In terms of crazy bargains, you thought you had seen it all with Aaron Wan-Bissaka last season, right? Well, AWB move aside a second, because John Lundstram is here. The Sheffield United box-to-box midfielder is listed as a defender in the official fantasy Premier League game and started the season at the lowest possible price (£4.0m). No less than 958 minutes of Premier League football later, Lundstram is now the fifth-highest scoring player overall, courtesy of 3 goals, 1 assist, 5 clean sheets and 10 bonus points. Oh, and he’s valued at £4.8m now, by the way. His incredible 21-point haul was the stand-out performance by a single player in gameweek 11 and in the season overall, so far.
Apart from Sheffield’s continued impressive re-introduction to the Premier League, last weekend saw Liverpool and Man City struggle but overcome, Arsenal struggle but not overcome, and United struggle but not overcome at all. Norwich kept conceding and Chelsea kept scoring (that’s 10 Premier League games in a row now) and winning (that’s 5 in a row), while Leicester are showing signs of being able to seriously compete for a top-4 spot until the end of the season. In other words, we saw a lot of action in gameweek 11 and the upcoming gameweek looks no less promising. Promising returns are also on offer from 1xbet casino at toripelit.com
Finally, don’t forget that the deadline for gameweek 12 is set at 19h00 (GMT+0) on Friday, November 8th..
How did our picks for the previous gameweek fare?
| PICK | PLAYER | OPPONENT | POINTS |
| Premium | Raheem Sterling | Southampton (H) | 1 |
| Premium | Sadio Mané | Aston Villa (a) | 12 |
| Non-premium | David Silva | Southampton (H) | 1 |
| Non-premium | Tammy Abraham | Watford (a) | 12 |
| Differential | Ben Chilwell | Crystal Palace (a) | 6 |
| Differential | Raul Jimenez | Arsenal (a) | 9 |
| Captain | Raheem Sterling | Southampton | 2 |
Premium picks
Let’s start with some stats: 22 Premier League games, 20 goals scored and 163 FPL points won, equalling an average of 7.4 points per game. That’s Leicester’s Jamie Vardy (£9.4m) since the arrival of Brendan Rodgers at the King Power. Like the rest of his teammates, the energetic English striker is in red-hot form of late, having recorded attacking returns in each of three last gameweeks (5 goals and 1 assist and 5 bonus points for 34 FPL points). Two weeks before this current run started, he also scored a brace for a 12-point haul. Sure, a scoring run has to end sometime and Vardy won’t keep scoring every game, but then again, how many people said that about him back in the 2015-16 season? This weekend, the Foxes are hosting an Arsenal in disarray and out of clear shape in a direct confrontation that could shape the top-4 for some time to come. With just five points from five away games and conceding 7 goals in those games, we’re putting our cards on Vardy to increase the misery at the Emirates.
Considering the sheer number of potential match winners that will be entering the pitch at Anfield Road on Saturday, picking a winner in gameweek 12’s clash of clashes is as much a guess as you’re going to get this round. The likes of Mo Salah, Bobby Firmino, Raheem Sterling, Kevin de Bruyne, Kun Aguero, Gabriel Jesus and several others have the quality to decide the game with a flash of brilliance, but we feel that it’s going to be Sadio Mané (£12.0m) in the spotlights again. All the form arrows point to him at the moment. The Senegalese powerhouse was decisive against Villa last weekend with a goal and an assist, making it 2 goals and 3 assists for him over the last four gameweeks. As a result, he has brought his owners 31 FPL points over that stretch, which comes down to an average of almost 8 points per game. The fact that only Villa’s Wesley and City’s Jesus can match his 5 big chances over the past four gameweeks shows that Mané’s stats are no fluke. Facing Man City is a hell of a task under any circumstance, but we believe Mané could be the key to a Liverpool victory this weekend.
Non-premium picks
You know by now that sometimes, when we’re really convinced by an FPL asset, we dare to repeat him on our list of picks. Well, this is one of those times, because Wolves striker Raul Jimenez (£7.2m) is back on here. For gameweek 11, we included him as a differential pick and did so with decent success, but his ownership has since then risen to a level (11.9%) that makes it hard to call him a real differential any more. That’s why Jimenez is our first non-premium pick this week. With 4 goals and 2 assists in eleven Premier League games, the Mexican assassin is having a relatively quiet start to the 2019-20 campaign. What’s more important to know though, is that 2 of those goals and both the assists were recorded in the last four gameweeks. Wolves faced a tough set of starting fixtures, but the calendar looks to be turning a bit in their favour now and Raul Jimenez could be one of the big beneficiaries of this. No other player in the game had more shots on target than him (4) in gameweek 11 away to Arsenal and we expect him to get plenty of chances to score again versus Villa at Molineux on Sunday. The Villains have conceded 11 goals in just 5 away games and stopping Jimenez from popping up in dangerous positions will be one of their main worries in the build-up to the game.
