Fantasy Premier League tips: Hints and guidelines to pick your first FPL team from your SK scout for gameweek 4
First thing first, if you have Sergio Aguero on your team, then please remove him as the Manchester City striker is banned for 3 games for an alleged elbow on Winston Reid of West Ham. This is bad news for many FPL players as it cost a bomb to take him into the team and now if you have already used your wild card, the balance of your entire team could be in jeopardy.
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If you haven't already used your wildcard, then this is a good time to use your wildcard because you now have an idea about the players who are in good touch and the players who are not.
This week's fixtures start with a bang. The Manchester Derby is the first game on the list and it promises to be a feisty one. With Sergio Aguero suspended, City will definitely be on the back foot, but do not count them out yet. However, the problem for City will be their defence. They are yet to keep a clean sheet this season after a relatively easy start. As for United, they have kept two clean sheets and have looked very sound as a team.
The chances are that many FPL players will have players from both the Manchester clubs, so picking your team for this week could be tricky.
Goalkeepers:
Ideally, I would have loved to have David De Gea in goal, but with the derby coming up, it would be a good idea to drop him to the bench if he is on your team. Other than De Gea, keepers like Courtois and Cech could be good additions as their teams have looked very good in the last two fixtures. Chelsea take on Swansea away from home and Arsenal host Southampton, this could be easy wins for Chelsea and Arsenal if they play like they did in the last two games.
Defenders:
I am sure that many FPL players have Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw on their teams and I have some bad news for them. Shaw was taken off during England training as a precaution and Valencia will return from international duty only less than 24 hours before derby on Saturday. They may or may not play on Sunday, so this is a judgement call.
Arsenal's new signing, Shkodran Mustafi, should be walking straight into the starting lineup and could be a good option to have, but he costs £6m. In addition to Arsenal defenders, defenders from Chelsea and Spurs could also be a good option.
Coming to cheaper options for the week, I would recommend players from the same team as I had suggested in the first guidelines article. Middlesborough and West Brom are teams that are good defensively and the 0-0 draw between the teams in the previous game week is a testament for the same. Players like McAuley and Evans are good options from West Brom, while guys like Barragan and Nsue are good options from Middlesborough.
Other good options for this week include Kyle Walker, Curtis Davis, Leighton Baines and Arthur Masuaku.
Midfielders:
Selecting midfielders are the biggest problem in FPL right now and that is because there are too many quality options up for grabs at the moment. As usual, I would recommend attacking midfielders and wingers.
Some players who have done very well so far include Eden Hazard, Raheem Sterling, Alexis Sanchez, Eric Lamela, Sadio Mane and Michail Antonio. In addition, players like Kevin De Bruyne, Roberto Firmino, Mesut Ozil and Christian Eriksen are also players who have started the season well. I would recommend that you pick two or three players from this list. However, Eden Hazard, Sadio Mane and Raheem Sterling are my personal favourites right now.
Some cheaper alternatives players can consider include Nathan Redmond (£6.1) of Southampton, Gaston Ramirez (£5.5) of Middlesborough, Kevin Mirallas (£6.6) of Everton, Robert Snodgrass (£5.6) of Hull City and Jason Puncheon (£5.5) of Crystal Palace.
Strikers:
With Aguero suspended for three games, Zlatan Ibrahimovic becomes the must have striker right now. Other expensive forward options who have started the season well include Jamie Vardy and Diego Costa.
If you want cheaper options, then Negredo and Stuani of Middlesborough, Andre Gray of Burnley, Salomon Rondon of West Brom and Abel Hernandez of Hull are the players you should go for.
In addition, Christian Benteke of Crystal Palace could prove to be a gamble worth taking.
