Fantasy Premier League 2022/23 | Who’s hot, who’s cold and who to stay away from

Erling Braut Haaland

Anyone who can ursurp an out of form Mohamed Salah and outscore the Egyptian by more than 20 points in five gameweeks while scoring two consecutive hattricks deserves praise. Yet when it comes to Erling Haaland, this is what we’ve come to expect from the Norwegian especially after he finished his time in Germany with 86 goals in 89 appearances. However, the tag “Bundesliga tax” was placed upon him and after Jadon Sancho and Joelinton’s struggles over the last few years amongst others, few have looked beyond that.

Then, Haaland arrived and scored nine goals in five games. That, normally, tends to throw tags and superlatives out the window especially when he nets six goals in 90 minutes, breaking records and even more records in the process. Ridiculous and while Manchester City do play Champions League football and Pep Guardiola loves a rotation, there’s still a question to be asked. Is dropping Haaland worth losing out on the many many goals he will score?

That includes three goal contributions in his last two games although Tottenham did look slightly off their usual pace against West Ham but that can be put down to the mid-week schedule. Even then, this is Harry Kane and while Haaland is at the risk of being rotated and benched, Kane doesn’t have that even with Richarlison’s presence in the team. The Englishman is the lynchpin for this Spurs team and Antonio Conte seems to know that, with Kane playing every minute of every game so far.

There’s no denying that Darwin Nunez started his Premier League, and FPL, career superbly with a goal and an assist in just 39 minutes. That alone outdid quite a few players but then the forward went and got sent off against Crystal Palace for a challenge that he should have been sent off for. But during his three game absence, Roberto Firmino has not just stepped up but stepped up big time with the Brazilian scoring thrice and contributing to three assists over the last three matches.

There was once a time when Danny Ings was coveted by all, even his former side Liverpool wanted him and the world clamoured to see the Englishman make the Three Lions squad for the Euros. But fate had other ideas and in the years since the forward has signed for Aston Villa, where he has regressed beyond a measure of a doubt. So much so, that Ings struggled to hit double figures last term, finishing with 12 goals and 4 assists but the problems at Villa go beyond the striker.

Leicester City

Not only that, they aren't even average figures by any means and the likelihood that the trend continues is very high, so stay away from Leicester City assets for now. That is at least until the Jamie Vardy party train rolls through but when that may happen, only Vardy knows.

After his mega-money move from Real Sociedad, a lot was expected from Alexander Isak especially when Eddie Howe threw the young Swede into the ring against Liverpool for his Premier League debut. But despite the atmosphere at Anfield and the fact that the occasion could have gotten to him, Isak started off with a bang and scored on his debut. Not only that, in a pre-VAR season, he would have ended his debut game with a brace to his name and culled the celebrations at Anfield.