This might sound slightly ridiculous but I’m toying with the idea of taking Erling Haaland out of my fantasy team this week or next week.
It is clearly a risky strategy given he has scored 27 goals in 26 Premier League appearances for Manchester City this season, and has the potential to rack up a big FPL score in the blink of an eye – but hear me out.
City are at Crystal Palace in gameweek 27, they blank in gameweek 28 because of their involvement in the FA Cup quarter-finals and then are at home to Liverpool in gameweek 29.
That is two games for Haaland, while in that time Brentford’s Ivan Toney could potentially play five games and the likes of Kai Havertz, Joao Felix, Ollie Watkins, Kelechi Iheanacho and Brennan Johnson could all play four.
There are also plenty of captaincy options without Haaland in gameweeks 27 and 29, but I would make sure I had the money to buy him straight back in gameweek 30 when Manchester City go to Southampton, followed by a home game against Leicester in gameweek 31.
This week you want to be targeting those Brighton and Brentford assets for their doubles – Brighton are at Leeds and at home to Crystal Palace, Brentford have away games at Everton and Southampton.
Do not forget though that Brighton are one of those teams that have no fixture in gameweek 28, so you need to factor that into your planning.
The tricky thing is trying to decide which Brighton midfielder to go for, or perhaps which two out of Alexis Mac Allister, Kaoru Mitoma and Solly March you want to get into your team.
I cannot really help you here other than to say that my gut instinct is to go for Mitoma, based mainly on the fact that I just love watching him as a player. He is the best finisher of the three who can fashion a chance out of nothing with his dazzling dribbling skills, and Statman Dave told us in the Fantasy 606 podcast this week that he is also likely to get more minutes than the other two.
March constantly gets into some great goalscoring positions – he could easily have had a big haul against West Ham last week and has produced four double-digit FPL scores since the World Cup – while Mac Allister has been playing in a more advanced role recently, getting a wealth of chances and is also the team’s penalty-taker.
Basically they are all good players to have in your team for the long-term, and their returns could be well-matched over the course of the rest of the season, but if you only want them for the short-term then you have got to hope you are lucky enough to land on the right one.
Ivan Toney is obviously your top Brentford pick and will be a very popular captain in gameweek 27, but if you’re looking to make up ground on your rivals then one of those Brighton midfielders will have more differential value as your skipper.
Liverpool stunned us with their seven-goal demolition of Manchester United last Sunday, and punished managers like me who sold my Liverpool players on my gameweek 26 wildcard.
They now go to Bournemouth before blanking in gameweek 28, then it’s a tricky double in gameweek 29 away to Manchester City and Chelsea.
I am not going to buy any of them back, but if you’ve got them then you certainly don’t sell them this week – and one of Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez or Cody Gakpo could definitely be worth holding on to for that run of games.
They are a good example as well of why you do not need to panic if your team is not rammed with Brighton and Brentford players for this double gameweek.
There are quite a few single gameweek fixtures that look like they could produce healthy points hauls – Liverpool at Bournemouth, Manchester United at home to Southampton, Tottenham hosting Nottingham Forest and Newcastle against Wolves. It does not always follow the script of course, but it means you should not feel the need to take big points hits to get those double gameweek players into your squads.
Chelsea assets are starting to look a more attractive proposition after their back-to-back wins against Leeds and Borussia Dortmund, and they have a promising set of fixtures ahead – away at Leicester this week, at home to Everton in gameweek 28 and then a double gameweek with two home matches against Aston Villa and Liverpool.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is a good, cheap goalkeeping option, Reece James and Ben Chilwell were back in force as the wing-backs against Dortmund which is an exciting prospect, and I thought Kai Havertz caught the eye in that game who offers the added bonus of taking penalties.
Alistair Bruce-Ball presents the Fantasy 606 podcast alongside former Premier League winner Chris Sutton and Statman Dave. The latest episode previewing gameweek 27 is available on the BBC Sounds App.
