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 8 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 8

Brighton 1-3 Spurs

Burnley 0-1 Everton

Liverpool 2-0 Leicester

Norwich 1-1 Aston Villa

Watford 0-1 Sheffield United

West Ham 3-0 Crystal Palace

Arsenal 1-1 Bournemouth

Man City 1-1 Wolves

Southampton 0-2 Chelsea

Newcastle 1-1 Man United

FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 8

Top FPL transfer targets for the weekend:

GK: Jordan Pickford (EVE, GK, £5.5mil, 9.7% ownership)

DEF: Fabian Schär (NEW, DEF, £5.0mil, 2.5% ownership)

MID: Andriy Yarmolenko (WHU, MID, £6.0mil, 3.7% ownership)

FOR: Roberto Firmino (LIV, FWD, £9.6mil, 13.7% ownership)

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

Leicester (Avoid): Being a ‘deluded bin-dipping victim’ Liverpool supporter (according to comprehensive social media comments about the fanbase), I have it under good authority that most of the delusional bunch want to see an ounce of revenge against Brendan Rodgers when he returns to Anfield for the first time since he was sacked as manager in 2015.

Brendan got the Reds close to glory, but after the 2013-14 season he unravelled…hard. Brendan went full midlife crisis when Suarez left, even benching Coutinho, Sterling, and Gerrard during a Champions League game away at Real Madrid. The only two members of the Rodgers team that are left are Lallana and Henderson, and the Champions League winning captain was also on the bench in Madrid whilst Lallana started. Liverpool have come far since those days. Brendan went from worse to worse when his back was against the wall and that is what Liverpool fans dislike about him, and why all love has been lost.

The Crystanbul game just had to be won, and instead of bringing on Daniel Agger he brought on Chelsea agent Victor Moses in attempt of scoring over ten goals to go head-to-head with Man City on the final day of the season. Brendan orchestrated nothing but misery for everyone attached to the club, ushering in what the kids on Twitter call a ‘banter era’ which saw the photo of Steven Gerrard’s response the default response to any post, comment, or even thought about that time. Liverpool are seven for seven, and I will be surprised if Liverpool don’t go eight for eight.

West Ham (Watch): The Hammers are at home to a vulnerable Crystal Palace, and I can see them doing bits to further add pressure to Roy Hodgson’s team. The London team impressively well to keep Bournemouth at bay recently, and I can see Haller getting a long overdue goal.

Man United (Avoid): I don’t fancy this fixture against the Toon. Both them and United are in a position of having to respond, but with the forwards in disarray for both clubs it could be a scrappy game from start to finish.

Arsenal (Watch): Home form will carry Arsenal this season, so expect them to go all-in against Bournemouth. I can’t see the Gunners keeping a clean sheet with Callum Wilson around who has yet to blank in the FPL this season so far.

Man City (Avoid): Kevin De Bruyne is now injured, and whilst there are players like the two Silva’s to replace the Belgian, it is still a blow to City as he was their midfield linchpin stringing everything together. Wolves have just got their first league win, and last year held City to a draw in one of their games against the Manchester club.

FPL Captaincy Picks:

(C) – Mohamad Salah (LIV): A 3pm kick-off for Liverpool feels strange, normally because they are rescheduled to play in one of the early or late slots. Regardless, the pick I favour most is that of Mo Salah for captaincy. After a brace in the Champions League, the Egyptian is back to his clinical best. Leicester have been good, but Liverpool have been better.

(VC) – Tammy Abraham (CHE): Abraham's taken his good form into Europe and he's got another good game on the South Coast to look forward too. Why not back a good thing right now?

FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 8

Formation: 3-4-3

Starting 11

GK: Roberto (WHU)

DEF: Fikayo Timori (CHE)

DEF: Fabian Schär (NEW)

DEF: Trent Alexander-Arnold (LIV)

MID: Mason Mount (CHE)

MID: Andriy Yarmolenko (WHU)

MID: Hueng-Min Son (TOT)

MID: Mohamad Salah (LIV) - (C)

FOR: Tammy Abraham (CHE) - (VC)

FOR: Roberto Firmino (LIV)

FOR: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (ARS)

Substitutes

GK: Jordan Pickford (EVE)

MID: Raheem Sterling (MCI)

DEF: Nicolas Otamendi (MCI)

DEF: Aaron Cresswell (WHU)

Fixture Prediction: Gameweek 8

Brighton 1-1 Spurs

Burnley 1-0 Everton

Liverpool 3-1 Leicester

Norwich 1-1 Aston Villa

Watford 2-0 Sheffield United

West Ham 2-1 Crystal Palace

Arsenal 3-2 Bournemouth

Man City 3-0 Wolves

Southampton 1-1 Chelsea

Newcastle 0-0 Man United

FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 8

Top FPL transfer targets for the weekend:

Top Brass: Aubameyang has to be on the radar

Form on his side: Callum Wilson has 7 returns in 7.

Bargain Basement: Andriy Yarmolenko is very, very affordable at £6.0m

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

Spurs (avoid): Would not surprise me in the slightest if Brighton get a result in this game, especially as I have a few friends in my main mini-league that have Mat Ryan in their FPL squads. I know they're not Bayern Munich in quality, but there's obviously something going on at Spurs, the players don't look like they care (and look a little unfit), and any half-decent team will capitalise on this situation.

Norwich (avoid): Is the party over? It never really started.

Newcastle & Man United (avoid): Two dead teams with little to no FPL options in their squads. I'd avoid both like the plague in a game that'll be extremely lucky not to be a goalless, drab draw.

Liverpool (watch): Leicester are good, but Liverpool are very good and should win this, so don't get distracted with talk of Leicester stopping Liverpool's title charge just yet.

West Ham (watch): Not conceding goals. Inform midfielders. Decent Forward. What the hell is going on? This should a 1-0 or 2-0 game based on how the season has progressed, though watch Zaha's return to form prove this statement dead wrong.

Burnley (watch): Everton are god awful, have nothing going forward and look shoddy away from home. Burnley should be looking to win this one.

FPL Captaincy Picks:

(C) - Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: 7 goals in 7. 7 returns from 7. My captaincy picks have blanked in 5 consecutive Gameweek's. Surely the rot stops with Auba this week? I'll happily accept the 6 points to get some self-esteem back in to my team.

(VC) - Mo Salah: Liverpool at home. Salah in form. It's a no-brainer to have The Egyptian King is always part of the conversation.

'What would Phil say?':

As our fellow Hype Train member, Phil Jones (@HypeTrainPhil) is currently out of action with other commitments right now, as somebody that knows what Phil says on a weekly basis, let me just state his typical cliches ahead of the weekend.

- Liverpool to draw or lose

- Virgil van Dijk is overrated and Messi should win the Balon d'Or

- Heung-Min Son is an amazing player

- City to win big at the weekend

- Agueroooooooooooooooooooo

- Phil doesn't have Aubameyang (yet), so he's not going to consider him as a captaincy pick as a result

Other Gameweek Comments:

I have both Aubameyang and Callum Wilson in my squads. Watch the Arsenal vs. Bournemouth game finish 0-0. Written in the stars.

Also, regarding Kevin De Bruyne's injury. My gut is saying to stick with the Belgian as it's only a slight injury. If you have any squad depth (a hard ask this year), use it and just hope for the best.

FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 8

Formation: TBA

Starting 11

GK: Nick Pope (BUR)

DEF: Fikayo Timori (CHE)

DEF: Trent Alexander-Arnold (LIV)

DEF: Nicolas Otamendi (MCI)

MID: Mohamed Salah (LIV)

MID: Raheem Sterling (MCI)

MID: Mason Mount (CHE)

MID: Riyad Mahrez (MCI)

FOR: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (ARS)

FOR: Callum Wilson (BOU)

FOR: Sebastian Haller (WHU)

Substitutes

GK: Mat Ryan (BHA)

MID: Todd Cantwell (NOR)

DEF: Issa Diop (WHU)

DEF: John Lundstram (SHU)

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.

You can follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, follow Hype Train FC on Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube channel for exclusive content, or visit our website here at www.thehypetrain.co.uk

All aboard.