Welcome to AM’s Players To Watch for Gameweek 20 of the 2019/2020 Premier League season. As long-time readers of my columns will know, the advice in seasons’ gone by had revolved around games that would allow you to make unlimited transfers each gameweek, selecting an entirely new 11 players if you so wished. Unfortunately Yahoo Fantasy Premier League is a glorious but distant memory, as is Togga’s Perfect XI game which inspired my previous Rotoworld column.
Nowadays I’m mixing things up by generalising the player recommendations given each week. So, whether you’re playing Official FPL, FPL/Fantrax Draft, Fantrax Salary Cap, Sky Sports, The Sun, The Telegraph or any number of other the fantasy games available to fans each season, I’ll be offering my top picks for the week ahead, mixing “must-haves” with hunch picks and players flying under the radar. Hopefully this will offer something for everyone, whether you’re considering captain options, looking to make a transfer or picking up a free agent in draft.[[ad:athena]]
Things have been going extremely well in recent weeks both in this column and out in the “real” fantasy world. My FPL team has risen from the depths of 1.8million in the overall standings back in November to a current rank of 340k - pending tonight’s clash between Manchester City and Wolves. With the fixtures continuing to flow thick and fast over the festive period there’s no time to wait for the current gameweek to finish, so let’s get in to the Gameweek 20 fixtures ...
Saturday 28 December 2019
Brighton v Bournemouth
Newcastle v Everton
Southampton v Crystal Palace
Watford v Aston Villa
Norwich v Spurs
West Ham v Leicester
Burnley v Man Utd
Sunday 29 December 2019
Arsenal v Chelsea
Liverpool v Wolves
Man City v Sheffield Utd
It’s easy to lose track over the holidays, so to avoid confusion Gameweek 20 brings us another regulation 11:30am GMT Saturday FPL deadline as Brighton host Bournemouth in the early kick-off. As always our main focus will be on players from the teams that look set for comfortable wins, with goals or potential clean sheet points on the cards. Manchester City* hosting Sheffield United leaps off the page, as do Leicester at West Ham and Spurs visiting Norwich. Liverpool at home to Wolves is an obvious one to focus on from an attacking perspective and I reckon Brighton can sneak the win in that opening fixture against Bournemouth. With that in mind, here are the guys to keep in your thoughts ahead of the deadline ...
* Note - this column is being written before Man City face Wolves to close out GW19, so without a clear idea of who may play / be rested I’m avoiding recommending any players from these teams for GW20.
Jack Grealish (MF - Aston Villa @ Watford) - To quote this column from two weeks’ ago, “...it took a while for Jack Grealish to convince observers that he could cut it in the Premier League but his performances this season have put any doubts to rest. Aston Villa’s captain and talisman has been instrumental in the club’s best displays and has contributed goals and assists at important times to help Villa in their survival fight.” Since then the undroppable Grealish has continued this run, bagging another goal and assist, and can be expected to play a key role once again in the massive six-pointer at Watford.
Danny Ings (FW - Southampton v Crystal Palace) - There are two key reasons for backing Danny Ings in Gameweek 20. Firstly, the striker is in phenomenal form with 10 goals in his last 12 Premier League starts, including a match-winning brace at Villa in GW19. Secondly, Ings was given a bit of a rest for the Saints’ surprise victory at Chelsea on Thursday, coming off the bench for the final 20 minutes, which means he’s a shoo-in to start this weekend’s clash with Palace. You have to fancy him to notch again, and I’m so confident that he will that I’m considering selling Raúl Jiménez to free up a forward spot.
James Maddison (MF - Leicester @ West Ham) - I feel we can pretty much ignore Leicester’s back-to-back defeats against Manchester City and Liverpool. There’s no disgrace in losing to two of the best teams in Europe and the Foxes remain an outstanding side in their own right, comfortably on course to secure Champions League football next season. They can bounce back with victory at struggling West Ham and - while Jamie Vardy is the obvious choice - I’m tipping James Maddison to pull the strings both from set pieces and open play to get Brendan Rodgers men back in to the groove heading in to 2020.
Captain: Harry Kane (FW - Tottenham @ Norwich) - As mentioned earlier in the column, everyone is expecting Vardy to get back amongst the goals at West Ham but something is drawing me towards Harry Kane for Tottenham’s trip to Norwich. The striker put in a terrific all round performance against Brighton; scoring, creating chances, closing down, tracking back, winning tackles and generally looking back to his best. With Heung-Min Son, Moussa Sissoko and Harry Winks suspended it should clear room for at least one of Christian Eriksen and Giovani Lo Celso to start at Carrow Road, and the added creativity should benefit Kane.
Honourable Mentions: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool v Wolves), Dele Alli (Tottenham @ Norwich), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool v Wolves), Neal Maupay (Brighton v Bournemouth), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United @ Burnley)
That’s it for Gameweek 20’s Players to Watch. Check out the Rotoworld Features page to access a host of fantastic content to get you ready for the weekend. If you have any questions about a specific player or your own fantasy team then feel free to post them in the comments below or hit me on Twitter (@nikarg) and I will get back to you.
Thanks for reading - good luck to all managers this weekend!
