Our Gameweek 14 Sleepers XI article provides Draft managers with a lineup of Fantasy EPL hidden gems. Our starting eleven of Draft Premier League differential picks will help you find a golden ticket to a big score this weekend! These hints and tips will give you a better chance of picking up an all-important victory, as any one of these under-the-radar picks could make the difference in a head-to-head game!
We'll be focusing on players that will bring us not only attacking returns or clean sheets, but also those players that score Ghost Points in the sophisticated and statistics based Fantrax Scoring System!
Fantasy EPL Gameweek 14 Sleepers XI
For this article, we use the percentage rostered calculation from Fantrax and Sleeper. Our only rule is that each player we highlight is rostered in 60% of leagues or fewer at the time of writing. Therefore, there's a good chance some of these players will be free agents in your Draft league! As always, we'll take form, fixtures, projected points, and a healthy dose of intuition into account to make our selections.
Remember when we asked if it could get worse? Well, it did. Our GW13 Sleepers XI scored a disastrous 61.25 FPts, the lowest score of our season-to-date. Maybe Totti and I should swap articles again! Nevertheless, let's look closer as to why our score was so shambolic. In net we went with Kelleher, who was at home versus the struggling champions and managed to register the clean sheet, as we had hoped for, scoring a tidy 12 FPts. Our 3 man defence had 0 clean sheets with each of them only conceding 1 goal each. Sepp van den Berg scored the highest with 7.25 FPts, with the next highest being Livramento on 4.75 FPts and then O'Shea's 3.5 FPts which included a yellow card. We went with a 5 man midfield, but it was basically 4 since James Ward-Prowse did not play a single minute this gameweek. Joao Gomes continued his unpredictable form with -0.5 FPts, Jensen was subbed off after 41 minutes due to a hamstring injury with only 3 FPts and Hutchinson scored 3.5 FPts in 78 minutes. We obviously saved the best for last with Enzo Fernandez scoring yet another goal with a couple of key passes to earn a solid 17 FPts score. Finally, our FWDs. Keane Lewis-Potter who played the whole match scored just 2.25 FPts, which included a booking, whereas Mavididi scored 8.5 FPts as a 25-minute substitute. We really need to do better. Perhaps a change of system may help!
The Sleepers XI table below includes a full team of Starters, as well as 5 Reserves - high-upside players with some question marks around whether or not they'll start in Gameweek 13. So keep an eye out when lineups are announced and pick them up if you see them starting, especially if you need to fill a spot on your roster. Read below for the rationale behind each of the Starter selections.
Fraser Forster (G, Tottenham Hotspur)
Vicario unfortunately picked up an ankle injury in GW12 that has ruled him out for a few months. So enter Fraser Forster. In his first match, the English GK managed to make 5 saves despite conceding once, putting up a respectable 11.25 FPts score. Bournemouth host Spurs in GW14 and their talisman Semenyo, who has attempted the 2nd most shots in the league (52), returns from suspension, which could mean plenty of potential saves in the match for Forster. Spurs will naturally concede chances as well, given the fact that they're still starting both of their back-up CBs.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka (D, West Ham)
After a surprising win on the road against Newcastle in GW12, West Ham followed up that result with an absolute battering against Arsenal in GW13, conceding 5 goals at home. Nevertheless they did manage to score 2 goals against the Gunners and Wan-Bissaka was on the scoresheet for a 2nd game in a row. This is very unlike Wan-Bissaka, given he had not scored since the 2020/21 season while playing for Manchester United, but as Fantrax managers, we love some defenders with upside. Even if West Ham do concede, Wan-Bissaka still scores at a rate of 10.5 gPP90, the best of all Hammers players.
Kenny Tete (D, Fulham)
Another defender who has been smashing it of late is Kenny Tete. After the slow start to his season, Tete has now scored double digit points in each of his last 4 games, with 2 of these hauls including one assist and one clean sheet. This is pretty impressive numbers for an asset that most managers would consider as a DEF-3/4 pick. In fact, over the past 3 gameweeks, Iwobi (16 PPS) is the only Fulham player that has outscored Tete (13.7 PPS). Tete might even be a DEF-2 if he keeps this up.
Trevoh Chalobah (D, Crystal Palace)
The Eagles managed to salvage a point in the dying minutes of their game versus Newcastle in GW13 and now have one of the most important games of their season as they visit Ipswich Town, in what could be termed a "6-pointer affair". Both teams are struggling at the bottom of the table and will be hoping for nothing less than a win. Luckily for Crystal Palace, Ipswich have the worst home form in the league at the moment, having only scored 4 goals in 4 games with 3 draws and a loss. Therefore, the Eagles could fancy getting a clean sheet on the road, which means punting on their defence could be a great option, especially if you are like me and badly need a DEF-3 this week. Don't forget that Chalobah has been one of the best scoring assets for the Eagles since his debut, with 11. 2 PPS, a feat only bettered by Muñoz (11.6) and Eze (11.5).
