Gameweek 16 Preview of Fantasy Premier League, courtesy of Bet365.
Manchester City face Swansea City at the Etihad on Saturday afternoon, and the Citizens will be buoyed by their success in midweek; their 4-goal blitz of Mönchengladbach secured top spot in their Champions League group and they’ll be looking to follow that up by moving to the same place in the Premier League. 3 points will move them back above Arsenal and Leicester, with neither of those teams in action on Saturday. Managerless Swansea look to be the perfect visitors for City to achieve this – they are woefully out of form and are now managerless after sacking Garry Monk this week. On top of this, they’ve lost every time they’ve played at the Etihad, with City winning their four Premier League meetings there by an aggregate score of 10-1. With Agüero potentially still out injured and Bony an unreliable option up front it may be better to look to the midfield options for points. Raheeem Sterling (£8.9m) celebrated his 21st birthday with a double on Tuesday night, and David Silva (£10.0m) looked good in his first full appearance since coming back from the injury he sustained on international duty with Spain in early October. Either of these players could get crucial goal and assist points this weekend.
Elsewhere on Saturday Stoke City’s trip to Upton Park looks to be a decent bet for an away win. The Hammers have a crippling injury list, with key players Winston Reid, Dimitri Payet, Manuel Lanzini, Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho all out. Stoke have only lost 2 of their last 12 games in all competitions, and kept clean sheets in 8 of those games. With West Ham’s most potent attacking threats all out the likes of Jack Butland (£4.9m), Glen Johnson (£5.0m) and Ryan Shawcross (£4.8m) could be in for a high-scoring week. Further up the field, Marko Arnautovic (£6.1m) and Xherdan Shaqiri (£6.6m) were outstanding in last week’s win against Man City, with Shaqiri laying on both of Arnautovic’s goals as the Potters won 2-0.
At 5:30pm Man United will be looking to put their Champions League disappointment behind them down on the south coast against Bournemouth. After being defensively solid for the majority of the season so far, and being involved in some dire games, United were finally entertaining on Tuesday night. Their attacking play left them exposed at the back though and they lost 3-2 to Wolfsburg, so expect Van Gaal to go back to basics this weekend. They do have injury problems at the back, but a clean sheet could well be on the cards and the injuries mean that some cut-price options like Paddy McNair (£4.7m) may be an option for Fantasy Managers. United have been involved in 6 goalless draws already this season, and Bournemouth will be hopeful of following up last week’s clean sheet at Stamford Bridge with another on Saturday. Artur Boruc (£4.5m), Steve Cook (£4.3m) and Adam Smith (£4.0m) scored 11, 10 and 9 points respectively in the win against Chelsea, and all are worth consideration this week.
Sunday’s matches are potentially very one-sided affairs looking at the current league positions – Arsenal (2nd) are away to Aston Villa (20th), Liverpool (8th) at home to West Brom (13th) and Tottenham (5th) host Newcastle (18th). There’s a plethora of attacking options to consider for your Fantasy Team from these matches. For Arsenal Mezut Özil (£9.6m) continues to impress, racking up 96 Fantasy Football points so far this season, and Olivier Giroud (£8.9m) will be in confident mood after bagging a Champions League hat-trick this week. Tottenham’s Erik Lamela (£6.8m) also scored three in Europe this week, in the 4-1 demolition of Monaco last night, and he’ll hope to take this form into the Premier League. Harry Kane (£9.7m) wasn’t needed in last night’s win, so he should be going into the weekend feeling refreshed and a game against the league’s worst defence should offer plenty of points potential for him. For Liverpool the injuries to Ings and Sturridge mean that Benteke (£8.3m) is almost certain to start up front, and with West Brom not keeping a clean sheet in their last 5 league games the Belgian will be confident of a goal or 2.
Finally, the Monday night game sees current league leaders Leicester face last season’s champions Chelsea. These two are the surprise packages of the season, for very different reasons. The Foxes are flying high with 32 points from 15 matches, and record-breaker Jamie Vardy (£7.6m) and wing wonder Riyad Mahrez (£6.9m) are getting all the headlines. They are the only players to score over 100 Fantasy Football points so far this season, and will be looking to continue their fine form against a Chelsea team that have won just one away game in the league this season and defence that have kept just one clean sheet on their travels. After losing just 3 matches in the league in the whole of last season Chelsea have already lost 8 in 15 so far this campaign. Qualification for the Champions League knockout stages has given them a brief reprieve, but a trip to a Leicester team that attacks with pace and intent is the last thing they need right now.
Saturday
Norwich v Everton
(12.45pm BT Sport 1)
Crystal Palace v Southampton
Man City v Swansea
Sunderland v Watford
West Ham v Stoke
Bournemouth v Man Utd
(5.30pm Sky Sports 1)
Sunday
Aston Villa v Arsenal
(1.30pm Sky Sports 1)
Tottenham v Newcastle
(4.00pm Sky Sports 1)
Liverpool v West Brom
Monday
Leicester v Chelsea
(8.00pm Sky Sports 1)