Gameweek 8 FPL Tips From FPL Banger, Highlighting His ‘Best Captain’ and FOUR ‘Top Picks’

Welcome to a new series for the 2024/25 season, provided by Siva & Sam, the twisted minds behind the weekly FPL Banger Podcast.  After Sam’s successful Saka captaincy in the last round of games, it’s time to cook again with my Gameweek 8 FPL tips.

Gameweek 8 FPL Tips for FPL_Bangor Suggest Making Haaland Skipper

Read on as FPL_Banger pinpoints his Gameweek 8 FPL Tips that include a ‘Best Captain’ and also four ‘Top Picks’ to try and squeeze into your sides. With this week’s games spread over Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

BEST CAPTAIN

Erling Haaland (£15.3m) – Fixture: Wolves, Away

My declaration in our GW6 preview that I would captain Haaland every week until GW38 has aged about as well as Erik Ten Hag’s contract extension.

Back to back blanks for the robot preceded a 1-5 defeat for Norway against Austria, managed by some up and coming coach called Ralf Rangnick. In better news for Erling, he is expecting his first child, so he should score soon if only to do the customary ball-in-shirt baby celebration.

Back to FPL, if you were looking for the perfect opponent to cure some goalscoring woes, a defence that has conceded 21 goals in 7 games and sitting rock bottom in the table is probably the one you’d go for.

Stay strong all my fellow perma-Haaland captainers, this time we will not be denied – he’s the first of my FPL Gameweek 8 tips

TOP PICKS

David Raya (£5.6m) – Fixture: Bournemouth, Away

Arsenal allowing a once-in-a-lifetime brace for James Justin in GW6 was bad, but conceding a Premier League goal to Cameron Jerome is a borderline sackable offence. And yes, I do own double Arsenal defence.

Mikel Arteta however remains the Arsenal manager at the time of writing and therefore I’m fully expecting/desperately praying for him to bring back some defensive solidity this week.

That being said, I don’t think there is much risk of Arteta underestimating Andoni Iraola. After all, Arteta and Iraola grew up playing together on the streets of San Sebastian alongside Xabi Alonso.

Childhood friends turned Premier League rivals, I expect a cagey battle of tactical wits with Arsenal ultimately grinding out a win and a clean sheet which means more David Raya bonus points. I need that. We need that.

Rico Lewis (£4.7m) Fixture: Wolves, Away

“It is the way of the universe. Everything ends. In time, even stars burn out. This is why we form no attachments: all things pass. To hold on to something— or someone—beyond its time is to set your selfish desires against the Force. That is a path of misery.” That was Pep Guardiola speaking about Kyle Walker.

Actually, it was Obi Wan Kenobi speaking to Anakin Skywalker, but you get the idea. Adama Traore made Walker look every bit of his 34 years in GW7, getting past him time and time again (of course once he was clear Adama proceeded to remind everyone why he’s only scored 13 goals in 7 seasons).

With Walker winding down his career at the top, it’s time for Rico Lewis to step up and he’s done exactly that this season, starting 6 out of 7 games and returning 2 assists.

Something tells me a double digit haul is around the corner (City can’t keep conceding forever) and this might just be the week for Rico to do it.

Brennan Johnson (£6.6m) Fixture: West Ham, Home

In the greatest advertisement possible for the benefits of getting away from social media, Brennan Johnson has scored 7 goals in 7 games since he deleted his Instagram account. And the only reason I know that is because I’ve read about it everyday on X and Reddit.
Can Johnson make it 8 in 8 against West Ham?

In a word, yes. Defensively, Spurs remain Spursy, throwing away a 2-0 lead at Brighton last time out. Ange “it’s who we are mate” Postecoglou isn’t going to change how Spurs play though, which means another all-out-attack session and more goals to come from Johnson.

Chris Wood (£6.2m) Fixture: Crystal Palace, Home

Are you sitting down?

Good, because this next stat might knock you off your feet. Since the start of last season, Chris Wood has scored more non-penalty goals than Mo Salah and Kai Havertz.

For anyone who has been paying attention though, this should not be a surprise. Wood has transformed himself into a remarkably efficient penalty-box poacher, with all of his 12 shots this season coming inside the box.

He’s also added penalties to his repertoire and kept up his fine form in the international break with goals against the mighty Tahiti and Malaysia.

Next up is a Palace side bereft of confidence and without a win all season. With the added bonus of the fact that Wood plays on Monday night (which means that even if all of your other 10 players blank, you still have some hope going into the final game of the week), Chris is an easy pick for GW8.

Thanks for reading the article in this new series for SportsCasting. Be sure to follow @FPL_Banger for more FPL tips and hints, including their weekly podcast and team reveals.