Christian Norgaard (M, Brentford)
After club captain Christian Norgaard was cleared of his debatable red card versus Everton, he was back in action and back to his steady-eddy ways. This is by no means a pick with a high-ceiling but he does have the ability to surprise managers with the odd attacking return. Norgaard is a bit of a safe pick especially during these midweek gameweeks at this time of the year when players are being rotated and rested due to the fixture pile-up and with their load being managed to prevent injuries. With a projection of 7.1 FPts, you could do a lot worse.
Elliot Anderson (M, Nottingham Forest)
Mr. Anderson was reintroduced into the Nottingham Forest starting XI again after a few games out and for those managers that went early, it would have been a great decision given his 12.5 FPts score in 70 minutes, which included 3 key passes. Anderson was also on set piece duty taking 7 of 8 corners, so the ceiling is quite high given his multiple route to points. Nottingham Forest now face Manchester City who are hurting badly at the moment and lack the right personnel in midfield to protect their backline. Anderson could be rolled out again to provide solidity in midfield for the Tricky Trees so they can capitalise on Man City's glaring weakness in the centre of the pitch.
Abdoulaye Doucoure (M, Everton)
In the last 4 games, Everton are the only team to have not scored a single goal. That's pretty shocking, even for a Dyche team. Maybe their luck will change when they take on Wolves in GW14. Despite Wolves coming back into form and being a free scoring team recently with 10 goals in their last 4 games, Wolves have still conceded the most goals this season (32). Since the likes of DCL and Beto are failing to hit the back of the net, the goals will have to come from somewhere! Doucoure could be that guy. In his recent games (ignoring the 0.75 versus Brentford), Doucoure has been averaging around 6-7 gPPS, which is a decent floor to start with. This is purely one week fixture play for the Toffees midfielder as their fixtures get much worse in the future, so a win would be most welcome for them right now.
Matt O'Riley (M, Brighton)
Flavour-of-last-month Matt O'Riley finally had his first start in the league versus Southampton in GW13 and definitely disappointed owners. However, if you watched the game, it was one of those scenarios where the eye-test did not reflect the Fantrax output. It is well known that O'Riley is still building up his fitness levels to match the Premier League so there might be a bit of patience needed with him. Current owners would even argue he was a bit unlucky having registered an xA of 0.41 versus the Saints. In spite of his meagre 0.75 FPts score in GW13, we're going to gamble again on the Dane and hope that he can put the naysayers to rest.
Ismaila Sarr (F, Crystal Palace)
Sarr seems to have finally settled at Crystal Palace and found his regular spot in the starting XI for Glasner. The Senegalese FWD has now started 5 games in a row. During this period, Sarr has been averaging just over 8 ghost points per game and been one of the chief creators (7 key passes) while Eze has been out. Sarr has shown his ability to get attacking returns as well, with his monster score of 25 FPts that included a goal and an assist. Crystal Palace will desperately be aiming for a win against fellow relegation rivals Ipswich Town and hope that Sarr can maintain his current form.
Joao Felix (F, Chelsea)
We have finally hit the congested period of the season and the possible threat of squad rotation looms. Chelsea are one of those teams that can easily roll out a fresh XI for any given gameweek, just like they do for the Premier League and the European Conference League. Since GW14 is in the middle of the week, this could be the perfect opportunity for Maresca to maintain his rotational programme with his Chelsea assets, allowing the likes of Felix to get another start in the Prem. Felix has started most of his games in the European Conference league, where he has managed to score 4 goals in 4 appearances (3 starts, 1 sub). It should also be noted that Felix's only start in the Premier League saw him score 8.5 ghost points. If he does get the nod to face the worst team in the league in GW14, he is an automatic starter.
Stephy Mavididi (F, Leicester City)
According to our fixture difficulty tracker, Leicester City FWDs have the best fixture for FWDs in GW14. This will be Ruud's first game in charge of the Foxes and many Fantrax managers will be curious as to which assets could potentially be reborn as mid-season gems that could potentially make a difference in their league campaign. Despite not starting the last game, Mavididi still managed to score 8.5 FPts in 25 minutes as a sub, with half of his points coming as successful dribbles (4). Mavididi currently scores at a rate of 9.2 PP90, which is only bettered by the in-form Buonanotte, FWD-1 Jordan Ayew and the ROS-injured Fatawu. Lest we forget how pivotal Mavididi was to Leicester's promotion to the Premier League. So if they are to have any chance of staying up, Mavididi will need to step up.
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