🚨 GW22: The FPL cheat sheet 🧠

⏰ Gameweek 22’s deadline is Saturday, 17th January, 11:00 GMT ⏰

🔵 Antoine Semenyo joins Man City.

🤝 Michael Carrick appointed manager of Man United for the remainder of the season.

🤦‍♂️ Rosenier reveals that Cole Palmer has not been fully fit for much of the season.

⚽️ Hugo Ekitike (1G, 1A) and Dominic Solanke returned from injury in the FA Cup. Which is convenient for Spurs because…

😫 Richarlison is out for seven weeks with a hamstring injury.

🤕 Conor Bradley has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

🙃 Guardiola: "Hopefully Omar [Marmoush] comes back soon to give rest to Erling because Erling [Haaland] is exhausted."

🤝 Conor Gallagher signs for Spurs. Priced at £5.5m..

👌 Bryan Mbeumo is among those knocked out of AFCON and on their way back to their clubs.

👀 Keep reading for too much Coldplay.

Alright?

When you try your best but you don’t succeed,
When you don’t get what you want, nor what you need.
When your clean sheet’s wiped out by an obscure Swede,
You’re probably playing FPL this season…

There’ll be no lights to guide you home, and igniting your bones is actually a very painful process. You’ll just have to make do with another newsletter from us.

It’s Gameweek 22. The Desmond. Taylor Swift’s favourite round of fixtures. Let’s see what it has in store.

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Lazy summary: Semenyo scored, Haaland and Saka didn’t.

Before you start, we’re not going to run through every FA Cup Third Round result. Crystal Palace lost, Erling Haaland blanked in a 10-1 win and Wolves scored six. Hugo Ekitike (1G, 1A) and Dominic Solanke returned from injury with off-the-bench cameos.

The rest went as expected, give or take.

Our livescore partners, Fotmob, have a dedicated FA Cup section if you want to dig deeper.

The first legs of the Carabao Cup Semi-finals also happened. If cups were condiments, the Carabao Cup would be a bottle of Bramwells Tomato Ketchup, but the prospect of being two games away from a trophy was enough for the remaining clubs to play something close to a first team regardless.

Here’s what happened:

Newcastle 0-2 Man City

⚽️ Goals: Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Cherki
🦮 (FPL) Assists: Bernardo Silva, Rayan Aït-Nouri

The big talking point here was Semenyo, who scored his second goal in as many games for his new club. Aït-Nouri, back from AFCON, nabbed an assist in a 2-minute cameo, whilst Cherki was given 13 minutes to impress. Phil Foden played 62 mins before he was subbed off. Erling Haaland played 90.

Yoane Wissa started for Newcastle, which might indicate that Nick Woltemade is more likely to start at the weekend.

Chelsea 2-3 Arsenal

⚽️ Goals: Alejandro Garnacho (2), Ben White, Viktor Gyökeres, Martín Zubimendi
🦮 (FPL) Assists: Declan Rice, White, Gyökeres, Pedro Neto

Cole Palmer was not in the squad for this game, and Rosenior has spoken of his fitness struggles this season. We’re not soothsayers, but it’s looking like big coats on the bench for the foreseeable.

Another 90-minute blank from Bukayo Saka doesn’t do his FPL prospects any favours. Gabriel missed a good chance towards the end of the game. Chelsea’s two goals came from just 0.65xG.

Lazy summary: Players are returning, but don’t forget about the third-place play-off, which keeps Egyptian and Nigerian players in Africa until after this gameweek.

AFCON is nearly over. Every player who doesn’t play for either Morocco, Senegal, Egypt or Nigeria is either already back at their clubs (see Rayan Aït-Nouri) or on their way back (presumably still stuck in the arrivals queue at Heathrow).

Anyone desperately waiting for Iliman Ndiaye or Noussair Mazraoui’s return will have to wait a little longer, but it means we’ll start seeing the likes of Bryan Mbeumo back in the Premier League.

Why isn’t Mohamed Salah available this weekend?

Egypt and Nigeria might have lost their semi-finals, but they’re sticking around to play the third-place play-off on Saturday. Salah should be available (if Slot wants him) after Gameweek 22, but he’ll miss Liverpool’s fixture against Burnley. The same can be said for Omar Marmoush at Man City.

Should we all buy back Mbeumo?

There’s a tendency to forget how good a player was when they’re out of action for a while. Prior to his departure, Mbeumo was in a lot of teams, and there will inevitably be an opportunity to bring him back as a differential before the rest of your mini-league rivals remember that he’s pretty decent.

