Strikers will once again be top of the priority list for Fantasy Premier League managers ahead of the game week 15 deadline.
A substantial portion of this week’s transfers will no doubt be used to remove Sergio Aguero from squads throughout the game, as the Argentine’s moment of madness against Chelsea sees him banned until New Year’s Eve.
£13.1m, the top price in the game, gives those players doing so complete financial freedom when it comes to selecting a replacement.
With over 2.2 million FPL players already having made the decision to axe the City hitman and many more ready to follow suit before Saturday morning, NMO’s tipster assesses the candidates.
Diego Costa (£10.8m)
The Chelsea man is obviously the striker everyone wants at the moment and the form that has helped Antonio Conte’s men rise to the top of the table has been frightening.
His fixture difficulty ranking (FDR) over the next five games is only 1.8. Three of those games are also at home but at the moment Costa looks capable of scoring against anyone.
The only drawback? A knock picked up last week makes him a doubt for West Brom on Sunday.
Harry Kane (£11.1m)
Kane, as is now almost traditional, has waited until the season is almost half gone before finding his hot streak.
That streak though, is well and truly underway with five goals in his last four games. The Englishman also has home fixtures against Burnley and Hull during Aguero’s absence and will fancy continuing his run.
A tricky trip to Manchester United on Sunday though has a negative effect on his FDR and is the only clear reason for not selecting him ahead of Costa.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (£11.2m)
The big Swede is the most expensive forward in the game after Aguero but opting to bring him in will still leave players an extra £1.8m to spend elsewhere.
He did endure a few weeks without scoring and United are far from the finished article but his goal on Thursday was his 13th of the campaign.
He is also nailed on to start under Mourinho. Zlatan must face Spurs and then two away games which means he might not be the immediate solution but FPL players should keep him close to their thoughts as his accumulation of points will be steady throughout the season.
Jermaine Defoe (£7.7m)
One option for managers could be to scale back spending on the forward line and plough funds into a marquee midfielder such as Eden Hazard (£10.4m) or Alexis Sanchez (£11.6m).
Bringing in Defoe for Aguero could make that possible.
Sunderland’s continued revival will depend heavily on his goals and there are few forwards around more reliable than the evergreen hit-man.
Defoe will be licking his lips at the prospect of Swansea City this weekend but Chelsea, Man United and Liverpool all await in the following five weeks.
The post Diego Costa still fantasy favourite over Spurs and Man United rivals appeared first on Ninety Minutes Online.