Premier League 2020/21: FPL Gameweek 30 Fantasy Forecast
Ahead of each Gameweek in the Premier League, The Hype Train's team, Robert Austin, Sam Austin and Phil Jones, duel for FPL and league supremacy in predicting Premier League scores, as well as going head to head in picking a Scout Picks squad for each round of games. With the 2020/21 Premier League season starting tomorrow, we provide our Gameweek Forecast predictions, speculating how we think the latest round of games will be played out. Welcome to the Forecast. All aboard.
Premier League 2020/21: Gameweek 30 Fixtures
Premier League 2020/21: FPL Gameweek 30 Forecast
Enjoy our FPL Forecast article, with each of our team forecasting how we think the Premier League will shape up this upcoming Gameweek. If you agree or want to challenge us on our point of view, get in touch with us on our main Twitter account, @RealHypeTrain.
Fixture Predictions: Gameweek 30
Chelsea 2-0 West Brom
Leeds 4-0 Sheffield United
Leicester 1-2 Man City
Arsenal 0-1 Liverpool
Southampton 1-0 Burnley
Newcastle 0-3 Spurs
Aston Villa 1-1 Fulham
Man United 2-0 Brighton
Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace
Wolves 0-2 West Ham
FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 30
Top FPL player targets ahead of the upcoming Gameweek:
GK: Edouard Mendy (CHE, GK, £5.2mil, 8.4% ownership)
DEF: César Azpilicueta (CHE, DEF, £5.8mil, 7.0% ownership)
MID: Jesse Lingard (WHU, MID, £6.2mil, 15.9% ownership)
FWD: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (EVE, FWD, £7.6mil, 36.1% ownership)
Who are the teams to look out for and avoid?:
Newcastle (Avoid) / Spurs (Watch): Kane is back in-form both domestically and internationally. Bale has been more productive since being introduced to the starting eleven. Newcastle are bad in every department and don’t know what form is. The end.
Chelsea (Watch) / West Brom (Avoid): This one is easy. West Brom under Allardyce: bad. Chelsea under Tuchel: good. Chelsea has the defensive structure that will pretty much negate anything West Brom do. Chelsea has lots of good FPL assets currently; Mason Mount, bonus point king Azpilicueta, Golden Glove chasing Mendy, and even Rüdiger has become a reliable points scorer. Most of them are defensive options, but if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
Wolves (Avoid) / West Ham (Watch): West Ham have everything that made Wolves a lethal force last season: goals, clean sheets, and fight. Wolves have looked very static and out of ideas, which is something West Ham have developed this season under Moyes. The likes of Antonio, Soucek, and Cresswell are standouts in a season full of possibilities for the Hammers. I can see Wolves being victim of set piece plays and powerful counter attacks that made them once a potent scoring team.
Leicester (Avoid) / Man City (Watch): Former City strike Iheanacho is in fine form, with five goals in the last three games, with a hattrick in his last game against Sheffield United. Now, normally I would say this is enough to say the other team is worried, but lets face it, it is Man City. The Manchester club have been making things look easy in the league, and it isn’t like Leicester are flawless, which is what City feed off. Can I see Leicester worth a goal? Yes. Can I see City typically blowing Leicester out of the water? Yes.
Obvious Watches: Man United, Leeds, Everton. Sheffield United, Palace, and Burnley are all teams that have problems scoring goals, and they are against better teams.
Gameweek 30 – FPL Differential Picks:
CHE/WBA: Kai Havertz (CHE, MID, £8.2mil, 2.9% ownership)
LEE/SHU: Jack Harrison (LEE, MID, £5.4mil, 3.0% ownership)
LEI/MCI: Gabriel Jesus (MCI, FWD, £9.2mil, 3.0% ownership)
ARS/LIV: Diogo Jota (WOL, MID, £6.7mil, 5.3% ownership)
SOU/BUR: Jannik Vestergaard (SOU, DEF, £4.7mil, 3.2% ownership)
NEW/TOT: Hugo Lloris (TOT, GK, £5.6mil, 6.5% ownership)
AVL/FUL: Ezri Konsa (AVL, DEF, £4.7mil, 7.1% ownership)
MUN/BHA: Harry Maguire (MUN, DEF, £5.5mil, 5.3% ownership)
EVE/CRY: Michael Keane (EVE, DEF, £5.1mil, 6.0% ownership)
WOL/WHU: Jarrod Bowen (WHU, MID, £5.9mil, 1.7% ownership)
Differential Captain: Diogo Jota (Liverpool)
Liverpool supporter here to tell you about my personal experience about this season: pain. Going into the season if you were to tell me that Liverpool would be reliant on Jota from Wolves, I would have laughed you out of the building. Jota was a good player, but due to Wolves system I never saw him as fluid goal scorer. He had bursts and good moments, and when you look at Mane and Salah, I was safe in my mind that these two would carry the team over the line like they did last year.
