JOE’s Fantasy Football Tips – week 17

We started to make up ground with last week’s fantasy league picks, even if we got unlucky with our choice of Watford striker.

Troy Deeney was unable to add to his tally for the season, but goals from Olivier Giroud and Romelu Lukaku did us no harm at all.

Here’s how the standings are looking so far.

It’s a big week at both ends of the table, with a three-way battle for top spot and several strugglers looking to ensure they’re out of the bottom three at Christmas.

These are the players we think will have big weeks…along with a couple of your tips.

Bafetimbi Gomis – Striker – £6.5m

Swansea’s struggles coincided with their French forward’s woes in front of goal, but the former Lyon man exploded back into action last week against Manchester City.

Gomis will look to add to the fierce strike at the Etihad as Swansea face West Ham at home, a fixture in which the 30-year-old impressed last season.

The Swans are unlikely to have appointed a new manager before Sunday’s game, but the frontman – who came on as a sub last week – will hope to impress the next full-time boss with a start and a goal.

BILIC: "Swansea started the season good, especially the guys up front. They bought Ayew and with Gomis and Montero they were dangerous"

— West Ham United (@WestHam) December 18, 2015

Pedro – Midfielder – £8.9m

Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea exit could be a huge weight off the shoulders of a number of players.

Pedro hasn’t had much of a chance to impress this season, but with Eden Hazard limping out of the loss at Leicester, the Spaniard could be in line for a start against Sunderland.

There’s a realistic chance of Chelsea slipping into the bottom three with a defeat, so they may feel the only option is to go out all guns blazing.

I think Kenedy, RLC & Pedro should start against Sunderland this Saturday, they could bring life to the squad.

— JM. (@OhGianfranco) December 16, 2015

Gini Wijnaldum – Midfielder – £7.0m

Newcastle are starting to find a bit of form, and a home meeting with bottom club Aston Villa is the perfect opportunity to make it three wins in a row.

Wijnaldum has been one of the stars of Steve McClaren’s team, getting some big goals from midfield, and can add to his tally against the strugglers.

Of course, it would be just like Newcastle to win at Spurs and then draw a blank at home to a team with one win all season.

Dropped De Bruyne and replaced him with Wijnaldum, you know Aston Villa 😁

— Fahad Zayyad (@fahadwaziri) December 18, 2015

And now three from you…

@JOE_co_uk Scott Dann – Clean sheets and goals

— James Read (@JamesERead) December 18, 2015

Dann! Dann! Dann!

@JOE_co_uk Bolasie

— Sean Perry (@sxp55555) December 18, 2015

Yannick on the streets of London, Yannick on the streets of…Stoke.

@JOE_co_uk Jonny Evans #WBA to boost the defence

— Matt Eagles ⚒️#COYI (@MattEagles) December 18, 2015

Evans above!

Just a quick note before we go. Despite the busy Christmas football calendar, this column will be making like the Bundesliga and taking a winter break.

We’ll be back with more fantasy league tips in the new year – see you then!