Firstly, Fantasy Premier League has issued the below information:
- The remaining season's fixtures have been allocated new Gameweeks
- Each new Gameweek is indicated by a "+" (e.g. GW30+, GW31+, GW32+)
- Any unused chips or Wildcards will remain available for use before the end of the season
Crystal Palace in FPL
There are 31 Palace players currently listed in Fantasy Premier League, with 26 of those available to select, injury permitting. Between them, the 31 Eagles have notched 1,110 points - an average of 35.8 each.
Our top earners so far are Vicente Guaita (116), Jordan Ayew (108) and Wilfried Zaha (95). There are perhaps no surprises with those three sitting top.
However, other high scorers who don’t always stand out for their basic stats include James McArthur (75) and Cheikhou Kouyate (72) - with the pair contributing one goal and six assists between them, but collecting many of their points through minutes played (both in the team’s top five) and subsequent clean sheets (19 between them).
Of the players with at least 20 points, however, Guaita comes out as the best value for money - collecting 23.2 points per '£' this season. He is only the joint-12th most expensive player in the squad, and joint-11th cheapest ‘keeper in the game. Impressively, he has the most points of any Palace player and the joint-fifth highest of any shot stopper in the league.
Furthermore, Guaita can proudly boast having kept nine clean sheets from 27 games this season - three of which came consecutively before the league’s suspension.
🇪🇸 On this day in 2018: We announced that VG would be joining the club!#CPFC pic.twitter.com/lxQoyqVtvY
— Crystal Palace F.C. (H) (@CPFC) June 8, 2020
With AFC Bournemouth and Burnley (the league’s 16th and 13th-lowest scorers respectively) in Palace’s next three games, Guaita certainly seems like an indisputable choice.
Another man in-form before the break was Palace’s second-best performer in the game, Jordan Ayew. The sharp-shooting frontman collected five, seven and six points respectively in his three most recent matches - scoring twice, assisting once and receiving two bonus points in the process.
Across the league, FPL managers seem to have cottoned-on to Martin Kelly’s value for money, with the Palace defender selected in almost 20% of teams, over 10% more than the next Eagle. Kelly’s return of 64 points makes him the seventh-best performing player in the Palace squad despite being its 28th most expensive.
However, Kelly has not featured since a home loss against Southampton on January 21st. He is certainly worth including when facing a run in the team, which he has done repeatedly this season.
Finally, Patrick van Aanholt racked 15, eight and six points respectively in his last three matches - and has previously earned 10 (v Manchester United), nine (v West Ham United) and several sixes. At 5.6, he is, however, Palace’s most expensive defender by a long way.
Everything you need to know about #FPL’s return 🍟🔄📅 pic.twitter.com/Po416yxl3J
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) June 8, 2020
The verdict
Guaita and Ayew are both high-scoring, in form and affordable choices. As a Palace fan, it’s hard to exclude them from your team.
If you’ve got money to spend, Van Aanholt is worth including in the backline. If you want to be more frugal, McArthur and Kouyate are reliable performers that won’t break the bank.
With Fantasy Premier League permitting unlimited transfers until Wednesday, 17th June at 17:00 BST, it's time to up the number of Palace players in your squad. And now you know who to include.
All data is accurate as of June 5th, 2020.
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