Premier League Fantasy Football: Who’s hot and who’s not?

Roberto Firmino has been heating up and will have a great chance to continue trending up against Aston Villa. What else is tipping the scales in the Premier League this week?

The next Premier League main slate hits Paddy Power Fantasy with the 3pm kick-offs on Saturday and features seven matches. There are plenty of clear favourites – good news for picking a daily fantasy team – and there are a few trends worth following too.

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Here’s our take on things…

Hot

Teams: Manchester City and Chelsea

Chelsea kept their recent hot streak going last week by extending their winning run to four straight. They join Manchester City as the only teams on the group of fixtures with at least two wins in a row – and that includes league leaders Liverpool.

Both City and Chelsea have scored five goals combined in their past two games. City have not allowed a goal in that time either.

Pep’s men will also be playing a second match in five days against the same opponents, Southampton, who lost 9-0 last week. Unsurprisingly, based on current betting, City (1/12) having a 92% implied win percentage.

Chelsea (8/13) are only sitting at 62%, but they face bottom of the league Watford. Outside the top four teams in the standings, the last few weeks have been tumultuous in the Premier League. Match-ups and form say City and Chelsea should stay hot.

Player: Roberto Firmino, Liverpool (£17)

Firmino has earned more fantasy points each game for the past four and has a good match-up against Villa coming up. He has been more active defensively over the last two weeks to add to his points total, but Villa will struggle to gain possession given season averages.

He should be fully involved in the Liverpool attack and his offensive numbers of late have been encouraging. The Brazilian has five shots on goal in the past two games and has created at least one chance in six of his last seven games.

Meanwhile, Villa struggled against another top attacking team last week, Manchester City, and allowed a total of 26 shots with 10 on target.

And it’s worth making an honourable mention of Christian Pulisic (£16), who is coming off his first career hat-trick last week and could be set to take off as Premier League star after a slow start.

Cold

Team: Southampton

Is there anywhere else to go with this after Leicester beat Southampton 9-0 last weekend? It was the biggest away win in Premier League history and only the second time a game in the league finished 9-0.

Ryan Bertrand was sent off early and everything unravelled from there. Southampton have allowed at least three goals in three of the last five games and now sit in the relegation zone.

The loss had to be demoralising, but the team did make some good from it as they donated salaries from the game to charity.

The Saints allow over 13 shots per game and will face the highest-scoring team in the league this weekend. Bertrand will be unavailable this weekend and it appears another defender, Cedric Soares, is still unavailable. It could be another long day.

Player: Ashley Barnes, Burnley (£14)

August 25th was the last time that Barnes scored more than 10 fantasy points. His highest total in his last five appearances was last week when he scored 9.3.

He did lead the team in shots last week, but Barnes’ finishing has left much to be desired. The only consistency Barnes has shown is in drawing fouls as he has drawn at least two in each of the last three matches.

However, he has created just two chances all season, showing that he feeds off his teammates, and they’ve not been finding the striker recently. Burnley average over a goal per match and have been shut out only once in the last five, but Ashley has not been the focus of their attack. Avoid until his form picks back up.

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