Here’s our fantasy premier league GW25 forward tips article in our player rankings series. There’s a range of stats plus commentary on each player and their next 6 fixtures. This will help you choose the best transfer for your team
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE GW25 FORWARD TIPS – PLAYER RANKINGS
First it’s important to remember that each player is ranked as a transfer target for this week. So while we generally look at fixtures form and underlying stats a player who’s away to Man City is going to be ranked lower than someone home to Huddersfield for example. If possible a transfer should have a good fixture first up.
Firstly there’s a table of stats. Then there’s a bit of brief commentary on each player and their next 6 fixtures.
This is the 4th player rankings article. There’s a defenders player rankings, a premium midfielders player rankings article and a budget midfielders player rankings article . You may also find it interesting to see who the 10 top FPL managers I follow have and who the bandwagons are this gameweek
STATS DEFINITIONS
Fixt Ease: The ease of the mentioned fixture range from an attacking perspective. See our GW25 fixture ease article
Mins per FPL Pt. The amount of minutes a player takes to earn an FPL point. The shorter and obviously lower the number is the better
ATGS – the bookies anytime goalscoring odds for GW25.
NPxG and xA per 90 – the expected goals and assists per 90 minutes played from the better than excellent site understat.com. The xG excludes pens. See our expected goals article
THE SCHEDULE
Note I haven’t included Morata as an injury doubt. Conte seems to think he will play v Bournemouth despite him being back in training only today and away from the main group.
Aguero
A hat trick against Newcastle last week has seen him the most transferred in player this week. Given the first half off, at least, in the FA Cup game on Sunday and came through unscathed in what was a keep ball session for Man City in between evading attempts to put them on the injury list.
Has a few weeks maybe before Jesus comes back in which could see a drop in his workload.
Of the forwards he’s the best returner when on the pitch and also has the best underlying stats. Also the bonus system loves him. Only Lukaku returns goals and assists in a higher % of games. Not quite top of the explosive stakes with Kane and Firmino returning double figure FPL point hauls at a higher rate.
However that is the closest he comes to a negative apart from the Pep rotation unknown when Jesus returns.
Oh and btw has pens.
West Brom (H)
Burnley (A)
Leicester (H)
Arsenal (A)
Chelsea (H)
Stoke (A)
Kane
His single goal haul v Southampton was only the 3rd time out of 11 that he’s returned when it didn’t involve a double figure FPL point haul. That explosiveness is the fear that keeps Kane in many a managers FPL team. While he maybe an inconsistent returner (he’s still below the goal or assist in 50% of his games threshold) his underlying stats don’t reflect that. You can make the case that he’s unlucky rather than inconsistent.
Has penalty duties.
A tricky run of fixtures is the only negative
Man Utd (H)
Liverpool (A)
Arsenal (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Huddersfield (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Firmino
After the failure v Swansea, which could have been different had he not hit the post in injury time, he returned to form with a goal and an assist in the FA Cup loss to WBA.
His underlying stats for a forward as far as goal threat is concerned is poor. Aaron Ramsey has better xG90 goal threat stats for example. However his ability to get assists has meant that he has an overall ability to be explosive and only Kane has more double figure FPL point hauls as a % of starts. However like Kane his consistency isn’t great. He’s well under the 50% threshold for games returning a goal or assist.
Took the penalty against WBA but missed so not sure if that will result in them being taken away
Huddersfield (A)
Spurs (H)
Southampton (A)
West Ham (H)
Newcastle (H)
Man Utd (A)
Lacazette
It’s been a fairly challenging first season for Lacazette. While 9 goals and 4 assists in his first 21 games isn’t a disaster his rate of return for the price is very poor. That isn’t helped by a complete inability to accrue bonus points. Those 9 goals and 5 assists have only seen 5 bonus points. That in turn hasn’t been helped by being substituted consistently around the 70 minute mark. That has improved as in the last 6 games he’s played 90 minutes 4 times although I suspect that has been down to the Giroud injury in part.
However the possible incoming Aubameyang from Dortmund poses a number of questions. While it doesn’t seem to mean a benching it could mean a move wider. It’s hard to see how that will help although the pace of Aubameyang should help Arsenal generally.
May have pens with Sanchez out of the picture?
Swansea (A)
Everton (H)
Spurs (A)
Man City (H)
Brighton (A)
Watford (H)
Lukaku
One of Lukaku’s big bonuses was he was guaranteed 90 minutes. That workload could work against him if he is able to be rotated or subbed early now Sanchez is a viable striking option.
11 goals and 5 assists in 21 starts and 1 sub appearance is no disaster and certainly no forward keeps the points ticking over in a more consistent manner. However the overall returns for the price are appalling and that’s down to an inability to win bonus points. If you’ve returned a goal or assist on 14 occasions but only seen 10 bonus points then you know something is seriously wrong. At the other end of the spectrum Kane for example has returned also on 11 occasions for 27 bonus points.
He’s also only produced double figure FPL point hauls on 2 occasions. For the price that’s just not on. Tricky fixture next but after that things change.
Spurs (A)
Huddersfield (H)
Newcastle (A)
Chelsea (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Liverpool (H)
Vardy
10 goals and 2 assists in 23 starts is not too bad a return for the Leicester striker and has him in the transfer frame for the good fixtures ahead. It’s 3 goals in his last 5 starts which is reasonably good form and despite not being particularly consistent or explosive he is liked by the bonus system which has saved his rate of return from being ordinary to down right poor.
The real negative though is his underlying stats which from a goal threat perspective are terrible. He has shown an ability to over perform these as he did in Leicesters title winning season and as he is so far this season.
He also has pens which is a big bonus as he’s had 3 this season.
Everton (A)
Swansea (H)
Man City (A)
Stoke (H)
Bournemouth (H)
West Brom (A)
Wilson
The cheaper strikers are tricky and trying to find a magic recipe of gametime security, good returns to date and underlying stats is difficult. Wilson is probably the best of the bunch although a transfer in away to Chelsea is probably the worst time to do it.
With Defoe out until at least GW28 it seems he has a clear run for a few games at least and without Defoe he’s played 90 minutes in 4 of the last 5.
With cheap strikers you have to accept that returns are expected to be around 1 in every 3 games which is why looking for little runs of fixtures is important. Wilson has this after the Chelsea game.
Chelsea (A)
Stoke (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Newcastle (H)
Leicester (A)
Spurs (H)
Andre Gray
The Watford striker should now get a run of games as it seems inevitable that Deeney will be going to WBA in this transfer window.
His returns of 4 goals and 3 assists in 13 starts plus 10 as sub have been hampered by only winning 3 bonus points and look pretty ordinary.
Stoke (A)
Chelsea (H)
West Ham (A)
Everton (H)
West Brom (H)
Arsenal (A)
Benteke
It’s hard to imagine how the season could have gone much worse for the Palace striker. 1 goal and 4 assists in 15 starts plus 2 as sub says it all. Underlying stats could be worse for the price range but the simple fact is that he has just been poor.
3 reasonable fixtures next if you’re thinking of rolling the dice
West Ham (A)
Newcastle (H)
Everton (A)
Spurs (H)
Man Utd (H)
Chelsea (A)
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