Gameweek 25 offers a real challenge for fantasy football managers everywhere, with a blank for Carabao Cup finalists Manchester United and Newcastle, as well as high-flyers Brentford and Brighton taking a rest.
To compensate, we have double-gameweeks for Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Wolves.
With that in mind, here are five essential picks to consider for your FPL side ahead of Friday’s 18.30 deadline:
Jarrod Bowen
West Ham’s top scorer this season carries the kind of form and underlying statistics that simply can’t be ignored heading into GW25.
At £8.0m, you may choose to look elsewhere for a cheap midfielder, but if you need to make some ground up and want to gamble, Jarrod Bowen is your man.
Bowen faces Nottingham Forest at home next, with 21 points from his previous two home matches and averaging just under five points per game since the resumption of the Premier League after the World Cup break.
If that doesn’t convince you, since the restart (from GW17 onward), he’s had more shots (14) and created more chances (15) than any other West Ham player.
Despite such a strong points record in recent weeks and great stats to accompany them, Bowen is owned by only 2.8% of managers, making him a fantastic differential option in a week where some big hitters blank.
Andreas Pereira
An early-season favourite, Fulham’s Brazilian talisman is all but certain to start against Wolves on Friday night, as he has in all 24 Premier League games up to this point so far.
Staggeringly, in that time, Pereira has established himself as the seventh-placed ‘best value player’ in the entire league, offering managers a return of 20.23 points per £1m and only a few FPL favourites, such as Kieran Trippier and David Raya, stand above him.
“Why this week?”, you may ask:
Fulham will likely be unable to call upon Aleksandar Mitrovic through injury, meaning more emphasis will be placed on Periera to provide or generate goals.
Stats show that the midfielder steps up in the absence of Fulham’s top-scorer - averaging 4.7 points per game without the Serbian to 3.57 with him in the side.
The Brazilian will also take penalties, should Mitrovic not take the field...
Jordan Pickford
With an Everton double-gameweek in GW25, bringing in a defender or goalkeeper from the blue half of Merseyside is a no-brainer.
Setting you back just £4.4m, Jordan Pickford and his Everton teammates will not convince you with a strong clean sheet record, (with just five all season), but England’s No 1 averages 3.5 saves a game and has earned 12 points in three games since new boss Sean Dyche joined and steadied the Toffees back line.
Everton face Villa in the first of their two fixtures in GW25. Despite scoring twice against league leaders Arsenal, the Villains only managed 0.42 xG and had seven shots all game, which suits our goalkeeper choice of Pickford.
Oleksandr Zinchenko
Arsenal’s Ukrainian left-back is a very strong choice this week.
At £5.1m, Zinchenko is cheaper than fellow double-gameweekers Liverpool’s obvious defensive picks in Andy Robertson (£6.8m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m) and Virgil Van Djik (£6.5m) and offers more going forward than his Arsenal teammates in Gabriel and William Saliba.
Consistency and injury have been the full-back’s enemies this season, however, he has brought five or more points back in nearly half of his matches (seven occasions out of 16 appearances).
Coming off the back of a seven-pointer against Aston Villa, Zinchenko holds an average of 1.1 shots (strong for a defender), 1.6 crosses and 0.6 key passes per game.
Matheus Cunha
With Mitrovic out, why not partner your big hitter Erling Haaland or Harry Kane with a cheap and cheerful striker?
Despite still being on the hunt for his elusive first goal, Matheus Cunha is worth a gamble.
With no goals (yet) to justify his £5.5m selection, I direct you to his two shots per game average in a Wolves team that doesn’t create a lot.
The forward is worth a shot given a double-gameweek, low price and decent performances, even if his stats don’t blow you away.
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Good luck in Gameweek 25 everyone.
