Brentford has teamed up with Fantasy Football Scout to help bring you hints, tips and advice during the 2024/25 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season.
Scout will be using their expertise to provide info, advice and Gameweek tips which may prove useful in ensuring you sit on top of your mini-leagues.
Best of the Bees
Gameweek 12 saw Igor Thiago (£5.9m) come on to make his first competitive appearance for the Bees. The forward has now recovered from the knee injury he picked up in July’s opening friendly versus AFC Wimbledon. Those 45 pre-season minutes brought two goals, so perhaps he’ll soon become a noteworthy FPL forward.
The Brentford defenders will be pleased to register their first clean sheet of the season. Nathan Collins (£4.5m), Ethan Pinnock (£4.5m) and Sepp van den Berg (£4.1m) all returned six points for their owners. Meanwhile, shot-stopper Mark Flekken (£4.5m) registered nine points thanks to his clean sheet, two bonus points and a save point.
Van den Berg looks like the perfect fifth defender for FPL managers at a budget-friendly £4.1m, having started every game for the Bees since Gameweek and Leicester the visitors to Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday.
The Spotlight
Flekken was Brentford’s top scoring player in Gameweek 12. The goalkeeper made five saves, which not only meant save points but also saw him register well in the bonus points system.
In the fourth minute, a shot from distance was flicked in a different direction by Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.6m), but Flekken reacted brilliantly with a low save. He frustrated the out-of-form forward even more by denying him at the near post, before later tipping an Idrissa Gueye (£4.9m) strike over the bar and catching a header from Beto (£5.0m).
It means he’s currently on 60 saves - the highest number throughout both the Premier League and Europe’s other major competitions.
What helps this is Thomas Frank’s tendency to let his side allow opposition shots but in a way that ensures they’re far out and therefore less likely to end in a goal. Last season, only Arsenal had a higher proportion of long-range attempts conceded, while the Bees were no.1 for it during 2022/23.
This time, 230 shots conceded is a league-high but, crucially, each average just 0.09 expected goals (xG).
Best of the Rest
Elsewhere, Tottenham’s 4-0 thrashing of champions Manchester City provided two of the weekend’s highest achievers.
Pedro Porro (£5.5m) registered a goal and a clean sheet to return 14 points, however, that haul was left on many FPL benches, as managers anticipated a home win.
Porro’s team-mate James Maddison (£7.5m) was the Gameweek’s joint-top scorer alongside Matheus Cunha (£6.9m). That’s now four goals, three assists and 43 points from the Wolves forward’s latest four outings.
Like Porro, there was a goal and clean sheet for West Ham full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.4m).
In Demand
Unsurprisingly, such form sees Cunha lead the way for this week’s transfers, with the next best being cheap Brighton forward João Pedro (£5.6m).
Before the international break, he returned from injury to both score and set up the winner in his cameo appearance against Manchester City, before repeating those acts during Saturday’s start against Bournemouth.
He faces Southampton on Friday night, meaning Gameweek 13’s deadline will be earlier that evening at 6.30pm (GMT).
Over 460,000 have already sold Erling Haaland (£15.1m), as the mass abandonment of FPL’s most expensive player continues.
Captaincy
Mohamed Salah’s (£13.1m) ridiculous form might make him an automatic captain, despite facing Man City on Sunday. He’s produced eight double-digit hauls within 12 occasions.
Alternatively, FPL managers might fancy the chances of Cole Palmer (£10.9m) at home to Aston Villa, or Bukayo Saka (£10.2m) away at West Ham; the Gunners won last season’s equivalent meeting 6-0, helped by two Saka goals.