The Premier League got back into full gear immediately this week with two gameweeks in less than five days. As a result, some of Gameweek 21’s fixtures have yet to be played at the moment of writing this preview:
Ipswich Town vs. Brighton, at 19h30 tonight (Thursday, January 16th)
Manchester United vs. Southampton, at 20h00 tonight (Thursday, January 16th)
Fortunately for a majority of FPL managers, this should not affect their plans too much. The highest-owned players from those four sides above are United’s Amad Diallo (17.9%), Noussair Mazraoui (11.7%) and Bruno Fernandes (11.1%), and Brighton’s Joao Pedro (16%). Keep an eye on these games nevertheless, especially because the Man United – Brighton game in Gameweek 22 might be an interesting one for a punt.
As far as Gameweek 22 fixtures go though, most of the attention will go out to Newcastle’s home game against Bournemouth, Chelsea’s home game against Wolves and incredible-how-do-they-keep-doing it Nottingham Forest’s home game against Southampton. From a fantasy point of view, that is. Plenty of points up for grabs once again, it seems, as we are well into the second half of the 2024-2025 season by now.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 22 is set at 11h00 (UK time) on Saturday, January 18th, 2025. 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 January 16th, 2025)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Raya (ARS), Sanchez (CHE), Martinez (AST) | Sels (NFO), Dubravka (NEW), Henderson (CRY) | |
| DEF | Saliba (ARS), Alexander-Arnold (LIV), Van Dijk (LIV) | Aina (NFO), Hall (NEW), Robinson (FUL) | Hall form + fixtures |
| MID | Diaz (LIV), Mbeumo (BRE), Enzo (CHE) | Gordon (NEW), Elanga (NFO), Iwobi (FUL) | Gordon form + fixtures, Elanga form, Mbeumo difficult fixtures, Enzo lack of returns |
| FOR | Jesus (ARS), Jackson (CHE), Cunha (WOL) | Wood (NFO), Isak (NEW), Wissa (BRE) | Wood form, Isak form + fixtures, Jesus injury |
Premium pick
It happened. Mohamed Salah blanked. Ninety minutes at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground, just a measly 2 FPL points. Obviously, this is the sign to drop the Liverpool star. Immediately.
We are kidding, of course, because a blank was inevitable after the kind of streak of consecutive hauls Salah was on (12 league games, for those who lost count). Liverpool’s upcoming run of fixtures is decent, so if you have Salah (as about 70% of FPL managers currently do), don’t just drop him. What is true though, is that we are not going with the Egyptian as our premium fantasy pick for Gameweek 22. He is visiting a very resilient and at times simply excellent Brentford, while Cole Palmer (£11.4m) is preparing for a home game against Wolves. And those Wolves, well, they haven’t been very good at defending so far this season. They have conceded 48 goals in 21 league games, more than any other team in the league. Palmer, on the other hand, is continuing his fantastic form from last season with 14 goals and 7 assists from 21 league starts, taking Chelsea by the hand in more or less every game. The Blues’ schedule after GW22 is a mixed bag, but their encounter with Wolves is worth it for Palmer.
Non-premium pick
We recommended Alexander Isak (£9.3m) as our stand-out non-premium fantasy pick for Gameweek 21 (and plenty of Gameweeks prior to that) and he delivered. A brace against Wolves, plus an assist, resulted in 16 FPL points and a Player of the Week title. The Sweden international now has 15 goals and 5 assists to his name, and he has not blanked one single time since his 1-pointer against Crystal Palace all the way back in Gameweek 13. As if that isn’t enough to justify bringing him in right now, Newcastle also have a nice run of fixtures up to and including Gameweek 24: Bournemouth at home, Southampton away and Fulham at home. There is arguably no better forward in the entire league at this moment, which is something over 55% of FPL managers have already realised. As we wrote in past weeks, we can definitely see Isak seriously enter the race for the Golden Boot over the coming Gameweeks.
The budget enabler
When you are priced at £5.2m and have recorded consecutive attacking returns in six games, as a midfielder, you are in our budget fantasy pick category. Hence, the return of Anthony Elanga (£5.2m), one of the driving forces behind Nottingham Forest’s impressive performances and results this season. As a winger, the Carrington graduate has scored 3 goals and provided 5 assists so far, and 3 of those assists plus all of those goals were delivered over the past six gameweeks. The Tricky Trees are now hosting Southampton, who look destined to descend after just a one year in the Prem. The Saints have collected just 6 points so far and nothing indicates that they will improve on the short term, to be honest. Forest, on the other hand, might just make it back into Europe for the first time since the 1995-1996 season, if they manage to keep their current form up for the remaining 17 games of the season.
The differential
Is Phil Foden (£9.1m) finally back? Honestly, we find it too early to say after seeing his disappointingly anonymous first half of the season, but what we can say is that the signs are there. The England international has just 4 goals and 2 assists to his name so far, but 3 of those goals and one of those assists were recorded over the last three Gameweeks. It should be noted that Foden also dealt with some injury issues up until Gameweek 16, more or less, and he’s been undeniably influential since then. Manchester City is definitely not out of their slump yet, perhaps they won’t be able to get out of it at all this season, but their upcoming fixture away at Ipswich Town should be a 3-pointer. What’s more, it should be a 3-pointer with some goals to it, and we expect most of those to be scored by City. Our hope is that Foden will be the one to score them for the Skyblues.
The (vice-)captaincy
Our premium fantasy pick of the week is also our captain for Gameweek 22. Cole Palmer is the stand-out option for the armband.
Mo Salah is, obviously, a perfect alternative for the English youngster, as Liverpool travel to Brentford. The same goes for Alexander Isak, whose Newcastle host Bournemouth. As for more out-there captaincy picks, Raul Jimenez away at Leicester could be a rollercoaster, just like Dominic Solanke away for Spurs’ visit to Goodison Park.
For further thoughts and discussions (including minleagues and side games) on the FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.