By Graham Ruthven, in dialog with Jonas Sand Låbakk
Introducing our skilled
Jonas is a 21 12 months outdated pupil who, like FotMob, hails from Norway. He was Fantasy Premier League champion for the 2023/24 season, ending forward of 11 million different managers. So who higher to supply skilled recommendation?
Learn his skilled recommendation each week.
*Don’t overlook the FPL deadline for this spherical – make your transfers and get your staff sorted earlier than 18:30 GMT on Friday 14 February*
The Eye Check vs. The Stats
Bournemouth have been one of many greatest shock packages of the Premier League season thus far.
Certainly, Andoni Iraola’s staff are flying excessive within the desk, chasing European soccer from their present place of seventh. There’s simply three factors between Bournemouth and Chelsea in fourth place.
From a FPL viewpoint, this can be a good time to purchase Bournemouth belongings with the Cherries set to face Southampton and and Wolves within the subsequent two gameweeks. Actually, their beneficial run of fixtures may stretch till GW28.
Antoine Semenyo (5.7m) has registered 5 aim involvements in his final 5 league appearances whereas Justin Kluivert (5.9m) and Dango Ouattara (5.1m) are additionally viable choices. Semenyo, nevertheless, edges it as a result of variety of minutes he’s prone to safe in the long run.
Bournemouth suffered a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in GW24, however have been aggressive towards the Premier League leaders. The Cherries are able to holding their very own towards the perfect.
Semenyo posed a risk towards Liverpool and was a handful for Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Ghanian recorded 0.77 Anticipated Objective Involvements (xGI) and contributed two objectives and two assists within the three matches previous to assembly the Reds.
Averaging 4.1 pictures per recreation, Semenyo is a prolific shooter. This ranks him above every other participant receiving common minutes within the Premier League this season (see graphic above).
Southampton face the Cherries in GW25 with the Saints the worst defensive staff within the division, conceding a mean of two.3 objectives per recreation this season. Wolves, who’ve the third-worst defensive file, await in GW26. Bournemouth belongings might be extraordinarily priceless.
Ollie Watkins (8.9m) ought to be one other participant in your radar forward of a double gameweek in GW25.
Quick time period, Aston Villa have some difficult fixtures to return with video games towards Liverpool and Chelsea on the horizon. They will even clean in GW29 resulting from Liverpool taking part in within the Carabao Cup ultimate.
Nonetheless, Watkins may nonetheless be a great differential in case you have the finances to afford him with Aston Villa at residence to Ipswich City this weekend.
This season, Watkins hasn’t reached the heights of the 2023/24 marketing campaign when he notched 19 league objectives, however the England worldwide nonetheless has 10 objectives and 5 assists from 12.6 xGI. He’s nonetheless delivering as Villa’s first-choice centre ahead.
Watkins is yellow-flagged for the GW25 match towards Ipswich, that means he has solely a 75% likelihood of taking part in resulting from damage. Unai Emery will hopefully present extra data on the health of his striker in his press convention on Friday. If match, Watkins could be a great decide for the double gameweek.
Lengthy shot
Ethan Nwaneri (4.5m) has proven glimpses of his capacity for Arsenal this season, however he would possibly now turn out to be a key determine.
Accidents have hit the Gunners onerous. Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz are all sidelined in the meanwhile, opening up a spot for Nwaneri who has caught the attention together with his sporadic performances.
Nwaneri discovered the again of the web within the six minutes he obtained off the bench towards Manchester Metropolis in GW24, beating Stefan Ortega with a wonderful strike from exterior the field. Arsenal would take one other a type of this weekend.
Arsenal have two beneficial fixtures upcoming with video games towards Leicester Metropolis and West Ham of their subsequent gameweeks. The Gunners even have a fixture in GW29 (not like a few of their rivals) and it wouldn’t be a shock to see Nwaneri play repeatedly till them.
Solely 0.7% of FPL managers homeowners have Nwaneri of their staff, making {the teenager} a doubtlessly priceless differential.
Upcoming video games to observe
There are a number of attention-grabbing video games value following in GW25 from a FPL perspective.
First up is the assembly between Leicester Metropolis and Arsenal within the early kick-off on Saturday with the Gunners hoping to shut the hole on Liverpool on the high of the desk. I count on Arsenal to carry out nicely, making Leandro Trossard (6.8m), Nwaneri (4.5m) and Gabriel (6.3m) value monitoring.
Southampton host Bournemouth at 3pm on the identical day with the aforementioned midfielders and left again Milos Kerkez (5.0m) on my radar. Kerkez may pose an attacking risk towards the basement boys.
Liverpool have a double gameweek towards Wolves and Aston Villa in GW25. Each matches will probably be attention-grabbing to look at with the sport towards Wolves one that would produce some large factors hauls.
Mohamed Salah (13.7m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (7.4m), Cody Gakpo (7.6m) and Virgil van Dijk (6.4m) are gamers to focus on.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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