In his FPL Gameweek 17 review, Fantasy Premier League author <a href="https://twitter.com/Davvawavva">David Wardale</a> watches Liverpool see off a spirited Newcastle while Chelsea can only draw with a depleted Everton.
On Wednesday, Arsenal starlets shone in a big win over West Ham, while Wolves pipped Brighton and Crystal Palace and Southampton played out an entertaining draw.
On Tuesday, a big-ticket Man City midfielder made his mark in a 7-0 drubbing of Leeds and Aston Villa won well thanks to a star turn by the increasingly popular Ollie Watkins (£7.6m).
You can catch all our <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-ultimate-guide-fpl-tips/">FPL Gameweek 17 tips right here</a>.
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<h2>FPL Gameweek 17 Review</h2>
<h3 class="western">Liverpool 3 Newcastle United 1</h3>
A late screamer from Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.2m) secured a hard-fought win for Liverpool against an obdurate Newcastle.
The visitors employed Allan Saint-Maximin (£6.7m) as a central striker, with Callum Wilson (£7.4m) dropping to the bench, in a bid to utilise his pace on the break.
And from an early counter, the ball fell to Jonjo Shelvey (£5.3m), who steered home from just outside the box to give the Magpies the lead.
It didn&#8217;t last overly long, Diogo Jota (£8.0m) heading in an equaliser after 21 minutes before Mo Salah (£13.1m) got his now customary return when he converted Sadio Mane&#8217;s (£11.9m) rebound just four minutes later.
That&#8217;s how it stayed until the 87th minute and Alexander-Arnold&#8217;s sweet strike, set up by the returning Roberto Firmino (£8.7m).
With the defender due to share the maximum bonus award with Shelvey, he&#8217;s now hauled in seven of his last nine starts, four of them involving double-digit returns and the other three nine-pointers.
Only the blessed Salah can match that kind of output, although the previously troll-like Jota is starting to show similar consistency, with four returns in six gameweeks.
There was one major absentee on the night, Liverpool centre-half Virgil van Dijk (£6.7m) testing positive for Covid-19, along with squad mates Fabinho (£5.4m) and Curtis Jones (£5.0m).
The Reds have, reportedly, had a high vaccine take-up among their players, but many more positive tests in their squad could jeopardise Sunday&#8217;s trip to Spurs – another team not exactly unaffected by Covid.
Newcastle, meanwhile, have both Manchester sides to face over the next two gameweeks.
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<h3 class="western">Chelsea 1 Everton 1</h3>
Chelsea failed to take advantage of a seriously depleted Everton side and yet again neglected to keep a clean sheet while they were about it.
It&#8217;s five games without a shut-out for the Blues now, with Toffees youngster Jarrad Branthwaite (£4.0m) the latest man to spoil the party when he steered home Anthony Gordon&#8217;s (£4.5m) excellent free-kick.
They were two of the many academy and fringe players Everton fielded as their injury crisis deepens, but they were always in the game despite Chelsea&#8217;s domination of possession and the nine saves required of Jordan Pickford (£4.9m).
The home side prodded and probed throughout, finally opening the scoring after the break when Mason Mount (£7.6m) netted for the fourth straight gameweek – a feat only 188,000 new managers enjoyed.
Then again, a net -25,708 had sold on the assister, Reece James (£6.3m), to miss his first return since Gameweek 12.
It could have been more as well, the 35.5%-owned wing-back missing a big chance after just six minutes and going close a couple more times as well.
The luckiest of all the Chelsea owners were the 10.5% on Marcos Alonso (£5.7m) as he was subbed off after 64 minutes to &#8216;earn&#8217; clean sheet points.
But James was due to bring in maximum bonus (with Pickford) as well, so his eight-pointer was the pick of the Blues backline.
At the time of writing, Chelsea still have a Gameweek 18 fixture, away to Wolves.
