We are almost at the end of Gameweek 15, with one game, West Ham vs Wolves, taking place tonight (Monday) at 8pm GMT/3pm ET.
Two other clubs haven’t played, though, as the Premier League saw its first postponement of the season, with Storm Darragh proving too much for Saturday’s Merseyside derby at Goodison Park — meaning Everton and Liverpool players will have at least one double gameweek between now and the final round of fixtures in May.
We saw plenty of squad rotation once again among the 16 teams who have been in action, which is to be expected with this being the third gameweek in the space of just over a week.
Here, we review the main Fantasy Premier League talking points from the weekend’s action.
Liverpool and Everton’s double gameweek
The biggest talking point was the early kick-off postponement on Saturday, which means that match will now have to be rearranged and added to a future gameweek, giving both teams a double.
According to fixtures guru Ben Crellin, the earliest Everton-Liverpool can be rescheduled to is the end of Gameweek 19 (December 29-January 1) as neither side have a fixture that midweek after playing on the Sunday. However, that is unlikely due to the short notice period.
If Liverpool don’t go on to reach the Carabao Cup final from next week’s last-eight ties (they are away to Southampton), this fixture is likely to move to Gameweek 33, when at least four other teams are expected to have a double because of that cup game at Wembley on March 16.
For those who have hung onto the Triple Captain chip, you should want Liverpool to reach that final. This will mean we are likely to have a mini double gameweek outside of the usual late-season doubles in Gameweeks 33 and 36. If this happens, the Everton game will likely move to Gameweek 24 or 25. This would be huge, as it means it opens up an opportunity to use triple-captain Mohamed Salah (£13.3m).
We knew things were going to be a little different this season due to the changes to the FA Cup schedule, including the scrapping of replays, resulting in fewer and smaller double and blank gameweeks, which means fewer opportunities to play chips in a double gameweek. This is exactly why many FPL managers used their Triple Captain chip on Erling Haaland (£15.0m) in Gameweek 2, when Manchester City were at home to promoted Ipswich, or Gameweek 9, when they hosted struggling newcomers Southampton.
If you have your Triple Captain chip in hand, it now makes sense to hold onto it for later in the season.
Arsenal players missing again
Arsenal slipped up this weekend as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Fulham. Defenders Gabriel (£6.2m) and Riccardo Calafiori (£5.8m) both missed their second game in a row, which is concerning for their owners.
Gabriel was substituted at half-time against West Ham in Gameweek 13, but manager Mikel Arteta’s comments about his Brazilian centre-back implied the injury wasn’t serious and that he had a chance of featuring against both Manchester United four days later and then Fulham.
However, from experience, we know Arteta isn’t the most reliable when it comes to giving injury updates.
Arsenal are at home against Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday, so that game should give us a better indication of how close Gabriel is to a return. I think in order for FPL managers to sell Gabriel, he’d have to be ruled out for a while. He is just too good value in that Arsenal defence, where he has an immense set-piece threat.
Arsenal only conceded an xGC (expected goals conceded) of 0.14 against Fulham and have allowed the second-fewest goals (14) and have the second-best xGC (14.0) this season, so I’m not concerned about their clean sheet prospects going forward.
What to do with Bryan Mbeumo?
Brentford midfielder Mbeumo (£7.6m) repaid his loyal owners with a 13-point haul via a goal and assist against Newcastle United.
Over the past two games, Mbeumo was sold by over 1.2 million managers, due to only returning one assist in his previous five matches. He also saw a drop-off in his underlying numbers, but again this goes to show that we should give proven players more time and take small sample sizes with a pinch of salt.
While he could be sold now due to Brentford’s tougher upcoming fixtures, Mbeumo is still nailed on to start, can score and assist, and is on their penalties, so is a safe and reliable option during this busy period of the season.
I don’t think there is anyone worth selling Mbeumo for within his price range and I would only do it if you are moving him to one of the premium midfielders or downgrading him to upgrade another position.
He is still a fine hold if you have other issues to deal with, as his next three matches are against Chelsea (A), Nottingham Forest (H) and Brighton (A), but Brentford do also play Arsenal (H), City (H) and Liverpool (H) over their next seven.
What does Ollie Watkins’ benching mean?
There was a change at Aston Villa as Watkins (£9.0m) was benched for Jhon Duran (£5.8m), which was a bit surprising seeing as the former was taken off after only 64 minutes in the midweek match against Brentford. This was always a risk though, given Villa have struggled with squad depth due to also being involved in this season’s Champions League.
Watkins is clearly still first-choice up front (it was Duran’s first league start of the season among 15 appearances) and I think he starts next week against Forest (H), but with actual evidence of a benching, it does make him less attractive. He could well be rested again during the next few weeks.
That means I wouldn’t look to buy him during this period, and he is also a possible sale after Gameweek 16 as Villa face City (H) and Newcastle (A). On top of that, we have seen him subbed off early many times this season — he certainly isn’t the 90-minute man of years past.
Enzo Fernandez is staking a claim
The match of the weekend was Chelsea’s 4-3 away win over London rivals Spurs.
Cole Palmer (£11.1m) was the star of the show again, with two goals and an assist, but fellow midfielder Fernandez (£4.9m) is fast becoming a great value option.
He has started and played 90 minutes in each of the past four games, benefitting from a more advanced position on the pitch, which has resulted in three goals and two assists in that period. He also takes corners, which is a nice bonus.
At that price and with Chelsea’s fantastic run of fixtures coming up, I don’t see much to dislike about the Argentinian. He could be a great replacement for your fifth midfielder.
Morgan Rogers (£5.4m) of Villa and Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m), two popular options for that spot, are being massively outperformed by Fernandez right now and the underlying numbers have been good, too. He has an xG of 1.1 and an xA of 1.61 over these four games, so the prospects of future points look good.
(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
