Mail Sport’s FPL predictions: Which explosive bandwagon has fantasy managers purring ahead of Gameweek 7? Who is the ‘best value pick in the game’? And can Erik ten Hag finally end his winless run at Aston Villa?
Liverpool have a shot at taking a four-point advantage over their Premier League title rivals this weekend as they get us going in the 12:30pm Saturday kick-off against Crystal Palace.
Gameweek 7 also offers peril if you’re connected with Manchester United, particularly if your name is Erik ten Hag. The Red Devils face a trip to Aston Villa and a negative result could spell time on the Dutchman’s Old Trafford reign.
Erling Haaland didn’t score last weekend against Newcastle, believe it or not, but still costs you the prettiest penny out of all with a price of £15.3million.
Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) and Cole Palmer (£10.7m) are the next priciest, but there are plenty of value picks – and one of our experts has named the best you can get.
Ahead of Saturday’s 11am deadline, Mail Sport’s experts pick out the red flags, gamblers, and shoe-ins. Jhon Duran, anyone?
FPL managers have until the 11am deadline on Saturday to submit their teams ahead of GW7
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
Aadam Patel, Sports Reporter and Content Creator
In 12 matches against Crystal Palace for Liverpool, Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) has eight goals and five assists so for the 40-odd percent of FPL managers with the Egyptian in their side, attacking returns are expected. Only Erling Haaland and Cole Palmer have scored more points this season than Salah’s tally of 59.
Though Liverpool conceded at Wolves last Saturday, their defence has been solid thus far, with four clean sheets out of six. Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.1m), Ibrahima Konate (£5.2m), Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) and Andy Robertson (£6.0m) are all in the list for the top six FPL scoring defenders, alongside Gabriel and Diogo Dalot.
For Palace, the most likely route for points will be with the likes of Eberechi Eze (£6.8m) and Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.4m). The pair have more FPL points than any of their teammates and it was Mateta who got on the scoresheet the last time these two sides met at Selhurst Park.
Prediction: Liverpool to win 2-1
Besides Erling Haaland on 34.7, Mo Salah has the most predicted points for upcoming weeks
Arsenal vs Southampton
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Matthew Lambert, Tennis reporter
The second of two plumb home fixtures in a row against promoted teams for Arsenal. After freakishly conceding two at home to Leicester last week they are once again comfortably the most likely team to keep a clean sheet this week, with bookies projecting around a 55 per cent chance.
The optimum Arsenal triple-up would be Bukayo Saka (£10.1m), Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.2m) and David Raya (£5.6m) but there are a few other options.
For those who cannot afford Gabriel or William Saliba (£6.0m), left back Riccardo Califiori (£5.8m) is slightly cheaper and, with Oleksandr Zinchenko injured and fitness doubts over Jurrien Timber and Ben White, it is difficult to see him missing many games.
Midfielders Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli look nicely priced at £6.9m apiece. Of the two I would favour the Brazilian; the return to fitness of Merino will put some pressure on Trossard’s minutes in the centre of midfield.
Kai Havertz (£8.2m) is also a good buy up front, although in that price bracket I prefer his north London rival Solanke.
As for Southampton, what on earth went on at Bournemouth on Monday night when Russell Martin benched Adam Armstrong, Ben Brereton Diaz and Cameron Archer? All three of those have looked like feasible FPL options at times this season but Martin is the definition of a man who does not know his best team. Taylor Hardwood-Bellis (£4.0m) is a decent budget defender but as for any other Southampton assets, just say no.
Prediction: Arsenal to win 4-0
Kai Havertz could score big against Southampton – but is Dominic Solanke better for the price?
Brentford vs Wolves
Wes Prickett (FPL Heisenberg), Fantasy Football Hub expert
Both Nathan Collins (£4.5m) and Bryan Mbeumo (£7.4m) have excellent points potential at home to Wolves in Gameweek 7 – and their fixtures beyond this Gameweek are favourable too.
Collins has impressed this season, providing consistent attacking threat from set-pieces. Clean sheets have been hard to come by, but with the favourable fixtures I think there’s a decent chance of a mix of points in the coming weeks for Collins, with some clean sheets and maybe an attacking return thrown in too.
Mbeumo remains one of the standout mid-price midfielders. With Brentford’s reliance on him for goals in the absence of Ivan Toney, Mbeumo offers great value. He’s on penalties and he’s got great goal and assist threat from open play.
I also want to give a mention to the Wolves attacking wing-back Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.4m). He made my Wildcard squad last gameweek and scored a tap in, pretty much taking up the centre forward position for his goal vs Liverpool. His attacking threat, cheap price and some favourable fixtures on the horizon makes Ait-Nouri one for the watchlist for sure.
