You’ve no doubt set your Fantasy Premier League (FPL) ‘bus team’ up for Gameweek 10 – so now it’s time for us to do the same with the Scout Picks.

This article serves as an initial meander through the likely runners and riders in Friday’s final selection.

Plenty can and will change between now and then, of course.

The upcoming Scout Squad nominations will help shape the final Scout Picks, while the midweek EFL Cup ties and the pre-match press conferences will hopefully clear up any injury concerns that could influence our thinking.

Two of our ‘bus team’ indeed have yellow flags next to their names.

As ever, there are certain restrictions for our picks:

• An £83.0m budget for our starting XI
• An overall squad limit of £100.0m
• No more than three players per team

GAMEWEEK 10 FIXTURES

Above: The Gameweek 10 fixtures sorted by difficulty on our Season Ticker

THE LIKELY LADS

Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) sits atop the FPL points table after the opening nine Gameweeks. A total of six double-digit hauls is double what anyone else has served up in 2024/25 so far.

He also loves facing Brighton and Hove Albion. There were three goals against the Seagulls last season, as many as he scored against any club.

This is a different Albion side to last season, you might say. That’s true – but it’s also a side that plays boldly and presses high. Bournemouth tried that approach at Anfield and were despatched 3-0.

Above: Teams sorted by pressures in the opposition half in 2024/25

Before Monday’s announcement at Manchester United, there wouldn’t have been too many reservations about including Cole Palmer (£11.0m) in the Scout Picks.

Palmer scored four goals against the Red Devils last season, averaging 14 points per match. United haven’t got any better since then; they rank 15th for expected goals conceded (xGC) and have lost 3-0 in their two previous home encounters with big-six sides.

Will a new United manager, interim or Amorim, bring the proverbial bounce with them, however?

IN CONTENTION

Deciding which premiums to perm will once again be central to this week’s selection.

Erling Haaland (£15.4m) may have disappointed Triple Captainers in Gameweek 9 but he posted his highest xG in over a year against Southampton. On another day, he’d have hauled. Do we keep faith for Bournemouth or are the Jekyll-and-Hyde Cherries’ home performances (they limited Arsenal, Newcastle United and Chelsea to relatively few clear chances and stopped Haaland from scoring at the Vitality in 2023/24) a factor?

Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) is another big-money alternative. Back from injury and on the scoresheet in the draw with Liverpool, he’ll be facing a beleaguered Newcastle United side on a five-match winless run. The Magpies have conceded only three goals in four home matches this season, however.

Luckily, there are myriad budget forwards in form if we go down the ‘three-mium’ route.

Chris Wood (£6.4m), Matheus Cunha (£6.5m), Jamie Vardy (£5.7m) and Raul Jimenez (£5.7m) have all got strong cases this week. Wood now has 18 goals in 27 appearances under Nuno Espirito Santo, while the other three have all scored on four occasions in nine appearances this season.

Opposite weakness may help us pick between them. Vardy’s opponents Ipswich Town are massively affected by unavailability at the back and were wide open against Brentford, who themselves are clean sheet-less and looking porous going into Monday’s clash with Fulham.

Above: Team sorted by expected goals conceded (xGC) in 2024/25

Southampton are another side without a shut-out but even so, would we punt on the goal-starved Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m)? With the Saints ranked 20th for a) set-piece goals conceded and b) chances conceded from central zones, the corner-taking no. 10 Dwight McNeil (£5.8m) would be our preferred route into the Everton attack – but the midfielder first has to prove his fitness.

The red-hot Bryan Mbeumo (£7.7m) and Yoane Wissa (£5.9m) are possible candidates, too, but opponents Fulham might be a tougher nut to crack: they’ve conceded fewer big chances than any other team this season. Joachim Andersen (£4.3m) returns from suspension to bolster the Cottagers’ backline, too.

Clean sheets are hard to predict this week. The teams with the easiest-on-paper fixtures are the bottom six, who all face each other.

Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers square off against the division’s lowest scorers in Southampton and Crystal Palace, so James Tarkowski (£4.8m), Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.3m) and Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.6m) are all considerations. Southampton’s set-piece weakness will be of encouragement to Tarkowski, while Ait-Nouri is FPL’s leading defender for goals and assists combined. Ipswich’s arch-creator Leif Davis (£4.5m) also appeals but the patched-up backline alongside him dents those clean sheet prospects.

Premiums Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m), Josko Gvardiol (£6.2m) and Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m), names usually in the Scout Picks mix, all face opponents who may cause their clubs a problem or two this weekend. Should Gabriel and/or Jurrien Timber (£5.5m) be passed fit, there’d be more conviction in backing an Arsenal defensive asset at goal-shy Newcastle United.

Above: Gabriel, Gvardiol and Alexander-Arnold are among nine defenders who have all hit double figures for shots this season

THE LONG SHOTS           

All aboard the Bruno Fernandes (£8.2m) train? The appointment of a new United manager may bring the feelgood factor back to Old Trafford and rekindle Fantasy interest in some of their players. The better fixtures start in Gameweek 11, so maybe this Sunday is a watch and wait.

Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa is a tricky one to call. Spurs are wildly inconsistent. So potent in many of their matches, they were limp at Crystal Palace in Gameweek 9. Brighton’s comeback win before the October break seems to have shaken them somewhat.

It’s maybe likelier than Ollie Watkins (£9.1m) or Morgan Rogers (£5.4m) makes the Scout Picks cut.

GAMEWEEK 10 BUS TEAM