Flash forward to this season and after Liverpool turned down Werner, a confident scorer for Leipzig, and opt for Jota. I was bemused as Liverpool paid nearly exactly what Werner went to Chelsea for. How I couldn’t have seen what was coming, because Jota has carried this Liverpool team on his back so far this season. He has won more matches with his goals than any Liverpool player this season, and in every game looks likely to score a hatful of goals. He got injured in the final game of the Champions League group stage and Liverpool become a loss machine, and barely can register a draw, let alone a win. He comes back from injury and suddenly Liverpool is starting to pick up results again, and he scored the only goal in the win against his former club Wolves in GW29. No other player looked like scoring. Without him it would be 0-0 and two points dropped.
Jota was signed as a differential, a completely random signing from a lot of perspectives, but it couldn’t have worked out any better. Jota has also been scoring goals for Portugal regularly since his move, and in the recent international break notched three. Jota has become a focal point of both teams. Liverpool this season would be mid table at best without Jota realistically, and he is the perfect embodiment of being a differential. Without him this season would just be pure misery, only pain. Liverpool go to the Emirates this weekend, and quite honestly, I am expecting the only Red to cause Arsenal problems is Jota.
FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 30
Formation: 3-4-3
Starting 11
GK: Edouard Mendy (CHE)
DEF: Ruben Dias (MCI)
DEF: Luke Shaw (MUN)
DEF: Cezar Azpilicueta (CHE)
MID: Bruno Fernandes (MUN)
MID: Jesse Lingard (WHU)
MID: Diogo Jota (LIV) - (VC)
MID: Ilkay Gündogan (MCI)
FOR: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (EVE)
FOR: Patrick Bamford (LEE)
FOR: Harry Kane (TOT) - (C)
Substitutes
GK: Dean Henderson (MUN)
MID: Mohamad Salah (LIV)
DEF: Antonio Rüdiger (CHE)
DEF: Aaron Wan-Bissaka (MUN)
Fixture Predictions: Gameweek 30
Chelsea 3-0 West Brom
Leeds 3-1 Sheffield United
Leicester 0-2 Man City
Arsenal 1-3 Liverpool
Southampton 1-1 Burnley
Newcastle 0-3 Spurs
Aston Villa 1-0 Fulham
Man United 2-1 Brighton
Everton 1-0 Crystal Palace
Wolves 1-1 West Ham
FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 30
Top FPL player targets ahead of the upcoming Gameweek:
Look, it’s not a complicated week and little room for differentials. Also, I’ve not got the energy to be ‘different’ or ‘out there’ this week as this game is as simple and shouldn’t be complicated or needlessly stressful. Given that there are some dead-to-rights fixtures with predictable (on paper) fixtures, I’ll just list some players that could/should be the nucleus of your transfer considerations.
Goalkeepers: Martinez (AVL), Mendy (CHE), Ederson (MCI), Meslier (LEE)
Defenders: Azpilicueta (CHE), Christensen (CHE), Keane (EVE), Holgate (EVE), Dallas (LEE), Cresswell (WHU), Dias (MCI)
Midfielders: Son (TOT), Havertz (CHE), Fernandes (MUN), Salah (LIV), Gundogan (MCI), De Bruyne (MCI), Lingard (WHU)
Forwards: Watkins (AVL), Bamford (LEE), Werner (CHE), Kane (TOT), Calvert-Lewin (EVE)
Who are the teams to look out for and avoid?:
Chelsea (Watch):
Default pick due to the sheer lack of footballing ability that emanates from Big Sam’s West Brom side. The first game after an international break gives me a sense of fear and dread, more so than the usual early kicks-offs that are renowned for being slow, sleepy affairs, but given the structure Chelsea are operating under Tuchel, this will no doubt be a comfortable home win. It’s the perfect fixture to put in a defensive asset if you don’t own them already – Mendy (£5.2m), Christensen (£4.7m) and Azpilicueta (£5.8m) are the standout picks.
