fantasy premier league best fixtures GW18 – the fixture ease schedule

Here’s our fantasy premier league best fixtures GW18 article with the GW18-23 fixture ease schedule. We look at the teams with the best fixtures from over the next 3 and 6 gameweeks There’s also some player suggestions with their basic stats and their upcoming fixtures. There’s also good fixture clumps in the future.

fantasy premier league best fixtures GW18 – the fixture ease schedule

We’ve also added good fixture clumps at the end for you to be aware of before transfers in and out.

An introduction

My intention at the moment is to take the fixture difficulty ranking from the Official FPL site with some slight adjustments. That schedule doesn’t differentiate between attack and defence and is an overall ranking. You will see their fixture difficulty when you look at a player in detail on the FPL site.

The schedule below uses the official rankings to rank them from easiest at the top to hardest at the bottom. The order of the teams is for GW18-23. The figure in the right hand column is the ranking from from GW18-20

The schedule

Player suggestions

So here I give attacking and defensive player suggestions for players with good 6 week and 3 week fixtures. This week it’s Man Utd, Man City, West Ham and Chelsea

Man Utd

With so many injuries, formation changes and form related managerial tinkering it’s difficult to suggest players but what is certain is uncertainty.  The attacking midfield area also has alot of competition and that further leads to questions and a lack of 90 minutes.  However I’ve given a range of options and tried to explain the pluses and minuses of each.  I’m not including Pogba who’s been benched for the last 3.

£7.3m Mid Martial has scored 7 goals and 1 assist in 9 starts plus 4 as sub at a very impressive PP90 of 7.9.  When on the pitch he’s excellent and the underlying stats say this is no fluke.  He’s coming back from injury and played 11 minutes v Liverpool.  You would think that would mean a starting place in GW18 but unfortunately anything is possible with Mourinho.

£6.7m Mid Lingard  has scored 2 goals and 0 assists in 9 starts plus 4 as sub at a PP90 of 4.0.  His ability to get into the box is what gave him the goal v Liverpool in GW17.  However it’s been a pretty underwhelming campaign returns wise and the underlying stats are also not up to scratch.  Further more his minutes continue to be an issue.  He has started the last 3 but only averaged 76 minutes.

£10.7m Fwd Lukaku  has scored 6 goals and 1 assist in 12 starts plus 4 as sub at a PP90 of 4.6.  He’s struggled for fitness and gametime and you could even question with everyone fit whether he is first choice.  He can score goals in the premier league but his form has been underwhelming to say the least.

£6.9m Fwd Rashford  has scored 3 goals and 5 assists in 9 starts plus 5 as sub at a PP90 of 5.1.  He’s started the last 4 but only played above 80 minutes in 4 of the 9 starts.  With Martial back his place has to be at risk.

Defensively when £4.9m Shaw is fit he would be my choice

Cardiff (A)
Huddersfield (H)
Bournemouth (H)
Newcastle (A)
Spurs (A)
Brighton (H)

Man City

With Man City it’s all about accepting rotation.  In this section I’m not including Aguero as the emergence of Jesus means we may have to see what that means for either of them’s minutes.  For De Bruyne it’s also a case of seeing him start and putting in some decent minutes.  I’ve also not included Mahrez as his minutes seem far too hit and miss

£11.6m Mid Sterling  has scored 9 goals and 7 assists in 13 starts plus 1 as sub at a PP90 of 8.9.  Lethal when on the pitch and the master of the tap in.  Rotation is the only negative.

