This article is part of our FanDuel Fantasy Soccer series.
There have been years when the final day of the season comes with huge anticipation, nerves and celebration. Unfortunately for viewers, this is not one of them. Almost all of the major positions are spoken for, with fourth place (Champions League) the only real prize left. There will be massive turnover in the squads, so looking at the lineups of 20 teams on Sunday morning, yes 20, will be vital. There can be some prediction of lineups as managers tend to give little hints for the matches that don't matter. For this article we are taking a slightly different approach and giving more general highlights and pointing out a few players/situations.
Top Players/Situations
The Fight for Top 4: Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool will all look for three points in what are essentially must-wins. Start the big boys here, especially Alexis Sanchez ($12,000), Philippe Coutinho ($10,900), Kevin De Bryune ($9,400) and Gabriel Jesus ($10,600). Liverpool carry the highest win and expected goal odds followed by Manchester City and Arsenal, respectively. The other side of these matches is the defenders for Middlesbrough, Watford and Everton; look at the center-backs first, then defensive midfielders.
Goalkeepers: FanDuel prices backups significantly lower than regular starters, especially goalkeepers. In some situations we could see a $3,000 difference in price come match day. This is important, as there are several high-priced forwards and midfielders we will want to roster and the savings could be the difference between rostering two-to-three and three-to-four of them.
Race for Personal Achievements: Golden boot and golden glove races are still up for grabs. The golden boot will likely go to either Romelu Lukaku ($9,900), Harry Kane ($12,000) or Alexis Sanchez ($12,000). Thibaut Courtois ($6,400) needs a clean sheet to win the golden glove over Hugo Lloris ($6,500); Chelsea are aware of this and against Sunderland seems like a safer way to play goalkeeper, albeit with limited upside.
Youngsters/Bench Stepping Up: Expect a dose of youngsters from Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham and others. With salaries likely between $5,500 and $3,000, there will be options to choose from; the important part will be looking for the situations that can lead to fantasy points such as playing forward with legitimate players, defenders on weaker sides, and then avoiding central midfielders on level teams (even though they are cheap).
For bench players, look for those taking over the main playmaking role or those who normally split to take close to 100 percent. The cheat sheet is provided here and will be very helpful come Sunday to determine what attacking points are available if normal options like Christian Eriksen, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Lanzini, Cesc Fabregas, Marc Albrighton, Leighton Baines, Kamil Grosicki and Dusan Tadic and James Ward-Prowse are out.
Kick Them While They're (Going) Down: Attackers outside of the top-four fight to look at include Chelsea and Tottenham. Up against depleted and relegated teams, it wouldn't be out of the question to see an onslaught which has happened in the past. Sunderland have more injuries now than possibly any point in the season and Hull are down several of their best players (goodbye Harry Maguire, come back soon). Cheap options have potential in these two matches because the backups for the big teams are better than most starters, and even more so when considering the potential missing pieces.
