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The Bargain Hunter - Week 16

Steve Rothgeb offers up his best budget options for Week 16 in the Premier League

Season's greetings, fantasy footy fans. The Bargain Hunter is back, perhaps a day late but hopefully not a dollar short. In fact, that is sort of my duty -- to make sure you do not come up a dollar (or pound for that matter) short when you attempt to assemble the perfect XI for your fantasy teams.

A combination of a concentrated holiday schedule along with the typical illnesses that float around this time of year has resulted in a missed chance to bring you my Column in Week 15, but I was able to fill in for Nik Argiropoulos' acclaimed Picks column, and hopefully some choices like Yun Suk-Young raised a few eyebrows as he sprouted 16 lovely points in the Yahoo game for a nice price. Unfortunately, the volume of options I had to choose from along with a third league gameweek in eight days led to some surprising exclusions and my prediction of "plenty of mouths will be fed" regarding Arsenal's attack was a bad call. They did score twice but my Danny Welbeck selection, albeit lower on the list, turned out poor as he began the game on the bench.

By the way, can we call it something other than a bench these days? In my youth, when you sat on the bench in a sporting event, it was a splinter-filled 2 x 4 sitting on a couple of iron posts two feet off the ground. It was the antithesis of comfort. Even the pros back in my youth were not blessed with a comfortable bench. The luxury they had was a metal back they could lean against. Sure it was cut so low that when you leaned back it would practically puncture your spleen, but hey, it was the standard and you made do. Yet, when a camera catches a Premier League player on the "bench" in the modern era, they are sitting in chairs that look so comfy, I start to get drowsy just looking at them. It is not a "bench", it is a "spa".

Right, it seems clear that I am prone to going off on another non-fantasy related tangent so without further ado, let's get straight to the bargains for Week 16:

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Goalkeeper

Fraser Forster (Southampton) I am so happy for the Saints success this year if for no other reason than to prove to the Yahoo game how undervalued their talent has been in regards to the pricing system. Graziano Pelle, who has been a cast member of this column longer than Tim Meadows was a cast member of Saturday Night Live, was once again available for a bargain if you thought to bring him in at some point between the passing of the Week 15 deadline and his goal on Monday night - he was only a touch above 7m at that point and you could have had the #5 overall forward in the game playing Burnley this weekend for a steal. No matter. Fraser Forster is still there to be had for relative chips. Normally, I am not a fan of the road budget keeper, but that is because it normally involves a bad club in a matchup that they have little chance of winning outright. But the Saints are good and Burnley, home or away, are susceptible to getting shut down. The super budget bargain is below and a great way to free up cash, but I favor Southie to get the better end result in the points column. For 5.23m, he is less than half the price of David De Gea despite the two being neck and neck in overall points. Even more criminal, Jak Alnwick, Newcastle's 3rd choice keeper who had never played a minute of first team action until pressed to play 45 minutes last weekend, costs more than Forster.

Other Option for Goalkeeper


Gerhard Tremmel (1.00m, home to Tottenham)

Defender


Eliaquim Mangala (Manchester City) Man City are about to enter arguably the worst stretch of the season to be without their star striker Sergio Aguero. But Manuel Pellegrini knows that as essential as the Argentine has been to their success, he has a entire squad filled with world class talent at every position. With David Silva and Stevan Jovetic making appearances in Europe this week, the rest of the attack is pretty fit but make no mistake, City are a different side without Aguero. Whether Vincent Kompany is ready to return for the trip to Leicester or not, Mangala appears to be above Martin Demichelis in the pecking order and for 6.14m, you won't find another defender on the "title race" side of the table facing a "relegatin battle" side this weekend. Mangala's real-life performance is still rather raw, with much room for improvement, but he is getting his experience right now. Consequently, he hasn't been stuffing those non-clean sheet categories you hope for from your defenders. But considering the price, the team, and the matchup, there is a bargain value to Mangala this week, and perhaps through the festive period as City has a kind schedule through New Year's.


Other Options for Defense


Neil Taylor (6.28m, home to Tottenham) Aaron Cresswell (7.15m, away to Hull City)

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Midfielder



Ross Barkley (Everton) Last year's budget darling in midfield, it has been a forgettable return from injury so far this season from Barkley in regards to his fantasy output, and last year's -3 from off the bench dropped his price from over 7m to just 5.45m, and if you actually owned him last week, I can understand the desire to give up on him. One thing I am confident of (though it has to be said anything regarding Everton hinges on what happens in their Europa League match tonight) is that Barkley will start this weekend. Having tracked Roberto Martinez's team selections over the season, he has shown a tendency to rotate and rest one key figure to afford some pitch time to his bench talent. Well, with Barkley NOT starting last weekend, the logical assumption is that he will indeed start on Monday Night Football. We still wait for his first goal and home to Queens Park Rangers looks as good a time as any to open his account.

Other Options for Midfield

Ashley Young (6.14m, home to Liverpool) Nacer Chadli (6.84m, away to Swansea)



Forward


Edin Dzeko (Manchester City) Week 15 was supposed to be the Christian Benteke Show for the Bargain Hunter, but a shortened week left my column on the shelf and what was a 6m-ish Benteke is now over 10m. He is still a value for the price, but I try to dig for players under that 10m mark and this week Edin Dzeko seems the logical choice. Available for just 8.37m, he should be getting plenty of work starting this weekend. Stefan Jovetic is back fit, and could challenge Dzeko should Pellegrini opt for a lone striker, but for this weekend anyway, it makes sense to give the more fit Dzeko the start in a lone-striker formation. On the road at Leicester, Dzeko could come up empty while the likes of Yaya Toure or Samir Nasri grab the points from midfield, but he is just as capable of a brace, which he has pulled off several times before. It is also worth the gamble that should he do well, he could stay in your XI for a long stretch as there are many matches in a short time over the next four weeks and City's opponents are Leicester, Palace, Burnley, West Brom and Sunderland. Three out of the four following this weekend are at home as well.

Other Option for Forward

Saido Berahino (7.40m, home to Aston Villa)


Follow the RotoWorld_PL team on Twitter: Galin | Jeremy | Neal | Nik | Steve | Ben | Rob | Aaron