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Saturday's Daily Fantasy Gameweek 22 must-haves and must-nots

Saturday sees a total of 7 Premier League fixtures, with the best being the evening kick off at the Etihad, as Manchester City host Tottenham. There are various other fixtures that could see some high scores and more importantly, some huge fantasy football points. So who should you bring into your teams and who should you avoid?

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Christian Eriksen, Phillippe Coutinho and Leighton Baines
Christian Eriksen, Phillippe Coutinho and Leighton Baines

Must-Haves

Defenders

The surprising result of the weekend had to be Everton’s sheer thumping of Manchester City. The Toffees seem to have hit form at a good time with some very winnable fixtures coming up and therefore our first must-have this week is Leighton Baines, who faces a trip to Crystal Palace this weekend. He has picked up a goal, an assist and 2 clean sheets in his last 3 so could provide some decent fantasy points. Considering Spurs have City away this weekend, we must think very highly of their current form to have 3 of their players in our must-haves for the week!

[Sunday’s must-haves and must-nots for Gameweek 22]

[The General’s budget tips for Gameweek 22]

The first of whom is Kyle Walker who has 2 clean sheets and an assist in his last 2 (one of those games being against league leaders Chelsea). Spurs have 6 wins on the bounce and are looking very, very good. A funny old team that also finds themselves in the top half of the table is West Brom. To watch, they look solid at the back. However, even in games where they look comfortable, they seem to inevitably concede which is proven by their inability to keep a clean sheet in their last 9. But they must be due one soon and it could be this weekend against Sunderland. Therefore, despite his unlucky own goal last week, we give a shout out to Gareth McAuley.

Gareth McAuley
Gareth McAuley

Midfielders

The second of our Spurs trio is someone who is arguably being overshadowed by fellow in-form midfielder Dele Alli. Christian Eriksen, as already mentioned, faces a trip to the Etihad this weekend but with a whopping 6 assists in his last 4 games, he is definitely a man in form. Liverpool host Swansea this weekend and potentially with their star man back in the running to make the starting XI. Philippe Coutinho has clearly been missed by Liverpool and Klopp will be looking forward to getting his best player back. If Coutinho starts, he will likely come back with a bang and Swansea may struggle to compete with the challenge. Our final midfield select for this week’s Saturday games is Michail Antonio who faces a trip to Middlesbrough. A shake up at West Ham due to the Dmitri Payet saga resulted in Antonio bagging a hat-trick of assists last time out. West Ham should have enough about them to break down a stubborn ‘Boro defence and that combined with his form is enough reason to bring him in for this week.

coutinho
coutinho

Strikers

I’m sure you can guess who completes our Spurs trio this week? That’s right, its Harry Kane. On paper, a fixture with City is off-putting but if you have watched the Manchester club recently, you should have every confidence that Spurs should take this one. 6 goals and an assist in his last 4 means Kane is bang in form too. Manchester United face a trip to Stoke and some may think it will be Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s toughest test yet. Can he do it on a cold day in Stoke? As it’s not a cold night, we expect he will be fine and with Stoke only keeping one clean sheet in 5 and Ibra bagging a massive 10 goals and 4 assists in his last 11 outings, we expect Man United to extend their unbeaten run. Our final forward pick is the big Belgian, Romelu Lukaku. As mentioned previously, Everton face Crystal Palace this Saturday, who haven’t managed to keep a clean sheet in 7 – since the beginning of November – despite a change in management. Lukaku is also enjoying his football at the moment with 3 goals and an assist in his last 4. Expect the south London club to be swept aside by this confident looking Everton team.

Romelu Lukaku
Romelu Lukaku

Must-Nots

Defenders

Our first suggestion to avoid would be Joel Ward, or any Palace defender for that matter this weekend. No clean sheet in 7 is not good reading for any fantasy managers considering him and after watching how Everton took apart a very good (at least on paper) City side last weekend, we would not be surprised if similar events happened again this Saturday. Another one to avoid would be Swansea’s Kyle Naughton, or again, any Swansea defender. Conceding an average of 3 goals a game in their last 6 is not good reading and with Liverpool averaging 2 goals a game in their last 6, this should be a high scoring win for Liverpool.

Our last must-not defender this week is Nicolas Otamendi. We’ve decided to stop picking on John Stones as most are now aware of his mistakes of late. However, Otamendi is also part of the City defence that only have 2 clean sheets in 11 and are out of form. They face a Spurs side who have scored 19 in their last 6 and are definitely in form so this fixture seems to be ending in only one result.

Nicolas Otamendi
Nicolas Otamendi

Midfielders

For must-not midfielders, we are picking on the same 3 teams again (Sorry guys!). Leroy Fer is struggling for game time despite being, in my opinion, a more capable footballer at a club footing the table. He is unlikely to get anything out of the game against Liverpool if he does make it onto the pitch so definitely one to avoid. Jason Puncheon has had no major return in Palace’s last 7 games, with his last contribution coming 8 games ago, and that was just an assist! His next significant return prior to that was in Gameweek 5! His opponents, Everton, have kept 3 clean sheets in their last 4 so don’t bank on this man to do much.

Raheem Sterling hasn’t had a bad return recently with 4 assists and a goal in his last 6, but don’t let this tempt you. City are a team struggling for form and Spurs are dominating midfield areas currently so don’t gamble on this one. Our last must-not suggestion is Adnan Januzaj. In all of his games this season, he only has 1 assist to show for his efforts in terms of fantasy returns. As mentioned previously, West Brom look solid when you do watch them but if they do leak a goal, it is unlikely to come from this guy.

Raheem Sterling
Raheem Sterling

Strikers

Our Palace bashing finishes here with our must-not striker suggestion of Christian Benteke. No return in Premier League 6 matches and Palace have only managed 3 goals in their last 6. Given Everton’s recent clean sheet form, this stat doesn’t look like it is improving any time soon. Our other must-not striker suggestion for the week comes in the shape of Troy Deeney. If goals are going to come for Watford, it’s likely Troy will be involved but Watford have only managed 2 goals in their last 6 so I wouldn’t gamble on it.

With special thanks to the guys across at FPL Updates: http://fplupdates.com/

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