Gameweek 15

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Summary for the lazy.

- Gameweek 15's deadline is 13:30 GMT, Saturday 5th November ⏰- Haaland back in training ⚽️- Foden plays 90 again in a midweek dead-rubber 🙄- Saka makes midweek cameo - fit as a fiddle 🎻- Toney suspended after 5th yellow 🚫- Chilwell and Son injured midweek 🤕Stay for a tenuous connection between Guy Fawkes' execution and your Gameweek 15 captaincy.

Alright everyone?There usually comes a point in the season where the surveillance of a player's movements reaches restraining-order levels.We saw it in the Christmas of 2017, when Harry Kane, on the precipice of an early-January Double Gameweek, posted this festive pic on Instagram:

Innocuous at first glance, eagle-eyed managers soon spotted that he looked a little red around the nose. What followed was speculation that he might not play due to a cold. Sure enough, he was benched in the first game of the double and scored just three points across the two fixtures.

Haaland

's injury this week has bought about similar levels of content interrogation, from scanning training pics to straight up asking him directly. We're one more ambiguous press conference away from going through his bins in search of empty ibuprofen boxes.

Well, the answer we've been looking for might well have been found in a halloween prank video on Man City's Youtube channel. More on that shortly.Imagine the world's mysteries that could be solved if there were FPL points to be gained by solving them.Let's look ahead to Gameweek 15.

Erlimp Haaland: the latest.

For the lazy: Haaland has been pictured in training. In Friday afternoon's press conference, Pep said "'He's much better, we'll decide today. A good step, he starts training. We see this afternoon."For the toilet-readers:We have pictures and a video of Haaland in training. This is the most definitive piece of evidence that Haaland is nearing full fitness we've had since Kalvin Phillips snuck up on him wearing a Halloween mask in this video posted on Tuesday.

I hope you're sitting down for this, because it's quite shocking: Pep's press conference today was inconclusive once again."We see this afternoon" means we probably won't find out about Haaland's fitness status until we get the team news on Saturday.It's also worth noting that Pep was asked what factors will be considered when making an assessment on Haaland's fitness, to which he replied:"Himself, his opinion, the doctor's opinion. [We must decide] if he's good for 90 minutes or less minutes. We will see after training."

What to do with Haaland?

Assuming we don't get any definitive news one way or the other*:- If you've got him already, keep him and captain him- If you don't have him, buy him and captain himSo long as the Norse God remains a possible starter, there is no other option.*But there is a big caveat. Last week news leaked that Haaland and Foden were out of the starting XI before the deadline. Those in our Premium WhatsApp group got this news about 3 seconds after it was leaked:

And given the deadline is 13:30 this Saturday, there's a half-decent chance we'll get early line-up leaks for eight different teams - including, you guessed it, Man City.If you want to stay on top of any pre-deadline news, our Premium WhatsApp group is the place to be.Join Premium here and you'll also get two extra FPLTips emails a week, packed full of need-to-know insight written by experts. All for the price of a cup of coffee every month.If you're going to trust anyone, trust Heineken Belly:

The Professor shared this graphic in one of this week's Premium emails:

This is every match City have played since June. The furthest right hand column tells us whether Foden started in the game or not. As the Professor himself put it, "the most recent games have been Y-N-Y-N-Y-N-Y-N-Y-...it doesn't take a professor to complete the sequence".When asked about Foden's recent benchings, Pep was - as always - pretty cryptic. (If you don't have the time to watch, he effectively says "everyone gets benched sometimes, that's how it is.")But should you get rid? The Professor is pretty resolute that you should if we don't get any news on City's line-up prior to the deadline. There are simply too many interesting midfield options to justify sticking with another 1-pointer cameo this week.However, due to the monumental upside if he does play, he also suggests you wait for any potential early team news leaks before pulling the trigger, unlike the 250,000 managers who have already ejected him from their side.

Things didn't look good for Bukayo Saka owners when he hobbled off the pitch just 27 minutes into Arsenal's thrashing of Nottingham Forest last weekend.

Well, it turns out Saka is back. The youngster came on for 27 minutes (somewhat ironically) during Thursday's win against FC Zurich, alleviating any concerns over his availability for Gameweek 15.See, it's not all bad.

In the spirit of content interrogation, there is some worry that Callum Wilson is ill.Hosting the BBC's Footballer's Football podcast, Wilson explained "I'm feeling a bit run down this week, so need to make sure this illness doesn't kick in fully and I clear it out."Well, whatever he did to clear it out (I dread to think) seems to have worked. Howe told this morning's press conference that he "thinks he's okay. He's had a little cold, but yeah fingers crossed he'll be okay." Okay? Okay.

The best captain.

In the early hours of 5th November 1605, when Sir Alex Ferguson managed Man United and Blackburn were still a decent team, Guy Fawkes and his mates were caught trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament and, with it, King James I. You probably know the story. But you might not know how he was eventually executed.Fawkes was set to be hanged, drawn and quartered, which isn't a great way to go. From Wikipedia: "The convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered (chopped into four pieces)."But against the odds, Fawkes was able to avoid the more gruesome aspects of that punishment. He managed - most suspect intentionally - to break his neck during the hanging part.All of which is to say: whilst picking a captain in the earlier games can feel daunting, it's just like breaking your neck at 3pm on a Saturday to save yourself from an even nastier fate on Sunday afternoon.Captain Haaland. It's better than being hanged, drawn and quartered by Salah away at Spurs (who would be our number 2 pick, assuming you don't own Kevin De Bruyne).

The key stats.

Here are all the important stats ahead of Gameweek 15:

Expert analysis.

This week's FPL expert is @FPLGOAT7, whose Twitter following could fill most Premier League stadiums.He finished in the top 6k last season and is, as his name suggests, one of the greats of the game. Here are his thoughts ahead of Gameweek 15.

I'm looking at bringing Marcus Rashford in for Wilfred Zaha despite Palace's good fixtures.If you've got Ivan Toney in your team, Callum Wilson is the most sensible transfer to make. I've got the injured Edouard and I'm looking at the Newcastle forward as a replacement.If Haaland is confirmed out again, anyone with two free transfers (like me) should prioritise selling him and upgrading a midfielder to Kevin De Bruyne. He's the standout captaincy option this week if Haaland is conclusively ruled out.Using a points hit to bring in any Man City attacker that you feel will start is a great option, as the cost of the hit will most likely be covered over the course of the two gameweeks prior to the World Cup.Rashford is another player I'd consider taking a hit for: he's started to hit form and has Aston Villa and Fulham before the break.

As per, we let GOAT do what he wants to our team. He's decided to get rid of Zaha and bring in Rashford.Here's how we're looking ahead of Gameweek 15:

Let's acknowledge the elephant in the room: yes, our team view is more useful than yours. Sorry about that.The reason why we can see predicted points, upcoming fixtures and previous points beneath every player is because we use the BetterFPL Chrome extension. It makes transfer dilemmas, benching headaches and captaincy calls a dream.

You should get it too. It's totally free for the first 10 days, so if you get it now, you can use it until the World Cup without paying a penny. Click here to download it (it takes about 7 seconds).

Looking ahead.

Having failed to top their Europa group last night, it's since transpired that Man United don't have any free midweeks or weekends between now and the end of the season to play their rearranged PL fixtures against Leeds and Palace.Blimey: talk about fixture congestion.Here's what Ben Crellin, the fixture guru, had to say about it:

Quadruple gameweek, anyone?

Right, we're out.Good luck for Gameweek 15 - we'll see you next week. If this email was helpful, please take a moment to let us know. We enjoy hearing from you.Cheers,The FPLTips team.