Fantasy Premier League preview for Gameweek 31

Published on: 17 March 2018

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At last, it has arrived -- Gameweek 31, which features just four Premier League fixtures, thanks to scheduling conflicts with the FA Cup.

Many Fantasy Premier League players will be using their Free Hit chip, remaking their squads for one week. Others will be taking their chances with their squads as currently constructed, plus a transfer or two.

Here's a look at the four games on Saturday from a fantasy perspective, plus some news and notes from around the league:

Bournemouth vs. West Brom (11 a.m. ET): These aren't teams you'd typically depend on, and they remain rather unattractive despite the small slate of games. Bournemouth, 12th in the table, are coming off a 4-1 home loss to Spurs. West Brom are on 20 points, seven fewer than any other team in the league, and coming off a 4-1 home loss to Leicester.

I don't trust either team defensively -- they've given up 48 and 47 goals in 30 league games. If you're using your Free Hit, Bournemouth forward Callum Wilson (5.9 million pounds) and West Brom forward Salomon Rondon (6.0 million) merit some consideration. Wilson has seven league goals, compared to Rondon's five, but I'd actually lean towards Rondon. He scored a goal last week, while Wilson is scoreless in his past five games. And Rondon's averaging 2.47 shots per 90 minutes, compared to Wilson at 2.06.

Huddersfield vs. Crystal Palace (11 a.m. ET): If you added a Huddersfield defender, or goalkeeper Jonas Lossl, to your FPL team last week, you were rewarded. They posted a clean sheet in a scoreless home draw with Swansea -- aided by Jordan Ayew's straight red card in the 11th minute. (He'll now be suspended for three games, by the way.)

Florent Hadergjonaj picked up three bonus points, and fellow defenders Christopher Schindler and Zanka earned one. Schindler's a little more expensive (4.7 million), but he now has 13 bonus points this season, compared to five for the other two.

Playing at home again this week, I think another Huddersfield clean sheet is certainly possible. I added Schindler last week, and this week I've brought in Lossl, who's ranked 10th among goalkeepers this season with 110 FPL points and will only cost you 4.6 million.

Offensively, Steve Mounie (5.8 million) scored a goal in Gameweek 27 and 28, and took eight shots last week. But Huddersfield, despite taking 30 shots against Swansea (30!) did not score, which isn't promising.

As for Palace, they fell 2-1 at Chelsea last Saturday. But Wilfried Zaha did return from injury, coming on at halftime and getting the assist on Patrick van Aanholt's late goal. I'm rolling with Huddersfield's defense this week, but Zaha will be the most talented player on the field, that's for sure.

Stoke vs. Everton: (11 a.m. ET): This game features two of the worst defensive teams in the Premier League, so you'd think there would be goals in this one. (Then again, these teams are pretty bad overall, so who knows?) Stoke are in the relegation zone, currently 18th, and have given up the second-most goals, 56. Everton are in ninth place, and have given up the fifth-most goals, 49.

Gylfi Sigurdsson suffered a knee injury in Everton's 2-0 home win over Brighton last week, so he won't be available. Theo Walcott limped off in that game as well. It sounds like he'll be available Saturday, but he's still a risk.

Cenk Tosun scored last week for Everton (the other goal was an own goal), and also scored the previous week against Burnley. I wouldn't be surprised if he got another one against Stoke. But Tosun's in a higher price bracket than the likes of Wilson, Rondon and Mounie at 6.7 million. And last week was the first time Tosun has played the full 90 minutes in a Premier League game.

Stoke is coming off a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Manchester City, in which they only mustered three shots, but that's no big surprise against the champions-elect. I have Xherdan Shaqiri (6.3 million) on my FPL team, and while he hasn't scored in Stoke's past two games, he had a goal in three straight prior to that.

One note of caution, if you're not using your Free Hit -- both these teams face very difficult fixtures after this game. Stoke play at Arsenal, then host Spurs. Everton host Manchester City, and then Liverpool.

