Johnson, Palmer & Mbeumo to keep scoring - FPL tips & team of the week

The key Fantasy Premier League question this week is whether to stick with Bukayo Saka in a tempting Arsenal home game against Southampton, or bring in four-goal Cole Palmer and hope his hot form continues.

There's no room for both players and Chelsea man Palmer has won out in a team packed full of Manchester City and Arsenal assets - plus a couple of sneaky bargains.

Here's the team of the week for gameweek seven.

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?

Putting a positive spin on things, returns from headliner Gabriel Martinelli, Antoine Semenyo and Bryan Mbeumo led to a strong midfield showing.

Negative points - no clean sheets (only two from 20 teams last week), an Erling Haaland blank and no Cole Palmer.

That led to a mediocre 47 points all out.

Listen to the latest episode of the Fantasy 606 podcast here.

Goalkeeper and defence

Riccardo Calafiori has offered a decent attacking threat from the full-back positions for Arsenal

David Raya, Arsenal, keeper, £5.6m - home to Southampton

This is the second of Arsenal's plum home games in a row and, despite last week's disappointment, they are the team most likely to keep a clean sheet in gameweek seven.

Taking Raya is a hefty investment, but he has been worth it this season with three clean sheets and also six bonus points.

Riccardo Calafiori, Arsenal, defender, £5.8m - home to Southampton

Doubling up on Arsenal's defence feels like a safe bet.

It's a small sample size, but in Calafiori's two starts for Arsenal, he has a higher expected goals number (xG) than goal machine Gabriel (0.26 to 0.21).

The Italian scored a cracker at Manchester City and is averaging a couple of shots per game he starts. He's also had more touches in the box than any other Gunners defender in the past two games.

Rico Lewis, Manchester City, defender, £4.7m - home to Fulham

Speaking of touches in the box, Lewis leads that statistic for City and for just £4.7m he feels like an FPL cheat code, with a decent chance of an attacking return.

The flip side is you never know who Pep Guardiola is going to play on any given week in defence, but Rodri's absence makes Lewis' involvement against Fulham feel a bit more likely.

At the price, Lewis owners can make sure they have a decent fourth defender in case he stays on the bench.

Max Kilman, West Ham, defender, £4.5m - home to Ipswich

A budget defender at home to the team with the lowest xG so far this season - makes sense, right?

Kilman is a threat from corners - he scored twice last season for Wolves and has had two headers on target so far this term.

Team-mate Konstantinos Mavropanos has been more threatening from set-pieces this season, but he didn't start the last game.

New signing Jean-Clair Todibo should eventually become Kilman's defensive partner and he will make West Ham's defence better.

Midfield

Bernardo Silva has only one return so far this season. He scored six goals and made nine assists in 2023-24

Cole Palmer, Chelsea, midfielder, £10.7m - home to Nottingham Forest

Yeah, yeah, I know. Palmer straight back in the team after a four-goal haul.

The main issue this season - and FPL has done a good job here - is the pricing of the game's best assets, meaning you have to make some tough choices by leaving some of the likes of Haaland, Saka, Mohamed Salah and Palmer out of your team.

You either try to be clever and play the fixtures or pick a couple of them and roll with the ups and downs.

Palmer is proving better value than Salah so far. He was a points machine at Stamford Bridge last season and has a return in his past two home games.

Bernardo Silva, Man City, midfielder, £6.5m - home to Fulham

Silva is not one of City's most explosive assets but he's proved many times in the past that he's capable of going on a hot FPL streak of a few games.

There are no underlying stats to back up his inclusion this week but - if you are trying to win Pep Roulette like many other FPL managers - Silva was fully rested in midweek, so you'd think he will start against Fulham.

Brennan Johnson, Tottenham, midfielder, £6.4m - away at Brighton

The Wales winger has four goals in his past four games in all competitions and that's some form you can't ignore.

Brighton were awful defensively against Chelsea last time so it is hard to predict their back four for Spurs, but Johnson should have joy down the right flank with his pace and you'd expect a few counter-attack situations.

Spurs also have the highest team xG of any side this season, although Manchester United had a helping hand last week in padding that statistic.

Bryan Mbeumo, Brentford, midfielder, £7.4m - home to Wolves

Will Mbeumo ever leave this team? He ticks every box - good value, takes pens, takes free-kicks and corners, has scored in every home game so far.

