Fantasy Forecast 2019/20: FPL Gameweek 20
Ahead of each Gameweek in the Fantasy Premier League, The Hype Train's three front-men, Robert Austin, Sam Austin and Phil Jones, duel for FPL supremacy in predicting Premier League scores, as well as going head to head in picking a Scout Picks squad for each round of games. In addition, we provide general insight that we believe might be relevant for FPL players, such as our personal captaincy picks, differentials for the week, and more. Welcome to the Forecast. All aboard.
Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 20 Deadline
For the 2019/20 Premier League season, the FPL deadline will be one hour before the commencement of the week's first game. Our website provides a real-world countdown timer for the the upcoming Gameweek, whilst you can read our latest Fantasy articles from the season on our 2019/20 FPL weekly hype sub-section.
How does our Forecasting work?
For three years we invited guests from the FPL Community to tackle us with picks for the upcoming Gameweek in Fantasy Premier League. We'll be taking a break from inviting guests onto this article for a year, and have introduced a new feature, Fantasy 5's, which we'll be asking weekly guests their top pick in each position ahead of each Gameweek.
For the sake of respecting the rules of the Forecast, we have provided an example of what we're sending out to interested parties that will feature throughout the season.
Premier League Fixture Prediction: As pundits, we are testing our football acumen with PL predictions and will be providing regular updated tables and stats in each edition of the FPL Forecast. A perfect score is worth 3 points whilst a correct result is worth 1 point.
FPL Gameweek Forecasting: Answering the regular questions that come up every single week in the Fantasy Premier League community that helps with identifying captaincy picks, transfers, attacking options, clean sheet potential, teams to look our for and avoid, players to consider for the Draft game, the wildcard differential players, as well as general analysis and comments.
Scout Picks: Picking a squad of 15 for a single Gameweek, without any budget, using the rules of the FPL - formations, captains and vice captains, and the player limits of 3 per club (chips will not be feature of these weekly picks)
Each team must pick a Captain, labelled as (c) and a Vice Captain listed as (vc).
Fixture Prediction: Gameweek 20
Brighton 2-1 Bournemouth
Newcastle 1-1 Everton
Southampton 0-0 Crystal Palace
Watford 2-1 Aston Villa
Norwich 1-3 Spurs
West Ham 0-2 Leicester
Burnley 1-2 Man United
Arsenal 2-3 Chelsea
Liverpool 2-0 Wolves
Man City 3-0 Sheffield United
FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 20
Top FPL transfer targets for the weekend:
GK: Kasper Schmeichel (LEI, GK, £5.4mil, 14.7% ownership)
DEF: Joe Gomez (LIV, DEF, £5.1mil, 1.1% ownership)
MID: Anthony Martial (MUN, MID, £7.7mil, 8.6% ownership)
FWD: Neal Maupay (BHA, FWD, £5.8mil, 2.0% ownership)
Who are the teams to look out for and avoid?:
Liverpool (Watch): 13pts clear, and with a home game coming up, the Reds have only dropped two points all season. They dismantled Leicester in GW19 and have three clean sheets on the bounce. This should be another expected win for the Reds which provides points coverage in both defence, midfield, and attack.
Arsenal (Avoid): A draw away to Bournemouth isn’t progress enough, and with Chelsea visiting in another London Derby, I can see Chelsea rebounding from their home loss to Southampton. The Blues tend to play better away from home, and Arsenal still have a woeful defence. If Chelsea play like they did against Spurs two Gameweeks ago, I can see Arsenal being rattled in this fixture.
Newcastle (Avoid): Carlo Ancelloti started life at Everton with a nervy 1-0 win over Burnley, and I am expected a purple patch to develop for the Toffees. The good news for the Merseyside club is that Newcastle folded and against United and were convincingly beaten by Manchester United.
Watford (Watch): The Hornets are putting up a fight. They were convincing against Sheffield United, and I think they are going to cause Villa lots of problems this weekend. Troy Deeney, Gerard Deulofeu, and Ben Foster should be on the watchlist in this game.
FPL Captaincy Picks:
(C) – Sadio Mane (LIV): Liverpool are currently on an unstoppable path to the Premier League title this season, and last year it was Mane who run the show against Wolves. I can see a similar result from last season which was a 2-0 home win during GW37 with Mane scoring both goals.
(VC) – Jamie Vardy (LEI): I am cautious that Vardy may bite the rotation dust this Gameweek, with Rodgers hinting the striker can’t do 38 games in a row. Either way, I can see Leicester building back up with a win over West Ham and you can’t rule out Vardy right now.
