AZ from FPL Blackbox is back with their top tips ahead of GW19, as they highlight three teams with the best fixtures to begin 2025 and which players to consider investing in as we head into the New Year.
No matter how your FPL team is looking at the midway point of the season, we’ll all be looking for ways to get ahead of rivals and climb up our mini-leagues in January and beyond.
Below I’ve highlighted three teams that have arguably the best starts to the turn of the year and who to consider investing in as we head into 2025.
AZ From FPL Blackbox GW19 Tips: 3 Teams With Best Fixtures To Start 2025
Crystal Palace
This is a perfect time to invest in Crystal Palace players. It’s been a difficult run of games, but other than a heavy defeat to Arsenal (in which they maybe didn’t deserve to lose by as many as they did), wins against Brighton and Ipswich and credible draws against Manchester City and Bournemouth showed that Glasner’s side are on the up.
The next set of fixtures look great. In the next 5 games, Chelsea looks tough in Gameweek 20, but other fixtures include Southampton, Leicester, West Ham and Brentford where you would expect to see goals aplenty and more than likely a couple of shut outs too.
In attack, Eberechi Eze (£6.6m) remains the jewel in the crown despite a difficult season hampered by injuries and a slow start for Palace. He has just 1 goal and 3 assists at the time of writing, but has scored 10+ goals in his last 2 seasons and will surely start hitting the back of the net soon. At just 7% ownership and with penalty duties, he could be a strong differential for your FPL seasons.
A player with even lower ownership is Ismaila Sarr (£5.8m) who has 4 attacking returns in his last 3 games. He nearly added to this tally against Bournemouth too but was narrowly offside. I discussed his appeal in my previous article for Sportscasting, and I remain convinced that he’s one of the best budget options in the game.
In defence, I believe we should all be considering a move for Daniel Munoz (£4.7m). He’s delivered points in 4 of his last 5 starts, including goals against Newcastle and Man City and will surely continue this trend with promising fixtures to come.
Fulham
A spirited win against Chelsea means it’s now 6 unbeaten games since the surprising loss to Wolves, and puts the Cottagers in a great position to achieve European football next season. Fulham have an enticing run coming up of Bournemouth, Ipswich, West Ham, Leicester – and even arguably Manchester United as an easier fixture to immediately follow.
Antonee Robinson (£4.9m) and Timothy Castagne (£4.2m) are standout options in defence, both offering good attacking threat and the latter set to benefit from a medium-long term injury to Kenny Tete. Personally, I think you might as well just save the £0.7m at this point and go for the cheaper of the two, Castagne also has more of a goal threat, with 6 goals over the last few seasons compared to Robinson’s… 0.
In midfield, Alex Iwobi (£5.8m) was another I mentioned in my article a few days ago but is now on a run of 4 successive blanks. I still prefer him to the other attacking options in the Fulham side however, due to the security of his starts.
Chelsea
Defeated by Fulham last Gameweek, Chelsea will be desperate to get back to winning ways. Games against Ipswich, Palace, Bournemouth and Wolves certainly give them the platform to do this.
Robert Sanchez (£4.8m) and Levi Colwill (£4.6m) are your best routes to investment in the backline, although its worth noting that Chelsea only have 2 clean sheets in the last 13 Gameweeks. I’d avoid, with better options like Jordan Pickford (£4.9m) in goal and the likes of Munoz and/or Robinson/Castagne in defence.
In attack, Cole Palmer (£11.3m) remains essential and presents an intriguing captaincy choice to Salah over the coming weeks. As a Nicolas Jackson (£8.3m) owner, I’m concerned about a potential rest against Ipswich, but after that he looks a good pick to partner with Palmer for the foreseeable.
Also consider Enzo Fernandez (£5.1m), yet another cheap asset who continues to put in decent underlying attacking numbers despite a couple of blanks in his last few matches. This concludes the latest AZ from FPL Blackbox tips.
Be sure to claim the various football betting offers and free bet deals available on the SportsCasting site ahead of the next round of Premier League fixtures.
