Getting your team selection correct in Draft Premier League is just as essential as your pre-season draft or your weekly waiver wire claims. And that’s exactly why we’re here to help with our Gameweek 27 Start and Sit article! We’re here to help you with some of the big Fantasy EPL decisions you may need to make for the upcoming fixtures.
Gameweek 27 Start and Sit
Whether you’re an obsessed EPL fan like our Fantrax HQ team, or a casual player new to the world of Fantasy EPL, you know to start your attacking players against relegation-threatened sides. We’re not going to waste your time dealing with the obvious! The goal of this article is to delve into notable players across each Fantrax position and let you know if you should be starting or sitting those players.
Our format is as follows: We will be choosing 2 different teams. One will be our starts of the week, made up of non-obvious, low-rostered players. The other will be our sits of the week, made up of highly rostered, normally started players.
Now let’s see the Gameweek 26 Start and Sit contenders!
Starts of the Week XI
Player Pos. Team Opponent % Rostered Jason Steele G BHA @LEE/CRY 4% Aaron Wan-Bissaka D MUN SOU 22% Adam Webster D BHA @LEE/CRY 21% Joel Veltman D BHA @LEE/CRY 30% Jamaal Lascelles D NEW WOL 1% Aaron Hickey D BRF @EVE/@SOU 12% Harvey Elliot M LIV @BOU 30% Kamaldeen Sulemana M SOU @MUN/BRF 18% Abdoulaye Doucoure M EVE BRF 12% Georginio Rutter F LEE BHA 10% Dango Ouattara F BOU LIV 36%
Average % Rostered: 17%
A surprise start for the Englishman left season-long Sanchez rosterers scrambling last week and Jason Steele is likely to continue between the sticks for high-flying Brighton in this upcoming double.
Tariq Lamptey’s early injury meant that Joel Veltman became the top waiver target in most leagues this week as Brighton faces an easy-looking double and if the injury proves longer term, the Dutchman should be guaranteed 180 over the gameweek. Adam Webster rounds out our Brighton contingent. Aaron Hickey offers a cheap way into another relatively easy doubling defense in Brentford. Our five at the back is propped up by 2 single GW heroes-to-be, the resurgent AWB, who will surely try to benefit from his Portuguese counterpart shipping 7 last weekend (underlined by his rest in the Europa League) and after a surprise start against City, club captain Jamaal Lascelles should continue to try to steer Newcastle back to winning and CS-keeping ways against Wolves.
The three-man midfield only includes 1 double gameweek player as most low-rostered options have question marks around their potential to start both games. Dribbly Boi, Kamaldeen Sulemana has been ever present in the Southampton XI since his arrival in January and the double should get him his first double-digit score across the gameweek. The mid-3 includes 2 players from Merseyside, Harvey Elliot, who had his best game of the season against United, and Abdoulaye Doucure, who himself got on the scoresheet in Everton’s 2-2 draw with Forest last weekend.
Up top, another dribble-loving January signing, Georgino Rutter will continue to deputize for Bamford up top for Leeds and try to nail down a spot in the attack that could best be described as a revolving door. Rutter looked decent against Chelsea, he should continue to collect ghosts and hopefully register a return. The team is completed by Dango Ouattara, who has cooled off a bit after a hot start, but he will be the main man causing Liverpool problems.
Sits of the Week XI
Player Pos. Team Opponent % Rostered David de Gea G MUN SOU 87% Antonee Robinson D FUL ARS 71% Kyle Walker D MCI CRY 70% William Saliba D ARS @FUL 89% Marc Cucurella D CHE @LEI 70% Declan Rice M WHU AVL 94% Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall M LEI CHE 76% Miguel Almirón M NEW WOL 85% Granit Xhaka M ARS @FUL 80% Willian F FUL ARS 70% Brennan Johnson F NOT @TOT 83%
Average % Rostered: 79%
It seems easy to pick on the goalkeeper who shipped 7 last week, but most managers will gladly put him in against Southampton. I will be advising some caution. The United D hasn’t looked very good lately and JWPs set pieces plus DDG’s box presence could be a deadly combination for goals conceded (they are 6th worst in the league for set-piece goals conceded)
The defense could be separated into 2 categories: those who do not score well even with a potential clean sheet, and those who might, but I do not expect them to end up with one. Kyle Walker and William Saliba are members of the first club and Marc Cucurella and even more so Antonee Robinson are members of the second group. For either reason, I would stay away this weekend.
Granit Xhaka has unfortunately returned to his old, non-ghosting self lately, and while the purple patch was fun for a while, I would struggle to advise starting him nowadays at all. KDH, while potentially benefitting from a more attacking setup in Barnes’s absence and Maddison’s drive, his lack of set pieces really hurts his floor and while I believe Leicester could grab a gal against Chelsea, they will not feast. Rice faces a solidified Villa team who are among the stringiest teams when it comes to allowing opponents midfielder points. Miggy rounds out the midfield, who has been in poor form, and is included in the XI mostly because there is a very real chance he will be benched.
Up top, Willian is showing peak Arsenal-Willian form lately and is facing a tough, title-chasing team in his former employers. I would even consider dropping him, let alone, benching him. Some might be buoyed by Brennan Johnson‘s heroics last week, but I think he is quickly coming down to Earth against a Spurs side, whose manager is fighting to keep his legacy intact. Avoid.
Make sure you also check out our official EPL content partner, The Draft Society, for all the latest! Check out their Fantrax Weekly Player Projections page for more player evaluations for the upcoming week!