No further explanation needed.

Forwards

Evanilson missed his first penalty for Bournemouth but he might still be on spot-kicks for the Cherries

Erling Haaland (captain), Man City, £15.3m, striker - home to Fulham

After two weeks of going against captain Haaland with minimal damage, the armband is back on the big Norwegian this week. You can only push your luck for so long in this game.

Fulham are top five or six in most defensive stats - shots on target conceded and expected goals against (xGA) being two areas where they are performing positively - but you can just throw those numbers out of the window when it is Manchester City away.

They could do a decent job like Brentford and keep the score down. It could also be 6-0.

Evanilson, Bournemouth, £5.9m, striker - away at Leicester

I seem to be backing teams against Leicester every week, but their defensive numbers are the worst. The most shots conceded, most shots in the box conceded, most big chances conceded... the list goes on.

Evanilson got off the mark for Bournemouth at home to Southampton last week and he has a host of pacey, exciting players creating chances for him.

Bournemouth aren't amazing at the back either so this game could have goals.

Kai Havertz, Arsenal, striker, £8.2m - home to Southampton

You need at least one attacking Arsenal asset this week as they could score three or four against this Saints team.

If you can't afford Saka, then Havertz is the safest next bet. His minutes seem assured at the moment and I don't really think Mikel Arteta will rotate much in the final game before an international break.

Since week 28 of last season, Havertz has outperformed Saka in FPL too.

Subs' bench

Lukasz Fabianski, West Ham, goalkeeper, £4m - home to Ipswich

Morgan Rogers, Aston Villa, midfielder, £5.2m - home to Manchester United

Still incredible value if you haven't added him to your FPL side already. United could be in one of those downward-spiral moments, so start Rogers if you own him.

Ibrahima Konate, Liverpool, defender, £5.2m - away to Crystal Palace

Given the lack of clean sheets across the board this season, don't expect one from Liverpool (or any team!) this week.

But Konate is a huge goal threat and he is fit, which has been an issue for his Liverpool career.

Jacob Greaves, Ipswich, defender, £4m - away to West Ham

A playing £4m defender.

Total cost: £99.4m

Player to watch

Fabio Carvalho scored nine goals on loan at Hull City last season in just 20 Championship games

Fabio Carvalho, Brentford, midfielder, £4.8m

Yoane Wissa's injury has opened a spot at Brentford and Carvalho, who got an assist last time out, has started both games since.

At £4.8m, that is a steal for a player in an interesting FPL attack. The Portuguese 22-year-old is an exciting talent with a goal in him.

A lovely run for the next eight games makes him worth a punt.

Team to target

Manchester City - Fulham (h), Wolves (a), Southampton (h)

Captain obvious here making sure you haven't missed City's incredible run for the next three games.

That Southampton home game could be a bonanza and you'll want to start planning who else you're getting in apart from Haaland.

Phil Foden is a prime candidate but he still hasn't started a Premier League game this season.

Fantasy 606 corner...

The big question on the podcast this week was whether you need to go to any lengths to get Cole Palmer straight into your team after his fab four against Brighton.

Would you sell Bukayo Saka before his home game against Southampton? Or Mo Salah before Liverpool’s trip to Crystal Palace? Would you drop Trent Alexander-Arnold down to a £4.5m defender to make the money for the move?

Statman Dave has decided to take the plunge and sell Saka while I’ve decided to go the other way and back the Arsenal man for his next two games against Southampton and Bournemouth, while Palmer faces Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.

I might then make the switch in gameweek nine but I want to keep Alexander-Arnold for the long term as he’s still a relative bargain at £7.1 million for what he offers in FPL.

Chris Sutton would never dream of going for a populist Palmer pick in the first place but we’re all now trailing the listeners’ team after their manager played a blinder in gameweek six by bringing Palmer, Ollie Watkins and Liam Delap in on the wildcard to rack up a total of 77 points.

This week’s manager is planning to use the one free transfer to switch Tottenham’s Micky Van de Ven in for Nikola Milenkovic and the captain’s armband is going to Palmer.

I’m sticking with Erling Haaland as my skipper for Manchester City’s home game against Fulham but there are other tempting choices this week as well as Palmer if you want to do something a bit different - one of the Arsenal attackers against Southampton, Watkins away to Manchester United or Bryan Mbeumo at home to Wolves.

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

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