There’s only one Fantasy Premier League king at the moment and he is Egyptian.
In the past three weeks Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has 31 FPL points, 10 more than anyone except Chris Wood (27) and 16 more than the next best premium asset, Cole Palmer (15).
Salah is back in this week’s team as captain – a no-brainer – and, in a move that might well backfire, there are not one but three Manchester United players.
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?
Picking Salah and ignoring Erling Haaland paid off as the Liverpool forward scored 18 points as captain, spearheading a decent week with five returns, including a 10-pointer for budget gem Leif Davis in defence.
That resulted in 59 points.
Keeper and defence
Andre Onana, Manchester United, keeper, £5m – home to Leicester City
Despite a calamitous start to the season for United, Onana is second behind Nottingham Forest’s Matz Sels for goalkeeper points.
United’s four clean sheets is matched only by Forest and Liverpool and they face a Leicester side they just walloped in the EFL Cup.
Rayan Ait-Nouri, Wolves, defender, £4.7m – home to Southampton
FPL players have targeted Wolves, and Ait-Nouri in particular, for their fantastic run of games and there’s no need to waiver after a disappointing one-pointer last time against Crystal Palace.
Ait-Nouri is still one of the most attacking defenders in the game at a bargain price.
He had two shots in the box on Saturday and four entries into the penalty area.
And remember, clean sheets are harder to find than ever – only three from 20 teams in gameweek 10.
Pedro Porro, Spurs, defender, £5.5m – home to Ipswich
If you’ve owned Porro this season you’ve probably lost patience and I don’t blame you, but hear me out.
The Spain right-back has the most crosses (64) and shots (19) of any defender and has made more final-third passes (216) than any defender who doesn’t play for Manchester City.
What’s lacking is returns, and he has only created one big chance. Surely that has to change – based on last season’s 11 returns it will – and low-scoring Ipswich represent a good chance for Porro to get rolling.
Emerson, West Ham, defender, £4.4m – home to Everton
You might have worked out my tactic by now – target a low-scoring team away from home for clean sheet opportunities.
Everton are bottom four for shots on target this season (39 in 10 games) and Emerson, who is yet to have an attacking return, is the best Hammers defender for expected goals (xG) at 0.91 and expected assists (xA) with 1.27.
Midfield
Mohamed Salah (captain), Liverpool, midfielder, £12.8m – home to Aston Villa
Why change a winning formula? Salah has scored in his past three, he netted in this fixture last season, Villa just shipped four at Spurs and have one day’s less rest than Liverpool after a trip to Belgium in the Champions League.
Simple captain choice this week.
Alejandro Garnacho, Manchester United, midfielder, £6.3m – home to Leicester City
Garnacho was a player to watch last week and is straight into the team for gameweek 11.
The reasons behind his selection?
Only Salah has had more shots on target.
Only Salah has had more big chances.
Top players tend to outscore their xG – Salah for example has seven goals to an xG of 5.63 – but Garnacho is the other way round.
He has two goals from an xG of 3.39. There’s only one player with an xG higher than that who doesn’t have at least four goals…
Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United, midfielder, £8.2m – home to Leicester City
Yes – that midfielder is Fernandes with one goal to show for an xG of 3.74, and that was a penalty last week against Chelsea.
Fernandes was fantastic against Leicester in the EFL Cup – Steve Cooper did make a few changes – when United scored five. He finished with two goals, could have been more.
With the boost of a new manager on the way, United surely have to end this low-scoring run and what better chance than at home to a Leicester side who have conceded just under two goals per game.
Jarrod Bowen, West Ham, midfielder, £7.5m – home to Everton
Bowen is having a bit of an under-the-radar FPL season but he is joint ninth with Brennan Johnson in the points chart for midfielders.
West Ham have been very poor at times but they can get going at home against struggling Everton and Bowen is key to most things they do offensively.
Bryan Mbeumo, Brentford, midfielder, £7.9m – home to Bournemouth
Hello again Bryan! The Brentford man makes the team for a sixth time this season because he keeps producing, and should do again in another great home fixture.
