Fantasy Football Sidekick: Man Utd's Rashford to earn big points against Leicester?
Fantasy Football Sidekick returns this week to help you make your picks for fantasy football this weekend. Having crunched the numbers, we pick out five players that should come into consideration for your fantasy football selection ahead of Saturday's Fantasy Premier League deadline.
Marcus Rashford - Manchester United (vs Leicester)
Marcus Rashford scored his 12th league goal of the season in Manchester United's 2-0 win at Leeds at the weekend, with what was only his third away league goal of the campaign. Indeed, the United star has scored nine home league goals this season; only Erling Haaland (18) has scored more.
Rashford is also coming up against his favourite Premier League opponents in Leicester this weekend. The 25-year-old has scored six times against the Foxes in his career, and while Leicester have shown signs of recovery of late, scoring eight across respective wins over Aston Villa and Tottenham, they still boast the third worst defensive record in England's top tier this term, shipping 38 times. Back Rashford to add to that on home turf.
Ollie Watkins - Aston Villa (vs Arsenal)
Ollie Watkins has only scored six league goals this season, but it was a real show of faith that Unai Emery was happy to sell Danny Ings despite the former's lowly goal return at the time. The faith doesn't look misplaced either. Of those six goals, three have come across Watkins' last three Premier League outings having netted in meetings with Southampton, Leicester and Manchester City. Looking at the bigger picture, he has been directly involved in a goal in six of his last eight league appearances.
Aston Villa take on Arsenal in the weekend's early kick off, and the Gunners have been on a bit of a wobble of late. They have failed to win in four, losing three times in that run, and dropped to second in midweek following their 3-1 loss to City. Arsenal are Watkins second favourite opponents in his career having netted three times against the north London side, and he'll be Villa's main source of goals once more this weekend.
Bee Mee - Brentford (vs Crystal Palace)
A 1-1 draw with Arsenal last weekend means Brentford are now on a 10-game unbeaten run in the league and they now sit just a point outside the top six. They'll feel confident of extending that record against Crystal Palace, and keeping a third successive home clean sheet in the process.
Palace have scored the fourth fewest away league goals this season (8), and have fired blanks in five of their 10 away games this term. Ben Mee has proven an inspired addition to the Brentford backline and he could prove a cut-price inclusion in your fantasy football side this week as a result.
Kepa - Chelsea (vs Southampton)
Chelsea aren't scoring goals having hit the back of the net just four times in all competitions in 2023, but they are at least difficult to break down. The Blues have the third best defensive record in the Premier League this season having conceded just 22 times, and have shipped just 7 goals in 10 home league games, while Kepa has kept a clean sheet in seven of his 14 outings. Of those seven, four have coming in six matches at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues don't have a great home record against Southampton, but the south coast side are in dire straits following Nathan Jones' disastrous spell at the St. Mary's helm. Saints foot the Premier League table and have lost nine of their last 10 top-flight games. What's more, they have scored just eight times on their travels this term, so a Chelsea clean sheet on home turf is likely this weekend.
Craig Dawson - Wolves (vs Bournemouth)
Wolves have only won six league matches this season, but three of those have come across their last four games. Of those three, two have been since Craig Dawson joined from West Ham. The 32-year-old brings crucial experience to the Wolves backline, a quality that has been found wanting, and should help keep lowly Bournemouth out at Molineux on Saturday.
The Cherries occupy one of three relegation spots, but have the worst away record in England's top tier. They have collected just five of a possible 33 points on the road this season, and have scored just nine times in 11 matches. In addition, Bournemouth have conceded more away set-piece goals, excluding penalties (8) than any other team, and this should benefit aerial threat Dawson this weekend.
