Nwaneri, Ouattara & Mitoma join budget brigade - FPL team of the week

No Mohamed Salah?

No Cole Palmer or Erling Haaland?

No Liverpool, Manchester City or Chelsea players?

That's right - we're playing the fixtures this week in Fantasy Premier League with a budget-friendly bonanza featuring triple Bournemouth and Arsenal.

Will the risk pay off?

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?

Ollie Watkins (15) and Jean-Philippe Mateta (7) led a top-heavy team to a tidy 95 points, with the usual haul from the unstoppable captain Salah (40).

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Keeper and defence

Best centre-back duo in Europe? Gabriel, left, and William Saliba are up there and have eight clean sheets this season

Jordan Pickford, Everton, goalkeeper, £5.1m - Manchester United (h)

United have scored just twice in their past four league games while Everton are flying under David Moyes.

While the Toffees may not be razor sharp at the back, they still have two clean sheets in their past four and home advantage here.

Pickford racks up save points too and even has an assist in him.

Gabriel, Arsenal, £6.3m - West Ham (h)

I could go on every week about Gabriel's goal threat but you pick defenders firstly for their chance of a clean sheet and Arsenal are in a strong position this week.

The Hammers have scored just two in their past four games, picking up one point.

Arsenal have two clean sheets in their past three matches. Basic FPL maths makes Gabriel a strong pick this week.

William Saliba, Arsenal, £6.2m - West Ham (h)

With statistics on their side, why not throw in another Arsenal defender? This week's team has plenty of budget.

Saliba offers little goal threat - 0.08 expected goals (xG) per 90 minutes - but is dependable, guaranteed to start and actually has more bonus points than Gabriel this season!

Antonee Robinson, Fulham, £5.1m - Crystal Palace (h)

There aren't many obvious clean sheet shouts this week so I've gone for the man with more Premier League assists than any player except Salah and Bukayo Saka.

Daniel Munoz will be flying down Palace's right flank - meaning Robinson will have his hands full defensively, but also plenty of chances to counter-attack.

Midfield

(From left) Bournemouth's deadly trio - Dango Ouattara, Antoine Semenyo and Justin Kluivert

Dango Ouattara (captain, £5.1m), Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m) & Justin Kluivert (£6m), all Bournemouth - Wolves (h)

Last week's team of the week ended up with this trio in it, after Cody Gakpo's injury brought Ouattara off the bench, and each player returned.

An attacking triple-up can be risky, especially with a team like Bournemouth who aren't one of the traditional powerhouses, but the Cherries are on fire at the moment.

Exclude the defeat by Liverpool, in which they were unlucky to concede a penalty and to not score, and they are averaging four goals per game in their past three.

Only Salah (48) has more FPL points in the past four weeks than Kluivert (42) and Ouattara (34) while Semenyo has had more shots on target in that time than any other player.

In a favourable home match-up against Wolves, you can expect at least two goals and involvement from each of this attacking trio.

I'm making one of them captain too - so why not Ouattara, who is playing out of position and scored a hat-trick two home games ago?

Ethan Nwaneri, Arsenal, £4.6m - West Ham (h)

With so many attackers injured, Arsenal need someone to step up and Nwaneri could be that player.

He's going to be some player and in FPL he is becoming an exciting asset too.

Nwaneri is probably a guaranteed start at the moment, only costs £4.6m and is averaging 9.44 points per 90 minutes on the pitch.

Imagine what he will do with regular playing time.

Kaoru Mitoma, Brighton, £6.3m - Southampton (a)

That brilliant goal last week against Chelsea means Mitoma has three double-digit returns in his past five games.

Despite a change of manager, Southampton are still the plum tie for opposition teams in FPL.

Home and away makes little difference and they have conceded at least three goals in five of their past six league games.

Strikers

Liam Delap has 10 goals in his first season as a Premier League starter

Liam Delap, Ipswich, £5.6m - Tottenham (h)

Visiting Spurs have back-to-back clean sheets in the league, but the underlying statistics tell another story with an expected goals conceded (xGC) of 3.83 in the games against Brentford and Manchester United, and 29 shots allowed.

So Delap can be successful here and score for the third successive league game.

He's Ipswich's talisman - likely to mop up bonus if he scores - is on penalties, and had a goal and assist in the reverse fixture.

Ollie Watkins (vice captain), Aston Villa, £8.9m - Chelsea (h)

Not a great week for attacking options, with Liverpool travelling to Manchester City and Alexander Isak facing Nottingham Forest's often tough defence.

Watkins will fancy a go at this Chelsea defence, though, which has conceded seven goals in the past three games.

The Villa striker also has a host of new attacking players - Donyell Malen, Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio - to feed him and it will be interesting to see how Villa develop in the final third of the season.

Subs' bench

Bart Verbruggen, Brighton, keeper, £4.5m - Southampton (a)

Raul Jimenez, Fulham, striker, £5.6m - Crystal Palace (h)

Josko Gvardiol, Manchester City, defender, £5.9m - Liverpool (h)

Nathan Collins, Brentford, defender, £4.5m - Leicester City (a)

Total team cost: £85.4m

Player to watch

Beto, left, has five goals in four starts in the league for Everton this season

Beto, Everton, forward, £4.9m

With four goals in three gameweeks, it may feel too late to jump on the Beto train, but he has come out of nowhere to lead Everton's line.

He has no competition up front and is a lovely budget price if you are looking at restructuring your squad in the coming gameweeks to get someone such as Haaland back in.

Team to target

Manchester City - Liverpool (h), Spurs (a), Nottingham Forest (a)

City's next three aren't super-enticing, but you might want to start planning ahead for the blank gameweek in 29 when Liverpool don't play and Pep Guardiola's side have Brighton at home.

They play Leicester at home the week after too, so picking players such as Omar Marmoush (£7.1m) or Haaland (£14.7m) can pay dividends.