Ah, the Salah curse at Christmas. As soon as the Egyptian superstar posts his annual family picture for Christmas in front of a Christmas tree, hordes of FPL managers get hit by superstition, because apparently, he does not score during the Christmas period after sitting in front of a Christmas tree. Well… let’s just say, after Liverpool’s Gameweek 18 encounter with Leicester City at home, Salah now sits on 16 goals and 11 assists from 17 league starts. For those counting, that’s one more goal than he had before a ball had been kicked at Anfield on Thursday. No curse is stopping this man at the moment.
Anyway, before we got to the stand-out fantasy picks for Gameweek 19, the second gameweek in a weeks’ time, we just want to mention that, at the time of writing, two GW18 fixtures still need to be played: Brighton – Brentford and Arsenal – Ipswich Town. Both of these games will be played on Friday evening and by the time the Arsenal game finishes, there will be about 30 hours to the Gameweek 19 deadline. Our recommendation? Keep a sharp eye on lineup, fatigue and injury news, and if possible, wait with confirming your transfers as long as you can.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 19 is set at 13h00 (UK time) on Sunday, December 29th, 2024. The free to play FPL or pay to play season/weekend/daily games like FanTeam are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.
Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per December 27th, 2024)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Fabianski (WHU), Onana (MUN), Kelleher (LIV) | Pickford (EVE), Sels (NFO), Henderson (CRY) | Fabianski injury doubt |
| DEF | Porro (TOT), Gvardiol (MCI), Mazraoui (MUN) | Aina (NFO), Milenkovic (NFO), Hall (NEW) | NFO form + results + clean sheets, |
| MID | Saka (ARS), Fernandes (MUN), Smith Rowe (FUL) | Gordon (NEW), Palmer (CHE), Rogers (AST) | Saka injury, Fernandes suspension, Smith Rowe injury doubt |
| FOR | Haaland (MCI), Jackson (CHE), Wood (NFO) | Isak (NEW), Cunha (WOL), Gakpo (LIV) | Isak + Cunha form, |
Premium pick
Mohamed Salah (£13.5m), after his goal against Leicester earlier this week, has now scored 16 goals and provided 11 assists in 17 league starts. We said that before though, so here are some lesser known but very much related facts:
- Salah has now scored and/or assisted in each of the last 10 Premier League games. He is now the first player in PL history to achieve that feat three times.
- With his goal against Leicester, Salah became the fourth player in PL history to score at least 100 Premier League goals in front of his home fans. He needed 142 games to reach this incredible milestone. The other three in the 100 Club: Alan Shearer (Newcastle, 91 games), Thierry Henry (Arsenal, 113 games) and Sergio Aguero (Man City, 125 games).
- Salah has been directly involved in 250 goals for Liverpool, in 267 games. Thierry Henry reached 249 direct goal involvements for Arsenal.
- Salah is now also one of just five players who, in one of the five top leagues in Europe, has managed to score at least 200 league goals in the last ten seasons. The other four? Some guys named Robert Lewandowski, Harry Kane, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé.
- As far as the five top leagues in Europe go, only FC Barcelona’s Lewandowski can keep track of Salah’s scoring at the moment. They sit on 16 league goals each.
Liverpool are visiting West Ham on Sunday. Pick Salah and enjoy the Christmas aftermath in peace.
Non-premium pick
We know, first we’re repeating Mo Salah as our premium fantasy pick from Gameweek 18 and now we’re doing the same for Alexander Isak (£9.1m) as our non-premium fantasy pick. But what can we do when both of them just keep piling up the FPL points? For Gameweek 18, we knew picking Isak wasn’t the most straightforward choice as Newcastle we’re playing (at home, though) against Aston Villa. The Villans are a strong side though, and the Magpies have been unreliable at times this season… but not last Thursday. The home impressively dispatched of the visitors with a clean 3-0 victory and, of course, Alexander Isak was involved. He scored the second goal of the match about 15 minutes into the second half, making it five consecutive league games with at least one goal for the Sweden international. To be precise, since (and including GW14): 7 goals, 2 assists and 55 FPL points. And the upcoming schedule? Man United away in GW19, Spurs away in GW20, Wolves at home in GW21, Bournemouth at home in GW22, Southampton away in GW23 and Fulham at home in GW24. There are some tricky opponents in there sure, but as far as we are concerned, none of them are very sound in the back. We’re curious to see if Isak can challenge Salah for the topscorer’s title over the coming gameweeks.
The budget enabler
Initially, the budget-enabling fantasy pick for Gameweek 19 was going to be Matheus Cunha, but Wolves’ insane upcoming schedule combined with a potential suspension for the Brazilian shifted our attention to Ismaila Sarr (£5.8m). That’s right, that Ismaila Sarr. That budget gem of a winger classified as a midfielder who provided value to plenty of fantasy managers as a Watford player back in the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 season. The Senegal international is now a Crystal Palace player though, and after a bit of a slow start, both for Sarr and Palace as a whole (who had a killer opening schedule to the season), here we are. Sarr is a guaranteed starter under manager Oliver Glasner and that makes sense to us, seeing as he should be one the team’s main attacking threats. His blank against Bournemouth in Gameweek 18 was perhaps slightly disappointing, but he hit the net thrice in the two Gameweek before that (1 goal vs Arsenal in GW17 and 2 goals vs Brighton in GW16) and he provided one assist as well. Palace now have one of the best sets of fixtures coming up, starting with a home game against Southampton coming Sunday. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly attacking player with a decent forward and good fixtures over the short and medium term, Sarr could be a shrewd investment.
The differential
“It’s not looking good. He’s going to be out for many weeks”. That’s what Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said about his star player Bukayo Saka on December 23rd. Harsh news for anyone with a Gunner heart and especially for the player himself, but an opportunity with differential potential for FPL managers. Especially considering the fact that Arsenal are facing Ipswich Town at home on Sunday. Our differential fantasy pick for Gameweek 19 is therefore Gabriel Martinelli (£6.8m), who currently sits in just over 4% of all squads. We suspect the winger to be a major beneficiary of the Saka injury though, mainly because of his qualities and the fact that he is comfortable on both wings. The Gunners do have other options as well, such as Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz, to remedy Saka’s absence, but we feel betting on Martinelli could pay out handsomely. The attacker is having a less consistent season in comparison to his stellar last season in which he managed 15 goals and 9 assists, but he still sits on 6 goals and 5 assists this season, and from “just” 11 league starts. If he continues to be Arsenal’s furthest man up the pitch on many occasions as he has been since Saka got injured, Martinelli looks set for points over the coming Gameweeks.
The (vice-)captaincy
It’s Mo Salah.
Decent alternatives to the on-fire Egyptian at this moment are Cole Palmer for Chelsea’s visit to Ipswich Town, Alexander Isak for Newcastle’s visit to Manchester United, and Ollie Watkins for Aston Villa’s home game against Brighton.
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