Brighton FPL Gameweek 13: Perfect Pedro soars in popularity
The 10 men of Brighton were able to hold on and take all three points at Bournemouth in FPL Gameweek 12 thanks to goals from Joao Pedro and Kaoru Mitoma.
As a result of their 2-1 victory, the Albion moved into firth place in the Premier League. The Seagulls are just one point off second placed Manchester City, who they could displace as Liverpool’s nearest challengers for at least 18 hours if they beat Southampton on Friday night.
The game against the struggling Saints kick starts a run of six fixtures against opponents from outside last season’s top eight for Brighton.
An apparently gentle run of fixtures coupled with Brighton’s good form means FPL managers are flocking to Albion assets. Taking all that into account, here are a couple of interesting players to consider going into Gameweek 13.
Joao Pedro (£5.6 million)
We covered Joao Pedro in our FPL Gameweek 12 preview but his brilliance at Bournemouth means he warrants a further mention.
Over 370,000 managers have bought Pedro since he came off the bench to score and assist in the 2-1 comeback win over Manchester City in Gameweek 11, making him the second-most purchased player over the past fortnight.
Pedro followed up his heroics against City with a second consecutive double-digit FPL haul at Bournemouth. Some fantastically fluid fourth-minute interplay led to a long-range Georginio Rutter (£5.6 million) shot being saved. Pedro was on hand to tap in the rebound.
Early in the second half and Pedro’s perfect pause preceded his outstanding through ball set up Kaoru Mitoma (£6.4 milliom) for the second Albion goal.
A huge part of Pedro’s popularity comes from him remaining a cheap option – even with price rises which took place last Thursday and on Sunday morning.
However, some caution may be needed. Bournemouth was the forward’s first league start since Gameweek 3 due to a knock picked up on international duty and then an ankle problem.
With seven matches over 31 chaotic days coming up and Hurzeler having a squad rich in attacking talent, festive rotation could become an issue.
Joel Veltman (£4.6 million)
Now to turn attention towards the backline. For all the talk of grabbing goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen (£4.5 million) or defender Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.5 million), Brighton’s top-scoring individual at the back is actually their fellow Dutchman, Joel Veltman.
He is the only one to have started 11 or more times and, impressively, has collected bonus points on all three clean sheet occasions.
A slight drawback to owning Veltman is his lack of any attacking returns so far. History suggests that will change at some point as the Dutchman has ended all four of his previous seasons in an Albion shirt with at one goal and one assist.
Captaincy
Assigning an armband is tricky this week. Mohamed Salah (£13.1 million) has earned the right to be an automatic, no-thoughts captain. But he is at home to Manchester City.
Which means Erling Haaland (£15.1 million) has even less appeal. The Norwegian is in bad form and his 21 FPL points from Gameweek 6 onwards have been bettered by 83 other players.
As for the other premiums, Cole Palmer (£10.9 million) hosts Champions League side Aston Villa, Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka (£10.2 million) will be hoping to replicate February’s 6-0 thrashing of West Ham in what looks the easiest fixture any of the usual candidates face.
Perhaps this is therefore a good week to look for an alternative captain. Bryan Mbeumo (£7.9 million), Chris Wood (£6.6 million) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.5 million) all have their potential to to take their owners to glory. They are at home to Leicester, Ipswich and Everton respectively.
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