Week 29 – Master and Apprentice lock horns

This season’s ‘Big Two’ contested the Carabao Cup final in Week 29….with Pep ‘The – 115 charges – Master’ getting one over his young upstart apprentice Arteta (again 🙄) when it really matters.

A brace of goals for N. O’Reilly (£3.1m) gets him 14 points and second place in the Team of the Week, pipped by Beto (£3.7m) who also bagged a brace and 15 points in Everton’s comfortable victory over Chelsea.

The only change to the Team of the Season see’s bargain enabler H. Wilson (£2.9m) pop up with another goal and he displaces D. Rice (£4.8m).

In order to fit into the budget of £50m we’ve swapped out D. Raya (£4.4m) and replaced him with another cheap enabler, R. Roefs (£2.6m).

As we head now into the International break it is the FA Cup participants only who will return in Week 30 :-

so, you’ll likely want to ensure your teams are filled with players from the top ranked sides on the above.

NB also that Man City and Crystal Palace will have their game in hand (at City) added to the above fixtures but that has been accounted for in the numerical rankings above.

From outside of those sides we continue to press the claims of B. Fernandes (£6.4m) who has now returned 2 goals and 5 assists in his last four games, with Leeds at home as the final fixture of Week 31, that would seem like an opportune moment to move him in, providing you can squeeze the funds for it?!

On that note, another blank for high priced E. Haaland (£8.3m)…

At this stage of the season, catching one’s rivals is all about having the right Differential players… so, lets have a little look at page 10 on the Player Stats Portal :-

From the Goalkeepers we’ve picked out D. Petrovic (£3.5m) as the (non-injured!) man in form, he’s selected in just 1% of sides and is nearly a £1m cheaper than most selected D. Raya (£4.4m).

For Defenders, V. van Dijk (£5.2m) is by a distance the most in form Defender yet he is in just 14% of teams. We’ve highlighted also some cheap in form enablers that will have likely flown under the radar, A. Truffert (£2.3m) and N. Williams (£3.0m) are the most selected….but in just 2% of sides !

For Midfielders, the aforementioned B. Fernandes (£6.4m) is top over the last 4 game weeks…but, star player of the week – N. O’Reilly (£3.1m) is another bargain enabler, tops the form list but is in just 4% of sides !! Expect that to change by the time we return from the Interlull…! 🙂

A. Mac Allister (£4.4m) is still worth consideration despite blanking this week, he is in just 3% of sides !

And finally the Strikers – it’s still J. Pedro (£4.5m) leading the form charts but he is in a third of gamers teams already.

Fellow Team of the Season striker I. Thiago (£3.6m) follows a little way behind and, the only other non-injured striker worth a punt (unless Salah returns soon) could be good old (literally!) D. Welbeck (£3.4m) who features in this week’s Team of the Week… and is in just 2% of teams.

Lets see how those injuries are looking after the International break…. and who gets to start in the FA Cup ties on Week 30…