£9.7m Mid Sane has scored 6 goals and 9 assists in 10 starts plus 5 as sub at a PP90 of 9.3.  Another player who’s lethal when on the pitch.  Started 6 of the last 7 as the absence of Mendy has made it his job to give width on the left.  Last 2 games have seen his minutes managed though with 52 and 65 minutes which could be a theme over the Xmas period

£7.5m Mid Bernardo Silva  has scored 4 goals and 3 assists in 15 starts plus 1 as sub at a PP90 of 4.8.  It’s easy to forget that only Laporte and Fernandinho have started more games in the PL than Bernardo Silva.  What’s more he averages 85 minutes when he does start.  However when David Silva and De Bruyne are fit you would think they will be the natural CMs in Pep’s 4-1-4-1 system.  That’s the risk.  The temptation is also to spend that little bit more for a City mid as Sane and Sterling are unquestionably upgrades.

Defensively Laporte at £6.1m is the safest choice.

Crystal Palace (H)
Leicester (A)
Southampton (A)
Liverpool (H)
Wolves (H)
Huddersfield (A)

West Ham

3 attacking players here for me in Chicharito, Anderson and Snodgrass.

£6.4m Fwd Chicharito has scored 4 goals and 3 assists in 6 starts plus 7 as sub at a PP90 of 6.7. With Arnautovic out for sometime his place looks fairly certain having started the last 4.  His minutes are a little sub optimum.  In those 4 games he’s averaged 74 minutes.

£7.4m Mid Felipe Anderson has scored 6 goals and 3 assists in 17 starts at a PP90 of 5.4. 5 goals and 2 assists have come in the last 7 matches.

£5.4m Mid Snodgrass has scored 2 goals and 3 assists in 10 starts plus 6 as sub at a PP90 of 4.3. He’s started 8 of the last 9 games. The  2 goals and 3 assists have come in the last 4 games.

Defensively I’d go with £4.4m CB Balbuena or GK Fabianksi at £4.6m

Watford (H)
Southampton (A)
Burnley (A)
Brighton (H)
Arsenal (H)
Bournemouth (A)

Chelsea

Hazard is the obvious one here.  There’s also Pedro and Willian who are making up the current front 3 although you have to accept rotation if Sarri changes the system and minutes lost through substitutions.

£11.0m Mid Hazard has scored 8 goals and 9 assists in 13 starts plus 3 as sub at a PP90 of 8.5.  Has an injury flag although it doesn’t seem significant.  Playing as a CF/false 9 in a 4-3-3 at the moment.  Something Sarri did with Mertens at Napoli.

£7.3m Mid Willian has scored 2 goals and 4 assists in 14 starts plus 2 as sub at a PP90 of 5.1.  Only played 90 minutes 3 times and the rest of the starts have been at less than 80 minutes.  Does have some set piece responsibility.

£6.3m Mid Pedro has scored 6 goals and 1 assist in 8 starts plus 7 as sub at a PP90 of 7.6.  Averages 80 minutes when starts.  However you have to think that Sarri will keep with the current system to have faith in his ongoing minutes.

Defensively either go with £7.0m Alonso for the potential attacking returns or £5.7m Luiz for the price.

Leicester (H)
Watford (A)
Crystal Palace (A)
Southampton (H)
Newcastle (H)
Arsenal (A)

Some good short term future fixture clumps

Everton 

GW19  Burnley (A)
GW20  Brighton (A)
GW21  Leicester (H)
GW22  Bournemouth (H)
GW23  Southampton (A)
GW24  Huddersfield (A)

Watford

GW20  Newcastle (H)
GW21  Bournemouth (A)
GW22  Crystal Palace (A)
GW23  Burnley (H)

Think about Pereyra and Deulofeu if starting with Holebas the defender.

Spurs

GW21  Cardiff (A)
GW22  Man Utd (H)
GW23  Fulham (A)
GW24  Watford (H)
GW25  Newcastle (H)
GW26  Leicester (H)
GW27  Burnley (A)

Think about Kane, Alli, Son and Eriksen with Trippier the defender or Vertonghen for gametime security

Follow us on twitter and facebook and instagram for article updates and news

Geek League links and details

fantasy premier league 

Sky Sports fantasy football

Enter PIN: 8367679

Sun Dream Team

League PIN is SGDKX9Y3