Franco For Forward

Guillermo Franco is a 33-year-old Mexican striker acquired as a free signing for West Ham, and has been a starting forward since Gameweek 10. Over the last 5 games he has scored twice. At £5.0m, he represents a player who may make an excellent cheap third striker. With the long list of injuries hitting the major strikers (Drogba, Van Persie, Torres, and a possible hamstring injury to Darren Bent) and the forthcoming absences of Stoke, Fulham, Everton and Hull from Gameweek 17, active strikers may be thin on the ground.

West Ham have something of a mixed bag of forthcoming fixtures, alternating from rather favourable to really rather not. The run of games until the New Years break sees them face Burnley then Man Utd (both home), Birmingham and Bolton (both away), before Chelsea (h), Portsmouth (h) and Tottenham (a).

Looking at other strikers from the next price bracket above, ie available for under £5.5m, and Franco compares favourably. The best of this price, Burnley's Steven Fletcher, has scored 3 goals, 2 assists and earned 3 bonus points in 1030 minutes. Franco has earned 2 goals, 1 assist and 3 bonus points in 380 minutes. Burnley have a slightly better fixture list leading up to New Year, facing all four bottom teams and with only Arsenal away and Everton at home as the biggest named opponents.

However EPL fantasy football points are often more about individual performances than team results, and Franco's points haul suggest he may become something of a regular points earner at a suitably low price. If picking him up allows you to spend cash elsewhere due to the shifting injury roster of high price players, then he may well be worth a look.