Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 20: Hints and transfer tips as Liverpool host Newcastle

Welcome back to our weekly advice column for the Fantasy Premier League, run by the head coach of our very own Top 5,000 team – and yes, sadly, we do have to downgrade our introduction after a rough festive period saw us knocked out of the Top 1,000. And we thought Eddie Howe had it tough.

A disappointing fortnight has come after a tricky period in which much of what we thought we knew about football has been turned on its head – suddenly, Newcastle United are awful and Everton are great, reliable goalscorers have fallen off the map and Chris Wood is the most dangerous number nine in the global game. All of this topsy-turviness means that we have the tricky task of figuring out which players have permanent class, and which are simply on such rough form that they need to be dropped. Happily, that’s what we’re here to figure out today.

Before we get started, a reminder that your transfer deadline ahead of the final Premier League fixtures of 2023 is 11:00 BST on Saturday, ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Kenilworth Road – so we’re in another ‘no sleeping in’ situation this weekend. And as a further reminder, this is the last gameweek in which you can make use of your first wildcard if you still have it - don't let it go to waste!

Newcastle, Everton and other form fliers

Let’s start with the Premier League’s latest crisis club – Newcastle. It was only a few weeks ago that we were discussing triple Newcastle as a nailed-on essentiality, but the tide has turned and the Magpies can’t buy a win. With Liverpool and Manchester City as their next two opponents, we’re starting to think of selling.

Specifically, the return to fitness of Callum Wilson makes Alexander Isak less of a sure thing, the defence is now very leaky and should be shied away from for a little while, and if you were an early Anthony Gordon adoptee then you should probably think of cashing out – Harvey Barnes should be back in January and that may restrict the Scouser’s minutes. Martin Dúbravka may be replaced in January too, depending on how Newcastle decide to handle Nick Pope’s injury, but that’s not a sure thing so we’re happy to hold on for now as long as we have another viable goalkeeper.

Selling Gordon might work out, but who should you bring in? It’s definitely worth noting that while Nottingham Forest’s ‘new manager bounce’ may not last all that long – they play Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle in their next four games – Anthony Elanga’s form may not be a red herring. He’s been an excellent cheap asset of late and we’re backing him to keep at least some of that up.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have Everton, who may have succumbed to Manchester City but won five games on the bounce without conceding a single goal before the champions rocked up at Goodison Park. This has made Jordan Pickford and their defenders far more enticing purchases than they seemed before – but we’re still not sold on going all-in.

Sean Dyche might be getting a tune out of the Toffees but they have a pretty mixed bag of fixtures in the immediate future. Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and a return game against City all lurk in the next five games, so while we’re not selling any Everton assets we have, we also aren’t rushing to bring them in.

As for individual players, let’s look at three very in-form players – Chris Wood, Dominic Solanke and Mohammed Kudus. If you somehow had Wood in your team a fortnight ago then congratulations on winning the lottery, but we’re not necessarily backing him to keep it up. He’d only scored in two games prior to his recent run, and with some fairly tough fixtures on the horizon, we’re not convinced by bringing him unless it’s essentially a ‘free’ transfer and you don’t need to make moves elsewhere.

Solanke we like more – Bournemouth’s uptick doesn’t look like a temporary thing at all and his own form seems more sustainable based on the raw statistics. We like him a lot for just about any team, although forthcoming games away to Spurs and home to Liverpool are unfortunately rather tough. Waiting until they’re out of the way seems reasonable enough.

The one player we’d definitely steer clear of is Kudus. Not because he isn’t a fabulous player and one who may become fantasy gold dust by the end of the season, but simply because he’s off to AFCON very, very soon. Players will be missing from Gameweek 21 for both that competition and the Asian Cup, so it’s time to start selling African and Asian internationals, not bringing them in. We’ll talk more about how to navigate this tricky stretch next week, but for now just make sure you don’t buy into Kudus or Hwang Hee-Chan until they’re back from international duty.

As for big-ticket players who are underperforming slightly – we’re looking at people like Bukayo Saka here – we say stand pat for now. Form being temporary while class remains permanent may be an airy cliché, but it has a grounding in reality. They’ll turn things around and start troubling the scoresheet soon enough. Try not to panic…

Injuries, suspensions and captaincy picks

The big injury question mark remains the one hovering over the head of Erling Haaland – he seems very unlikely to play this weekend based on Pep Guardiola’s comments and could well not return until after the FA Cup third round. Unless Guardiola gives us a clear update on his status, we don’t advise buying him back in just yet.

Elsewhere, Kostas Tsimikas, Cristian Romero and Kaoru Mitoma are now out until at least February, so they need to be moved on as soon as possible if you have any of them in your team. John Stones and Rúben Dias are severe doubts for Manchester City, Simon Adingra is out until the end of the month and both Issa Kaboré and Jamaal Lascelles are liable to miss out too. Dejan Kulusveksi and Lewis Dunk, meanwhile, are suspended for the next round of fixtures.

For your captain’s chip this week, we like the look of Mohamed Salah given Newcastle’s recent struggles. A game which would have looked like a stumbling block a month or so ago suddenly looks rather softer. We also don’t mind going for Son Heung-Min as their home game against Bournemouth is likely to feature plenty of goals – but we’re not so keen on Saka given his relatively poor recent form. Julian Álvarez is a good outside bet, given that he’s finally rediscovered his form of late.

3 Added Minutes FC

Lastly, our regular update on our example side, 3 Added Minutes FC. The last couple of weeks have not been kind, with lots of our big-name players struggling and a slew of points left languishing on the bench – as a result, we’ve slid out of the Top 1,000 and are now down to 3,664 overall. Still pretty great, to be fair, but a little frustrating given our outstanding start to the season.

We’ve got two free transfers to use but with AFCON and the Asian Cup starting soon and Haaland hopefully returning, we’re only going to use one this week if we can – and we’re strongly considering shifting Gordon, likely for Jarrod Bowen given that we’ll have some spare funds from selling Son and Salah very soon. The West Ham United man is on great form and should scoop us up some points against Brighton & Hove Albion.

That’s all for this week – and may all those of you whose teams have struggled over the last few weeks find the carrot at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Good luck.