Welcome back for your Gameweek 25 Prefix...

Arsenal v Leicester

Arsenal will be looking to bounce back with a bang after a devastating to defeat to arch rivals Tottenham at the weekend. The gunners will be boosted by the return of top goal scorer Alex Sanchez but whether or not he makes a starting line-up brimming with attacking talent remains to be seen. During Alexis’ absence Mesut Ozil has scored 3 in 3 consecutive games, a stat that will delight Arsenal fans who have been patiently waiting for the German to show the dazzling form that persuaded the historically penny-shy Arsene Wenger to pay a club record fee for the former Real Madrid man. Santi Cazorla has been another man emerging from the shadows after being often overshadowed by Alexis all season, however he was quite at his best at the weekend. Both Ozil & Cazorla will rise in price ahead of the midweek fixtures and I suspect Sanchez will have risen by the time FPL managers sit down to tinker after the FA Cup break.

Their opponents for this game are basement boys Leicester City, who may or may not have sacked manager Nigel Pearson after their 7^th defeat in their last ten games. Football is a beautiful game as on any given day anyone can beat anyone, however I think Leicester are in for a very tough time and expect Arsenal could run riot by 3 or 4 goals.

Predicted score: Arsenal 3 – 0 Leicester

Hull City v Aston Villa

Following on from what I said above about shocks in football, I suspect nobody predicted Hull to grab a point at Man City or Villa to even score a goal against arguably one of the best defences in world football.

Hull have the worst home record in the Premier League this season with just 9 points from 11 games and have failed to score in 5 of their last 7 at the KC Stadium. Fellow goal-shy & relegation candidates Aston Villa have a fantastic record against the Tigers having won 9 and lost none of the last 10 meetings between the two sides.

In an attempt to find that elusive goal, Villa manager Paul Lambert decided to drop the once prolific Christian Benteke, in favour of Gabby Agbonlahor who to be fair to him had a decent game. However, perhaps the most likely man to grab a goal in what we expect to be a one goal game could be Andreas Weimann who has found the net three times in his last games against Hull.

Predicted score: Hull 0 – 1 Villa

Sunderland v QPR

New man Jermain Defoe has been very popular according to our Transfer Trends feature and he will rise in price before gameweek 25 gets underway. Another Sunderland man expected to rise in price tonight is Patrick Van Aanholt. Gus Poyet sets his Sunderland side up in a manner to avoid defeat, which means often they play in a negative mentality and therefore they have good defensive potential. Van Aanholt is the pick of the defensive backline as he does also like to bomb forward. Sunderland’s defensive potential is best highlighted by the fact goalkeeper Pantimilion is the goalkeeper projected to score the most points over the next 5 gameweeks.

Over the festive period if you didn’t have Charlie Austin in your team then green arrows were difficult to come by. However, the goals have dried up for the Englishman and to make things worse for QPR he now looks to be out for 2 weeks with a foot injury. Caretaker manager Chris Ramsey hinted in his press conference that Mauro Zarate could be handed a start after featuring for 28 minutes at the weekend. QPR will need some magic from somewhere, having become the first team to lose their first 11 away games in the top flight in 61 years.

Predicted score: Sunderland 1-0 QPR

Liverpool v Spurs

Over the last 6 Premier League games, these two teams are top of the form tables. After a stuttering first half of the season, Brendan Rodgers employed a 3-5-2 system and since then they have been rock solid at the back and fluid up front. They have conceded just 3 in their last 6 whilst scoring 11 but the return of Daniel Sturridge could see the return of the free scoring Reds of last season. This would mean that Raheem Sterling would be likely pushed out wide so less of a goal threat but more assist potential. The new system has certainly benefitted one man, Phillipe Coutinho. The Brazilian has enjoyed his best spell in England with 1 goal and 5 assists in his last 8 Premier League games.

The must-have player of FPL right now is Harry Kane. The man cannot stop scoring and is almost becoming fixture-proof after another two goals against Arsenal at the weekend. He has now scored 22 goals in all competitions this season, more than other Premier League player.

Recent history in this tie suggests a Liverpool win, given the Reds have lost just one of their last 20 Premier League games at home against Spurs. Spurs only managed a single shot on target when they entertained Liverpool at White Hart Lane earlier in the season and have failed to score a single goal in any of the last three meetings.

Predicted score: Liverpool 2-0 Spurs

Good luck to all!