Vote for Joao Pedro as captain - FPL tips and team of the week

How is everyone feeling about Liverpool v Manchester City on Sunday?

It should be a cracking spectacle but will there be goals?

Both league meetings last season were 1-1 and the game at Anfield in 2022-23 was 1-0 to Liverpool, with Mohamed Salah scoring.

I'm going with the theory that it will be tight at Anfield, with a couple of goals at best.

That means no Mohamed Salah or Erling Haaland in this week's team. If you have them in your Fantasy Premier League side, you play them, but look elsewhere for the captain's armband.

And don't get caught out by Friday's 18:30 GMT deadline!

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?

I hope you took my advice by backing Arsenal's defence as the triple-up paid off with a clean sheet against Nottingham Forest.

That defensive stand, another Mohamed Salah captain masterclass and Joao Pedro's goal and assist made up for five blanks elsewhere.

It led to a very nice 72 points and a gameweek rank of around 800k.

Listen to the latest Fantasy 606 podcast on BBC Sounds

Gameweek 13's FPL team of the week

Keeper and defence

Andre Onana, Manchester United, keeper, £5.1m - home to Everton

FPL's top-scoring keeper produced the goods for us in gameweek 11's team of the week and his selection this time is straightforward.

The Cameroon keeper faces an Everton side without a goal in three games and with only 10 goals in 12 games this season.

Diogo Dalot, Manchester United, £5.2m - home to Everton

Dalot makes the side for all of the reasons stated above.

United wing-backs are going to be huge FPL assets under Ruben Amorim and it was encouraging to see Dalot starting his first game.

I'd rather see him on the right, whipping crosses in with his favoured foot, but the Portuguese still has plenty of assist potential and he keeps finding good goalscoring positions.

Jurrien Timber has impressed this season for Arsenal after missing 2023-24 with injury

Jurrien Timber, Arsenal, £5.5m - away at West Ham

With Ben White out for a while, the Dutchman could have a run in Arsenal's defence over Christmas and he's getting very involved going forward.

No defender has had more shots or made more key passes in the past two games.

Backing against West Ham scoring backfired last week, but this Arsenal defence is on another level to the rest of the league and should be able to handle Michail Antonio's physicality.

Let's hope those aren't famous last words!

Pervis Estupinan, Brighton, £5m - home to Southampton

Who are the only team with fewer goals than Everton? That's right - Southampton.

Estupinan was an FPL darling two seasons ago, with a goal, 10 clean sheets and seven assists, and he is the best Brighton defensive option if you have the extra £0.5m.

He has yet to have an attacking return this season but the signs are there. His expected goal involvement is 1.0 so far and he tops the charts among Brighton defenders for key passes and big chances created.

Midfield

One game, one goal for Marcus Rashford, right, under Ruben Amorim

Marcus Rashford, Man Utd, £6.9m - home to Everton

Yes, I'm playing with fire a bit going triple Manchester United for the second time in three weeks but it paid off against Leicester.

If Rashford is going to play out of position as a striker in this new United set-up, then it makes him a viable FPL option.

This game could be a Sean Dyche defensive classic but an early goal should help United score a few.

Bukayo Saka, Arsenal, £10.2m - away to West Ham

Is Saka a regular captain option? Just three double-digit returns this season says no.

Is Saka a superb, reliable FPL asset? Yes - he's easily the best forward option for the Gunners.

The England midfielder's performances against Forest last week and in the Champions League at Sporting on Tuesday have been sensational and he is motoring again after a few quiet weeks.

Saka leads almost every attacking stat for Arsenal. What I like most is the 29 shots in the box - more than two per game.

Cole Palmer, Chelsea, £10.9m - home to Aston Villa

Three blanks in a row for Palmer. Before that, seven goals and five assists in nine games.

He's too involved in Chelsea's attacking play for that poor run to continue and Villa have conceded 10 goals in their past three games.

Bryan Mbeumo, Brentford, £7.9m - home to Leicester City

It's a week of backing fixtures and past performances over form as Mbeumo has only one return in his past three.

But the Cameroon forward has been brilliant this season and faces a Leicester side who are woeful at the back.

You'd be right to look at moving on from Mbeumo with a horrible fixture run for Brentford over Christmas, but he gets one more game in this team of the week.