But manager Thomas Tuchel confirmed pre-match that Romelu Lukaku (£11.5m), Timo Werner (£8.6m), Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.3m) and the injured Ben Chilwell (£5.7m) have all tested positive for Covid-19, while Kai Havertz (£7.8m) was awaiting a test result.
Based on how the virus has been all too easily spreading through other Premier League squads, it wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise if the Wolves match became the sixth fixture to bite the dust.
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<h3 class="western">Arsenal 2 West Ham 0</h3>
Arsenal&#8217;s bargain bucket midfielders were to the fore again as the Gunners were good value for their stirring win over West Ham.
Gabriel Martinelli (£5.2m) opened the scoring after the break before substitute Emile Smith-Rowe (£6.0m) wrapped up the win late on.
The assists came from Bukayo Saka (£6.2m) and the lively Alexandre Lacazette (£8.3m), who seemed to thrive in the striker&#8217;s role following Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang&#8217;s (£9.6m) very public disciplinary issues.
Then again, the Frenchman missed a golden chance to score when he had a penalty saved by Lukasz Fabianski (£5.0m).
The spot-kick decision seemed harsh. Harsher still was the fact that Vladimir Coufal (£4.7m) received a second yellow card for the foul he was adjudged to have committed.
That certainly didn&#8217;t help the Hammers&#8217; cause, although they were second best for much of the match anyway.
At least Fabianski&#8217;s 2.3% ownership were on for a double-digit haul. He made a further five saves to go with his penalty stop and was due the maximum bonus award as a result.
West Ham have now kept just one clean sheet in eight gameweeks. Arsenal have had five over the same run. And with Leeds, Norwich and Wolves to come next, there could be more of that to come for the Gunners.
The Hammers have an equally promising short-term schedule.
The key question is whether Michail Antonio&#8217;s (£7.9m) remarkably patient 40.1% ownership will still stick by their man.
He&#8217;s now managed just one assist and no goals since Gameweek 9. If he can&#8217;t break that drought at home to Norwich on Saturday, a mass exodus would not be a surprise.
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<h3 class="western">Brighton 0 Wolves 1</h3>
A Romain Saiss (£5.0m) goal on the stroke of half-time was enough to win Wolves a surprisingly lively match at Brighton.
The omens for anything but a bore fest weren&#8217;t great.
Wolves hadn&#8217;t scored for four gameweeks and were without the suspended Raul Jimenez (£7.5m), while the Seagulls had managed just two goals over the same period.
But the winning goal, from a Ruben Neves (£5.3m) assist, wasn&#8217;t the only chance of the night.
Daniel Podence (£5.5m) wasted two good opportunities and both Saiss and Fernando Marcal (£4.2m) hit the woodwork for the visitors.
Brighton&#8217;s Enock Mwepu (£5.9m) missed a big chance to equalise, but that would have been harsh on a Wolves side that have kept four clean sheets in the last six, holding Man City and Liverpool to just a goal each in the other two games.
The home side haven&#8217;t won since Gameweek 5 and are promising little from a fantasy perspective, whereas Wolves offer the prospect of shut-outs, but have to face Chelsea, Arsenal and Man United over the next four fixtures.
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<h3 class="western">Crystal Palace 2 Southampton 2</h3>
Crystal Palace and Southampton shared the spoils in a lively, if at times frantic, encounter at Selhurst Park.
The major fantasy asset involved in the match was Palace&#8217;s Conor Gallagher (£6.2m and 28.3%), but he followed up his 15-pointer against Everton with a two-point blank.
The Eagles&#8217; goals instead came from Wilfried Zaha (£6.9m) – his first since Gameweek 11 – and a first of the season for Jordan Ayew (£5.8m), with both assists from Odsonne Edouard (£6.3m).
Southampton came into the game winless in five and conceded after just two minutes.
But the Saints refused to fold, and a James Ward-Prowse (£6.3m) free-kick, earned by Armando Broja (£5.1m), levelled the match after 32 minutes.
Broja then gave them the lead just four minutes later, finishing well from a Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.8m) pass.
