Crystal Palace
Selhurst Park
Crystal Palace FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid
The call — Palace's problem in one line: two strikers, one shirt, and a defence our model doesn't fancy for clean sheets anywhere in the next six. Let's start with the awkward bit, because it's where the money is. Our projections have Nketiah and Mateta almost dead level over the next six gameweeks — both around 27 points — and only one of…
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One squad, picked before a ball was kicked and run for six gameweeks on three transfers — no hits taken. Scored on FPL’s own results.
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So: Mateta, £6.5m, owned by roughly 1 in 20 managers. Palace's attack sits mid-to-lower table in our rankings — 16th, if we're honest — but the fixtures are perfectly average, and he's usually good for 4-5 points a week with the odd bigger day when Palace click. Not glamorous. Reliable. That's the business we're in.
The defence is where I'd keep my wallet shut. Palace rank a respectable 11th for keeping the ball out, but our model calls this run very tough for clean sheets — Everton away, City at Selhurst, Fulham away, then Leeds away wedged around the kinder home games against Ipswich and Forest. Muñoz (£5.5m, about 1 in 10 own him) at least attacks enough to score without a shutout, which is why he's the only defender I'd even consider. Mitchell and Henderson are cheap and nailed, but cheap and nailed doesn't help much when the shutouts aren't coming.
The honest caveat on Mateta: this isn't a captaincy asset and it isn't a haul machine. Sixteenth-ranked attack, average fixtures — you're buying steady returns, not fireworks.
The call: buy Mateta at £6.5m as a set-and-forget third forward, keep Nketiah on the watchlist until the minutes picture is unambiguous, and leave the Palace defence alone until the fixtures stop looking like a wall. If you must have one back there, make it Muñoz — but don't say I promised you clean sheets.