Well, Jarrod Bowen at least returned with an assist against Leicester for us last weekend, because the rest of our picks were disappointing to say the least. Cole Palmer could have and should have a double-digit haul, but came off with a 3-pointer in the 4-0 victory over Southampton. Matheus Cunha blanked against Fulham, but that wasn’t the worst of it as he scored a direct red card against Bournemouth in the FA Cup a few days later. Result? A 3-match ban, meaning Wolves’ absolute talisman this season will miss the favourable fixtures against Everton (home), Southampton (away) and West Ham (home). And finally, our differential fantasy pick Matt Doherty, with a 1-pointer in Gameweek 27 at home against Fulham.
Anyway, on to FPL Gameweek 28, which kicks off with a top-six clash between number three Nottingham Forest and number four Manchester City. For sure that is not a sentence you were expecting to read this season, but it’s true nonetheless. Other games that should attract plenty of (fantasy) attention are Crystal Palace at home to Ipswich Town (though Jean-Phillipe Mateta will likely miss out), Chelsea at home to Leicester and, of course, Liverpool at home to Southampton. You probably already know who our captain for Gameweek 28 will be…
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 28 is set at 11h00 (UK time) on Saturday, March 8th, 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 March 6th, 2025) with Cunha & Mateta most sold and most bought!
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Sanchez (CHE), Martinez (AST), Sels (NFO) | Alisson (LIV), Henderson (CRY), Pickford (EVE) | |
| DEF | Hall (NEW), Robinson (FUL), Aina (NFO) | Muñoz (CRY), Alexander-Arnold (LIV), Cucurella (CHE) | Muñoz form, Hall injured |
| MID | Palmer (CHE), Gordon (NEW), Amad (MUN) | Kluivert (BOU), Szoboszlai (LIV), Mbeumo (BRE) | Szoboszlai and Mbeumo form, Kluivert form + fixtures, Gordon suspension, Amad injured |
| FOR | Cunha (WOL), Isak (NEW), Mateta (CRY) | Mateta (CRY), Wissa (BRE), Cunha (WOL) | Mateta form + fixtures, Wissa and Cunha form, Cunha suspension, Mateta injury doubt |
Premium pick
In all honesty, with Chelsea playing at home against leaky Leicester City and with Liverpool facing leaky Southampton at Anfield, we did ponder our decision for a moment. Both out-of-sorts Cole Palmer and in-form Mohamed Salah (£13.8m) are excellent shouts as stand-out premium fantasy picks for Gameweek 28, and for the armband as well, but in the end, we still went with the Liverpool man. Salah is simply unstoppable this season with an incredible 25 goals and 17 assists from 28 league starts so far. He has returned in his last seven Premier League games, a run during which he managed 7 goals and 4 assists to be exact. The Reds are now facing Southampton and despite their gruelling (and lucky) mid-week Champions League visit to PSG, we still see lots of goals in that one. Lots of goals for Liverpool, that is, because with 65 conceded goals so far, the Saints boast the league’s worst defence. We feel a seventeenth (17th!) double-digit haul of the season might be on the cards for Salah at Anfield on Sunday.
Non-premium pick
Picking Salah over Palmer as our premium fantasy pick doesn’t mean that we don’t rate the Chelsea home game at all. Far from it, actually, because like the Saints, the Foxes are far from a solid defensive set-up and Chelsea might just run riot on Sunday. Therefore, we decided to get in on the Blues attack with Pedro Neto (£6.2m) as our way in. The Portuguese forward, who is listed as a midfielder in the official fantasy game, got a goal and an assist for 11 FPL points against Southampton last weekend, and even though that seemed slightly lucky considering his Expected Goal Involvement of just 0.30, we can imagine a similar performance against a similarly faulty backline. After Southampton, they have let in the most goals so far this season (61 conceded goals in 27 league games), while Chelsea are fully immersed in the fight for Champions League football at the moment. In other words, the Blues are big favourites for this one and we feel Neto might be one of the major benefactors from this, FPL-wise at least.
The budget enabler
Our budget fantasy pick for Gameweek 28 is a teammate of Neto’s, Christopher Nkunku (£5.7m). In part due to injuries, the 2024-2025 season has not yet really become what the former RB Leipzig forward would have expected, but he’s been in decent form of late. Manager Enzo Maresca had him on the pitch for at least 75 minutes in each of his last three Premier League matches and he recorded 12 FPL points last weekend, courtesy of a goal, an assist and a bonus point against Southampton. On top of his FPL points, Nkunku’s underlying numbers were promising as well, with four shots, two created chances and an Expected Goal Involvement of 0.57. At his current price of £5.7m, we can see few other budget options with a ceiling as high as Nkunku’s in Gameweek 28. It should be noted though, in case you are tempted by what seems to be a perfect coming-together of form and fixture, that Chelsea have got a challenging run of fixtures after the Leicester game: Arsenal away, Spurs at home and Brentford away. That doesn’t mean they won’t take points and FPL hauls from those games, but on paper those are far from easy opponents.
The differential
This might come as a surprise to some, but over the last six gameweeks, Crystal Palace have actually been top of the league in terms of Expected Goals. That’s right, over the last six games, statistically speaking, no other team was expected to make as many goals as the Eagles. Much of that was obviously thanks to the on-fire Jean Phillippe Mateta, but the Frenchman will likely not feature this weekend after suffering a horror challenge from Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts in the FA Cup. The Palace attack is more than just Mateta though, which is why our differential fantasy pick for Gameweek 28 is Eberechi Eze (£6.7m). Compared to last season, when the playmaker scored 11 goals and provided 5 assists, his 2024-2025 campaign has been underwhelming so far, but we feel there might be a haul waiting for him in the upcoming home game against Ipswich Town. The Tractor Boys are currently 18th in the Premier League with 57 goals conceded, which includes a top-two ranking for attempts conceded from set-pieces. Eze is in charge of most set-pieces at Palace and with Mateta most likely missing the Ipswich game, he will be on penalties as well. Keep in mind that Crystal Palace blank in Gameweek 29, but if your squad and strategy allow for bringing in Eze, you’ve probably got one of the best differentials in the official at the moment.
The (vice-)captaincy
Our captain is Mohamed “25 goals 17 assists” Salah.
The perfect alternative to the Egyptian is Cole Palmer, for Chelsea’s home game against Leicester City.
More daring armband picks include Justin Kluivert away at Spurs, Alexander Isak away at West Ham and Kaoru Mitoma for Brighton’s home game against Fulham.
For further thoughts and discussions (including minleagues and side games) on the FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.