That&#8217;s two goals and an assist for the striker over the last three gameweeks.
If he can stay fit, he could give his 2.5% ownership a happy new year, with Brentford and Newcastle to face over the next four matches.
In a Covid-blighted gameweek in which managers are just grateful if they can put out an entire team, the news that the 19.8%-owned Tino Livramento (£4.5m) was fit to start would have been greeted with delight by many.
Two goals conceded and a booking later, he ended on as many points as if he&#8217;d not even played.
His last six matches have delivered: 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0. And he&#8217;s not even that cheap anymore.
The likes of Gallagher should offer more chance of points, particularly as Palace have Watford and Norwich to play before the year&#8217;s end.
But the 8.8% who own keeper Vicente Guaita (£4.6m) might not get to enjoy those match-ups as he was replaced by Jack Butland (£4.4m) for the Southampton clash.
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<h3 class="western">Man City 7 Leeds United 0</h3>
Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8m) illuminated an utterly ruthless display by Man City, who crushed an outclassed Leeds.
The midfielder&#8217;s sixth start of the season was his most influential by far, as he scored twice to double his goals tally of an injury-hit campaign.
He had an immense eight shots on the night and should also have had at least one assist when the in-form Bernardo Silva (£7.7m) missed a golden chance handed gift-wrapped for him by the Belgian.
All in, it proved to be a poor night for Silva&#8217;s 32.3% ownership – boosted by more than 330,000 for the gameweek – as he was withdrawn at half-time for only his second blank in seven games.
His replacement, Ilkay Gundogan (£7.3m), was rather more productive, providing two assists, and there was a goal for another substitute, defender Nathan Ake (£4.7m), who came on for Ruben Dias (£6.1m).
Goals also came from Phil Foden (£8.0m), Jack Grealish (£7.6m), Riyad Mahrez (£8.6m) and John Stones (£5.3m), who played at right-back for the rested Kyle Walker (£5.5m).
Foden and Mahrez also provided assists, with the duo just below De Bruyne at the top of the bonus point standings.
&#8216;Tis the season both to be jolly, but also wary of Pep Roulette, which is why the fine recent form of Raheem Sterling (£10.6m) didn&#8217;t tempt too many into buying the winger.
That was just as well as he spent the night on the bench.
The select few on Leeds defenders probably wished their men had done the same as they all ended up with negative scores apart from keeper Illan Meslier (£4.9m), who made eight saves to keep the score at just the seven.
Tricky fixtures and such an injury-ravaged defence means their Christmas could be a bleak one.
City, however, have a nearly fully-fit squad and three leaky defences in Newcastle, Leicester and Brentford up next.
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<h3 class="western">Norwich 0 Aston Villa 2</h3>
Ollie Watkins&#8217; (£7.6m) growing fan club enjoyed his first double-digit display of the season as Aston Villa saw off Norwich with relative ease.
The striker&#8217;s ownership nearly doubled for the gameweek, with a net 420,706 bringing him in for the Carrow Road clash.
That included, presumably, a fair few Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.5m) defectors following the Covid-19 postponement of Man United&#8217;s trip to Brentford.
If so, it was an inspired move as Watkins set up the visitors&#8217; opener for Jacob Ramsey (£4.5m) before sealing the win late on from substitute Carney Chukwuemeka&#8217;s (£4.5m) pass.
Norwich huffed and puffed but rarely looked like blowing Villa down, which meant a first clean sheet in five matches for Steven Gerrard&#8217;s side.
That also meant a decent return for the team&#8217;s most popular player in FPL, the 13.5%-owned keeper Emi Martinez (£5.5m).
Villa&#8217;s festive fixtures suggest more hauls, particularly in attack, could be incoming as they&#8217;ll face Burnley, Leeds and Brentford, with a Boxing Day visit from Chelsea by far their trickiest test.
Norwich have now lost three on the spin, and with West Ham and Arsenal next, their prospects (both real and fantasy) don&#8217;t look too hot at present.
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