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Fantasy Premier League advice from our resident expert as he looks at how injured Arsenal, Newcastle & Nottingham Forest players can be replaced.
The Fantasy Premier League’s current gameweek may not even have finished at the time of writing, but it’s already time to start planning for Gameweek 31 – and our resident FPL expert is here to keep you on track with all the best transfer moves for the weekend.
This time around, he’s going to focus on how to replace a sudden slew of important injured players from Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle, but before we hand over it’s our duty to remind you that it’s an early 11:00 BST deadline on Saturday ahead of Everton’s lunchtime kick-off against Arsenal. Don’t sleep in…
How to replace injured Arsenal & Nottingham Forest stars
Before I get into some specific advice ahead of Gameweek 31, I know a lot of players will be considering using wildcards if they haven’t already, and it only seems right to point you in the direction of a couple of templates I drew up last week which can be found through this link.
Some of the information is obviously out of date already, given that it was written before we knew about the Erling Haaland injury, but the template without him is one I largely stand by with the caveat that I need to stop underestimating Nottingham Forest’s defence and Marco Asensio. Add him to my list of recommendations, as he’s clearly the real deal.
One thing that has changed from this week to last is that quite a few important players went off injured in midweek, or are reportedly feeling the ill effects of their matches. Only one (Alexander Isak) was on my template, but several are in a lot of teams, most of them in defence.
Ola Aina, Jurriën Timber and Gabriel Magalhães all went down with injury concerns and while we don’t yet know if they’ll miss time, we need to plan for their replacement if the news coming out of the press conferences is bad – and to compound matters, Eddie Howe has told us that Isak, who is in nearly 60% of teams, was feeling some tightness in the Swede’s seemingly troublesome groin.
Let’s start with how we deal with Aina, because it’s the easiest – just switch him out for another Forest defender. Due to his price point, Neco Williams was already a better buy, and Nikola Milenković and Murillo are both a steady source of clean sheets. Forest’s defensive success is based on their system, not individuals, so losing one man shouldn’t damage their chances of bagging clean sheets.
If Arsenal have lost both Timber and Gabriel, however, that’s a bigger deal. Their likely back line would consist of Lewis-Skelly, Saliba, maybe Ben White… and perhaps Jakub Kiwior? It’s a shame that Mikel Arteta is usually less than forthcoming in his pressers, because if both of the players who came off against Fulham are out, then they could have some big problems.
If Ben White is definitely fit at last then he’s a solid replacement, but he is – evidently – not nailed on for 90 minutes at the moment. Forest could stand losing one defender a be fine at the back, but Arsenal could be without five first-team defenders this weekend. That makes any individual defensive asset from the club less appealing, even with a probable double gameweek in the offing.
Ideally, you want to replace these guys with players who are going to double up over the coming weeks. Crystal Palace are off the menu for me as their doubles are simply very tough, so looking at the options I come down on the side of either Manchester City’s defenders or Newcastle’s.
Joško Gvardiol isn’t the slam dunk attacking threat some players believe – his statistical output in the final third is middling at best – but he has some upside and is a straight swap for Gabriel, while Rúben Dias is reliable enough. Kieran Trippier and Valentino Livramento are solid options with some chance of occasional hauls thanks to set pieces, and they next play a Leicester side who haven’t scored in six straight matches.
Finally, we may need to work out what to do with Isak. My vote is that unless it turns out he has a serious, long-term injury, you should keep him, even if there’s a risk that he misses out against Leicester. That double gameweek in GW32 is too tempting to pass up on, and he’s a potential triple captain target if fit.
If the news from Howe’s pre-match presser is dire, however, then I would prioritise the following forward alternatives, in this order: Omar Marmoush; Jean-Philippe Mateta; Ollie Watkins and a healthy Chris Wood. After that, we’re shooting into the wind on players with single gameweeks all the way down, and it’s a matter of form and faith.
Why Marco Asensio is among the new must-buys
A player I mentioned earlier and who deserves immediate consideration in just about every team is Aston Villa loanee Asensio, whose form is simply staggering right now – and when good players put up consistent results, you need to buy them.
If you can move from, say, the potentially injured Justin Kluivert to Asensio (a leap in cost, of course), then that’s the problem of what to do with the Bournemouth man solved. Villa have some decent fixtures, including a probable double gameweek, coming up, and while some will be worried about fixture congestion due to their Champions League and FA Cup runs coming up, it’s just incredibly hard to bet against someone who keeps scoring.
Despite his equally impressive form, I’m less hot on Bryan Mbeumo. Reliable though he undeniably is, the difficulty of Brentford’s fixtures and the lack of a double gameweek makes me want to avoid him for now. He’ll no doubt score a few points going forward, but he doesn’t seem as likely as other players to put up a really big haul.
Speaking of form, I’m slowly moving away from being interested in Bournemouth players full stop. I’ve generally been pretty high on assets like Milos Kerkez, Evanilson and the aforementioned Kluivert, but Andoni Iraola’s side seem to have run out of steam a little after some stunning form over the winter. Paying attention to a team’s form and chances of getting goals and keeping clean sheets as a unit is no less important than looking at the form of individual players.
As for your captain for Gameweek 31… it’s another nailed-on Mohamed Salah for me. Yes, he blanked out against Everton, but derby days do funny things and he registered at least one goal contribution in each of the eight games before that. If Isak is fit then picking him is defensible (just about) but midfielders simply score more points than strikers and a game away to Fulham shouldn’t scare Salah owners off. If, for some reason, you still don’t have Salah, you’re probably beyond the help of any advice column but Bukayo Saka is another reasonable stand-in.
That’s all for this week – no midweek matches next time around, so I’ll be back with more hints and tips on 3 Added Minutes next Thursday. Until then, all the best, and may all of your players be fit and ready to go by Saturday morning.
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