James Maddison, Spurs, £7.6m - home to Fulham

Maddison has been an enigma this season. Early substitutions, benched in juicy home games and then he goes and scores twice at Etihad Stadium.

The England international is fifth in the midfield scoring charts, with 68 points, and Ange Postecoglou will surely pick him in a home game against Fulham where Spurs should be on the front foot.

With more than six points per start this season, Maddison is worth a punt.

Forwards

Joao Pedro (captain), Brighton, £5.6m - home to Southampton

You can't ignore the form Joao Pedro is in since returning from injury: Two goals and two assists in just 87 minutes on the pitch for Brighton - and he faces the Premier League's bottom side next.

I'm selling Haaland in my own FPL team this week to get Joao Pedro - that's how confident I am!

Matheus Cunha, Wolves, £7m - home to Bournemouth

Cunha is in even better form than his Brazil team-mate Joao Pedro, with four goals and three assists in his past three matches.

Don't let the price rise from £6.5m to £7m put you off, although Wolves' fixtures from 26 December until mid-February are horrific, so get him in now.

The only note of caution with Cunha: He's hit two crackers from long range but you can't rely on goals like that regularly.

The forward's expected goals (xG) in the past four games is 1.03 and he has scored four.

Can Matheus Cunha continue his epic run of form for Wolves?

Subs bench

Bart Verbruggen, Brighton, keeper, £4.5m - home to Southampton

Southampton have scored just nine goals this season so you could do worse than picking Dutchman Verbruggen, who has a nice fixture run coming up.

Chris Wood, Nottingham Forest, striker, £6.6m - home to Ipswich

Wood or Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson? That's the dilemma for the first outfield bench spot in this team and Wood has won.

Forest's fixtures turn after this week but you've got to back a forward with returns in seven of his 11 starts this season, at home to an Ipswich side who have conceded 23 goals.

Rayan Ait-Nouri, Wolves, defender, £4.8m - home to Bournemouth

Three shots in the box in his past three games - Ait-Nouri is still a solid FPL pick for attacking reasons alone.

Destiny Udogie, Spurs, defender, £4.9m - home to Fulham

Remember when people were doubling up on Spurs full-backs last season? Udogie only has one assist this season - he's due more.

Team total cost: £97.7m

Player to watch

Jarrod Bowen, right, has just three goals so far this season after 16 in 2023-24

Jarrod Bowen, West Ham, midfielder, £7.4m

Starting next week with Leicester and ending on 26 December with Southampton, Bowen is about to go on a potentially cracking five-game run and he is West Ham's key player.

Team to target

Chelsea - Villa (h), Southampton (a), Spurs (h)

Palmer is an obvious choice but what about a double or triple-up in December?

In weeks 16-19, Chelsea face Brentford, Everton, Fulham and Ipswich.

Fantasy 606 corner...

If you don’t own Mo Salah then the captaincy decision looks wide open for gameweek 13.

Matheus Cunha, Joao Pedro, Cole Palmer, Bruno Fernandes and Bukayo Saka all look prime candidates but so do some of their team-mates if you want to go the differential route.

Noni Madueke, Kaoru Mitoma, Marcus Rashford and Martin Odegaard are a few that spring to mind but if you’ve got Salah in your team then it’s very difficult to ignore his claims against a Manchester City defence that has been conceding goals at an alarming rate.

The availability of relatively cheap in-form strikers like Cunha, Joao Pedro, Danny Welbeck and Evanilson means it’s much easier to part ways with Erling Haaland at the moment and pack your midfield with the premium picks.

But remember, you will probably want a plan to get him back at some point when Manchester City’s form undoubtedly improves and they look to embark on a great run of fixtures from gameweek 18.

The listeners’ team is still out in front in the Fantasy 606 mini-league despite the costly decision to sell James Maddison before his 16-point performance at the Etihad Stadium in gameweek 11.

Bruno Fernandes was the man to come in and this week’s manager is giving him the captain’s armband for Manchester United’s home game against Everton. He’s also unselfishly banking a free transfer for next week’s incumbent.

If you’d like to come on the pod and manage the listeners’ team then please send us an e-mail on [e-mail]

Get your own team into the BBC Sport league using the code ‘bbcfpl’ and don’t forget it’s a Friday deadline this week.