2nd weekend in a row where the advice is load up on the Gunners. Saka is back to form and is an autostart for me. Odegaard also appears to be a big time value play with the $10,700 price tag. If Trossard gets the start that $10,100 is pretty good value as well. Arsenal appears to be cruising towards the EPL title and should roll over West Ham.
Wolves are terrible and Brighton has been on fire. I love Groß and Hinshelwood in this one. Wouldn't touch anyone on Wolves.
Bruno Guimaraes is my #1 value play of the week and I have been eagerly awaiting a big return game from him. I think it comes this week against a middling Forest squad. Forest just got PIPED by Villa in the Europa League and has almost nothing to play for other than to continue to stay out of the relegation picture. I think Newcastle crushes a defeated NFO squad and wins by 2+ goals.
Get ready for a Bruno Fernandes masterclass in this one. If he was $25k this weekend I would still start him. Sunderland is terrible. There's a lot to like on Man U in this one and could be talked into starting 3+ Red Devils, including the legendary Harry Maguire. On the Sunderland side you can never go wrong with Granit Xhaka. So consistently productive.
If you haven't figured it out now, I'm not sure you ever will - Burnley is generationally terrible. Load up on everyone on Villa. Morgan Rogers is my pick this week but you can't go wrong with anyone. They are riding high coming off a 4-0 drubbing of Forest in the Europa League and now get to play the worst team in the EPL. This might be a 5 goal game for AVL.
This is shaping up to be a stinker as Palace has top 5 defense and Everton is most likely deflated after blowing a 3-1 lead in the 83rd minute. Also not sure if anyone else was watching but Ndiaye had one of the most infuriating performances of all-time last week. Everton should've had 6 goals but Ndiaye blew all 3 chances but just launching shots vs. laying it off for teammates. He is now forever on my do-no-draft list, which probably means he has a huge week this week.
Brentford has been on fire but it has primarily been to a cupcake of a schedule. They run into an absolute buzzsaw in Man City this week who desperately need 3 points to stay in the title race. Cherki is in my lineup every week and will be again this week. Haaland and Semenyo have both been disappointing but Jeremy Doku has been on fire and is the most expensive forward this week for a reason. Not touching anyone on Brentford.
The first game of the weekend is also the Game of the Week. Chelsea have somehow lost their last 6 matches, primarily due to a brutal schedule and bottom 5 defense over that stretch. That being said, even after their slide they still have both a Top 5 offense and defense in our rankings. Unfortunately they have yet another tough matchup this weekend as they face off against Liverpool. Szoboszlai has been a monster this year and finally returned to form last week. His production always appears to be the inverse of Wirtz - when one of them produces, the other flops. Let's see if they can break that streak this weekend. On the Chelsea side, Cole Palmer always produces when healthy and he has a clean injury report. He's worth the money this week.
Fulham is again without Iwobi and again, I don't expect much from them. On the other side, Bournemouth has actually played really well over their last 6 matches and faced a brutal schedule. I think there is some value to be found across Tavernier, Rayan, Senesi, and Scott this week and I will most likely have 1 or 2 of the Cherries in my lineup this week.