Leeds (Watch):
See above – different teams, same story. On paper this is a good week to be a Bamford and Raphinha owner.
Liverpool (Watch):
It’s been nearly three weeks off for Jurgen Klopp’s team, the perfect amount of time to reset at the club. Trent Alexander-Arnold should be firing on all cylinders after missing out on England duty, whilst some attackers players like Jota and Salah were in good form over the international break. I’ve just got a feeling that this will be a professional away win for the Reds, though Kieran Tierney has done well at man marking Salah in the past, so points may come from elsewhere in Liverpool’s attack.
Newcastle (Avoid):
It’s late and I don’t want to publish this article in a rage over Newcastle’s current state. I’ve been using this weekly article as an opportunity to vent about the state of the Magpies – a go-to for any journalist figure that writes about their beloved club right now.
We’re slowly slipping into the drop zone and have the task of defending Gareth Bale, Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane on Sunday and it just doesn’t look good. Steve Bruce’s obvious bet of the team not scoring again this season looks like it is going to pay out a marginal return. It’s a case of when, not if, right now, with the damnation of another defeat looking ever more likely by the week – that’s what happens when you only win a couple of games in 20. I hope that me and every supporter are wrong, but it just looks like this snowball will keep growing in size and stature as Newcastle enter a tough run of games.
Everton (Watch):
Crystal Palace are winding down, whilst Everton are ticking along nicely. This has a low-scoring home win on the cards.
Wolves / West Ham (Avoid):
Wolves don’t do goals in the first-half, and not many in the second-half. I’ll probably avoid watching this game live and stick to the highlights on this one – this game will take some seriously good form from the likes of Lingard to unlock.
Gameweek 30 - FPL Captaincy Picks:
Essential: Harry Kane (TOT) vs. Newcastle (A)
Alternative: Mohamed Salah (LIV) vs. Arsenal (A)
Differential: Kai Havertz (CHE) vs. West Brom (H)
Other Gameweek Comments:
If Gameweek 30 was an open investigation in a police drama on television, this would be an open and shut case. You have the premium/expensive FPL options virtually are all in favourable fixtures so this isn’t a week to be taking big hits. Players on the whole have returned from the international break with a good bill of health, so we should just be picking up where we left off and will be juggling what players – the likes of Salah, Kane, Bruno, Son, Bale, De Bruyne, Gundogan, and even the likes of Grealish, Bamford, Watkins – will be the most ironed on for points.
The only pinch on my brain this week comes in the form of potential rotation ahead of the Champions League matches in midweek. Man City host Dortmund, whilst Liverpool travel to Real Madrid, on Tuesday. Chelsea then play their first-leg against Porto in Seville on Wednesday. All three English teams have every opportunity to rotate their squads, though I think with a quick turnaround it is more likely that Gameweek 31 will be the heavy rotation week – just don’t be surprised if key players like Dias and Gungodan (MCI) are spending this weekend on the bench.
In general though, with it being the early hours of the morning on Saturday morning, the deadline only a matter of hours away, this isn’t the week to get over-worked by – save transfers where you can and try to avoid using chips and hits. We’ll all get by just fine.
FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 30
Formation: 3-4-3
Starting 11
GK: Emi Martinez (AVL)
DEF: Cesar Azpilicueta (CHE)
DEF: Ruben Dias (MCI)
DEF: Mason Holgate (EVE)
MID: Bruno Fernandes (MUN)
MID: Mohamed Salah (LIV)
MID: Kai Havertz (CHE) – (VC)
MID: Ilkay Gundogan (MCI)
FOR: Patrick Bamford (LEE)
FOR: Harry Kane (TOT) – (C)
FOR: Ollie Watkins (AVL)
Substitutes
GK: Fraser Forster (SOU)
MID: Raphinha (LEE)
DEF: Luke Shaw (MUN)
DEF: Andreas Christensen (CHE)
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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.
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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.
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