For the first time in a long time, the FPL Team of the Week back in Gameweek 22 featured a couple of Manchester City players. Actually, thanks to the 0-6 thrashing of Ipswich Town, it even featured three of them, though perhaps not the three you would immediately expect: Jeremy Doku with 12 FPL points, Matteo Kovacic with 13 FPL points and Phil Foden (our differential pick for GW22) with 19 FPL points. You would think that a brace plus an assist would be enough for the England international to clinch the Player of the Week title as well, but alas. One Justin Kluivert from Bournemouth decided to score his second hattrick of the 2024-2025 season in Gameweek 22 as well, against Newcastle, which resulted in 22 FPL points.
Onto Gameweek 23 then, where Liverpool assets will once again be in the spotlight for a lot of fantasy managers. The Reds are hosting an Ipswich side that just got battered by City and are then up for a Double Gameweek 24, with visits to Bournemouth and Merseyside rivals Everton. The Toffees themselves have a Double Gameweek as well, which might attract some interest as well as they play home twice: Leicester and Liverpool. Considering their tough Gameweek 23 fixture though, away at Brighton, we feel interest in their assets might be marginal. As for other fixtures this Gameweek, besides Liverpool – Ipswich Town, Newcastle’s visit to Saint Mary’s looks interesting from an FPL point of view, as does Arsenal’s visit to Wolves and Spurs’ home game against Leicester City.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 23 is set at 13h30 (UK time) on Saturday, January 25th, 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 23rd, 2025)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Raya (ARS), Sanchez (CHE), Onana (MUN) | Alisson (LIV), Sels (NFO), Pickford (EVE) | Liverpool + Everton DGW24 |
| DEF | Saliba (ARS), Gabriel (ARS), Gvardiol (MCI) | Alexander-Arnold (LIV), Hall (NEW), Aina (NFO) | Liverpool + Everton DGW24, Saliba injury doubt |
| MID | Palmer (CHE), Savinho (MCI), Iwobi (FUL) | Kluivert (BOU), Foden (MCI), Amad (MUN) | Foden form, Kluivert hattrick in GW22 |
| FOR | Jackson (CHE), Solanke (TOT), Raul (FUL) | Wood (NFO), Gakpo (LIV), Mateta (CRY) | Wood + Mateta form, Solanke injury |
Premium pick
We joked about getting rid of Mohamed Salah (£13.7m) in our preview article for Gameweek 22, after the Egyptian had just blanked for the first time in twelve Gameweeks right before that. Obviously, that was not real advice, as Salah is still the best asset in the official fantasy game, even after making it two consecutive blanks in a row due to not getting directly involved in any goals in Gameweek 22 away at Brentford. Don’t worry though, he is still the stand-out premium fantasy pick in our opinion. First of all, he’s very good. Second of all, he did score (and dominate) on Tuesday in the Champions League against Lille. Third of all, he faces Ipswich Town at Anfield on Saturday afternoon, a few days after the Tractor Boys got whipped 0-6 by Manchester City. And fourth of all, Liverpool are one of two teams to have a double gameweek in GW24, with away games against Bournemouth and Everton. If you are still not one of the roughly 70% of fantasy managers who own the Egyptian at the moment, you’re probably going to want to get him in ASAP.
Non-premium pick
We know, this is now the third Gameweek in a row that we are picking Alexander Isak (£9.5m) as our stand-out non-premium asset in FPL, but it’s kind of inevitable at the moment. The Newcastle forward did blank in Newcastle’s shock 1-4 defeat at the hands of Bournemouth in Gameweek 22, but prior to that, he was on an 8-game streak of consecutive attacking returns, scoring 11 goals and providing 3 assists over that run. Isak now has 15 goals and 5 assists to his name in total, from 20 league starts, and up next are Southampton at Saint Mary’s. The Saints are brave, we can’t deny them that, but the Premier League definitely seems like a bridge too for them this season and we could hardly come up with a better opportunity for a striker in form like Isak to get back to scoring ways. Southampton are dead last in the league with just 6 points from 22 games and only Wolves have conceded more goals than them (51 vs 50 goals). Isak is about as far from a differential pick as they come right now, with just over 59% of managers owning the Swede, but going without him this weekend might very well mean missing out on a serious haul.
The budget enabler
Over the coming three Gameweeks, Aston Villa face the following opposition: West Ham at home this weekend, Wolves away in GW24 and Ipswich Town at home in GW25. That brings several Villain assets firmly back onto our radar, including Morgan Rogers (£5.5m). The winger, who is listed as a midfielder in the official fantasy game, has provided incredible value for money this season. He started the season with a price tag of just £5.0m and has delivered 6 goals and 5 assists since then. Rogers is obviously a starter for Aston Villa and with the kind of run they have coming up over the next few gameweeks, we see more attacking returns on the horizon for the 22-year-old, starting with West Ham at home on Sunday. If you’re looking for a cheap midfielder, for example as part of a Wildcard strategy as more than a few fantasy managers are considering at the moment, we don’t see many better options than Rogers.
The differential
We have decided to put all of our differential eggs in the Kaoru Mitoma (£6.3m) basket for Gameweek 23. The Japanese winger, who is listed as a midfielder in FPL, is coming off back-to-back double-digit hauls and is now facing Everton at home next. He scored a goal in the 0-2 away victory over Ipswich Town in GW21 (10 FPL points) and then took it a step further in GW22 by scoring a goal and giving an assist in Brighton’s 1-3 victory at Old Trafford. Their Gameweek 23 fixture mirrors their Gameweek 1 encounter with Everton, when the Seagulls booked a 0-3 victory and Mitoma scored one of the goals for a nice 8-pointer to get his season started. Brighton are the favourites once again on Saturday afternoon, against an Everton side that has been far from effective on the road so far this season. They have won just one of their 10 away games in the league and they concede an average of 1.5 goals on the road. We expect there to be goals at the AmEx Stadium on Saturday afternoon with Everton looking to be more attacking under a new manager and we hope that Mitoma will be heavily involved in most of them.
The (vice-)captaincy
Mohamed Salah is the highest-scoring player in the official game right now and when you see him play, you realise that he is for a reason. He is one of the best players on the planet and for Gameweek 23, in which Liverpool host Ipswich Town, he is our captain (as he will be in the next GW with a double game).
Alexander Isak away at the very poor Southampton is a great alternative to Mo Salah for the armband, while Kai Havertz away at Wolves could be a smart move as well. The risk-takers amongst us might consider opting for Son Heung-Min as an extremely unpredictable Spurs side welcomes a leaky Leicester side to North London.
For further thoughts and discussions (including minleagues and side games) on the FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.