The time has come to go without Erling Haaland.
After just one goal in four games for the Manchester City striker, the money can be spread better elsewhere this week.
Step up captain Mohamed Salah at home to Brighton. No pressure, Mo!
The team of the week is selected based on current FPL prices to fit within a £100m budget, as if you were playing a Free Hit.
How did last week’s team do?
Finally there were some clean sheets – two of them from Josko Gvardiol (nine points) and Rico Lewis (six).
Those plus star performances from Bryan Mbuemo (15) and Cole Palmer (10), plus a return from captain Haaland, led to a respectable 64 points.
It could have been so much more for Haaland, who missed three big chances against Southampton, but he was captained by most FPL players anyway.
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Keeper and defence
Matz Sels, Nottingham Forest, keeper, £4.6m – home to West Ham
The Belgian is on a nice run of form – with a surprise assist and a clean sheet in his past two games.
Forest are still top five in most defensive stats and have conceded just seven goals – the second-lowest total in the league.
At home and with clean sheets in general at a premium, Sels makes sense.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool, defender, £7m – home to Brighton
Last week, just three of 20 teams kept a clean sheet. The week before it was five – thanks in part to a 0-0 draw between Aston Villa and Manchester United.
In that context, picking the most attacking defensive asset in a home game is a simple choice, despite Brighton posing a decent forward threat.
Alexander-Arnold is still miles ahead of any other defender in expected assists (3.05) and has just one. If you believe in those figures regressing to the mean – and I do – then “he’s due”.
Rayan Ait-Nouri, Wolves, defender, £4.6m – home to Crystal Palace
A very popular FPL pick at the moment and one flagged as a player to watch in this column three weeks ago.
Super attacking and budget friendly, Ait-Nouri has scored with three of his five shots on target and now has a run of fixtures where he could muster up a clean sheet to go with everything else.
Leif Davis, Ipswich, defender, £4.5m – home to Leicester City
Looking at this week’s fixtures, it is hard to predict a clean sheet. So in comes another attacking full-back at home.
We’ve talked about Davis’ attacking stats before – he had a superb season in the Championship in 2023-24 and has a couple of assists already this time around.
Ipswich should be on the front foot, at home against relegation rivals, so expect plenty of attacking positions from Davis.
Midfield
Bryan Mbeumo, Brentford, midfielder, £7.7m – away at Fulham
Rinse and repeat with Mbeumo, with 68 points and just three blanks in his nine games, putting him third in the midfield points list.
A few people might be looking at Tottenham against Aston Villa as this week’s goal feast but I think there will be a few at Craven Cottage.
Brentford can’t defend but are the third highest-scoring team in the league.
Mohamed Salah (captain), Liverpool, midfielder, £12.7m – home to Brighton
After his 10-pointer away at Arsenal, Salah is now the top-scoring FPL asset.
A total of six double-digit returns this season is incredible, including back-to-back hauls against the Gunners and Chelsea, after blanks at home to Forest and Bournemouth.
The Salah v Haaland debate is back on the table with the latter’s scoring pace slowing down. You should have a good look at the next six fixtures or so and think about whether you want to make the switch.
Phil Foden, Manchester City, midfielder, £9.3m – away at Bournemouth
You can cover some of the risk of going no Haaland with Foden. At some point the England midfielder is going to have one of those explosive games that made him a must-pick last season – remember his hat-trick at Brentford?
Given City’s injury woes and a 58th-minute substitution in the EFL Cup on Wednesday, Foden seems certain to start and will likely play in that number 10 role that makes him so deadly.
Bit of a gut-feel move this one, as last time Foden made the team of the week he was benched!
Bukayo Saka, Arsenal, midfielder, £10m – away at Newcastle
Mikel Arteta fooled the FPL world last week, hinting that Saka would not be fit enough to face Liverpool. Nine minutes in at Emirates Stadium and there was a collective sigh of resignation for everyone who sold the midfielder as he scored Arsenal’s opener.
