Chief's fantasy football picks – Gameweek 17 & 18

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Written by:@FPLHINTS | www.fplhints.com

Must-have pick – Mohamed Salah

With 13 league goals in his last 16 appearances, I can’t look beyond Mohamed Salah as both an essential asset and breakout star. He also happens to be the current top goal scorer in the Premier League.

Once again he demonstrated his potency over the weekend with a crucial strike in the Merseyside derby. In fact, such is his consistency, Salah has scored or assisted in his last eight consecutive league appearances. During this period he has been directly involved with 52% of Liverpool’s goals.

Of course he may be prone to rotation and could be rested at times with the busy period of games ahead. But as demonstrated against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium, he’s also capable of scoring even with a non-starting role. Liverpool face West Brom and Bournemouth in their next two fixtures, which should not be a hindrance for Salah in continuing his fine run of individual form.

Comeback pick – Dwight Gayle

It may be unusual to recommend a player from a team that has failed to win in their last seven games, but I think there’s a strong case to look at Dwight Gayle. After scoring 23 goals in the Championship last season with a 72% strike rate, it would have been easy to presume that he was capable of also playing a starring role for Newcastle United in the top tier.

However, he hardly started from the onset and had limited game time as recently as late October. With this in mind, from August, he failed to score in his first nine league appearances. The status quo has now drastically changed – he has started four out of the last five of Newcastle United’s Premier League games, during which he has been directly involved with 100% of their goals by netting three times and assisting once.

The Magpies face Everton and Arsenal in their next two games. There’s no guarantee that they can secure a result in either match, but if they do register goals it may very likely be due to Dwight Gayle’s influence.

Differential pick – Heung-Min Son

In my opinion. the South Korea international has been one of the most underrated Premier League players in recent years. Despite at times playing a secondary role alongside the likes of Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli, he still managed to score an impressive 14 league goals last season.

Son has started seven of the last nine league games for Tottenham, during which he has quietly scored four goals and attained two assists. He’s unlikely to play 90 minutes per match regularly, unlike some of his teammates, but his underlying stats simply can’t be ignored.

Since August, his shooting accuracy has been superior than Harry Kane’s in the Premier League (44% v 36%). Son has also averaged a shot on goal for almost every 30 minutes played this season. Such is his pedigree that he is the Premier League’s all-time leading goalscorer from Asia.

Tottenham are due to face Brighton and Hove Albion, followed by Manchester City in the Premier League. Even if Son makes cameo appearances in both games, I have no doubt that he is capable of troubling both back-lines in a scoring or assisting capacity.