Fantasy football cheat sheet: Adam Johnson can reap rewards but time’s up for Charlie Austin

Three players to sign

1. Joleon Lescott

Fixture: West Brom v Hull

Price: £4.9m

Selected by: 0.9%

Tony Pulis is some kind of defensive warlock and the way that he organises his back line will sure up the Baggies’ back line quicker than you can say “is that a new baseball cap?”

Joleon Lescott is just the player who will flourish under Pulis’ style of play with clean sheets aplenty expected of West Brom in the coming weeks.

In terms of goalscoring, the amount of set-piece routines that “The Capped One” brings to his sides will undoubtedly see Lescott afforded more opportunities to get his head to a corner or free-kick.

Lescott is a permanent fixture for West Brom and his selection percentage of less than 1% means you can get a steal on your mates this week.

2. Danny Ings

Fixture: Burnley v Queens Park Rangers

Price: £5.6m

Selected by: 2.1%

How Danny Ings is only selected by 2% of Fantasy Football managers is beyond me? Five goals and three assists to his name doesn’t flatter one of the biggest young prospects for England in years.

His purchase is a must when you look at Burnley’s next three fixtures, against QPR, Crystal Palace and Sunderland. You’d back him to score against all three of them wouldn’t you? Course you bloody would.

This is a cheaper striking option to partner your Costa or your Rooney up front and, looking at the above fixtures ahead for Burnley, he’ll be a mainstay for the next month.

3. Adam Johnson

Fixture: Sunderland v Liverpool

Price: £6m

Selected by: 3%

The winger has scored three times in his last four games which would lead us to believe that he’s smack dab in the middle of one of those purple patches that he often gets himself into.

He’s up against a notoriously dodgy Liverpool defence on Saturday where he’ll be looking to give Brendan Rodgers’ full backs nightmares and add to his goals tally.

He’ll also be lining out next week against a leaky Spurs back line before he takes on Burnley at home at the end of the month so you’d fancy a goal or two from the former Man City lad in the next few weeks.

Three players to sell

1. Paul Dummett

Fixture: Chelsea v Newcastle

Price: £4.3m

Selected by 12.4%

Newcastle did the business over Chelsea when the Blues visited St James Park a month ago but we don’t expect a repeat of that come tomorrow afternoon.

With Alan Pardew gone off to headbutt players at a different stadium and half the Magpies’ squad ravaged by injury and the African Cup of Nations, Newcastle will be a shadow of their former selves.

One player who is a definite starter but should definitely be gotten rid of is Dummett who is on a surprisingly high amount of peoples’ teamsheets.

You can see John Carver’s makeshift Newcastle side shipping at least three when they visit Stamford Bridge so get Dummett out and get Lescott in.

2. Pablo Zabaleta

Fixture: Everton v Manchester City

Price: £6.6m

Selected by: 6.9%

The time may have come to ditch the Argentinian full back due simply to the fact that his points tally is unpredictable.

On Gameweek 17, he came up trumps with 11 points but since then three games have gone by without him taking a point home at the end of the day.

We concede that he’s often likely to make an overlap and find a body in the box with a cross or pop up himself with a goal every now and then but you must also consider the fact that City are conceding an awful lot for supposed title contenders and Zabaleta is always liable for a booking or worse.

They have Arsenal and Chelsea after this weekend’s meeting with Everton at Goodison so it’s best to take him out now and, if need be, bring him back in after that run of difficult games in which City are unlikely to keep a clean sheet.

3. Charlie Austin

Fixture: Burnley v Queen’s Park Rangers

Price: £6.4

Selected by: 28.6%

This may see a little bit on the mental side as ol’ Chuck Austin has been prolific this season but QPR are a home team and will remain to be a home team for the foreseeable future.

Burnley haven’t conceded more than one goal at home in the Premier League since October and we don’t think QPR are the side to break that record.

After the Burnley game, ‘Arry, Austin and Co. take on Manchester United and Stoke who are two sides you can’t see shipping too many either.

So our advice is to give it the young Englishman a break. It’s a risk but that’s what the game known as Fantasy Football is all about.

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10