The Scout highlights the best low-owned players to target for the final four Gameweeks of 2024/25 Fantasy Premier League.
If you're needing to make up ground in mini-leagues and in need of a differential, each club's remaining schedule can help first refine your search.
According to the Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR), Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Everton and Manchester City have among the most favourable runs of opponents to come, while Aston Villa, West Ham United, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur may also merit consideration.
Clubs' FDR average, GW35-38
Club | FDR average* |
Ipswich, Nottingham Forest | 2.3 |
---|---|
Brentford, Everton, Leicester, Man City | 2.5 |
Aston Villa, West Ham | 2.8 |
Man Utd, Spurs | 3.0 |
*Fixture Difficulty Rating: 1= easiest possible match, 5 = hardest possible match
While those clubs will mainly dominate this analysis, the idea is to also flag top-performing players who have continued to fly under the radar of Fantasy managers.
Defenders
For the defenders' table below, you can see low-owned picks who have offered a similar attacking threat to their more popular counterparts.
A comparison of Nott'm Forest's Neco Williams (£4.5m) and Nikola Milenkovic (£5.2m) over the last six Gameweeks is a case in point.
Ahead of their Blank Gameweek 34 (BGW34) match with Brentford on Thursday evening, Williams has had seven shots and created six chances in that spell. This means he has been involved in 13 shots, compared with the four shot involvements of Milenkovic. Yet whereas the latter is owned by 17 per cent, Williams can be found in only three per cent of squads.
For Man City, both Josko Gvardiol (£6.3m) and Ruben Dias (£5.4m) have had three shots - all in the box - in the last six Gameweeks. But while Gvardiol is the second most-owned defender in Fantasy, found in 32 per cent of squad, Dias is held by a mere three per cent.
Jake O'Brien (£4.5m), meanwhile, is Everton's joint-top scoring player since making his first start under David Moyes in Gameweek 22. The Irishman can be found in just 0.5 per cent of squads.
Elsewhere, if you're looking to invest in Arsenal's defence, Jakub Kiwior (£4.8m) is owned by two per cent compared with the 32 per cent of William Saliba (£6.6m). Both have had five shot involvements in the last six Gameweeks.
Selected defenders' stats, last six Gameweeks
Player | Owned | Shots | Chances created | Shot involvement |
Williams | 3.5% | 7 | 6 | 13 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Trippier | 5.7% | 1 | 11 | 12 |
O'Brien | 0.5% | 4 | 3 | 7 |
Shaw | 0.2% | 1 | 5 | 6 |
Kiwior | 2.1% | 3 | 2 | 5 |
Saliba | 32.2% | 2 | 3 | 5 |
Mykolenko | 5.4% | 1 | 4 | 5 |
Milenkovic | 17.6% | 2 | 2 | 4 |
Gvardiol | 32.0% | 3 | 1 | 4 |
Dias | 3.7% | 3 | 0 | 3 |
Midfielders
Man Utd's Alejandro Garnacho (£5.9m) is among a number of differential midfielders who have boasted a considerable attacking threat recently.
The Argentinian's 22 shots in the last six Gameweeks are more than any other midfielder in Fantasy. Combined with his eight chances created, this means Garnacho has been involved in 30 shots in that spell, placing him top in the table below.
Jarrod Bowen (£7.6m) is another overlooked asset. Found in nine per cent of squads, the West Ham star has had 15 shots and created eight chances in the last six Gameweeks.
Man City's Kevin De Bruyne (£9.4m) and Aston Villa's Marco Asensio (£6.2m) also have the underlying statistics and fixtures reward investment. Each have been involved in 20+ shots and are owned by under eight per cent.
Selected midfielders' stats, last six Gameweeks
Player | Owned | Shots | Chances created | Shot involvement |
Garnacho | 4.7% | 22 | 8 | 30 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Barnes | 6.0% | 19 | 8 | 27 |
Bowen | 9.2% | 15 | 8 | 23 |
De Bruyne | 7.3% | 11 | 10 | 21 |
Asensio | 3.3% | 12 | 8 | 20 |
Trossard | 3.9% | 16 | 2 | 18 |
Forwards
When it comes to forwards, the term "differential" becomes far more relative to the position itself as opposed to overall player ownership.
For example, it seems likely that the three most-selected players in this position - Alexander Isak (£9.6m), Man City’s Omar Marmoush (£7.6m) and Nott’m Forest’s Chris Wood (£7.0m) will occupy the three forward slots for many managers in the final four Gameweeks of 2024/25.
Newcastle United’s Isak is second only to Mohamed Salah (£13.8m) for ownership in Fantasy, picked by 62.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, as evidenced by the FDR table above, both Marmoush and Wood have great schedules to reward their 28.6 and 28.4 per cent owners respectively.
Essentially, then, even if you only have two of that trio, the odd one out is your differential.
Selected forwards' current ownership
Player | Ownership |
Isak | 62.4% |
---|---|
Marmoush | 28.6% |
Wood | 28.4% |
Wissa | 14.7% |
Cunha | 13.6% |
Ndiaye | 0.9% |
Brentford’s Yoane Wissa (£6.6m), Wolves’ Matheus Cunha (£7.0m) and Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye (£5.2m) each offer a solution for your frontline.
Wissa has both form and fixtures in his favour. Ahead of his encounter with Nott’m Forest on Thursday, he’s blanked only twice in his last eight appearances - yet he is owned by just over 14 per cent, nearly half that of both Marmoush and Wood.
Although a visit to Man City is far from ideal this weekend, Wolves have the form and fixtures thereafter to make Cunha an appealing pick – he’s amassed 30 points in three appearances since returning from suspension.
Ndiaye's ownership of just 0.9 per cent shows he could be the ultimate differential for Everton’s remaining home matches of 2024/25. They welcome Ipswich Town and Southampton to Goodison Park in the next three Gameweeks.