Saturday's Daily Fantasy Gameweek 29 must-haves and must-nots: Lukaku, Sigurdsson, Mahrez and more

Gameweek 29 of the Premier League season is upon us and this week we see the final set of games before the International break. Saturday treats us to 7 fixtures with Arsenal travelling to West Brom for the early kick off and Bournemouth welcoming Swansea to the south coast for a crucial relegation battle clash. For you budding fantasy football managers out there, we have compiled a list of ‘must-have’ and ‘must-not’ players. Hopefully these will help you out when it comes to building your teams!

READ MORE: Sunday’s Daily Fantasy Gameweek 29 must-haves and must-nots

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Must-Haves

Defenders

Seamus Coleman is becoming a regular feature on these lists. With Leighton Baines being withdrawn at half time last week through injury, a lot of FPL managers were left frustrated at having selected him over Coleman. Everton have 7 clean sheets from their last 11 games and have a 100% win record at home in 2017 so Coleman should be a safe bet against struggling Hull. Another player you could arguably consider a safe bet is Marcus Alonso. Chelsea’s performances of late have been of considerable note, especially their handling of Manchester United in the FA Cup on Monday. Chelsea haven’t kept a clean sheet in 5 now and have been subject to conceding goals from aerial attacks recently but Antonio Conte will be looking to put this right and Alonso will have a major part to play. Our final choice for the week is Hector Bellerin, which may surprise some given the recent turmoil Arsenal is enduring but given they are up against a West Brom side who have failed to score in their last 2, we are backing the Spaniard to have a good game.

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Midfielders

Our first midfield pick is Riyad Mahrez. As it alway seem to go, Leicester are in the bubble of ‘new manager syndrome’ and have enjoyed 2 vital wins in the Premier League, as well as making it to the last 8 in the Champions League in recent weeks. Mahrez will be key to any positive play Leicester produce and will want to start scoring more regularly after his goal last time out in the league against Hull. Our next must-have this week is Pedro. 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 3 league games is pretty good going and the fact he was rested in the FA Cup against United will mean he is raring to go this weekend against Stoke. Our final pick for the week is Gylfi Sigurdsson. Again, another regular name we tend to pick in our must-haves list but whilst Swansea keep producing the goals, this man will continue to pick up fantasy points. He is also coming up against a Bournemouth side who have conceded 13 goals in their last 5 game so you would back the Swans to at least grab a goal.

Forwards

There is only one place to start this week when it comes to forwards and that is with Bournemouth’s Josh King. 8 goals from his last 7 games, including a hat-trick against West Ham last week (despite missing a penalty), means he is top of our must-have list this week. A Swansea defence who suffered defeat at the hands of Hull last week may find it too much of a task to keep him out on Saturday. Our next attacking pick this week comes in the shape of Chilean Alexis Sanchez. He has only blanked twice in terms of attacking fantasy point returns since gameweek 12 (way back in November) and he has 5 goals and 3 assists from his last 7 games. Coming up against a West Brom side who suffered defensively last week against Everton could result in a decent trip for Sanchez and Arsenal.

A man at the centre of that West Brom demolition is our next pick – Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku. He has scored in every home game in 2017 and has managed 7 goals and an assist from his last 5 games. He may have refused to sign a new contract recently but there is no way Everton will be dropping him given the form he is in and if he wants to put himself in the transfer shop window, you can bet he’ll be putting in premium performances. Our final pick is Jermain Defoe, who has scored in every month of Premier League action since January 2016. He is yet to score in March but given he is at home and up against Burnley, the team with the worst away record in the league, we are backing him to hit the back of the net. He’ll also be in a buoyant mood following his England call-up which in our opinion he thoroughly deserves.

Must-Nots

Defenders

As mentioned above, Bournemouth can’t seem to keep a clean sheet at the moment and with only 2 wins from their last 10, they find themselves slipping down the league table. No clean sheet in 9 means avoiding Steve Cook and co would be a wise idea. Another team struggling defensively is Hull. 54 goals conceded and only 3 clean sheets all season is not good reading and this is ultimately the reason they find themselves in the league position they do. Coming up against a rampant Everton will be an absolute mountain to climb for Harry Maguire and co so we would suggest avoiding the Hull back-line – since their last clean sheet, they have conceded 23 goals, which is an average of roughly 2.5 goals a game. Our final suggestion for teams to avoid defensively is Swansea. 1 clean sheet since December 2016 is a poor stat from the Welsh side and they come up against a Bournemouth team who are scoring on a frequent basis lately. He may have grabbed an assist a few weeks back against Leicester but other than this, Federico Fernandez and co should be avoided.

Midfielders

Joe Allen had some terrific form in the early stage of the season and was really living up to the “Welsh Pirlo” moniker! Unfortunately, lately he has reverted back to the ‘Welsh Joe Allen’ and with Chelsea the visitors this Saturday, it’s unlikely is poor Fantasy form will improve Saturday. West Brom also have a tough fixture against Arsenal and thus the likes of Nacer Chadli and Matt Phillips should be considered must nots this weekend. Although Hull have been on a good run of late, this weekend they face an in-form Everton side who will be looking to brush Hull aside and therefore, Tom Huddlestone may be one to avoid this weekend.

Attackers

Despite this though, Hull City have been in some good form of late, picking up some points and really trying to dig themselves out of the relegation zone. Some of this is due to Oumar Niasse and his ability to find the back of the net of late. However, this week they face Everton and he is illegible, so don’t fall into this trap! Bournemouth’s Benik Afobe has been playing quite the opposite when compared to Niasse and has been lacking any attacking returns of late, so be sure to avoid! In the early game, this only looks like it can go one way; an Arsenal victory. With that said, Salomon Rondon should be avoided, as it is massively unlikely that he will pick up any points this weekend and isn’t even guaranteed a start following Hal Robson-Kanu being awarded a rare start last weekend.

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