Gameweek 28 Sleepers XI: Draft EPL

Mar 88 min read

Our Gameweek 28 Sleepers XI article provides Draft managers with a lineup of Fantasy EPL hidden gems. Our starting eleven of Draft Premier League differential picks will help you find a golden ticket to a big score this weekend! These hints and tips will give you a better chance of picking up an all-important victory, as any one of these under-the-radar picks could make the difference in a head-to-head game!

Michail Antonio shooting the ball for West Ham

We'll be focusing on players that will bring us not only attacking returns or clean sheets, but also those players that score Ghost Points in the sophisticated and statistics based Fantrax Scoring System!

Fantasy EPL Gameweek 28 Sleepers XI

For this article, we use the percentage rostered calculation from Fantrax and Sleeper. Our only rule is that each player we highlight is rostered in 60% of leagues or fewer at the time of writing. Therefore, there's a good chance some of these players will be free agents in your Draft league! As always, we'll take form, fixtures, projected points, and a healthy dose of intuition into account to make our selections.

After the miserable score of 53.75 FPts in GW26, GW27 was a much needed improvement with a score of 105.5 FPts. Clearly we did something right, so let's look under the hood and see how we managed to smash our weekly goal.

In net we went with the Italian shot-stopper Vicario, who has provided some much needed defensive quality for his North London club upon returning to action. He managed to score 8.25 FPts despite losing the game 1-0 against Manchester City, making 4 saves in the process. In defence we went with a back-5, where new Red Devil Dorgu ended up getting sent off during their 3-2 win against Ipswich, so it should come as no surprise that he scored -4.25 FPts. It was probably for the best given his terrible start by basically assisting Ipswich's first goal. That being said, our other Manchester United defender was Harry Maguire and he scored a whopping 27.75 FPts after scoring a goal to go with another ghost point haul. Another defender that scored for us was Colwill. The Blues romped Southampton 4-0, which meant that with his cleansheet, Colwill ended up scoring 26 FPts. Our remaining two defenders were both West Ham players. Kilman and Scarles only ended up with scores of 10.75 and 7 FPts respectively, despite keeping a clean sheet against Leicester. Not great but we'll take it! In midfield we had 3 players who all played 90 minutes each, but each of them failed to get any attacking returns. Merino scored 9.25 FPts, Munetsi got 3.5 FPts and James Ward-Prowse put up 7 FPts. It should also be noted that Merino and JWP got a point each for their clubs keeping clean sheets. Finally, we had 2 FWDs up top, with Beto playing the full game and scoring 8.75 FPts whereas Asensio came off the bench and only got 1.5 FPts.

A great score in the end! It might have come about in a surprising way but we're hoping that we'll be able to strike gold again and register another 100+ FPts gameweek. So stay tuned as we try to smash our weekly goal yet again.

The Sleepers XI table below includes a full team of Starters, as well as 5 Reserves - high-upside players with some question marks around whether or not they'll start in Gameweek 28. So keep an eye out when lineups are announced and pick them up if you see them starting, especially if you need to fill a spot on your roster. Read below for the rationale behind each of the Starter selections.

Guglielmo Vicario (G, Spurs)

Spurs must be absolutely relieved that their main shot-stopper is back between the sticks. Since Vicario's return to action, he's scored the 3rd most FPts of all GKs in the league and has been averaging 12.25 PPS with only 1 clean sheet during this spell. Although Spurs might be known for their exciting attack and goal scoring pedigree, their style of play still leaves them very susceptible to attacks from other teams which means that Vicario has the opportunity to make lots of saves. In fact, since his return, Vicario has even made the 2nd most saves (14) in the league, only behind the likes of relegation candidate Ramsdale. Spurs have Bournemouth up next and with Semenyo in their ranks, a player who has attempted the 4th most shots in the league, there's a good chance Vicario will be busy.

Djed Spence (D, Spurs)

Spence has been an absolute revelation in terms of a DEF asset for managers to choose from this season. But given his surprising non-start against Manchester City in GW27, there might be a chance that he was dropped by another manager in your league. After his introduction into the Spurs XI, Spence's 10.1 gPPS is the best of all his defensive teammates, tied with the likes of Pedro Porro. This is pretty impressive given Porro has avenues to his ghost points via set pieces whereas Spence has gotten the bulk of his points through successful dribbles and tackles won. He actually leads the Spurs DEFs in successful dribbles, 14 ahead of the likes of Porro, despite only playing half the number of games. A no-brainer DEF-3.

Jake O'Brien (D, Everton)

Since Moyes' arrival at Goodison Park, Jake O'Brien has found a new lease on life. The Irish DEF has started every game under Moyes and has been a big part of their undefeated 7 game run. During this time, O'Brien has been deployed as the Toffee's rightback and has scored the 4th most FPts of all the Everton players with a healthy 9.58 PPS. He even registered his first attacking return in GW27 to help Everton maintain their impervious form. Everton face a Cunha-less-Wolves in GW28 and without their talisman, you'd struggle to see how Wolves will score any goals. So this is a good chance for a clean sheet. Or if you're up against a Tarkowski/Mykolenko owner, it's not a bad hedge.