Our second non-premium pick is another striker who scored in gameweek 11, Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham (£7.9m). Out of all Premier Legue teams, the Blues are probably the ones who have grown into their new style the most, under manager Frank Lampard. Since the 4-0 drubbing against Man United in gameweek 1, Chelsea have scored at least once in every game, making it a total of 25 goals in 11 games. Nine of those goals have come from academy graduate Abraham, who has turned out to be one of the bargains of the 2019-20 FPL season. His 9 goals, 2 assists and 14 bonus points make him the highest-scoring Chelsea asset (74 FPL points) and the fourth-highest scoring player in the official game overall. After their absolute rollercoaster of a Champions League mid-week against Ajax, the Blues will have had a bit over three days of rest, so it’s hard to see Lampard not start his star striker against Palace at Stamford Bridge. The Eagles seem on their way to another solid mid-table season, but we don’t see them coming away with much from the Bridge on Saturday, in part thanks to Abraham’s presence and form.
A differential pick or two
We’re sticking with the Blues from London for our first differential pick of the week. Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.9m) is a punt in terms of whether he will be starting at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, but there is a chance after Mason Mount was injured against Ajax. Manager Lampard was quick to downplay the seriousness of the injury, but the player did seem to be in quite a lot of pain on Tuesday (though he did walk off the pitch himself, with support). Hudson-Odoi had a bit of a breakthrough in the first team between gameweeks 7 and 9, recording 3 assists in just 196 minutes of Premier League football, but he was benched for most of the time since then. Mount is clearly Frank’s first choice on the left wing and CHO usually gets his minutes when the former is substituted off early. That’s also why we feel he’s the prime candidate to replace Mount in the starting lineup when Chelsea face Palace. With an ownership of just 2.5%, Hudson-Odoi can clearly be considered a differential pick and he could be the one to provide that much-needed rankings boost after a few topsy-turvy gameweeks.
Our second differential pick and final pick for gameweek 12 is Manchester United’s Anthony Martial (£7.6m). The French forward marked his eleven to the starting return in gameweek 10 with a goal and 6 FPL points after an absence of five gameweeks. His manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has recently lauded Martial’s qualities as a centre forward and the Frenchman looks set to feature as such under him. This makes Martial essentially a goal-driven, bargain-priced, out-of-position striker in a potential top-6 outfit. True, Man United are all but top-6 material at the moment, but Martial is definitely one of their top talents and one of those players who might be capable of rising above the team’s lack of form. With him back, Marcus Rashford can move back to his favoured inverted role on the left wing, putting in place one of the, in potential, most lethal strike forces in the league. Martial has scored 3 goals in six games so far this season and all of those goals have come in home games. This weekend, Brighton roll up to Old Trafford and their current away stats are not very encouraging: 4 points from 5 games with 4 goals scored and 8 conceded. Conclusion: United are unreliable and Brighton not too good away from home, and taking a punt on Martial (6.5% current ownership) could pay off handsomely.
For further GW12 transfer ideas look at this fiso FPL forum topic.
Looking at the FPL GW Transfers In/out Stats:
Attackers – Managers are mainly selling Pukki (still), Callum Wilson, Aguero & Kane and buying Vardy (ownership now almost 29%), Abraham (ownership now almost 49%), Jimenez (12%) and Rashford (13%).
Midfielders – David Silva (hamstring injury doubt), Son (red card over-turned though), Sterling, Mount (injury doubt), Salah & Cantwell are the biggest sold and the money instead is being used on buying Pulisic, Mane, Maddison & Tielemans.
Defenders – van Dijk, Otamendi, Pieters and then two long-term injured players Boly & Matip are being sold with the proceeds then spent on Lundstram & Leicester’s Soyuncu & Chilwell plus Ake, Robertson & Rico.
Goalkeepers – Ederson’s possible injury means he leads the sales followed by Adrian. Ramsdale, Henderson, Schmeichel & Gazzaniga are the most bought.
The captaincy
With four of the current top six facing each other this weekend, it looks like the focus of the armband is going to be, for a large part least, on lesser-owned and possibly less premium players in gameweek 12. Chelsea come to mind first, as the Blues host Crystal Palace after having scored 25 goals in 10 games so far this season. Do keep in mind though, especially when considering Abraham for the captaincy, that only 7 of those goals were scored in front of their own fans and that Palace are no push-overs. The young Englishman is still one of the better shouts this weekend, but we’re going with Leicester’s Jamie Vardy. The English veteran striker has scored 8 goals in 8 games against the Gunners and we wouldn’t be surprised to see another Vardy Party at the King Power this weekend.
The FISO Forum Captain poll for GW12 puts the armband between Abraham, Vardy and Jimenez.
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