While a weekly average of 53 points made gameweek 28 look like a high-scoring week, there were plenty of FPL managers who’d like to forget about the past gameweek sooner rather than later. Those managers who had their hopes set on Wolverhampton and Man City especially, as the Wolves succumbed to a single Huddersfield goal in extra time and the Cityzens recorded a narrow 1-0 home win over fragile West Ham. Both games were a real let down for many managers banking on a Wolves clean sheet and a ton of goals from City attackers which would have seen their points increase substantially just like a Profit Accumulator. Still, we don’t have much time to dwell on the past as gameweek 29 will be kicking off in less than 24 hours. Before moving on to the best player picks for gameweek 29, we’ll take a quick look at how our picks for gameweek 28 fared.

PICK	PLAYER	OPPONENT in GW28	POINTS
Premium	Mo Salah	Watford (home)	3
Premium	Kun Aguero	West Ham (home)	9
Premium	Matt Doherty	Huddersfield (away)	2
Differential	James Ward-Prowse	Fulham (home)	9
Differential	Jamie Vardy	Brighton (home)	7
Captain	Leroy Sané	West Ham (home)	1
Captain	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Bournemouth (away)	7

* Average of 5.43 points per player

Premium picks for gameweek 29

We’re starting this week off with a defender who has rather quietly been performing outstandingly this calendar year. Man United’s Luke Shaw (£5.1m) was far from being on best terms with José Mourinho during the first half of the season, but the young English left-back has reclaimed his spot under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He has recorded five clean sheets in the last seven Premier League games and he provided his first attacking return, a fine assist against Crystal Palace, in gameweek 28. Sometimes criticized for his lack of involvement in the final third of the pitch, Shaw provided width against Palace, as well as a threat from set-pieces. The United man is still part of less than 10% of the teams in FPL, despite bringing home 36 points over the last seven gameweeks. At home against Southampton this weekend, his and United’s current form could result in more points for him, at both ends of the pitch.

For our second premium pick of the week we’re sticking with the red team from Manchester by (once again, we know) naming Paul Pogba (£8.9m). With 8 goals and 7 assists in his last eleven Premier League games, and a home game against notoriously bad travellers Southampton coming up, Pogba is kind of a no-brainer. The Red Devils have scored 11 goals in 5 home games under OGS, while the Saints have conceded 25 goals in 14 games on the road since the start of the season. The home team is going through a bit of an injury crisis, so the speedy return of the other in-form man Marcus Rashford will boost their confidence, as will the excellent performance of Romelu Lukaku against Palace. The more quality outlets Pogba has up front, the better.

Gonzalo Higuain (£9.5m) hasn’t quite made the impact on Chelsea and the Premier League in general as many were expecting. The Argentinian striker has scored 2 goals in 327 minutes of Premier League football, though it should be noted that he played 64 minutes in his debut game against Bournemouth (4-0 loss), 90 minutes against Huddersfield (2 goals) and Man City (6-0 loss), and 83 minutes last gameweek against Spurs (2-0 win). Against Fulham on Sunday, Pipita will be looking to start adding to his goal tally again as the Cottagers have conceded a whopping 63 goals in 28 games so far this season. Of those goals, 26 have come in 13 home games. Higuain had a somewhat rough start to his Chelsea career, not in a small part due to his new team’s inconsistent form, but it’s hard to imagine him not recording attacking returns this weekend.

A differential pick or two

Leicester City started the post-Claude Puel era with a decent victory over Brighton at the King Power, where newly appointed head coach Brendan Rogers will have seen plenty of positives to kick off his tenure at the Foxes with. What he’ll also have seen though, is that there is still plenty of work to do in defence, as the Seagulls created 15 attempts on goal (3 of which were on target) and won 8 corners. That’s why our first differential pick of the week is Watford’s Troy Deeney (£5.8m) who will be facing the Leicester defence on Saturday. He had a hard time at Anfield in gameweek 28, but recorded a 15-point haul away against Cardiff the week before (2 goals, 1 assist). The Hornets are quite productive at home, having scored 18 goals in 13 home games, while Leicester have shipped 21 goals in 14 away games. With a price tag of £5.8m and ownership of just 4.8%, Deeney could be worth a punt this weekend.

In the previously mentioned gameweek 28 encounter between Leicester and Brighton, Seagulls striker Glenn Murray (£6.3m) in particular was uncharacteristically wasteful, including blazing one over the bar from six yards out. Still, the 35-year old Brighton man was active and involved in most of the danger his team created, and he could have easily notched one or two on another day. We believe that other day might be this weekend, when Brighton are taking on Huddersfield at the AMEX. The Terriers have shipped 28 goals in 13 away games, which sounds like a perfect opportunity for Murray to redeem himself. The Seagulls have not been in great form lately: they haven’t yet booked a victory in 2019 and the relegation zone is coming uncomfortably close, so the game on Saturday will be of huge importance. Glenn Murray could well be the one to mark the difference for Chris Hughton’s side.

For more GW29 transfer ideas have a look through this fiso forum topic discussions.

The captaincy

Over the past few weeks and months, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard (£10.8m) has been exceedingly frustrating for FPL managers, even more so than usual. On a good day, the Belgian forward is the best player in the Premier League, but somehow his often outstanding performances on the pitch have been resulting in rather inconsistent FPL returns lately. He scored two against Huddersfield in gameweek 26, good for a 15-point haul, but he brought his owners just 15 points over the period between gameweeks 20 and 24. In the four gameweeks prior to that period though, Hazard scored 3 goals, provided 3 assists, and recorded 29 points. This week, he’s facing Fulham at Craven Cottage and we believe a big score could be on the cards. Chelsea were more than decent in their lost League Cup final against Man City, with Hazard a major threat, and their victory over Spurs in gameweek 28 will have provided Maurizio Sarri’s team with some much-needed confidence. Oh, and Fulham have conceded 26 goals in just 13 home games.

Our second recommendation for the captain’s armband is Man City’s Raheem Sterling (£11.3m). Despite completing the 120 minutes in the League Cup final against Chelsea and blanking as a substitute (he came on just before the hour mark) against West Ham in gameweek 28, the speedy English dribbler looks likely to start against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday. In the game before West Ham, Sterling added to the 6-0 thrashing of Chelsea with 2 goals and an assist, which resulted in a big 18-point haul for 12.4% of FPL managers who have him. With direct rivals for his position Mahrez and Sané seemingly going through a bit of a dip in form and confidence, he looks like one of the more nailed-on starters in Pep’s starting eleven, though rotation remains a risk. Bournemouth are placed seventh in the ranking for home games in the Prem this season, with 25 points taken from 14 home games, but a clean sheet looks unlikely against Sterling and his team mates.

The weekly FPL gameweek captain Poll on fiso suggests that most FPL Managers will be captaining Pogba, Aguero or Sterling for GW 29 although Salah and Hazard also have some votes.