Rarely has Pep Guardiola‘s roulette wheel spun so wickedly against Fantasy Premier League managers.
Ahead of an attractive home fixture against Sheffield United, managers around the globe stockpiled their teams with as many Manchester City assets as possible in the expectation that they would be rewarded with a plethora of FPL points.
Guardiola had other ideas, though. City’s top two owned players in FPL – Joao Cancelo and John Stones – were both benched. So too was Raheem Sterling after being brought in by over 600,000 managers over the past two weeks.
As if that didn’t cause enough misery, it seems as though the Premier League has another new “Tinkerman” in town in the form of Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel. After making five changes in Gameweek 20, he made a further four in 21, which included dropping Ben Chilwell down to the bench.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though. Following a barren recent run, Mo Salah was back amongst the goals at the London Stadium, as was Patrick Bamford who admitted ruefully that he hadn’t captained himself on FPL this week after scoring 15 points against Leicester. West Brom’s Matheus Pereira, tipped by i last week, also scored well with 13 points.
With Gameweek 21 now consigned to history, here are the five players we predict to do well in Gameweek 22 this midweek.
Mo Salah (Liverpool)
He’s back, folks. Inexplicably for a man of his talents and track record, Salah had gone 545 minutes without registering a goal or assist in the Premier League before opening the scoring against West Ham with a trademark curler after cutting in from the right.
It was a supremely well-taken finish but his second one was even a better. A sequence of play which began with an Aaron Cresswell corner ended with Salah toe-poking a finish past Lukasz Fabianski after setting himself with a delightful first touch from Xherdan Shaqiri’s raking pass.
Even before Sunday’s game, there were signs that Salah was rediscovering his form after scoring twice against Manchester United in the FA Cup and smashing another in at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, only for the goal to be chalked off for a handball in the build-up.
It would take a brave manager to bet against Salah with the captaincy this week considering he has scored five goals and provided four assists in seven league games against Brighton.
Price: £12.6m Points: 146
Matty Cash (Aston Villa)
In his own words posted on social media, it’s a good job Matty Cash doesn’t do any squats in the gym during the week.
In one of the more infuriating VAR decisions this season, Southampton’s Danny Ings was denied an injury-time equaliser against Aston Villa for offside as his left shoulder was fractionally ahead of Cash’s buttocks. Welcome to football in 2021, everyone.
Cash and Villa got away with one at St Mary’s but there is no doubting their defensive resolve – only Manchester City have kept more clean sheets (12) than Villa (10) in 2020-21.
The underlying numbers suggest that Cash has been unlucky to not register any attacking returns having created six chances since New Year’s Day – fifth among defenders – while he also ranks third in Villa’s squad for bonus points behind only Emi Martinez and Jack Grealish.
Price: £5.0m Points: 72
Patrick Bamford (Leeds)
Bamford has been a gift to FPL managers this season, racking up goals, assists and bonus points aplenty to make an absolute mockery of his £5.5m starting price. However, having failed to provide an attacking return since Gameweek 16, he was sold by thousands of managers ahead of Gameweek 21.
Oh, how he punished them. Bamford was back to his very best as Leeds impressively dispatched Leicester, scoring a wonderful goal and laying on two more including unselfishly teeing up Jack Harrison to score a tap-in when put through on goal.
None of Leeds’ next six opponents score higher than three on FPL’s “Fixture Difficulting Rating” metric and with such a dearth of in-form strikers to pick from, Bamford looks as good an option as any.
Despite being flagged due to a dead leg, he is expected to feature against Everton on Wednesday.
Price: £6.6m Points: 119
Harvey Barnes (Leicester City)
Brendan Rodgers must be scratching his head at the disparity between Leicester’s home form and their performances away from the King Power. The Foxes have the second-best away record in the Premier League, losing just once in 10 games compared to five defeats at home.
Leicester’s latest loss on their own patch came against Leeds on Sunday and while it was another disappointing display to add to the collection, the good news was that Harvey Barnes continued his rich vein of form by scoring his seventh goal of the season.
Barnes has delivered an attacking return in six of the past seven gameweeks, scoring four goals and registering two assists at an average of 6.2 points per game. With away games against Fulham and Wolves up next, Barnes has every chance of maintaining his purple patch.
Price: £6.9m Points: 94
Riyad Mahrez (Man City)
From a current Leicester City winger to an old flame. Riyad Mahrez was one of those given a rest by Guardiola at the weekend and should, therefore, be in contention to come straight back in for Gameweek 22 after impressing against West Brom in Gameweek 20.
Mahrez helped himself to a goal, assist and bonus point as City thrashed the Baggies 5-0 for an overall score of 12 points last Tuesday. In total, he has registered three double-digit scores this term, also doing so against his old employers Leicester and upcoming opponents Burnley.
City have a remarkable recent record against the Clarets, winning their last seven meetings by an aggregate score of 28-1, while Mahrez has netted seven goals in his previous four matches against them, including a hat-trick in the reverse fixture in Gameweek 10.
Price: £8.1m Points: 70
i readers league
Oscar Booker held off competition to keep top spot in the i readers league after a steady Gameweek 21.
Oscar’s team scored 58 points with 15 of those coming from Bamford. Elsewhere, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Ruben Dias provided eight points apiece and captain James Maddison chipped in with a 10 pointer after assisting Barnes.
Unfortunately, Oscar fell foul to Guardiola’s selection as Joao Cancelo dropped down to the bench, while he was guilty of tinkering too much with his own team too as Martinez was ditched in favour of Kasper Schmeichel, a move that cost eight points.
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