Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 23: hints, tips and captain picks as Arsenal face Liverpool

Welcome to 3 Added Minutes’ regular, gameweekly Fantasy Premier League advice column, penned by our very own Top 500 manager. This week, he looks at the teams you should be buying in on and those whose players you need to sell, and looks at the cases for signing a couple of players who are suddenly in the spotlight, like James Maddison and Conor Bradley.

Before we hand you over to our fantasy head coach for his transfer tips and captain picks, a quick reminder that there’s no Friday game this week, which means that your deadline for making decisions is 11:00 BST on Saturday 3 February, ahead of Tottenham Hotspur’s trip to Everton. Now, with the admin out of the way, let’s see what advice we have for you ahead of Gameweek 23…

Mad for Maddison, crazy for Conor and all in on Aston Villa…

Before I get down to dispensing this week’s advice, I’ll start by reminding you that we all have some forward planning to do – there is a miniature double gameweek on the horizon in GW25 for Manchester City and Brentford, and then blanks in GW26 for Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea and Luton Town. I’ve already gone into detail on how I’d navigate those weeks – click here for that – but while that essentially covered when to get rid of players from those clubs and how many, I didn’t go into too much detail on who to buy instead of players like Diogo Jota, Cole Palmer or Richarlison. So let’s have a look at that topic today…

Let’s start by looking at a couple of teams who have some very promising runs of fixtures in the immediate future, and who offer up some good opportunities for replacements for outgoing Chelsea players and their ilk. The first and most obvious is Manchester City, and I’d strongly recommend moving towards bringing Erling Haaland back and getting up to triple City if you can, but they’re not the only source of good assets.

Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion both have some pretty tempting runs of games coming up, and while they suffered some pretty abject defeats in midweek to Newcastle United and Luton Town respectively, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re suddenly terrible teams whose players can’t be trusted to return. Most of you will rightly have Ollie Watkins already, but I also like Pervis Estupiñán, João Pedro and pretty much any Villa defenders going forward. That doesn’t mean you should chase them too hard, but if they fill gaps, they’re good targets for tactical transfers.

Newcastle themselves also have a good run of games coming up, with a trip to the Emirates in GW26 the only obvious toughie. Having struggled through the winter, they looked revitalised in the 3-1 win over Villa and suddenly players like Kieran Trippier look like decent buys again. I don’t recommend going too hard on Newcastle players yet, simply because one good game doesn’t mean they’ll be back to their very best, but the usual suspect at St. James’ are all decent shouts for inclusion.

In terms of specific players who have generated some hype recently, let’s start with the recently returned James Maddison – he was a rock solid source of points early in the campaign and his price has already started moving back up, but I’m not sold on him just yet, mostly because Son Heung-Min is still missing and that big blank in GW26 is looming. The other midfielders at similar price points, such as Jarrod Bowen, are probably fine to hold for now. Once Maddison hits top form and Spurs get past the blank, Maddison is likely to be a good player to look at but he wasn’t necessarily essential even before he got injured simply because there are so many good options in that mid-cost midfield price range.

Conor Bradley is another player who will generate some transfers, following a massive 21-point haul in midweek as Liverpool dismantled Chelsea. He has six assists and a goal in three consecutive starts across all competitions, which is an incredible rate of return, especially at just £4.0m. The problem is that Trent Alexander-Arnold is coming back to full fitness and it’s hard to imagine that he’ll be starting very often going forward, although he may have earned an extended run. If your team is in such a good spot that you can afford to switch out your cheapest defenders, the players you usually expect to warm the bench, then I won’t blame you for buying in, but it’s very likely that he’s a flash in the pan rather than a great long-term get. I’d avoid him for now.

One last player who deserves a special mention is Ivan Toney. He’s returned in both of his first two games back from suspension, and that will encourage a lot of players to bring him in – but for me, he’s not the right buy just now. Partly that’s because Brentford have a very tough run of games coming up regardless of their double gameweek, and partly it’s because it’s very hard to construct a team in such a way that you can have him alongside Haaland and Watkins, players I think are more reliable in the short term.

If you’ve gone hard on cheap midfielders and can afford three expensive strikers, then Toney is a very solid buy, but between now and GW27, the Bees play City (twice), Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. That makes me very wary, and I’d rather have Dominic Solanke or Matheus Cunha in that kind of set-up and spend my money in a different position.

Before I get onto some notes about captain choices and injuries, a brief note on deadline day signings. There probably won’t be too many big buys to consider bringing in, but I’ll be compiling an article tomorrow which will look at the biggest signings made at the end of the transfer window and debate which might be good assets to keep an eye on. Pop back to 3 Added Minutes on Friday evening for that one.

Knocks, crocks and captain picks

I’m writing this column before the Thursday evening matches, so this information may get outdated by injuries or red cards, but I wanted to flag a few players who are liable to miss games in the immediate future, before getting onto price change warnings and my calls for the captain’s chip this week.

João Pedro, who I called out as a possible buy earlier, has a minor knock and may miss out on a full 90 minutes this weekend, so if you do want him as your third striker then wait for updates from Roberto de Zerbi. Alexander Isak, Ben Brereton Díaz, Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Marcus Rashford are all potential absentees too.

Having mention Mathues Cunha earlier, it’s also worth flagging that he’s one booking away from missing a match, and the same applies to the likes of Joachim Andersen, Ben Chilwell, Diogo Dalot, Morgan Gibbs-White, Malo Gusto, Jamaal Lascelles, James Ward-Prowse, Bernardo Silva and many, many others. Be careful of having too many players on a possible suspensions if you can. Bruno Guimarães and João Palhinha are one booking off a two-game ban for hitting the big 10, while Anthony Gordon is on eight yellows for the season.

As for price changes, I’m not expecting too much imminent movement but wouldn’t be shocked to see Toney go up again. Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne seem to be stable for now, but could easily shoot up as transfers get made on Friday – midweek gameweeks tend to delay people buying in until the end of the week, which makes everything much more volatile and unpredictable.

For the captaincy this week, the big City players are the obvious picks with a game away to Brentford, but it isn’t nailed on that either Haaland or De Bruyne will get the full 90 minutes as they ease their way back to full match fitness. If you’re in doubt after Pep Guardiola’s Friday presser, Watkins is probably the safest alternative, and Cole Palmer isn’t a bad shout either.

3 Added Minutes FC

Finally, let’s have a quick update on my team, 3 Added Minutes FC, which started the week in the Top 500 – but looks likely to drop to the edges of the Top 1,000 after a decent but less than stellar week, albeit with a few players left to go.

In the end, I decided to gamble on my first -4 of the season to get both Haaland and De Bruyne back in the fold, which clearly didn’t pay off in full. That said, I’m still happy enough with how the team looks for GW23, with Martin Dúbravka coming off the bench in place of Alphonse Areola and Ezri Konsa coming in for Gabriel with Arsenal facing Liverpool. Cole Palmer will come back in for Matheus Cunha, and I don’t anticipate making any transfers barring injury updates. Rather wish I’d held out another week for Haaland, now, but that’s life…

That’s all for this week. Best of luck to all of you, and may all of your impulse purchases work out exactly as you hoped.