Double trouble
What you need to know for Gameweek 25
Hello and welcome to Fantasy Gameweek. This is our round-up of everything you need to know for Gameweek 25 in Fantasy Premier League. It includes the news that matters, the key data from Impect, our data partner, and the risers and fallers.
The deadline for transfers and changes to your team for Gameweek 25 is 11am UK time on Saturday February 17. This is a double gameweek for Man City, Brentford, Liverpool and Luton
Here are some of the key news stories this week:
-Our best wishes to Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson, who is having tests in hospital. More here
-Mo Salah is back for Liverpool but Trent Alexander-Arnold is out. More here
-Tottenham full-backs Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie are both injured. More here
These are the fixtures for Gameweek 25:
These are the most transferred-in players this week so far:
And these are the transfers-out:
Now for the key data from Impect, our data partner. This is what has happened in the last ten gameweeks…
These are the top-five and bottom-five teams for xG per game - in other words, the best and worst attacks. As a reminder, xG measures the quality of chances that a team creates by attributing a score to each chance based on the likelihood of it being a goal. For example, if the chance was certain to be a goal then it would get an xG score of 1.
Best
Liverpool - 2.52
Arsenal - 2.21
Tottenham - 2.11
Man City - 1.96
Newcastle - 1.89
Worst
Burnley - 1.08
Crystal Palace - 1.1
Nottingham Forest - 1.16
Sheffield United - 1.3
Brentford - 1.32
And here are the best and worst for xG per game conceded - in other words, the best and worst defences:
Best
Arsenal - 0.7
Man City - 1
Liverpool - 1.16
Aston Villa - 1.23
Bournemouth - 1.31
Worst
Newcastle - 2.64
Burnley - 1.97
Fulham - 1.95
West Ham - 1.92
Sheffield United - 1.91
Moving on to the players, these are the top-10 for Offensive Impect, which measures the attacking effectiveness of a player for their team when they are on the pitch:
Richarlison - 100
Elijah Adebayo - 99.3
Cole Palmer - 98.7
Phil Foden - 98
Michael Olise - 97.4
Gabriel Jesus - 96.7
Heung-Min Son - 96.1
Matheus Cunha - 95.4
Rasmus Hojlund - 94.7
Ollie Watkins - 94.1
And these are the players with the highest xG:
Dominic Solanke - 7.09
Darwin Nunez - 6.55
Richarlison - 5.98
Bukayo Saka - 5.32
Julian Alvarez - 4.82
Mo Salah - 4.81
Matheus Cunha - 4.76
Dominic Calvert-Lewin - 4.56
Joao Pedro - 3.95
Jarrod Bowen - 3.89
Next, these are the post-shot xG rankings. As a reminder, post-shot xG measures the quality of a chance after the shot has been taken, so it also takes into account the quality of the shot:
Mo Salah - 6.84
Richarlison - 6.69
Julian Alvarez - 6.28
Darwin Nunez - 6.15
Dominic Solanke - 5.84
Matheus Cunha - 5.68
Jarrod Bowen - 4.73
Elijah Adebayo - 4.72
Joao Pedro - 4.64
Rasmus Hojlund - 4.61
These are the top-10 players for bypassed defenders, which measures how many opposition defenders a player takes out of the game with their passing or dribbling. It is a way to track a player’s attacking influence in a game:
Ross Barkley - 12
Trent Alexander-Arnold - 11
Pascal Gross - 10
Martin Odegaard - 10
Dejan Kulusevski - 10
Bruno Guimaraes - 9
Bruno Fernandes - 9
Michael Olise - 9
Heung-Min Son - 9
Pedro Porro - 8
Now let’s see the top-10 players for bypassed defenders receiving, which measures how many opposition defenders were taken out of the game when a player receives the ball. It measures the quality of the attacking positions that a player gets themselves in with the ball:
Dominic Calvert-Lewin - 19
Darwin Nunez - 18.1
Jean-Philippe Mateta - 17.5
Richarlison - 16.8
Ollie Watkins - 16.4
Nicolas Jackson - 16.2
Elijah Adebayo - 15.9
Gabriel Jesus - 14.5
Joao Pedro - 13.8
Dominic Solanke - 13.7
Lastly, these are the top defenders for Offensive Impect, which shows the defenders who are contributing to attacks, which is really useful to know for FPL:
Marcos Senesi - 100
Alfie Doughty - 98.5
Gabriel - 97
Kieran Trippier 95.5
Oleksandr Zinchenko - 94
Jack Hinshelwood - 92.5
Fabian Schar - 91
Trent Alexander-Arnold - 89.6
Kyle Walker - 88.1
Max Kilman - 86.6
Finally, let’s look at the risers and fallers…
Risers
Erling Haaland (FWD, £14.4m)
The Beast is back. After a longer-than-expected layoff with a foot injury, Haaland delivered two goals and 13 FPL points as Manchester City overcame a stubborn Everton defence in Gameweek 24. Up next? A home double fixture against Chelsea and Brentford. If you haven’t already dropped your Triple Captain chip, now could be the time to do it…
Diogo Jota (MID, £8.3m)
Liverpool are flying and Portuguese winger Jota has been key to their recent success, delivering attacking returns in five of the last six fixtures. A trip to Brentford followed by a juicy home fixture against Luton Town in the Reds double Gameweek 25 has obvious appeal. While the return of Mo Salah to training brings the possibility of rotation in one of those games, the arrow is still very much up on Jota, particularly given his relatively low price point in FPL.
Bukayo Saka (MID, £9m)
Four goals in three fixtures has dispelled any concerns opposition defences had figured out England international Saka and Arsenal’s impressive resurgence in 2024 reached a new high in their 6-0 demolition of West Ham in Gameweek 24. Saka picked up 15 FPL points in that game. While Arsenal don’t have a double gameweek, a trip to Turf Moor to face a porous Burnley defence is likely to be fruitful.
Fallers
Vladimir Coufal (DEF, £4.6m)
Coufal has been a decent performer this season but the manner of West Ham’s capitulation against Arsenal in Gameweek 24 cannot be ignored. The upcoming fixtures are at least friendly for the Hammers – Nottingham Forest (A), Brentford (H), Everton (A) and Burnley (H) – but it’s hard to trust their defensive assets right now.
Matty Cash (DEF, £4.6m)
Villa’s defensive frailties are simply impossible to ignore at this stage. While they managed clean sheets against Sheffield United in Gameweek 23 and Everton in Gameweek 21, they have shipped at least two in the four other fixtures during the last six gameweeks. What’s more, Cash has failed to turn promising positions into attacking returns. Attractive fixtures in the coming weeks mean Cash owners might be tempted to hang fire for now, but his position in FPL line-ups should be under review.
Sam Johnstone (GK, £4.5m)
Crystal Palace have conceded 14 goals in their last four Premier League fixtures. There is hope of an uptick in form with Everton (A) followed by Burnley (H) next on the slate, but there is little evidence on the pitch that things will improve for the Eagles. Consider looking elsewhere for those valuable clean sheet points.
That’s it for this edition. Thanks for reading and good luck in Gameweek 25.
Graham and Tom
