Ahead of each Gameweek in the Fantasy Premier League, The Hype Train's three front-men, Robert Austin, Sam Austin and Phil Jones, duel for FPL supremacy in predicting Premier League scores, as well as going head to head in picking a Scout Picks squad for each round of games. In addition, we provide general insight that we believe might be relevant for FPL players, such as our personal captaincy picks, differentials for the week, and more. Welcome to the Forecast. All aboard.

Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 13 Deadline

For the 2019/20 Premier League season, the FPL deadline will be one hour before the commencement of the week's first game. Our website provides a real-world countdown timer for the the upcoming Gameweek, whilst you can read our latest Fantasy articles from the season on our 2019/20 FPL weekly hype sub-section.

How does our Forecasting work?

For three years we invited guests from the FPL Community to tackle us with picks for the upcoming Gameweek in Fantasy Premier League. We'll be taking a break from inviting guests onto this article for a year, and have introduced a new feature, Fantasy 5's, which we'll be asking weekly guests their top pick in each position ahead of each Gameweek.

For the sake of respecting the rules of the Forecast, we have provided an example of what we're sending out to interested parties that will feature throughout the season.

Premier League Fixture Prediction: As pundits, we are testing our football acumen with PL predictions and will be providing regular updated tables and stats in each edition of the FPL Forecast. A perfect score is worth 3 points whilst a correct result is worth 1 point.

FPL Gameweek Forecasting: Answering the regular questions that come up every single week in the Fantasy Premier League community that helps with identifying captaincy picks, transfers, attacking options, clean sheet potential, teams to look our for and avoid, players to consider for the Draft game, the wildcard differential players, as well as general analysis and comments.

Scout Picks: Picking a squad of 15 for a single Gameweek, without any budget, using the rules of the FPL - formations, captains and vice captains, and the player limits of 3 per club (chips will not be feature of these weekly picks)

Each team must pick a Captain, labelled as (c) and a Vice Captain listed as (vc).

Fixture Prediction: Gameweek 13

West Ham 1-2 Spurs

Arsenal 2-1 Southampton

Bournemouth 1-1 Wolves

Brighton 0-3 Leicester

Crystal Palace 0-2 Liverpool

Everton 2-1 Norwich

Watford 2-1 Burnley

Man City 2-3 Chelsea

Sheffield United 0-0 Man United

Aston Villa 1-1 Newcastle

FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 13

Top FPL transfer targets for the weekend:

As ever, I have highlighted the four players I would love to have in my FPL team this week.

GK: Alisson (LIV, GK, £5.9mil, 8.5% ownership)

DEF: Ricardo Pereira (LEI, DEF, £6.3mil, 15.0% ownership)

MID: Hueng-Min Son (TOT, MID, £9.6mil, 7.9% ownership)

FWD: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (ARS, FWD, £11.0mil, 24.7% ownership)

Who are the teams to look out for and avoid?:

Man United (Avoid): Travelling to Sheffield United isn’t any easy feat. Chris Wilder's squad are resolute defensively, and you may be shocked to hear that the Blades have lost as many games as current champions Man City (3). Sheffield United have also kept two consecutive clean sheets at home against Arsenal and Burnley, and three clean sheets out of their last five. This is not a fixture any team is expected to get a result unless they are at top form.

Man City (Avoid): I may be a Liverpool fan, but there are doubts in this game for City. Chelsea have won every league game since losing to Liverpool in GW6. Among these six wins the Blues scored a minimum of two goals except for one game against Newcastle during GW9. This is going to be a season defining game for the reigning Premier League champions.

Spurs (Watch): After sacking Pochettino, and replacing him with Mourinho, I still can’t believe what on earth is happening at Spurs. The good news is that Jose starts life in North London against West Ham, a team any top six club should be beating even without a manager in charge.

Liverpool (Watch): Still undefeated, and even if the Reds don’t have either Salah or Robertson, I can still see Klopp’s mentality monsters keep their momentum going.

FPL Captaincy Picks:

(C) – Sadio Mane: Liverpool’s biggest threat is Sadio Mane, and with doubts over City this week, I can see the Senegalese forward causing havoc in South London this weekend.

(VC) – Jamie Vardy: Tremendously in-form, the Englishman is always a safe best this season. Travelling to Brighton shouldn’t phase Vardy and co.

FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 13

Formation: 3-4-3

Starting 11

GK: Paulo Gazzaniga (TOT)

DEF: Ricardo Pereira (LEI)

DEF: Trent Alexander-Arnold (LIV)

DEF: John Lundstram (SHU)

MID: Sadio Mane (LIV) (C)

MID: James Maddison (LEI)

MID: Kevin De Bruyne (MCI)

MID: Heung-Min Son (TOT)

FOR: Roberto Firmino (LIV)

FOR: Jamie Vardy (LEI) (VC)

FOR: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (ARS)

Substitutes

GK: Martin Dubravka (NEW)

MID: Harry Wilson (BOU)

DEF: Federico Fernandez (NEW)

DEF: Harry Maguire (MUN)

Fixture Prediction: Gameweek 13

West Ham 1-2 Spurs

Arsenal 3-1 Southampton

Bournemouth 2-2 Wolves

Brighton 1-3 Leicester

Crystal Palace 0-2 Liverpool

Everton 2-0 Norwich

Watford 2-2 Burnley

Man City 3-2 Chelsea

Sheffield United 1-1 Man United

Aston Villa 0-1 Newcastle

FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 13

Top FPL transfer targets for the weekend:

Leicester targets – Vardy, Maddison, Soyuncu, Pereira, Chilwell or Pereira. Any will do.

Top 6 – KDB, Mane and Martial are the only ones to look at.

Fixtures – Sheffield United and Newcastle have some good fixtures from a defensive point of view. Might be worth picking up an option or two to rotate in and out.

Who are the teams to look out for and avoid?:

Spurs (who knows) – We’re not expecting a seismic shift in form for Spurs given that Jose Mourinho has just joined the club, but who knows?

Arsenal (watch) – Southampton are in free fall and should give Unai Emery some breathing room as the media begin to circle on his tenure as Gunners boss.

Everton (watch) – Norwich’s form dictates a comfortable home afternoon for Everton on paper. Then again, this is exactly the fixture that The Toffees will lose.

Gameweek 13 Eye Test Observations:

Newcastle and Villa has a goal in it. This won’t be a high-scoring encounter as both clubs and their fanbases aren’t keen on each other. Given this is on Monday evening too in the cold, this won’t be a thriller.

Comfortable wins for Everton, Liverpool and Leicester look on the cards.

Tight games that could swing either way will involve Bournemouth/Wolves, Watford/Burnley, West Ham/Spurs, Sheffield United/Man United and Villa/Newcastle.

Most captaincy and transfer targets are playing away from home, so don’t be surprised by a low-scoring Gameweek (no different from any other).

FPL Captaincy Picks:

(C) – Jamie Vardy (LEI): Form is good. Leicester are good. Brighton are favourable opposition. Vardy's a popular pick... And I'm out of other serious options to consider.

(VC) – Kevin De Bruyne (MCI): This game has a lot of goals in it and if City are going to tick, KDB will be the glue to any such victory and that should equate to FPL points.

Other Gameweek Comments:

With the final international break of the season done and dusted, Premier League football is about to consume everyone that has a slight interest in the game. From an FPL perspective, there isn’t one player who will single-handily save your Gameweek due to the number of favourable away sides and dud fixtures.

As per my usual advise, try to avoid any drop points, especially in a Gameweek that might perhaps be lacking in the points department. With games coming thick and fast, there’s no need to rip apart your squads, so just play it easy – especially as FPL this season lacks any pattern, form or reason for doing what anyone does.

FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 13

Formation: 3-4-3

Starting 11

GK: Martin Dubravka (NEW)

DEF: Trent Alexander-Arnold (LIV)

DEF: Lucas Digne (EVE)

DEF: Caglar Soyuncu (LEI)

MID: Richarlison (EVE)

MID: James Maddison (LEI)

MID: Sadio Mane (LIV)

MID: Kevin De Bruyne (MCI) – (VC)

FOR: Tammy Abraham (CHE)

FOR: Jamie Vardy (LEI)

FOR: Raul Jimenez (WOL)

Substitutes

GK: David Button (BHA)

MID: Allan Saint-Maximin (NEW)

DEF: Daryl Janmaat (WAT)

DEF: Diego Rico (BOU)

Want to know more about The Hype Train?

The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in Fantasy sports reporting, starting with Fantasy Premier League (FPL), before expanding to MLS Fantasy coverage in 2018.

We pride ourselves in providing beautiful graphics, statistics, in-depth analytical reporting and free weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb rankings tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review games, live sport, and professional wrestling.

In 2019, Hype Train Football Club was formed, becoming the first Fantasy Football website to take to the field. HTFC is a socially active team across social and web channels, providing regular match highlights, match reports, comprehensive player statistics and unique player profiles.

The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog' in 2016 by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), and were again shortlisted as a finalist in 2019 in the 'Best Fantasy Football Blog' category.

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All aboard.