FPL Top Picks for Gameweek 20

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2025 and welcome to our first guide to a Premier League gameweek in preparation for the Fantasy Premier League for the same gameweek!

Managers with Mohamed Salah in their teams will be all smiles heading into week 20, especially with Manchester United in the way of the Reds’ charge to the 2024/25 Premier League title. Also, this is the week to consider more Liverpool additions to your squad other than Salah, because Ruben Amorim’s side is there for the taking and Arne Slot’s side is not one to pass on an opportunity.

Read our comprehensive game week analysis as you prepare to start your 2025 FPL journey on a positive note!

Gameweek Analysis

The Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR) lists will forever be relevant as far as the Fantasy Premier League game is concerned, but this time around managers can opt to make decisions based on feelings, whims and form. This is because we are finally out of the cagey winter schedule where games came thick and fast and managers had to be careful selecting players because of the squad rotation across all teams.

Now, with matches like Tottenham Hotspur vs Newcastle United and Liverpool vs Manchester United both happening in week 20, it would be a missed opportunity for managers not to carry at least two assets from these four teams at best, or a combined three assets from the two matches.

Players to Watch from Each Game

Tottenham vs Newcastle United: Alexander Isak (£9.2m), Anthony Gordon (£7.4m), Jacob Murphy (£5.1m), Dominic Solanke (£7.5m), James Maddison (£7.7m).

Liverpool vs Manchester United: Mohamed Salah (£13.6m), Diogo Jota (£7.2m), Luis Diaz (£7.6m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m).

These are the two most interesting games of gameweek 20 and the ones that could produce the most value for your FPL teams. However, we have two more games of interest from which you can pick players as you build your week 20 squad.

Best Value Games for Week 20

Southampton vs Brentford

Players to watch: Bryan Mbeumo (£7.7m), Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.0m), Tyler Dibling (£4.5m).

Fulham vs Ipswich Town

Players to watch: Liam Delap (£5.6m), Omari Hutchinson (£5.2m), Alex Iwobi (£5.9m), Raul Jimenez (£5.5m), Antonee Robinson (£5.0m).

Best FPL Players for Week 20

Cody Gakpo (£7.3m) – Liverpool

Against Manchester United, virtually all Liverpool assets are viable, but Cody Gakpo is making our top three picks because of the dearth of valuable forwards in the game right now. Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matheus Cunha (£7.0m) has been banned for two games following an off-field incident, and everyone knows that Erling Haaland (£14.8m) is too expensive an option to consider at the moment thanks to his horrific form (which is a reflection of Manchester City’s overall form).

The other popular options like Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood (£6.7m) and Newcastle’s Isak need no introduction to managers, which leaves space for one striker. Gakpo, with his £7.3m price tag and his recent average haul of four goals, one assist and 5.57 points in his last seven games (all starts) makes him a great choice to replace Cunha.

Phil Foden (£9.2m) – Manchester City

Manchester City returned to winning ways in their last game of 2024 as they sealed a 2-0 away win at Leicester City and one of the standout players was Phil Foden. The England international assisted Savinho’s opener in the game, which officially made him the Cityzens’ best player in their slump period.

They go up against West Ham United at home in week 20 and, if City’s history is anything to go by, they may just have started a historic run. Haaland is too expensive and uncertain at the moment to count on, which leaves Foden as the next best option for managers to test the waters with as regards Manchester City assets in FPL.

Also, Foden has had more shots (13 to 10) and shots on target (six to four) than the Norwegian while also creating more than twice as many chances as any other teammate in that period.

Dean Huijsen (£4.4m) – Bournemouth

Andoni Iraola’s team are overperforming in the Premier League this season and one of the key men in this run is 19-year-old centre-back Dean Huijsen. They are unbeaten in their last seven games in the league and the Dutch defender has been at the heart of their defence in this time. The Cherries will be sad but grateful that first-choice centre-back Marcos Senesi’s long-term injury seven games ago gave the youngster his big break, in which he has scored twice.

Also, Crystal Palace’s Daniel Muñoz (£4.7m) and Leicester’s James Justin (£4.3m) are the only defenders to have had more shots on target than Huijsen in the last six gameweeks. They face Everton, which is another chance for the large centre-back to head in another set-piece for his third goal in eight games or to keep a fourth clean sheet and earn those valuable points.