Ahead of Gameweek 28, almost 60% of Fantasy Premier League managers owned Cole Palmer – only Mo Salah was widely owned, featuring in over 70% of squads.
That doesn’t come as any surprise whatsoever – Palmer has been one of the Premier League’s standout stars pretty much ever since joining Chelsea in 2023, winning last season’s PFA Fans’ Player of the Year and PFA Young Player of the Year.
But the ordinarily ‘ice cold’ England star hasn’t scored or assisted in any of Chelsea’s last seven league games, having scored 14 goals and set up six in the Blues’ first 20 Prem matches of the 2024/25 campaign. Is it time for FPL bosses to sell up?
Well, at £11.1m, Palmer is currently the third-most expensive player in the game, after Salah and Erling Haaland. Offload him and you’d free up a healthy amount of funds.
Where might you spend that money, though? You’d have to bring in another midfielder to get back up to the required five.
If you’re looking to save a few bob, perhaps with a view to upgrading elsewhere for Gameweek 29, you might want to consider £6.4m Dominik Szoboszlai, who has two goals and an assist in his last two Premier League appearances for Liverpool – for whom the floodgates could open at home to rock-bottom Southampton.
Spending an extra £1.6m could get you Bryan Mbeumo, Brentford’s top scorer and penalty taker – which might be a wise move with the Bees hosting Aston Villa, who almost always concede on the road.
Or you could sign Bruno Fernandes for £8.3. Often the man to dig Manchester United out of a hole, the Portuguese playmaking wizard has scored or assisted in four of his last five outings in all competitions. United entertain Arsenal, who Fernandes netted against in January’s FA Cup third-round meeting between the sides.
Those are just a few potential options, but sticking with Palmer would hardly be a mad decision – especially with Chelsea at home to Leicester, who haven’t kept a clean sheet since the beginning of October, conceding 51 goals in their last 20 Premier League matches.
The deadline for FPL team changes for Gameweek 28 is 11am on Saturday, 8 March.