Liverpool vs. Watford (1:30 p.m. ET): Liverpool are the only "Big Six" club with a league game this weekend, so hopefully you have three of their players on your FPL team by now. I've got attackers Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, and defender Andrew Robertson.

You could certainly also go with three attackers. Sadio Mane was the only one to pick up extra points in Liverpool's 2-1 loss at Manchester United last week, being credited with an assist on Eric Bailly's own goal.

Watford didn't look very good in a 3-0 loss at Arsenal last Sunday. I'm one of the 8.4 percent of FPL players who've held on to Richarlison, despite his drought. He hasn't scored a goal since Gameweek 12, and hasn't had an assist since Gameweek 21. But Richarlison looked more like his old self against Arsenal -- he was allowed to play the full 90 minutes for the first time since Gameweek 24, and took four shots.

Poor Harry: The biggest news coming out of Gameweek 30 was Harry Kane suffering an ankle injury in Spurs' win over Bournemouth. The team announced Wednesday that Kane has suffered damaged lateral ligaments, and is expected to return to first team training next month.

Spurs don't play another Premier League fixture until April 1, due to the upcoming international break. But it sounds like Kane is going to miss at least a game or two.

The absence of Kane could make Heung-Min Son even more attractive, FPL-wise. Son is red-hot, scoring two more goals against Bournemouth. And he could play up top in place of Kane, potentially leading to even more goal chances.

Poor United: Manchester United got a big win over Liverpool last weekend, but they followed that up by losing 2-1 at home to Sevilla on Tuesday, knocking them out of the Champions League.

Marouane Fellaini started ahead of Paul Pogba against Sevilla, putting yet another dent in Pogba as a fantasy asset this season. Phil Jones missed another game due to injury. Romelu Lukaku scored Man United's goal, and he's actually scored in three of their past five league games. Lukaku is an option to replace Kane if the Spurs striker is out for a while.

Opportunity knocks: Manchester City are still in the Champions League, but they were without Sergio Aguero for the win over Stoke this past Monday. Aguero suffered what sounds like a minor knee injury in training, and it remains to be seen whether he'll be back for their next league game on March 31.

The absence of Aguero meant Gabriel Jesus started a league game for the first time since New Year's Eve, and he got an assist against Stoke. Also, Raheem Sterling returned from injury and had an assist as well. David Silva scored both goals, but he's still a risk fantasy-wise. Silva continues to fly home to Spain frequently to be with his son Mateo, who was born prematurely back in December.

Another exit: Chelsea beat Bournemouth last weekend, thanks to a Willian goal and an own goal. But they were bounced from the Champions League this week as well, losing 3-0 at Barcelona. It's worth noting that, even though he didn't score in either game, Olivier Giroud started at forward instead of Alvaro Morata. If you still have Morata on your FPL roster -- and he's still on 7.5 percent of them -- you really should move on.

Marcos Alonso did take a team-high four shots against Barcelona, and hit the woodwork, so he's still an offensive threat in addition to benefiting from clean sheets. But Chelsea host Spurs in Gameweek 32.

Some good news: Arsenal were able to start their preferred back four against AC Milan in the Europa League on Thursday. Nacho Monreal, who has missed the past three league games, was back in the starting lineup. Hector Bellerin and Laurent Koscielny, who also missed last week's victory over Watford, started as well.

Having an Arsenal defender down the stretch isn't a bad idea, as their next four scheduled league games are against Stoke (home), Southampton (home), Newcastle (away) and West Ham (home).

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan both had a goal and an assist against Watford. They'll be worth thinking about come Gameweek 32 and beyond as well.

Good luck: So, are you going to use your Free Hit chip, or not? I'm able to field an FPL team of eight active players in Gameweek 31, so I'm going to save mine for one of the upcoming double gameweeks.

The four Premier League games on Saturday, particularly the first three, are far from exciting matchups on their own. But from an FPL perspective, they're pretty darn important! Hope you find some points in them.

Source: espn.co.uk

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