Gameweek 5 is coming up and we’re already in for the first quick turn-around of the season. Just under 48 hours between gameweek 4’s final whistle and gameweek 5’s kick-off mean that fantasy managers have to make quick decisions in terms of their transfer and armband strategies. And that’s not at all, because GW5 will be spread over three days, from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening, and the GW6 deadline is set for the following Saturday at 11am. To top it off, from next week onwards, European competitions are getting underway. So, while this year’s early season start granted fantasy managers a relatively nice and easy first few gameweeks, things are about to get a whole lot more complex, rotation and fitness worries included.
In anticipation of the fixture schedule becoming jampacked very soon, we feel that gameweek 5 is going to be the first gameweek to see more rotation, especially among the top sides. Many of the fixtures look promising though, with Chelsea visiting leaky Southampton, Arsenal hosting a struggling Aston Villa side, reigning champions Manchester City hosting new boys Nottingham Forest and Liverpool welcoming Newcastle to Anfield. Keep a close eye on match and lineup predictions over the coming 24 hours, and if you’ve been mostly ignoring your bench up until now, it might be time to switch up your approach. Another switch to consider is to online slots canada.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 5 is set at 18h00 (UK time) on Tuesday, August 30th.
Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per August 29th, 2022)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Ederson (MCI), Mendy (CHE), Ramsdale (ARS) | Sanchez (BRI), Henderson (NOT), Ward (LEI) | |
| DEF | Zinchenko (ARS), Cancelo (MCI), Trippier (NEW) | Saliba (ARS), Alexander-Arnold (LIV), Perisic (TOT) | Zinchenko injury doubt, Cancelo lack of returns, TAA haul, Perisic points + starter |
| MID | Salah (LIV), Son (TOT), Zaha (CRY) | Diaz (LIV), Gross (BRI), Odegaard (ARS) | Salah rage transfers (?), Diaz haul, Gross form and fixtures, Zaha injury doubt |
| FOR | Toney (BRE), Greenwood (LEE), Jesus (ARS) | Haaland (MCI), Mitrovic (FUL), Firmino (LIV) | Haaland haul, Mitrovic form, Firmino haul |
Premium pick
So, 9 goals for Liverpool in their historic home win over Bournemouth and not a single attacking return for their big man (and our premium fantasy pick for gameweek 4) Mo Salah (£13.0m). We know it was a tough one to swallow if you captained the Egyptian, but hopefully you find some solace in the fact that giving him the armband was the right choice. On practically any other day, when the Reds score nine, he would’ve equalled or possibly surpassed Erling Haaland’s 17-pointer from last weekend. Anyway, that’s FPL for ye, no time to pine over it for too long. Instead, what we recommend is sticking with Salah and giving him the armband once again as Liverpool host Newcastle in GW5. Their thrashing of the Cherries will have done their confidence a world of good and even though the Magpies are a better side, Liverpool could well wreak havoc on them as well. With rotation likely rife at City for the mid-week fixture against Nottingham Forest, we’re betting on Liverpool and on Jurgen Klopp not leaving out his star player after he missed out on personal glory last weekend.
Non-premium pick
Another popular player who missed out on any points in gameweek 5, though of an entirely different pedigree than Salah, was Leeds’ man of the moment Rodrigo Moreno (£6.5m). The Spanish international is off to a flying start of the 2022-23 Premier League campaign with 4 goals, 1 assist and 37 FPL points to show for it, but he blanked last weekend as the Whites fell to Brighton at the AmEx. Nothing to worry about though, especially not when looking at Rodrigo’s more than friendly price tag and considering that he is facing one of the league’s shadiest defences next. While not conceding the most goals so far, Everton have yet to record a clean sheet as Chelsea, Villa, Forest and Brentford all managed to net at least once against the Toffees. Frank Lampard’s men sit on two points from the opening four games and hopes amongst the Toffee faithful are not very high for the upcoming visit to Elland Road either. We’re hoping Rodrigo can capitalise on that with his fifth goal of the season.
The budget enabler
The early 2022-23 campaign start has brought us a few serious budget enablers, the previously mentioned Rodrigo Moreno being one of them. The Leeds forward, who is classified as a midfielder in the official game, is the second highest-scoring player in the entire game behind Haaland, which is crazy considering his starting price of £6.0m, but right behind him in third place is an even cheaper pick. Brighton’s Pascal Gross (£5.8m) started the season price at just £5.5m and already has 35 FPL points to his name from four league outings. He blanked once in GW2 at home to Newcastle, but scored a brace in GW1, provided an assist for 6 points in GW3 and got onto the scoreboard once again versus Leeds last weekend for his second double-digit haul of the season (11 FPL points). The German is involved is most of what Brighton do offensively and with games against Fulham (away), Leicester (home) and Bournemouth (away) coming up, we’re placing him top of our budget enabler watchlist.
The differential
Now, we would like to repeat the elevated risk of rotation for any Man City asset and more than a few differential hunters will surely have been burnt by Pep Guardiola’s squad management tactics last weekend, but we’re going to take the punt for GW5 and recommend Ilkay Gundogan (£7.6m) as our differential fantasy pick. The German international of Turkish descent was left out of the starting lineup against Crystal Palace last weekend, but still managed to get an assist in his 30-minute appearance as a sub. That made it three consecutive attacking returns for Gundo, who scored in both GW2 and GW3. He also started the first three games of the season and we’re quietly expecting him to start again for the mid-week fixture against Nottingham Forest. His current 5.1% ownership shows that he’s largely been operating in the shadow of Haaland and De Bruyne so far, but this is exactly what gives him his potentially huge differential value. If you’re looking for a pick to make up some ground early, Gundogan might be the man.
The (vice-)captaincy
Call us stubborn, but like we wrote before, we’re still convinced that Mo Salah was not only the right premium fantasy pick for gameweek 4, but also the right captaincy shout. It just didn’t work out, incredibly enough. That’s why we’re recommending him again as our man to give the armband to this gameweek. Newcastle at home won’t be an easy game and we don’t see another 9-0 on the cards there, and Salah might have played a bit wider than usual against Bournemouth, but he was still extremely unlucky not to get a return in a 9-goal thrashing. With Man City assets at a risk of rotation, something you really don’t want for your captain, we’re slapping the armband on Liverpool’s Egyptian star once again.
Of course, if you’re up for the nerve-wrecking challenge, captaining the likes of Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne at home to Nottingham Forest on Wednesday could pay off big as well. We’re also seeing Reece James at Saint Mary’s as a valid captaincy pick, just like Gabriel Jesus against Aston Villa. The more differential captaincy picks include Rodrigo at home to Everton, Pascal Gross away at Fulham and Bruno Fernandes for Man United’s visit to Leicester.