Saka is great asset in weekly FPL but it is becoming clear he is less of a captain option than other premium players. His 10 returns is phenomenal, but that’s resulted in just two double-digit weeks – compared to Salah’s six.
He has created a league-leading 12 big chances and is bound to do so again against struggling Newcastle.
Strikers
Chris Wood, Nottingham Forest, striker, £6.4m – home to West Ham
The big New Zealand striker is becoming a set-and-forget option.
He has returned in every home game so far, has 28 points in his past three and faces a West Ham side that gave up four big chances last time to Manchester United.
Raul Jimenez, Fulham, striker, £5.7m – home to Brentford
Another striker towards the budget end who is providing excellent value – last week’s blank was the Mexican’s first in six games.
A home game against a Brentford side that has conceded eight goals in three games is a super chance to get back in the points.
Matheus Cunha, Wolves, striker, £6.5m – home to Crystal Palace
The emergence of assets like Cunha is one reason players can consider going without Haaland, especially if you have a wildcard free.
The Brazilian has four goals this season and now faces the same juicy fixture run that makes Ait-Nouri an enticing pick, starting with Palace and Southampton at home.
Subs bench
Carlos Miguel, Nottingham Forest, keeper, £4.3m – home to West Ham
Sels’ back-up.
Brennan Johnson, Tottenham Hotspur, midfielder, £6.7m – home to Aston Villa
It’s a bit of a shame to leave a player as good as Johnson on the bench, but this team has enough budget for a strong first sub and Spurs versus Villa has the potential to be high-scoring.
Yukinari Sugawara, Southampton, defender, £4.5m – home to Everton
The Japan right-back has an xA of 1.0, has created four big chances and faces a goal-shy Everton side.
Ashley Young, Everton, defender, £4.5m – away at Southampton
A return in each of his past five games for the FPL veteran – worth keeping an eye on.
Team total cost = £99m
Player to watch
Alejandro Garnacho, Manchester United, midfielder, £6.2m
The Argentine youngster could be sitting here with 20 more points at least this season, given the chances he has missed – most recently smashing the bar at West Ham.
He has overtaken Bruno Fernandes as United’s stats monster and has an xG this season (2.98) of almost a goal more than the two he has scored.
Leicester, Ipswich and Everton coming up for him after this week’s encounter with Chelsea.
Team to target
Bournemouth – Man City (h), Brentford (a), Brighton (h)
Wolves’ run has been mentioned a couple of times in this column and Manchester United have great games coming up, which is why Garnacho is a decent shout.
Looking further ahead, Bournemouth face a leaky Brentford side on the road in week 11 before a run of three decent home games and trips to Wolves and Ipswich.
Fantasy 606 corner…
The Erling Haaland triple captaincy didn’t pay off for me in gameweek nine – another red arrow – and this week we’ve been discussing going from one extreme to the other by selling him.
The idea would be to make two transfers to get Mo Salah in and then captain him for his next three games against Brighton (h), Aston Villa (h) and Southampton (a).
You have to weigh that up against Haaland’s fixtures – Bournemouth (a), Brighton (a), Tottenham (h) – and also what you could then do with the extra money in your budget.
Salah looks like the better bet as captain for gameweek 10 but I reckon it’s pretty even after that.
There are plenty of in-form strikers to choose from if or when you decide to sell Haaland and most of them come at bargain prices. Chris Wood has cult status on our podcast but I think Mateus Cunha and Yoane Wissa might now be better long-term bets and both are under 5% ownership.
Brighton’s fixtures look good from gameweek 12 so Danny Welbeck or Joao Pedro, if he’s fit, will be good choices at that point as will Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson who’s a bit more expensive at £7.9 million.
Our listeners’ manager is making a change at the other end of the pitch this week by selling Gabriel to bring in Virgil van Dijk, leaving £3.1m in the bank for the next manager by resisting the temptation to go for Trent Alexander-Arnold.
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