Monday brought the exciting announcement of a new Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game called Fantasy Challenge.
Separate from the main format, Fantasy Challenge is essentially a series of independent weekly Free Hits but each one comes with a twist.
For example, Gameweek 30 gives managers unlimited funds for their squad.
ENTER YOUR GAMEWEEK 30 TEAM HERE
Point-scoring is the same, it’s still a 15-man squad and – except for this week – the budget remains £100m. A captain and vice-captain get picked too, with prizes on offer.
But two big differences are that you’re allowed up to five players per Premier League team and the line-up can be edited at any point up until there are less than four teams left to play in the Gameweek.
So, who makes Scout’s ‘gut instinct XI’ and which players are backed by our Rate My Team (RMT) algorithm?
FANTASY CHALLENGE GAMEWEEK 30: SCOUT PICKS
With Manchester City facing Arsenal in the weekend’s big clash, attention immediately goes to Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. Both are at home – to Burnley and Luton Town – so let’s take advantage of the increased players per team allowance.
Cole Palmer (£5.8m) is straight in there. He’s in form, takes penalties and has double-digit scores from all three meetings with newly-promoted sides. A whopping total of 44 points, in fact.
Team-mate Nicolas Jackson (£6.8m) has three goals from four matches, in all competitions, while their usually unreliable defence won’t be facing ineligible Burnley forward David Datro Fofana (£5.0m). Therefore we back Malo Gusto (£4.2m) to overcome illness and Djordje Petrovic (£4.5m) to keep a clean sheet.
As for Spurs, the lack of deadlines means we can switch out Richarlison (£6.9m) if he doesn’t start. His return pushes Son Heung-min (£10.1m) out wide but the South Korean has bagged six goals and seven assists from his last 12 games. Still a strong captaincy contender.
Pedro Porro (£5.8m) gets our nod over Destiny Udogie (£5.0m) in the battle of full-backs. Of all the league’s goalless individuals, nobody has had more attempts (37) than Porro, so he’s certainly due. He also retained set-piece duties in Gameweek 29, with James Maddison (£8.0m) on the field, which was a big boost.
Opting for a 3-4-3 formation, very few remaining defenders have any appeal. The third spot goes to Fulham’s Antonee Robinson (£4.6m), who hauled in Blank Gameweek 29 and travels to last-placed Sheffield United.
His super cheap colleague Rodrigo Muniz (£4.6m) may be another pick that defeats the point of having unlimited funds but this game is still about racking up the most points and it’d be brave to bet against a forward with seven goals in his latest seven matches.
Elsewhere, Liverpool star Mohamed Salah (£13.1m) is set to make his first league start since New Year’s Day and Ollie Watkins (£9.0m) has 31 attacking returns from 29 outings.
ENTER YOUR GAMEWEEK 30 TEAM HERE
WHAT RATE MY TEAM THINKS
Our well-renowned RMT tool shows algorithm-generated points projections for each player over a number of Gameweeks. These figures get fine-tuned closer to the deadline after the pre-match press conferences have provided updates.
JOIN THE FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT MINI-LEAGUE
By the way, you can join the mini-league that we’ve created.
Simply follow this link and you’ll be added automatically once you’ve entered the game.
League Code: 59d69w
FANTASY CHALLENGE PRIZES
END-OF-SEASON DRAW
- Trip to New York City
- Exclusive tour of the NBC Studio
- Includes flights and accommodation for five nights
To be eligible to win this random draw, you must have joined the game and entered a team before the end of 2023/24. Each Gameweek team entry is an entry to the prize draw.
WEEKLY PRIZES
The top three each receive an official Premier League Nike match ball, the EA SPORTS FC game and a bundle of FPL merchandise that includes a rucksack, t-shirt, mug and more.
On top of this, the weekly winner will get a signed Premier League shirt.