Strikers
Dominic Solanke, Spurs, striker, £7.7m – home to Ipswich
Solanke’s season burst into life last week with a 16-point, two-goal performance in the 4-1 win over Aston Villa.
It was everything we hoped for from Solanke when he signed for Tottenham. A phalanx of attacking players around him creating simple chances for him to tuck away.
It’s fair to say his season had been underwhelming to this point – in a game with the same scoreline, at home to West Ham two weeks ago, he generated an xG of just 0.08!
Let’s hope this is the start of a goal glut.
Evanilson, Bournemouth, striker, £5.9m – away at Brentford
There are a host of decent budget forwards at the moment and I’m going for Evanilson – two goals in his past two – over a Wolves player this week.
The reasoning being that Brentford seem to be a catalyst for high-scoring games whereas Southampton, who travel to Wolves, showed they are improving defensively in recent matches – with just one conceded at Manchester City and a clean sheet versus Everton.
Substitutes
Matz Sels, Nottingham Forest, goalkeeper, £4.6m – home to Newcastle
Would it suprise you if Forest shut Newcastle out? Two clean sheets in their past two home games and just seven conceded all season.
Such an impressive start to 2024-25.
Jorgen Strand Larsen, Wolves, striker, £5.6m – home to Southampton
Hard to choose between Larsen and team-mate Matheus Cunha. Larsen plays more of a Solanke role down the middle, which means plenty of involvement.
Daniel Munoz, Crystal Palace, defender, £4.8m – home to Fulham
Only Manchester City’s Josko Gvardiol (35) has more touches of the ball in the box as a defender than Munoz.
Alex Moreno, Nottingham Forest, defender, £4.4m – home to Newcastle
An impressive performer in one of the best FPL defences, with an assist last time out.
Team total cost = £95.3m
Player to watch
Alexander Isak, Newcastle, striker, £8.3m
A popular pick at the start of the season who failed to deliver, Isak now has three goals in his past three games in all competitions.
This week’s trip to high-flying Nottingham Forest is a bit tricky, but Newcastle’s fixtures then turn with the likes of West Ham and Ipswich at home coming up.
Team to target
West Ham – Everton (h), Newcastle (a), Arsenal (h)
I’m really looking beyond the next three weeks to gameweeks 14 to 18.
Leicester (a), Wolves (h), Bournemouth (a), Brighton (h), Southampton (a) – that’s a great five-game stretch for the likes of Bowen, Mohammed Kudus and Michail Antonio.
Fantasy 606 corner…
Once again this week I find myself wrestling with the Mohamed Salah or Erling Haaland question.
Last week, I stuck with Haaland to my cost but he still had good chances to score in Manchester City’s defeat at Bournemouth and I’m sure he will do again against a Brighton team who never park the bus against anyone.
Salah looks razor-sharp and is clearly playing for the more in-form team at the moment – Liverpool didn’t have to travel in Europe this week and host an Aston Villa side that have looked a little jaded recently.
If I go for Salah then I would also captain him but if I don’t I would be tempted to give the armband to one of my Tottenham players, Brennan Johnson or Dominic Solanke, for their home game against Ipswich.
Statman Dave told us in this week’s podcast that Son Heung-min would be his top Tottenham pick for the captaincy but there is a risk of an early substitution, as we saw against Aston Villa last Sunday.
Chris Sutton has the tempting differential option of going for Bruno Fernandes for Manchester United’s home game against Leicester. Fernandes is owned by less than 8% of the managers in the game.
Rasmus Hojlund is under 2% ownership if you want a differential striker with fixtures against Ipswich and Everton to follow, although those will be under the new manager Ruben Amorim – so we’re yet to see how he will set up the team.
Our listeners’ manager has gone for a Tottenham captain this week in James Maddison and has made one transfer in defence – Wolves full-back Rayan Ait-Nouri coming in for Micky van de Ven.
If you’d like to come on the Fantasy 606 podcast to manage the listeners’ team then send us an e-mail on fantasy606@bbc.co.uk