Other Gameweek Comments:
We are in the height of rotation season now, and with two gameweeks separated by less than 24hrs, there will be plenty of players dropped in your teams. Make sure you have enough bench cover just in-case of a few of your players being benched.
FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 20
Formation: 3-4-3
Starting 11
GK: Kasper Schmeichel (LEI)
DEF: Ricardo Pereira (LEI)
DEF: Trent Alexander-Arnold (LIV)
DEF: Virgil van Dijk (LIV)
MID: Anthony Martial (MUN)
MID: Kevin De Bruyne (MCI)
MID: Sadio Mane (LIV) (C)
MID: Dele Alli (TOT)
FOR: Harry Kane (TOT)
FOR: Jamie Vardy (LEI) (VC)
FOR: Sergio Aguero (MCI)
Substitutes
GK: Vincente Guaita (CRY)
MID: Willian (CHE)
DEF: Martin Kelly (CRY)
DEF: Djibril Sidibé (EVE)
Fixture Prediction: Gameweek 20
Brighton 1-0 Bournemouth
Newcastle 0-0 Everton
Southampton 2-1 Crystal Palace
Watford 2-0 Aston Villa
Norwich 2-2 Spurs
West Ham 0-2 Leicester
Burnley 1-1 Man United
Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea
Liverpool 2-0 Wolves
Man City 3-1 Sheffield United
FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 20
Top FPL transfer targets for the weekend:
Players I wish I had, but don’t - Mo Salah, James Maddison, Danny Ings, Harry Kane.
Teams I have players from that I want to get rid of – Wolves and Sheffield United.
Thoughts on Jack Grealish - I don't have any. Fixtures aren't inspiring either.
Teams with good fixtures - Leicester's fixtures are pretty solid and despite a few bad results, they should bounce back sooner rather than later.
Who are the teams to look out for and avoid?:
Man City & Wolves (Avoid): Just due to the fact that they only played on Friday evening, less than two days before their next games. From a Wolves perspective, they’ve got it hard at Anfield, whilst I have no sympathy for City due to their sheer financial weight of their team, though I am wary of the almost certain prospect of rotation.
Chelsea (Watch): The current formula for The Blues is to play bad at home against a bang average side, before going away against a good team and getting a result.
Spurs (Avoid): Jose Mourinho’s side have been playing below-par football the last few weeks and with Heung-Min Son suspended and Dele Alli potentially injured for the trip to Norwich, a surprise result might be on the cards.
Newcastle / Everton (Watch): Two teams that struggle for goals in near-identical places in the league. This one has a 0-0 draw written all over it for me.
FPL Captaincy Picks:
(C) – Mohamed Salah (LIV): As a non-owner of The Egyptian King, I am a little worried that Salah’s good form will roll over. Was subbed against Leicester during Liverpool’s 4-0 rout, so in theory this suggests that Mo will reap the rewards this weekend.
(VC) – Jamie Vardy (LEI): Leicester didn’t manage a shot against Liverpool, but West Ham are more giving and will most likely roll over for the potential for some points
Other Gameweek Comments:
After Boxing Day proved to be the most frustrating day of mind-numbing football until the later games in the day. Either Gameweek 20 will be a big improvement, or just another grind with more rotation potential. Many got bailed or destroyed by Trent Alexander-Arnold on Boxing Day, though I’m not sure that’ll happen again.
FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 20
Formation: 4-3-3
Starting 11
GK: Mat Ryan (BHA)
DEF: Trent Alexander-Arnold (LIV)
DEF: Caglar Soyuncu (LEI)
DEF: Djibril Sidibé (EVE)
DEF: Virgil van Dijk (LIV)
MID: James Maddison (LEI)
MID: Mohamed Salah (LIV)
MID: Kevin De Bruyne (MCI)
FOR: Danny Ings (SOU)
FOR: Jamie Vardy (LEI)
FOR: Marcus Rashford (MUN)
Substitutes
GK: Ben Foster (WAT)
MID: Stuart Armstrong (SOU)
MID: Todd Cantwell (NOR)
DEF: Mason Holgate (EVE)
Want to know more about The Hype Train?
The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in Fantasy sports reporting, starting with Fantasy Premier League (FPL), before expanding to MLS Fantasy coverage in 2018.
We pride ourselves in providing beautiful graphics, statistics, in-depth analytical reporting and free weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb rankings tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review games, live sport, and professional wrestling.
In 2019, Hype Train Football Club was formed, becoming the first Fantasy Football website to take to the field. HTFC is a socially active team across social and web channels, providing regular match highlights, match reports, comprehensive player statistics and unique player profiles.
The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog' in 2016 by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), and were again shortlisted as a finalist in 2019 in the 'Best Fantasy Football Blog' category.
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All aboard.
