This article is part of our FPL Bargain Bin series.
It is Gameweek 35 and oh how fast the season has gone. With the league winding down there is not much up for grabs. This is especially true if Arsenal wins the FA Cup and teams in fifth through seventh place qualify for Europa League. The four Champions League teams are basically locked in. If three places from the league table qualify for Europa, it will take a miracle for it not to be Liverpool, Tottenham and Southampton. This leaves just the relegation zone as the only meaningful race.
Hopefully the same fate has not fallen upon your fantasy team. With four gameweeks remaining, we hope your fantasy team is still fighting for a top spot in whatever league you find yourself. That being said, there are still plenty of bargain opportunities to be had. As we head into Gameweek 35, the landscape continues to change. Before we take a look at the best bargain options for the upcoming list of matches, let's take a look at how some of the different bargain choices are finding different situations as the season comes to a close.
What once was a very promising Crystal Palace midfield is not what it used to be. Hopefully you sold high on your Eagles. If you have not already, feel free to cut ties now. What makes matters worse is there is no clear cut top guy. Yannick Bolasie and Jason Puncheon have both had their runs, but neither has stood out as the guy for any significant period of time. In the end, this uncertainty and equal opportunity hurts both players' value.
Speaking of midfielders that are sell high options, Jack Colback will likely be on a lot of people's radars this week. After a goal and an assist in the last two gameweeks, it is easy to see why. But there may be more to this: Moussa Sissoko was absent from the lineup the last two gameweeks while serving a suspension. Sissoko has missed four games this season and Colback has played in three of those. Colback has one goal and two assists when Sissoko is out of the lineup. In the 28 other matches, Colback has just three goals and three assists. Now that Sissoko will be back in the lineup, be sure to temper expectations for Colback.
While we are talking about Newcastle players, we should probably bring up Siem De Jong. Expectations were high for the Newcastle attacker, but an injury derailed his season (you should not be too surprised by that). He returned to the lineup last weekend and needed just 19 minutes of playing time to show why Newcastle brought him in. The Magpies are suddenly fighting to avoid relegation and without a viable striker option. Lead scorer Papiss Cisse is out serving a suspension and Ayoze Perez has scored just once in 2015. Even in just a substitute role, De Jong could have some value. If he sees increased minutes, be sure to jump on the bandwagon (until the wheels fall off again).
On the defensive side of the ball sits everyone's favorite bus parker, Tony Pulis. When he joined West Brom, everyone rushed to pick up Ben Foster to either stick in as goalkeeper or stash on the bench. When Foster went down with an injury, everyone and their mother went after the cheaper Boaz Myhill, who started great with a clean sheet, but then followed that up by allowing three, four, and three goals in his next three matches. Then came Gameweek 34: in two matches, Myhill made eight saves and kept both Crystal Palace and Liverpool from scoring. Performances and prices like that will usually get grandmothers involved, but don't fall for the fool's gold. Crystal Palace have now failed to score in two straight and Liverpool continue to struggle without a healthy Daniel Sturridge. Three of West Brom's last four come against Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal (all are top-4 scoring teams). There are likely not a lot of clean sheets waiting for Myhill and West Brom over the closing stretch.
There is plenty to consider as we head into Gameweek 35. Good matchups and injuries to teammates bring opportunities for low-cost options to produce this weekend. Here are this week's best options in the Bargain Bin:
Goalkeeper
Adrian
The penalty save and clean sheet from last weekend made him the second highest scoring goalkeeper in Gameweek 34 (behind Steve Harper who had the benefit of playing twice). For an encore, Adrian gets a home match against struggling Burnley. Sure, West Ham may be struggling of late, but Burnley is S-T-R-U-G-G-L-I-N-G. The Clarets have gone five consecutive league matches without a goal and you have to go back all the way to February to find Burnley's last away goal. It is a great matchup for a goalkeeper that is coming off a great performance.
Defender
Paul Konchesky
By the time you read this, the Bargain Bin defender will have changed three times. It started with Jeffrey Schlupp, the Leicester City "defender" that gets to play in a much more forward position and has more shot attempts than any eligible defender. But he missed Wednesday's match and continues to deal with a calf injury, which makes his status for Saturday against Newcastle iffy. After Konchesky we moved on to Robert Huth. Since joining Leicester City in February, Huth has led the team's defenders in shot attempts. He promptly injured his knee in Wednesday's match against Chelsea and was forced to leave before halftime. Despite cycling through Leicester City defenders like a toddler goes through shoes, the matchup is just too good to pass up. Newcastle currently looks lost, which is 180 degrees away from where Leicester City are trending. The Foxes had won four consecutive matches before losing to Chelsea and that included keeping two clean sheets. Meanwhile, Newcastle United have lost seven straight league matches and have not scored on the road since Feb. 11.
Midfielder
Nacer Chadli
Goals in two straight games will make people take notice, and Chadli has done just that by scoring on the road against both Newcastle and Southampton. He now has 10 goals on the season and is vastly underpriced in the FPL game. This weekend, Tottenham host Manchester City in what will likely be the highest scoring match of the weekend. Manchester City does not play well defensively away from home and Tottenham will be looking to take advantage and score goals. Since March 21, only Harry Kane has more goals and shot attempts for Tottenham that Chadli, who will look to increase his goal streak to three with a great matchup against Manchester City.
Forwards
Enner Valencia
If you go all the way back to Nov. 1, the hype machine around Valencia was gaining steam. He had three goals in nine appearances and was being scooped up by plenty of fantasy owners. Since then it has been tough sledding for the West Ham striker, as he has scored just once since then. Part of that is because of playing time. His appearances in the starting XI have been limited and attribute to some of the decline. That cannot be the excuse now. With Diafra Sakho out and Andy Carroll taking his usual spot on the injury table, Valencia is the go-to striker for West Ham. He has been in the starting XI the last three matches and will be there again Saturday when the club hosts Burnley. This is the same struggling Burnley side that has allowed the third-most away goals this season. It is also the same Burnley club that Valencia scored on back in October.
Nelson Oliveira
Oliveira finds himself in a very similar situation at Swansea City. He's getting the nod up front as the Swans have been looking for their Wilfried Bony replacement, and starter Bafetimbi Gomisis out with a hamstring injury. Valencia gets the nod over Oliveira just slightly because of matchup and situation. Stoke City is a much more difficult defense to crack than Burnley, as the Potters rank sixth in away goals allowed this season. Additionally, Swansea City's midfielders are much more likely to score than West Ham's. This takes some of the value away from Oliveira that is not taken away from Valencia. Oliveira is a good option this weekend, but Valencia is just a little more likely to perform better.
