Az’s FPL Gameweek 35 Tips: 3 Players You Can’t Ignore for the Season Run-In

Az from FPL Blackbox shifts his focus to the finish line in his FPL Gameweek 35 tips, revealing three players you must have in your team for the final phase of the run-in.  

Just four weeks left of the season. Are you where you want to be? Are you relentlessly chasing a mini-league rival down, or sitting pretty at the top of the league and hoping to hold on to your lead? Are you chasing down a top 100k finish (or a 1 million finish, I won’t judge), or nestled snugly in the top 10k and hoping to stay there?

Whatever your aims are for the rest of this season, here are some players that you won’t want to be going without between now and the end of the season.

Az from FPL Blackbox Reveals 3 Must-Have Players in FPL Gameweek 35 Tips

Jarrod Bowen (£7.6m, 9.2% ownership)

It’s fair to say that West Ham haven’t been great recently. They haven’t won a game since Gameweek 27, where they beat Leicester 2-0, and fans are likely grateful that the three newly promoted teams all couldn’t buy a win, with West Ham now sitting just outside the relegation zone.

However, from the Hammer’s struggles comes the hero, and Jarrod Bowen is on track to match the incredible season he had last year, where he plundered 16 goals and 6 assists. He is now sitting pretty on 9 goals and 10 assists, with promising-looking games on the horizon.

Spurs at home is a game where Bowen could be a genuine captain contender, as Spurs are solely focused on European exploits. Bowen has four attacking returns in his last 4 games and will smell blood against a Tottenham side who have conceded 12 goals in their last 4 games. They are also without a clean sheet since Gameweek 25.

After that, Bowen travels to Man United (2 clean sheets in their last 11 games), Nottingham Forest (who sit 18th for xG Conceded NP/90 over the last 6 matches) and Ipswich, who have conceded 74 goals in the league this season – only the two teams below them (Leicester and Southampton) have conceded more.

Bryan Mbeumo (£8.1m, 37.1% ownership)

What a season Mbeumo is having. Many sensed he could reach this level when he started the season so strongly last year, before injuries curtailed his progress. This year, however, he hasn’t looked back, scoring 18 goals and ing 7 assists. Only Salah and Isak have more goal involvements in the league than the Cameroonian.

European football may yet be on the cards for the Bees, especially with an exciting game vs. Fulham in Gameweek 37, but games against Manchester United, Ipswich and Wolves certainly lay the foundations for more goals from Mbeumo.

His stock (measured in this case with his underlying data) has been on the rise lately. Season data shows his xGI NP /90 has increased over the last six Gameweeks from a season average of 0.46 to 0.57. Similar to Bowen, he looks a great captaincy alternative to the likes of Salah this week, playing against the Red Devils who will surely have their attention firmly fixed on European endeavours. He’s a priority own, and selling the likes of Saka, Palmer (or dare I say it, even Salah) surely has to be a strong consideration for anyone who doesn’t own him.

Chris Wood (£7.0m, 28.4% ownership)

At the time of writing, Forest currently sit outside the Top 5 for the first time in a long, long time. Forest fans will be hoping that the two-game loss streak to Villa and Everton was just a blip – and with Wood getting back on the scoresheet after a 3 match lay off, will certainly help with any anxiety over where the goals are going to come from.

19 goals for the New Zealand international is a quite incredible return, especially when you consider that his goal conversion of 35.2% is the highest in the league, dwarfing other forwards (Strand Larsen is next best from regular starters with a conversion of 24.5%).

Forest have arguably the best run of fixtures of all teams between now and the end of the season, playing Crystal Palace, Leicester, West Ham and Chelsea over the remaining Gameweeks. The 2-week spell against Leicester and West Ham particularly looks prime for points. Wood scored 20 points across the reverse fixtures earlier in the season as Forest ran out comfortable winners in both. Have the opponents improved at all? Well, Leicester are bottom of the underlying data tables for xG conceded NP/90 over the last 6 weeks, and West Ham sit in a pretty miserable 15th. So, no. Not really.

Forest, one of the few teams who will likely have something to play for going into the final games, surely adds to his appeal too – there’s no risk of rest or rotation given the magnitude of the games coming up as Forest chase Champions League football.