Prediction: Brentford to win 2-1
Bryan Mbeumo is one of the standout-priced midfielders and Brentford rely on him for goals
Leicester vs Bournemouth
Lewis Steele, Merseyside football reporter
Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m) looks like one of the bargain options of the season. He has struggled for consistency in the Premier League but seems to have found it now, with four of his six games so far seeing returns of five points or above, including a goal against south coast rivals Southampton on Monday night.
Another Cherries pick could be to get ahead of the curve with striker Evanilson (£5.9m), who signed from Porto for big money in the summer to replace Dominic Solanke. He has looked sharp and opened his league account on Monday. With Leicester looking poor this season, don’t bet against him to score again here.
According to the fixture difficulty rating (FDR), Leicester have four green games coming up starting here before matches against Southampton, Nottingham Forest and Ipswich. While they may not win all four, Jamie Vardy (£5.7m) could be worth taking a punt on. The veteran striker has two goals this season and will be looking for more in the coming weeks.
Prediction: 2-2 draw
Antoine Semenyo and Jamie Vardy have been dangerous for Bournemouth and Leicester
Man City vs Fulham
James Sharpe, Mail Sport football writer and co-host of the Fantasy Island podcast
All aboard the Phil Foden (£9.2m) bandwagon. Ding-ding, tickets please.
The Manchester City midfielder made just his second start of the season on Tuesday night and notched a goal and an assist in the Champions League against Slovan Bratislava.
Foden was a crucial cog in Pep Guardiola’s wheel last season and returned some monster hauls, including two hat-tricks throughout the campaign – one of which was on my wedding day when I’d benched him.
He’s hardly featured this season, though, due to injury and illness but is finally starting to look like he’s ready to fire – and at just the right time.
Getting the right Man City assets is key over the new few gameweeks with the champions about to embark on one of the best fixture runs you could ever want, starting with Fulham at home this weekend.
After that, it’s bottom side Wolves (a), second-from-bottom Southampton at the Etihad, the two trips to the south coast against Bournemouth and then the Brighton high line that Cole Palmer just scored four against.
So, it’s a case of which two or three. Erling Haaland (£15.3m), obviously. The goal machine leads the Fantasy Football Hub points predictions for this week with 8.8, the next two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five, six, seven and eight-week periods. Yes, he costs £15.3million but rather you than me have to watch City’s upcoming fixtures without him.
A lot of managers will then have either Josko Gvardiol (£5.9m), who rewarded those who brought him in on wildcard with a goal in GW6, or the cheaper Rico Lewis (£4.7m), who can move into midfield and whose positioning in the Champions League clash was remarkably attacking. ‘The way Rico is playing, there are no words,’ said Guardiola after the game. ‘He does everything’. His comments will no doubt give FPL managers faith of a start in GW7.
Foden, at his best, is an explosive third option with a monster ceiling. I’d be very tempted by him if I hadn’t blown my wildcard last week. He just has to be starting. And that, with Pep, is so often the conundrum.
Prediction: Man City to win 4-0
Would you rather go for Phil Foden or Haaland in your team? Or can you find room for both?
West Ham vs Ipswich
Both of these sides are in desperate need of a win considering they’ve managed one between them this season, that coming for West Ham over Crystal Palace back in August.
Ipswich striker Liam Delap (£5.6m) is the most in-form it gets for these two strugglers, with three goals in his last four games including a brace against Aston Villa last weekend. He’s got the highest form score of 4.7 coming into this one and with fixtures against Everton, Brentford, and Leicester to follow, you could catch him before a potential rise in value.
West Ham are looking leaky and limp this season, so I wouldn’t hasten to have many of their players in my squad. Julen Lopetegui is already under pressure – conceding five to Liverpool and three to Chelsea recently is not a good look.
But this is, on paper, the easiest fixture for the Hammers. Jarrod Bowen (£7.4m) has a point to prove after being axed from Lee Carsley’s England squad and seeing his value drop. He’s got two goals and an assist and you’d expect him to step up at some point – but a form rating of 3.0 is a long shot from his price.
Prediction: 2-2 draw
Liam Delap could boost his value with favourable fixtures coming up in the next few weeks
Everton vs Newcastle
Jian Batra, Fantasy Football Hub expert
Predicting this result is, I would say, one of the hardest calls of the season for me so far. Perhaps to your surprise, I’m predicting a Toffees win here – although I’ve given a lot of weight to home advantage, and Newcastle missing Alexander Isak.