Levi Colwill (D, Chelsea)

After Colwill's monster haul in GW27, I'd be surprised if he was still free in your league. However, if the English DEF is available, you should definitely roster him in GW28, as the Blues host Leicester City. Over the last 4 games, the Foxes have easily been the worst team in the league. They are the only club to have not scored a single goal during that run and they have also conceded the most goals (12), tied with the likes of Southampton. So a clean sheet seems almost guaranteed for any Chelsea DEF. Even if Leicester do manage to score a goal, Colwill's 10.0 gPP90 is enough of a buffer to still be worth starting as your DEF-2.

Adam Wharton (M, Crystal Palace)

One of the league's generational talents is fit and starting games again for Crystal Palace. Wharton hasn't had the easiest of seasons given the injury blows he has had to deal with, but he seems to have shaken those off and could be a regular starter for the Eagles moving forward. It also helps that Will Hughes picked up his 10th yellow card of the season in GW27 and will now be missing their next two league games. Even though Wharton has only started 9 games this season, his 10.0 gPP90 is still the 4th best of all the Crystal Palace players. Over the last 4 games, Palace have been the 2nd best team in the league, only behind Liverpool, and with Ipswich visiting Selhurst Park in GW28, we're expecting yet another win for Glasner and his squad. Wharton could easily be a MID-4 for any roster this weekend, especially if he gets a share of the set pieces with Eze.

Harvey Elliott (M, Liverpool)

There seems to be no stopping Liverpool at the moment. Even though they got absolutely battered during their midweek Champions League tie against PSG, they still managed to come away with a 1-0 win, with Elliott scoring 1 of their only 2 shots during the entire game. Although Elliott has barely featured as a starter during Liverpool's league campaign, with PSG only 3 days after their weekend fixture and then their EFL cup final against Newcastle a few days after that, you'd think that Slot would rotate his squad in GW28 when Liverpool host Southampton, the worst team in the league. So if Elliott does get a start this weekend, you should definitely try to fit him your starting XI. Liverpool are hosting the worst defence in the league at Anfield which means this could turn into a goalfest, as the Reds will want to wrap up their league title as soon as possible.

Jack Harrison (M, Everton)

Another player who has found new life under Moyes is Jack Harrison. Sure it took a severe injury to Ndiaye for Harrison to get minutes again but it's no fluke that the English MID seems to now be a nailed option. Harrison has now started the last 3 games for Everton and what's even better is that he's played 90 minutes every game. He has even taken over set pieces from Garner, which boosts his ghost point potential even more. Harrison's 7.5 gPPS over the last 3 games should easily qualify him as a MID-3 in your roster, especially when he's playing alongside one of the most in-form strikers in the league in Beto.

James Ward-Prowse (M, West Ham)

James Ward-Prowse is finally starting games again and I for one could not be happier for the English MID. It's not because I roster him in one of my main leagues but one of the best dead-ball specialists is getting starts and minutes again! It's not much of a sample size but JWP has started the last 2 games under new manager Graham Potter and played the full match both times. It should also be noted that JWP is sharing both free-kicks and corners and despite not having an attacking return yet, he's has still been averaging just under 8 gPPS. Newcastle up next for the Hammers isn't the easiest of fixtures but the Magpies are missing key players due to injuries and suspensions and so we're expecting West Ham to possibly nick a positive result.

Eddie Nketiah (F, Crystal Palace)

After Mateta's crazy injury during the FA Cup, it's fair to say that he's going to be out of action for the next couple of games for the Eagles. This means that Nketiah should be a nailed starter until the French FWD is fit and cleared to play again. Although the ex-Gunner has only started 6 games this season, he has still managed to get attacking returns off the bench and actually has 2 over his last 4 appearances in the league. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to know that Ipswich up next is a good fixture for any FWD but just for good measure, our fixture difficulty tracker has suggested that Palace FWDs have the 5th best rated fixture of all FWDs during GW28. So you'd expect that if Palace were to score a few goals, there's a good chance that Nketiah could be part of the action. FWDs have been very hard to come by recently so I'd even gamble on Nketiah being a FWD-2 this weekend.

Jaden Philogene-Bidace (F, Ipswich)

If you're unable to land the likes of Nketiah in your league, you might want to consider another new boy on the block, Philogene. Since his move from Aston Villa, Philogene has only managed to start 3 of Ipswich's last 6 games. What stands out immediately is the fact that his starts we're against some of the big boys in the league: Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United. During these games he managed to score 4.5, 10 and 18.5 ghost points respectively. He even scored a brace in his last game against the Red Devils, which some would say he was quite lucky to do. Regardless of the goals, it's the ghost points that catches the eye. So if you're considering rolling out 3 forwards this weekend, maybe consider Philogene as your FWD-3.

Keane Lewis-Potter (F, Brentford)

Keane Lewis-Potter a.k.a KLP must be one of the most underrated FWDs in the league this season. Despite playing OOP for majority of the season, the English FWD has still managed to put up 7.3 gPP90 this season. Interestingly, over his last 3 starts, KLP has actually been averaging just over 10 gPPS. As we mentioned before, it's been quite hard to find dependable FWDs around this time of the season and with managers having lost the likes of Jackson, Cunha and Mateta across leagues, KLP could offer a great stop-gap solution until things improve for said managers. KLP could be a trusty FWD-2/3 this weekend, especially against Aston Villa who always seem susceptible to defeats after taxing European midweek fixtures.