period). Watford’s first opponents are relegated Huddersfield Town, who have conceded 28 goals in 17 homes games (and scored just 8), while the Terriers have conceded four goals in each of the two games since the club’s relegation became official. The gameweek’s second opponents Southampton are in much better form and still fighting for a place among the English footballing elite next year. The Saints have conceded 28 times in 16 away games so far, though the last four outings resulted in just 5 goals conceded (3 of which came against Liverpool). Still, since the 0-0 draw against Chelsea in GW21, Southampton only booked clean sheets against Brighton and Fulham. Andre Gray is one of gameweek 35’s considerable-risk-high-reward players.

Our second differential pick in the build-up to GW35 also has two games, though both away from home. Southampton’s Nathan Redmond (£5.3m) has been in decent form recently, which is underlined by his 2 goals and 1 assist over the past three gameweeks. Just last weekend, the English forward (who plays more as an attacker but is listed as a midfielder in FPL), scored those two goals in the important 3-1 home victory over Wolves. This week, he has two away games coming up, namely Newcastle and Watford. In the ranking for home games, these teams occupy the 14th and 11th place respectively, so these won’t be easy games, but that doesn’t mean that Southampton and Redmond won’t get their chances to make something out of them. Both teams have conceded 21 goals in front of their own fans (Watford in 16 games, Newcastle in 17 games), while Watford have lost six of those games and Newcastle a somewhat worrying nine. Redmond would be something of a punt, but at his current price and ownership (3.2%), he could be worth it. On top of that, Southampton have a favourable schedule until the end of the season, fixture-wise: Bournemouth home, West ham away and Huddersfield home.

For more ideas, have a look at the FISO Forum GW35 transfers topic.

The captaincy

Admittedly, our first suggestion for this week’s captaincy was kind of decided already before City’s game against Spurs on Wednesday night, but we decided to stick with him. Sergio Aguero (£11.7m) played an excellent 90 minutes against Spurs, scoring one goal and providing the assist for another. With a bit more luck, he would’ve had the assist for the goal that put the Cityzens through to the semi-finals on his name as well. As usual, game time management is a worry when it comes to City assets, but it seems unlikely that Pep will be rotating Kun a lot over the coming gameweeks, seeing as the race for the title is still in full swing. In GW35, City are facing two top-six opponents: Spurs at the Etihad (again) and archrivals United at Old Trafford. Not the kind of double gameweek that you’d generally spend your captaincy on, but it’s worth looking into it a bit more. For one, Kun hasn’t blanked yet in a game at the Etihad this season. Secondly, in four home games against top-six opposition, the Argentinian scored 8 goals for an average of over 11 FPL points per game. Finally, United have conceded 8 goals in their last 6 home games, so Old Trafford is not really an impenetrable fortress at the moment. Captaining Aguero might look risky at first glance, but don’t be surprised if he ends up hauling in the points this week.

If it still sounds a bit too risky for you, then we suggest giving the armband to Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen (£9.3m). He almost cost Spurs the Champions League semi-finals after an unfortunate back pass in the dying minutes of the game, but the VAR judged offside. Apart from that, the Danish midfielder played a great game at the Etihad, providing the assist for Son’s second goal and generally being at the centre of practically every Spurs threat. In GW35, the North Londoners are first facing City at the Etihad, followed by Brighton at the brand-new White Hart Lane. Tottenham have shown that they can match and beat Man City, even at home, and the Brighton game could well become a monster victory if the Seagulls keep up their gameweek 34 form. In his last three Premier League games, Eriksen has scored a goal and provided 3 assists, resulting in a decent total of 27 FPL points over that period for the 8.4% of managers that own him. Over the 2018-19 campaign so far, in 30 games, the Dane has provided scores of 5 points or more in 14 games and hauls of at least 10 points on four occasions, for an average of 4.7 points per game. It wouldn’t be too shocking to see him return more than 10 points in double gameweek 35.

Looking at the FISO Forum GW35 Captain Poll, the main contenders are Aguero, Jimenez and Serling.