With that said, Man United have perhaps the worst fixtures a team can possibly have in Gameweeks 22 and 23: Man City (H) and Arsenal (A). They have a nice run after that.

Wait for now.

Lazy summary: He could be, but we’d wait unless you have an urgent need for a mid-priced midfielder.

Antoine Semenyo has scored two goals in two games since moving to Man City, which has caused low-key pandemonium amongst FPL managers.

He’s in form (four Premier League goals in his last six for Bournemouth), he’s the second-most-owned player in the game, and he’s just moved to arguably the best attacking club the Premier League has ever seen.

Most managers who once owned him (which, let’s face it, is most of us) are now seriously considering bringing him back once again.

If you already own him, he’s an easy keep. But here’s the lazy assessment for those yet to pull the trigger:

Pros of buying Antoine Semenyo

He’s really highly owned (44% overall, but 27% of top 10k managers), and his ownership is likely to increase. If you’re new around here, this is proper important. The higher the ownership, the greater the risk of not owning him.

He’s also a great player, playing for a great team. He’s proven he can be great value for money at Bournemouth.

The cherry on top (not an idiom we’d use around him, given his former club) is that he’s not yet registered to play in the Champions League, which means he’s all the more likely to get minutes in the Premier League.

Cons of buying Antoine Semenyo

It’s boring, but we don’t know how he’ll get on at Man City. Will he get consistent starts? Will Pep deploy him in a way that suits his talents? Many an excellent player has gone to Man City and found themselves marginalised.

Fundamentally, Semenyo at Man City is an unknown quantity, and FPL managers should be wary of the unknown variety of quantities.

This cuts both ways. Semenyo’s underlying stats have been poor over his last six matches (his four goals and one assist have come from just 2.1 expected goal involvements), but those were his stats at Bournemouth. We can’t put too much stock into those either.

His two goals and one assist for Man City have come from a combined 1.29xG and 0.53xA. Whilst it’s a small sample size that includes a 10-1 thrashing of Exeter, there are glimmers of statistical improvement already.

So…should you buy him?

The challenge for FPL managers is that Semenyo ought to be treated with the same trepidation we’d treat all new transfers, but he happens to be nearly 50% owned, which increases the urgency to make a decision.

For us, whether you buy him or not depends on whether there’s an obvious vacancy for a £7.6m midfielder in your team. If there is, you could do far worse than Semenyo.

If not, give it some time. Don’t get rid of a perfectly good midfielder for the shiny new thing. See how he beds in and move accordingly.

Lazy summary: It’s Erling Haaland.

…And the tears come streaming down your face,
When you buy a player you can’t replace.
Then you use a chip and it goes to waste,
Do you captain Wirtz?

No.

Liverpool assets are tempting this week because they’re at home to Burnley, but with Hugo Ekitike’s minutes still at risk as he returns to full fitness, there’s a lack of reliable, captainable options there.

Pep’s words on Erling Haaland are ominous. But Omar Marmoush is still out of the fold, and “exhausted” though the Norse God may be, it’s telling that Guardiola was still happy to give him 135 minutes across their FA Cup and Carabao Cup games last week.

Then there’s this:

Whilst we love a meme in these parts, we tend to hate anything remotely superstitious. Superstition just isn’t conducive to a lazy existence. Plus, it’s stupid.

Ignore Gandhi and captain Haaland vs Man United for a more relaxing weekend.

The white smoke pours from the Professor’s chimney: he’s made a transfer.

Matheus Cunha departs. Enzo Fernández comes in.

He’s got two more free transfers that he’s intending to use, but he’s undecided on how he’ll use them. Erling Haaland gets the captaincy - surely the biggest achievement of his career to date.

Here’s his team:

As always, LazyFPL Premium members will get updated on Prof’s moves as they happen via the WhatsApp Broadcast Channel.

1) Liam Delap and Jamie Gittens are unwell, along with some Chelsea staff. Liam Rosenior says they had a meeting with players this morning on the importance of washing hands to avoid illness.

2) Donyell Malen has been loaned to Roma.

3) Tino Livramento could miss up to 8 weeks with a hamstring injury (Craig Hope).

4) Kevin Schade is now the top player for expected goal involvements over the last six gameweeks.

5) Wolves have the best underlying defensive stats over the past six gameweeks.

Same time next week? Go on then.

Stay lazy.

The LazyFPL Team.