Ideally, Newcastle wouldn’t want to rely on Jacob Murphy at right wing and would opt for someone more creative. But, I expect him to start in the Swede’s absence.
With Everton having two very physical centre back’s, and given I imagine the line won’t be too high, I can see them giving Anthony Gordon (£7.3m) a fairly difficult game. He’s in a rich vein of form though, and it would be a brave man to bet against him finding a way to score.
In terms of Everton’s attack, Dwight McNeil (£5.6m) is the standout pick given his form, but we should not forget about Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.9m) too, given the fundamentals he possesses as an asset. I undoubtedly expect Everton to have some chances, given Eddie Howe is very unlikely to set up in the way he did against City.
I’m going with a bit of a gut feeling here, as it’s a very tough one to predict. But I can see Everton profiting in transition against the visitors.
Prediction: Everton to win 2-1
Dwight McNeil has been causing havoc on the flanks and could help Everton to a shock win
Aston Villa vs Man United
Ben Willcocks, Assistant Sports Editor
The mood and atmosphere at each respective club couldn’t be further from each other ahead of Sunday’s clash at Villa Park. Unai Emery’s side will still be flying high after their 1-0 triumph over Bayern Munich in the Champions League, while Manchester United are four games without a win following Thursday’s 3-3 draw with Porto.
Ollie Watkins (£9.1m) has been Emery’s go-to man in attack so far this season and with good reason, despite Jhon Duran’s consistent heroics from the substitutes bench. The England forward has six FPL returns over his last four fixtures and would be my pick for the most points in this clash, given Villa will be eager to push United on the back foot from the outset.
Morgan Rogers (£5.2m) is still, in my opinion, the best value pick in the game – offering absurd points potential at his bargain price. He may not have the same goal threat as Watkins but at almost half the price, he’s well worth a look.
Finally, if I were punting on a Manchester United player, I’d have to put my faith in Marcus Rashford (£6.9m). Erik ten Hag bizarrely revealed he brought the goal-scorer off at half-time against Porto due to ‘rotation’, all but confirming his place in the starting line-up against Villa.
Prediction: Aston Villa to win 3-1
Do you think Jhon Duran should start against Man United or stay on the bench as a super sub?
Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest
Abdul Rehman (FPL Salah), Fantasy Football Hub expert
Chelsea are in a great run of form right now, winning their last four games in all competitions while scoring 13 in that period.
So far in the league they have netted the most goals (15) and it’s not a huge surprise given the players they have in attack.
However Nottingham Forest won’t be a walkover as they are quite a robust defence. They have only conceded five goals (second-least) and also boast the fourth best xGC (5.9).
In the attack Chris Wood (£6.2m) has been in good form, bagging three goals in his first six and we also found out that he is now the first choice penalty taker. If Forest get anything from this fixture it’s likely the Kiwi will be the one involved.
However, the form Cole Palmer (£10.7m) is in, it’s going to take something special to keep him quiet and he has both goals and assists in his locker.
He has proven himself to be an elite FPL asset and despite the tricky fixture the 22-year-old will be the favourite to pick up attacking returns in this fixture.
I also think Enzo Maresca’s side are likely to pick a clean sheet here. Forest don’t score many goals and Chelsea have managed two clean sheets in their last three.
Malo Gusto (£4.9m) returned from injury last week, playing the full 90 minutes. He could profit here at both ends of the pitch as he has got a fair bit of attacking threat. He picked up six assists last season in only 19 starts so I like the look of him for Gameweek 7.
Prediction: Chelsea to win 2-0
Enzo Maresca has hailed Cole Palmer (£10.7m) as the best player in the Premier League
Brighton vs Tottenham
Nathan Salt, Manchester United correspondent
While Ange Postecoglou’s side won’t get a side rolling over to have their tummy tickled like Manchester United routinely seem to do, confidence is sky high for the Londoners.
It’s hard to look past Brennan Johnson (£6.4m) right now. The Welshman is one of the league’s most in-form players and only further elevated his stock with the winner against Ferencvaros in the Europa League.
Brighton are a lot of fantasy fun in that they can both score a lot – but also concede a lot too. Georginio Rutter (£5.5m) is a differential pick operating in the No 10 role and is one that could be a clever pick up.
Prediction: Tottenham to win 2-1
It’s hard to look past Brennan Johnson at £6.4m – he’s got five goals in his last five games
FPL Salah, FPL Heisenberg and FPL Jian Batra are all Fantasy Football Hub contributors and have joined Mail Sport’s expert panel to kickstart the FPL season.
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