A cheap, relatively unpopular player who’s almost certain to start.
That, in the Fantasy Football business, is what we call the ‘perfect storm.’
There is a limited fixture list this week due to that FA Cup lark so be aware if you have any Arsenal, Chelsea or (insanely) Manchester United players in your FF team.
We’ve done our best to pick out three players to sign and three players to sell ahead of this gameweek and we think we may have uncovered a diamond in the rough. And it doesn’t get much rougher than the Britannia.
Three players to sign
One player who has been quietly going about his business since being signed in the January transfer window is the Belgium-born, former France U21 international Giannelli Imbula.
He may not be hitting Riyad Mahrez levels of stardom but the 23-year-old has been a solid addition to Mark Hughes’ attempts at re-imagining Barcelona in Stoke-on-Trent.
Since arriving from Porto, Imbula has played five Premier League games in a row and has contributed an average of four points in that time.
That’s not exactly a staggering average but if you’ve seen him play, you’ll know that he’s capable of great things and the Potters have a relatively straightforward few fixtures ahead of them as they come up against a freshly unsteady Saints side before a trip to Watford and a home tie against Swansea.
We like the look of this young fellow.
Now that Bournemouth have all but secured safety, hopefully they will see out the season in the devil-may-care style that’s made us fall in love with them.
Benik Afobe is another of the January signings who are proving bargains to chairmen and FF managers all over the UK and Ireland.
A goal every other game since arriving from Wolves has helped the Cherries into their comfortable position of 14th and we’re backing Afobe to just about hit double figures for the season in Bournemouth’s final nine games.
Swansea kept a clean sheet last week but surely we don’t live in a world where that can happen two weeks in a row.
One of few Newcastle players who won’t have to hang their heads in shame come June is Dutch powerhouse Georginio Wijnaldum.
We’re DEFINITELY not saying that Newcastle are a better team than Leicester but there definitely is something to be said for new manager syndrome.
With Rafa Benitez now dropping facts faster than Steve McClaren dropped points, someone’s surely going to go out to prove a point on Monday evening.
He hasn’t scored away from St James’ Park in the league all season but that has to change sometime. Wijnaldum is the gamble for us this week.
Three players to sell
You have to go with form and as impenetrable as Fraser Forster was on his return from injury, he’s gone in very much the opposite direction in recent weeks.
The Saints stopper kept six consecutive clean sheets since coming back from his career-threatening knee injury but has let in five in his last three games.
And those goals haven’t come against the freescoring likes of Manchester City or Leicester. They came against Sunderland, Bournemouth and, perhaps most embarrassingly, Chelsea.
Like a desperate dash to the loo after a long drive, they’re getting close to leaky territory and we feel Stoke are going to score at least one at the Britannia.
This is a bit of a cop-out, granted, but there aren’t many players this week who are big enough liabilities for us to throw our backing behind the removal of them from your side.
But Russell Martin is one of them.
It’s an easy pick because not many of you guys have Norwich players selected but it’s easy for a reason. Manchester City are going to score. They’re probably going to score more than one.
So get rid of any Norwich defender and, again, we apologise for the cop-out on this one.
Guess how long it’s been since Graziano Pelle scored a Premier League goal?
Bingo. You’ve nailed it! It’s been exactly ages ago.
Joking aside, Pelle haven’t found the net in the league since November 1.
To put that in perspective, Jose Mourinho was still Chelsea manager back then and people were still discounting Leicester’s title hopes.
To be frank, we simply don’t see Jack Butland as the man against whom Pelle can find his goalscoring boots once more.
