Our resident FPL expert offers his tips for the best players to sign and sell ahead of Friday’s deadline.
The penultimate gameweek of the Fantasy Premier League is upon us, and for players chasing mini-league wins and landmark finishes, every last transfer becomes vital – and as 3 Added Minutes’ resident FPL expert, I’m here with my picks for three players to sign and three to sell ahead of Friday’s deadline.
I’ll admit that I didn’t do very well with my picks last week, at least in terms of those I recommended bringing in. My sells were on point, but one of my three chosen targets missed out through injury (Benjamin Šeško) and the other two (Bukayo Saka and Pedro Porro) both blanked. Hopefully I’ll have better luck this week as I chase down another Top 100,000 finish…
Arsenal & Manchester City stars among this week’s FPL transfer targets
Viktor Gyökeres: Will Arsenal blow up under the pressure of the title race? I’m betting on them, as they’ve shown unexpected resilience over the past few weeks after a distinct wobble in the spring – and I’ve got Gyökeres down as an intriguing differential target ahead of their game against Burnley.
Gyökeres has been pretty patchy across his debut season, but he’s played the full 90 minutes for both of the Gunners’ two most recent games and is about to face one of the worst defences in the Premier League. With high-quality striker options at a bit of premium right now, Gyökeres becomes especially appealing.
Jérémy Doku: Whatever your opinion of Arsenal’s chances of winning the title, it’s hard to imagine that Manchester City will let the pressure drop. Back-to-back 3-0 wins suggest a team in pretty strong form, and the Belgian winger has been irresistible of late – and while he was benched against Crystal Palace to keep him fit for the FA Cup final, Pep Guardiola has no reason to keep him out of the side past that point.
Prior to the Palace match, Doku had five goals and two assists in the space of six games. It’s almost never a bad idea to back a player on that kind of form, and because most players already have triple City in their squads, Doku’s ownership remains relatively low, giving him a huge ceiling as a differential.
Harry Wilson: There’s a definite risk with Wilson. Normally I would avoid players whose form has tailed off and whose team aren’t playing their best football, and both are true here. Fulham are also likely to be halfway to the beach – all reasons to swerve the Welshman. I present his name with much less confidence than those above.
But Fulham face Wolves away and an equally beachbound and out-of-kilter Newcastle at home before the curtain comes down, and I’m finding it hard not to be intrigued by Wilson’s upside. If you want an alternative option whose potential lies in the desperation of their situation rather than the relative ease of it, Richarlison would not be the worst bet you could make.
The Liverpool & West Ham stars you should sell in Gameweek 37
Virgil van Dijk: Despite his price point, Van Dijk remains one of the most widely-owned defenders in the FPL. Given that Liverpool haven’t kept a clean sheet in over a month, that should probably change.
Not only are Arne Slot’s side well out of form, they’ve got tough games against Aston Villa and Brentford ahead of them, and neither are teams that draw a blank all that often. Van Dijk simply has a much lower floor than, say, a similarly expensive Arsenal defender right now, and if he’s in your team then selling him looks like a good way to free up some funds for the final weeks.
Jarrod Bowen: In much the same way that I’ve recommended signing Doku on current form, I believe that it’s best to move on from Bowen. He hasn’t scored in any of his last 10 matches and West Ham have failed to score as a whole in three of their last four. When they need goals more than ever, they are struggling for them.
It’s not uncommon for relegation-threatened teams to find a run of form out of sheer desperation towards the end of the season but we haven’t seen signs of that from the Hammers so far. They fought hard against Arsenal, but a bit of bad luck and a (correct!) VAR decision condemned them to another defeat. The upside to Bowen is that a final-day fixture against Leeds at home doesn’t look too bad, but they’re not a side that concede too many.
Morgan Rogers: In his last four Premier League games, Rogers – the fourth-most owned midfielder in the game – has managed no goals, no assists and one yellow card. Prior to that he was in good nick, but he seems to be walking into a bit of a lull.
That wouldn’t worry me quite as much if Aston Villa didn’t have tough games against Liverpool and Manchester City to round off the season, and a Europa League final to worry about. It would be no shock if Rogers was rested to some extent this weekend, and even less of a shock if he failed to get on the scoresheet. A relatively obvious target for a transfer on fixture difficulty alone.
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