The theme of this week's Fantasy Challenge is "Bargains". In this Gameweek, all players priced at £6.0m or under will score DOUBLE points. There is a £100m budget for your 11-a-side team. When deciding which players to invest in, it is important to look at how they rank in the key stats, as well as the fixtures.
Here, Fantasy Football Scout's Chris James reveals his approach for Gameweek 16.
Pick your Fantasy Challenge team NOW!
Standout fixtures
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Ipswich Town immediately stands out in terms of offering opportunities for both sides, particularly in the attacking positions - they are both locked in the bottom three on nine points apiece, struggling at the back, desperate for points but not struggling to score goals.
The two Merseyside clubs are next to draw the eye. Everton’s away record against Arsenal is poor and they are really struggling to score, meanwhile, the Gunners are starting to re-impose their defensive dominance - that feels like the most nailed clean sheet and home win of the Gameweek. Meanwhile, Liverpool are just imperious at present and even though Fulham are by no means a bad side, a home fixture feels something of a formality, with opportunities for points at both ends of the pitch.
Elsewhere, home fixtures for AFC Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion and players from Newcastle v Leicester all look like good targets, with the hosts in decent form and the visitors vulnerable defensively. Chelsea absolutely come into that thinking too. The Blues are rolling in goalscoring terms right now, and opponents Brentford are failing to translate their incredible home form onto their travels, with just one draw and no wins yet on the road.
Last but by no means least on the "fixtures to target" list is Tottenham Hotspur's trip to bottom side Southampton. After their narrow defeats to Ipswich and Bournemouth, it’s no guarantee that Spurs will get the job done at St Mary’s, but you’d have to hope for goals.
Who to pick at the back
The backline is the one area where no real compromise is needed, with every goalkeeper priced below £6.0m, while only six defenders in the game cost more than £6.0m, so we have plenty of choice there. Arguably there is a case for a more defensive-minded set-up - either a 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 - although I’m going for a 3-4-3.
Annoyingly, albeit unsurprisingly, five of those players costing over £6.0m are Arsenal and Liverpool players from the league’s tightest defences thus far, and both of whom have fixtures that we could reasonably expect to gain a clean sheet from. In particular, Arsenal at home to a goal-shy Everton feels like an essential game to get involved in. The Toffees have a terrible record at Arsenal, with the Gunners boasting more wins against Everton than any other club, all of which contributes to why I’m selecting David Raya (£5.6m) as my 'keeper and Jurrien Timber (£5.7m) in defence. I also have Jakub Kiwior (£4.8m) ready as an option should Gabriel (£6.2m) not recover from injury to start.
I also have high hopes for Liverpool at home to Fulham, with both Andy Robertson (£5.9m) and Joe Gomez (£4.9m) on my Watchlist. But I do think Fulham have more to offer in attack, so my current line-up doesn’t include either of these players.
Although the Spurs defence is not the first place you’d automatically look for clean sheets, a great fixture at struggling Southampton suggests this could be a chance to gain one. But more importantly, Pedro Porro (£5.6m) is going to be involved in the inevitable attacking onslaught too. I’m counting on goals, assists and bonus-point potential here.
Broadly similar thinking goes into my final defensive selection, Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez (£4.6m). A home game against an out-of-sorts West Ham side is a decent fixture, and, much like Porro, Kerkez offers potential returns at both ends of the pitch, as he’s shown with returns in two of his last three outings; a clean sheet at home to Spurs and a goal at Wolves.
Midfield selections
My support for the Cherries continues into the middle of the pitch too, where recent penalty hat-trick hero Justin Kluivert (£5.5m) gets the nod. Admittedly I’m not expecting a hat-trick again, but being on penalties, plus offering five goals and two assists so far this season (and most importantly coming in at under £6.0m) secures his spot.
Such is my belief that Bournemouth will perform well that I also considered adding team-mate Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m). However, while I do have faith that he will soon recapture his early-season form and ideally combine with Kluivert or Kerkez for goals, the form over his last five games has been so underwhelming that it’s frightened me off. Instead I’m going with the cheapest viable option from the free-scoring Chelsea attack, in the form of Enzo Fernandez (£5.0m). He’s produced a goal or an assist in each of his last five appearances, registering three goals, three assists and a double-digit haul, and against terrible travellers Brentford, he could be well on course to do it again.
Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers (£5.4m) has been a standout budget pick this season, and is second only to Ollie Watkins (£9.0m) for points in FPL among Villa players, with 59. Arguably his total of four goals and two assists could have been far greater too, with a little more luck. I’m selecting him here, even though high-flying Nottingham Forest are by no means an easy team to beat. That said, over their last five matches, they have lost a little of the defensive tightness, conceding 11 goals (albeit against many top sides), so I think this is a good time to play them and am hoping for a least a goal from Rogers.
The final midfield slot is my one exception to the budget rule, with the addition of Mohamed Salah (£13.3m). The Egyptian is dominating in FPL right now and I see no reason for that reign to be interrupted this weekend. I have also considered fellow premiums Cole Palmer (£11.1m) and Bukayo Saka (£10.6m), and I may yet include one of them.
Front three
Arguably the most difficult area for budget selections comes in the forward slots. Even those who may be considered "enablers" in the main FPL game, like Chris Wood (£6.5m), Matheus Cunha (£7.1m) or Yoane Wissa (£6.2m), are outside the price bracket here, so I’ve had to be a bit more creative. That all makes Brighton’s Joao Pedro (£5.9m), whose price tag squeaks under the limit, a pretty obvious pick yet against a Crystal Palace defence that has been far leakier this season. Two double digit-hauls, two goals and three assists over his last five games make the Brazilian a standout. The only slight concern surrounds his minutes, but I’m willing to take that chance.
I was also considering covering my bases by picking his team-mate Danny Welbeck (£5.8m), who has outscored Joao Pedro this season, albeit from more matches played. However, I’ve decided instead to spread the money around and pick two forwards who are actually playing against one another. First up is Ipswich’s Liam Delap (£5.6m), who has shown plenty of promise this season, with two double-digit returns and six goals and one assist so far, despite the Tractor Boys only winning one game to date and being in the bottom three.
A match against the most fragile defence in the league (Wolves have conceded 38 goals so far, seven more than the next leakiest) seems like an ideal opportunity for Delap to add to his tally. That said, Wolves will also see this a must-win game, so I’m expecting them to come out fighting and look to add to their impressive tally of 23 goals scored (the joint-eighth highest total in the league).
Cunha is the most-favoured option, but is out of our price range (and has been a little shot-shy of late), so I’m going with his strike partner Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.7m). Strand Larsen has six goals and two assists to his name this season and returned a brace in Gameweek 13 at home to Bournemouth - something he’s surely capable of emulating on Saturday afternoon.
Other considerations in the attacking line-up included the irrepressible Jamie Vardy (£5.6m), but a game against Newcastle at St James' Park is a tough fixture, and in fact I’d be more likely to go with premium Alexander Isak (£8.6m) in a game I’d expect the Magpies to dominate.
As for captaincy, it is currently on Brighton’s Joao Pedro, but it could move to anyone from Enzo, Porro, Timber or even Salah before kick-off, even though the Liverpool star won't earn double points.
