That'll Do FPL. That'll Do - Fantasy Premier League 2018 Review

That's it! It's all over! Another season of highs, lows and injury woes has finished and it finished in some style. 

Spurs won a nine-goal thriller, Manchester City reached 100 points and Chelsea imploded at St James Park. 

We had the usual final day surprise heroes – Erik Lamela had only played a handful of minutes in the weeks before he scored twice and set up one goal to help Spurs finish their Wembley season on a high, while Ayoze Perez also scored a brace to kill off Chelsea.

In Fantasy Premier League, Mohamed Salah reached 300 points, earning him a place in the history of the game. It has been a truly phenomenal season for the Egyptian and it will be fun trying to squeeze him into a squad alongside Harry Kane next year.

The RealSport FPL league finished with Rob Lucci sitting proudly at the top, so congratulations to him! 

It was well deserved as he broke into the top 10,000 in Gameweek 22 and stayed there for the rest of the season, finishing an impressive 2,357 in the world! 

Rob receives a monetary prize for his efforts so congratulations to him!

Team of the Season

If you had picked the best possible 11 players (given the usual constraints of cash and three players per team) way back in August, this is what it would have looked like:

David de Gea – 172 points, 5.5m

Cesar Azpilicueta – 175 points, 6.5m

Marcos Alonso – 165 points, 7.0m

Nicolas Otamendi – 156 points, 5.5m

Mohamed Salah – 303 points, 9.0m

Raheem Sterling – 229 points, 8.0m

Kevin De Bruyne – 209 points, 10.0m

Christian Eriksen – 199 points, 9.5m

Riyad Mahrez – 195 points, 8.5m

Harry Kane – 217 points, 12.5m

Jamie Vardy – 183 points, 8.5m

This team isn’t quite realistic because it would set you back 90.5m and does not allow for subs but, even so, you could swap out De Bruyne for a cheap midfielder like Pascal Gross and pick four bench fodder 4.0m players and have a tidy team.

Reuters/Carl Recine

If you had captained Mohamed Salah every week this team would have hit 2,506 points (more when you take into account Vice Captain points for the weeks Salah was injured). This would have reached second in the world! 

Even when you allow for the slight change in squad due to prices, that’s madness. Why do we bother making changes every week?

Early Picks

It’s never too early to start planning for next season. 

These are the people I have got my eye on as long as they don’t get injured at the World Cup, leave the Premier League or drop out of the starting 11 due to new signings over summer. 

Obviously, Salah and Kane will be the first names on my team sheet next year so I’ve skipped them!

Pierre Emerick Aubameyang

REUTERS/Darren Staples

Arsenal’s January recruit had an outstanding 2018 at the Emirates. He managed 10 goals, four assists and 12 bonus points across just 13 matches. 

This looks even more amazing when you consider Arsenal didn’t get an away point in 2018 until the final day of the season at Huddersfield. 

I expect he will cost more than 10.5m at the start of next season but my big two strikers will almost certainly be Kane and Aubameyang.

Patrick van Aanholt

REUTERS/Hannah McKay

The Dutch left-back can be frustrating at times but he just loves to get forward. 

He scored five goals under Roy Hodgson and was on fire at the end of the season. 

If he can carry this form on in pre-season and he’s not too expensive, I would take a gamble on the Palace wing-back.

Marko Arnautovic

Reuters/Paul Childs

This is dependent on FPL still listing him as a midfielder next season and Moyes (or West Ham’s new manager if it goes that way) continuing to play him up front. 

'Arnie' has been a revelation under Moyes and playing Out of Position as a striker for 7.0-8.0m is a bargain.

Leroy Sane

Reuters/Paul Childs

Manchester City will be very expensive next year but I think Sane might be the cheaper option and a dark horse for the best option as well. 

Raheem Sterling has impressed this year while De Bruyne and David Silva are sheer class, but Sane was top of the pile early on.

He slowed down in FPL scoring when Benjamin Mendy got injured, which forced him to play wider as Delph just could not offer the width brought to the team by Mendy. 

With the French wing back returning to the team at the end of this season, he should be fully fit and ready to go by August, so Sane’s points will hopefully roll in.

Jono will be keeping you up to date with all the Fantasy Football news from the World Cup. Keep an eye out for his updates.