You could be forgiven for looking at this season’s Premier League table and thinking someone was on the wind-up.
Leicester in the top six? Chelsea in the bottom half? West Ham as the second highest scorers? None of us would have predicted any of this.
The same goes for fantasy football, where a number of unlikely players have become must-picks…
Heurelho Gomes
Towards the end of his Tottenham days, Gomes became something of a laughing stock, nicknamed ‘Hilarious Gomes’ for his propensity for glaring f**k-ups. But things are different now.
The Brazil international is part of a Watford back-line that has kept three clean sheets and conceded more than twice on only one occasion.
Of course, now we’ve bigged him up he’s bound to return to his old ways sooner rather than later. We just know he’s got a massive error in him.
Quite enjoying that my only good pick on FPL so far has been Heurleho Gomes. Bloody love that man.
— Mac (@Tweetgood_Mac) August 23, 2015
Jamie Vardy
No one expected Vardy to have as many league goals as Messi and Ronaldo combined by mid-October, and yet here we are.
Much of the pre-season focus was on how Leicester’s big-money signing Shinji Okazaki would fare in his first season in England, but Vardy has done a fantastic job of taking the pressure off the Japan star.
As well as proving a threat to any and all opposition defences, the former Fleetwood Town man has picked up the goals, assists and bonus points that are like gold dust for fantasy league managers.
Bacary Sagna
After a quiet first season at the Etihad, it looked as though Sagna would have to make do with being a back-up to Manchester City mainstay Pablo Zabaleta.
But the Frenchman started the season at right-back when his team-mate suffered an injury, and has continued to get games since.
Perhaps we were too quick to write him off.
Happy days for #Sagna owners including myself with Kolarov ruled out. Is this news good or bad for your #FPL teams?
— FPL_Enthusiast (@FPL_Enthusiast) October 16, 2015
Cheikhou Kouyate
While much of the West Ham hype has surrounded big-money signing Dimitri Payet, one of the former Marseille man’s team-mates has been equally impressive.
Given more freedom to get forward under Slaven Bilic’s system than he was during Sam Allardyce’s time at the helm, the Senegal star has got his name on the scoresheet on more than one occasion.
He might see his place under threat when Alex Song returns from injury, but there’s nothing to say Kouyate can’t contribute further up the pitch than his usual box-to-box role.
