Gameweek 5 Preview of Fantasy Premier League, courtesy of Bet365

This week we have the second Friday night fixture of the season so don’t forget to make changes to your side before 7pm on Friday evening! It’s a huge game to get us underway too, with Chelsea welcoming Liverpool to Stamford Bridge. Both teams look dangerous in attack, so it’s all about the offensive players rather than concentrating on defenders for this one. Diego Costa’s price is increasing rapidly after the start he’s made to the season; 4 goals and an assist from his first 4 appearances have rocketed him up to £9.9m and he’s now in almost a quarter of Fantasy Football teams in the game. He’s always in danger of a yellow card, but with just one point docked for bookings that’s not too much of a concern. He’s racked up 27 points so far this season, including 12 in his last game, and is up against a Liverpool defence that’s yet to keep a clean sheet in the league this season. For Liverpool, who have already scored 4 goals against each of last season’s top 2, the best picks look to be Roberto Firmino (£8.4m) and Sadio Mané (£8.9m). Firmino scored twice last week against Leicester after getting his first assist of the season in the previous game against Tottenham, while Mané also has 2 goals and an assist to his name already.

Leicester got their debut Champions League campaign off to a flyer with a 3-0 win away to the Belgian champions on Wednesday night. They’ll be hoping to carry that form into the league to address the stuttering start that their title defence has suffered so far, and a home fixture against Burnley should provide the perfect chance to do just that. The Foxes are unbeaten in their last 9 meetings with Saturday’s opponents, and only a 96th minute equaliser prevented them from a win the last time the two met at the King Power Stadium in the Premier League. Riyad Mahrez (£9.4m) scored one and set up the other Leicester goal in that game and scored twice on his Champions League debut on Wednesday. A massive 80% of Fantasy League managers have not got last year’s Player of the Season in their team at the moment, so those who have may well consider captaining him to gain the upper hand this week.

Captain consideration must also be given to any Manchester City attacking players you have in your side this week. On Saturday City face Bournemouth, a side who they beat 5-1 at home and 4-0 away last season. That was even before Pep Guardiola took over and started working his magic on the title favourites – City have won 7 out of 7 competitive matches since he took charge and scored an incredible 21 goals in that run. With Sergio Agüero (£13.0m) banned Kelechi Iheanacho is a real bargain at £7.0m. He came in and took his chance at Old Trafford last week, picking up 15 points after scoring and assisting in his 52 minutes on the pitch. The likelihood is that he will play 90 minutes this weekend at home to Bournemouth, and for a man that averages a goal or assist every 70 minutes from his Premier League career so far that gives plenty of potential for a big gameweek from him. Raheem Sterling (£8.3m), who scored a hat trick in this fixture last season, Kevin De Bruyne (£10.5m) and Nolito (£9.0m) could also pick up big scores from midfield.

In the late kick-off on Saturday another man who’ll be in Fantasy managers’ minds for captaincy is Everton’s Romelu Lukaku (£9.1m). The big Belgian ended his goal drought in style on Monday, scoring an 11-minute hat trick after not scoring previously in the league since March. After achieving his best Premier League goals tally to date last season with 18 he’ll be looking to kick on from Monday night’s performance and break the 20-goal barrier this year. Saturday’s visitors are Middlesbrough, who have kept just one clean sheet in their last 10 away matches and have a defence with very little Premier League experience.

The pick of Sunday’s fixtures, in Fantasy Football terms at least, is Tottenham v Sunderland. Spurs finished third last season and are unbeaten in their four Premier League games so far this term, while Sunderland finished one place outside of the relegation zone and are yet to pick up a league win this season. A home win looks nailed on, but with Harry Kane (£10.9m) out of form it could be safer to look to the midfield options of Heung-Min Son (£7.4m) and Christian Eriksen (£8.4m). Both starred in last week’s demolition of Stoke and should be able to carry on that form against a woeful Sunderland defence.

To finish off, one Fantasy Football pick from each of the remaining fixtures:
Hull v Arsenal – Laurent Koscielny (£6.0m)
West Brom v West Ham – Michail Antonio (£7.1m)
Watford v Man United – Etienne Capoue (£4.8m)
Crystal Palace v Stoke – Martin Kelly (£4.4m)
Southampton v Swansea – Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.3m)