Salah, Liverpool a good option in Gameweek 28

Published on: 22 February 2018

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Doesn't it feel like the Premier League has been gone for a month?

It's only been two weeks, but a lot has happened since then, including a bunch of FA Cup and Champions League games to take into account.

Here's a Fantasy Premier League primer heading into Gameweek 28 this weekend:

No quadruple: Manchester City won't win four trophies this season -- in case you missed it, they suffered a shocking 1-0 defeat at League One side Wigan on Monday, knocking them out of the FA Cup.

Don't worry about Man City's form, however. Prior to that, they won 5-1 at home over Leicester City in Gameweek 27, and 4-0 at Basel in the Champions League.

Sergio Aguero is on a roll, folks. He scored four goals in the Leicester game, and had a goal and an assist vs. Basel. He also notched a hat trick in Gameweek 24 against Newcastle. Here's the problem -- Gabriel Jesus has returned to full training, making Aguero a rotation risk again.

I'm more tempted to add Kevin De Bruyne to my squad at this point. He continues to rack up assists, collecting three against Leicester and another one against Basel. De Bruyne's now the second-ranked player in FPL this season, with 174 points.

You'll have to wait until next Thursday, March 1, for Man City's Gameweek 28 fixture, at Arsenal. It's been pushed back because the Carabao Cup final -- featuring the same two teams -- is on Sunday. Man City also play Chelsea in Gameweek 29, and don't have a match in Gameweek 31 (more on that later). But if you're looking to add a Man City player, I'd lean toward KDB.

Cold water: Same deal for Arsenal -- you'll have to wait until next Thursday, and they're playing Manchester City. But Arsenal's next six scheduled games are against non-"Big Six" opposition (although they also won't play in Gameweek 31).

The Gunners lost 1-0 at Spurs in Gameweek 27, and mustered only six shots (one on target). Henrikh Mkhitaryan followed up his three-assist performance the week before with a lackluster 64 minutes, and fellow new boy Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang didn't take a single shot despite playing the full 90.

Mkhitaryan did have an assist in the subsequent 3-0 win at Ostersunds, but that's against a Swedish team in the Europa League. You wouldn't want to add Arsenal players this week anyway, given the matchup with Man City.

Reds hot: Liverpool, on the other hand, is definitely a team you should be looking at right now in terms of adding players. Let's start with their game this weekend, hosting West Ham (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET). It's the most lopsided matchup of the slate by far, according to FiveThirtyEight's Soccer Power Index, which gives Liverpool an 85 percent chance to win.

Jurgen Klopp's club is coming off a 2-0 victory at Southampton in Gameweek 27, and a 5-0 drubbing of Porto in Portugal in the Champions League.

Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino continue to shine. Salah and Firmino both had a goal and an assist against Southampton. They also each scored a goal against Porto, although Sadio Mane was the biggest star of that game, bagging a hat trick. I'd still go with Salah and Firmino over Mane, though -- they're on 58.8 and 40.1 percent of FPL rosters, respectively, for a reason. They're ranked first and sixth overall, with 217 and 141 FPL points.

The other reason to add a Liverpool player right now is because they'll definitely play in Gameweek 31. Right now there will only be five fixtures that week due to the FA Cup, and that number will drop to four if Spurs win their replay against Rochdale. In that case, Liverpool would be the only "Big Six" club in action.

Having a Liverpool defender isn't be a bad idea, either, coming off those back-to-back clean sheets. Virgil van Dijk (5.5 million pounds) is the least likely to be rotated.

Roller coaster: It's been an up and down couple of weeks for Spurs. They followed up that 1-0 win over Arsenal with an impressive 2-2 draw at Juventus in the Champions League, clawing their way back after giving up two early goals. But then they gave up a late equalizer to Rochdale, who are joint-bottom of League One on 26 points, in another 2-2 draw.

Harry Kane scored a goal in all three of those games, so there's certainly no reason to lose faith in him -- especially with Spurs playing at Crystal Palace on Sunday, (7 a.m. ET). One player to worry about is Heung-Min Son, currently on 11.8 percent of FPL rosters. Son didn't start against Juve, replaced by Erik Lamela. And Mauricio Pochettino has another option now with Lucas Moura scoring his first goal for Spurs against Rochdale.

Warning signs: Things are not great at Manchester United, despite the fact they're still second in the table. They lost 1-0 at Newcastle in Gameweek 27, defeated Huddersfield 2-0 in the FA Cup, but then were dominated at Sevilla in the Champions League, escaping with a scoreless draw thanks to David de Gea. Now they face another difficult game, at home against Chelsea on Sunday (9:15 a.m. ET).

Paul Pogba is still currently on 13.1 percent of FPL rosters, and those people need to wake up! He and Jose Mourinho are not on the same page right now, to say the least. Pogba was hauled off after 65 minutes against Newcastle, pulled out of the Huddersfield game claiming illness, and then didn't start against Sevilla. What a talent, but a waste of 8.0 million FPL pounds right now.

