Fantasy Premier League managers face a familiar batch of decisions before gameweek five, and BBC Sport’s FPL expert FPL Heisenberg has given his answers to the biggest of them, covering everything from a Manchester City midfielder’s short-term prospects to the right moment to buy into Bournemouth.
Rayan Cherki (£7.8m) is one of the trickier calls. He has disappointed recently, but with Phil Foden (£7.0m) suspended he should be more likely to start the next two Premier League games. The upside is real: Cherki was explosive in gameweeks one and two, claiming two assists and two goals in just 108 minutes of football. With Sunderland at home in gameweek five described as a decent enough fixture, the verdict is to hold him and hope he hauls.
Owners of Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) or Bryan Mbeumo (£7.9m) should also sit tight for gameweek five, with Fulham a good fixture for goals. The longer-term picture is different for Fernandes. He is not regarded as a bad FPL asset and will score points, but at £12.0m he is probably overpriced, and the argument is that managers may be better off spreading those funds around the rest of their team.
Nottingham Forest are worth acquiring now, with Coventry up in gameweek five and a decent run of fixtures after that, apart from the Arsenal match on 18 October. Morgan Gibbs-White (£8.0m) is the talisman: he regularly plays 90 minutes, takes penalties and is heavily involved in Forest’s attacking play. New signing Daniel Munoz (£5.4m) was very unlucky not to register at least one assist in his last game, and Neco Williams (£5.0m) also carries very good attacking threat. Liam Delap (£5.5m) is a more complicated case. He looked good against Aston Villa last weekend, but his minutes remain a concern with Igor Jesus (£5.8m) and Chris Wood (£5.8m) potentially eating into his game time.
Newcastle’s promising set of fixtures brings Lewis Hall (£5.2m), Yoane Wissa (£6.2m) and Harvey Barnes (£6.0m) into the conversation. Hall offers good assist threat as a left-back and is decent for defensive contributions, and he also fares well on the bonus system, so a clean sheet or an attacking return gives him a decent chance of a share of the bonus points. Wissa is on penalties and should be reasonably nailed on, though his recent form is not the best, meaning managers would be gambling on that form returning during this favourable run. Barnes is the differential pick from Newcastle: he has the quality to score goals and create chances for his team-mates, but he can be inconsistent.
Bournemouth, by contrast, can wait. Some of their players, Marcus Tavernier (£6.1m) among them, are doing very well, but holding off until gameweek seven is judged the best strategy because their fixtures turn for the better at that point, starting with Sunderland at home. At that stage the names to consider are Antonio Silva (£5.0m), Alex Scott (£6.1m), Tavernier and Evanilson (£6.0m), with recent form to be checked before making an educated decision.
Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.0m) is an easy hold despite three low-scoring FPL gameweeks in a row, because he is actually in decent form. He has scored two goals in Liverpool’s past three games in all competitions, finding the net against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League and scoring a long-range screamer in the Carabao Cup win over Spurs. He is on penalties and corners, has quality shooting from outside the box and can even chip in with defensive contributions.