The same goes for Jesse Lingard (6.1 million), who was taken off along with Pogba against Newcastle, only came on in the 81st minute against Huddersfield, and didn't play at all against Sevilla. Lingard is also on 13.1 percent of rosters.

Man United had just six shots (one on target) against Sevilla. None of their attacking options are enticing -- Alexis Sanchez didn't even take one shot in that game. But I can't blame you for wanting de Gea, if you don't already have him.

Tough sked: Chelsea have fared much better leading up to this big game on Sunday, beating West Brom 3-0 in Gameweek 27 and Hull City 4-0 in the FA Cup before a very creditable 1-1 home draw with Barcelona in the Champions League.

But I wouldn't be looking to add any Chelsea players right now, given their upcoming schedule. After Man United, they play at Manchester City in Gameweek 29. They also won't play in Gameweek 31, and host Spurs in Gameweek 32.

Marcos Alonso returned from injury against Barcelona, but he's only worth the money (7.2 million pounds) for his added goal threat, which isn't looking as strong the next few weeks. Cesar Azpilicueta (7.0 million) had a goal and five assists in the first 11 weeks of the season, but has no goals and one assist since. This would be a good time to downgrade if you have one of these defenders.

Blanks slate: The four guaranteed matchups for Gameweek 31 are Liverpool vs. Watford, Stoke vs. Everton, Bournemouth vs. West Brom and Huddersfield vs. Crystal Palace. This will not be a Premier League weekend to remember.

You could always use your free hit chip (if you haven't already) and load up on players from these teams for one week. But they aren't very attractive, FPL-wise. I'm leaning toward just adding a couple players I'd consider adding anyway in the next month, and fielding as strong a team as I can that weekend, saving my chip for later.

We've already talked about Liverpool. Another player I'm looking at with Gameweek 31 in mind is Oumar Niasse, who picked up a goal and an assist in Everton's 3-1 win over Crystal Palace in Gameweek 27. Niasse has started three straight games, and will only cost you 4.9 million pounds.

Everton plays at Watford this week (Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET), followed by games against Burnley (away) and Brighton (home) -- not bad. And their opponent in Gameweek 31, Stoke, have given up 53 goals -- six more than any other team in the league.

Same game, different position: Everton have been poor defensively themselves, giving up 46 goals on the season, so I'm also looking at Stoke players with Gameweek 31 in mind.

Xherdan Shaqiri has scored in back-to-back games, and also had an assist in Gameweek 24. He'll only cost you 6.2 million pounds. Stoke do play Manchester City in Gameweek 30, though.

If you want a cheaper option in midfield, Crystal Palace's Luka Milivojevic (4.8 million pounds) scored his seventh goal of the season, and fourth in the past six games, in the 3-1 loss to Everton mentioned above. But he's less of an attacking threat -- six of those goals came from the penalty spot -- and Palace's next three opponents are Spurs (home), Manchester United (home) and Chelsea (away). Yikes!

Risky business: Riyad Mahrez returned to Leicester City squad for Gameweek 27, but only came off the bench in the 5-1 loss to Manchester City -- the team he wanted to move to in the January transfer window, which led to him sitting out Gameweeks 25 and 26.

The question now is, which Mahrez will we see the rest of the way? The one who was brilliant during Leicester's title-winning season two years ago, and for much of this season up until the Man City mess? Or the underwhelming player of last season?

Mahrez did return to the starting lineup for Leicester's subsequent 1-0 FA Cup win over Sheffield United, and provided the assist for Jamie Vardy's goal. (Vardy is playing very well right now, by the way, scoring a goal in five consecutive games.)

Leicester doesn't play in Gameweek 31, but their next nine scheduled games are against non-"Big Six" opposition. They'll have a makeup game with Arsenal during that stretch, but the upcoming fixture list still looks very tempting, starting with a home game against Stoke on Saturday (7:30 a.m. ET). Mahrez is still tied for eighth overall in FPL points with 138, despite missing those two games. I'm thinking about rolling the dice on him.

B-fense: Burnley also won't play in Gameweek 31, but their next eight scheduled games are against non-"Big Six" clubs -- with a makeup game against Chelsea to be added in. I still think it's good business to have a Burnley defender in your FPL squad. They've given up 24 goals -- only Man United, Man City and Chelsea have given up fewer -- and host Southampton this week (10 a.m. ET).

Ben Mee (4.9 million pounds) is still the safest option, due to injury and rotation concerns elsewhere on the back line. And if you have Nick Pope, second among all goalkeepers with 116 FPL points, don't worry about Tom Heaton coming back -- at least, not yet. Heaton did play in a friendly this week, but Sean Dyche said Heaton is still working his way back and not being considered for selection yet.

Source: espn.co.uk

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