Welcome back to the Hive FPL for game week 13 of the season!

Let's start this week's preview with a look at how things stand in the Hive leagues themselves...

Division 1 of the Head to Head continues to be a very tight affair with the top 3 sides going into GW12, Likodra FC, Cunha Do Sum' 4 Mee and Hijos del VAR all suffering defeat.

That means that the top 5 are separated by just 3 points while in midtable things are equally congested with places 10th to 17th separated by only 3 points.

In Division 2, Sutter Kane continue to set the pace with just 1 defeat this season. There are a number of challengers hanging on but the leaders now have a 5 point cushion between themselves and 6th place.

Given that Sutter Kane have also moved up into first place in the Classic League it suggests that they are going to be tough to keep out of Division 1 next season.

Free Hit misery in GW12

As suggested a couple of weeks ago, a lot of FPL sides targeted GW12 for a free hit given the way the fixtures fell but it became a difficult week to really extract any benefit from the chip with the likes of United and Liverpool, sides that managers had backed to win, failing at home.

4 of the current top 10 had the chip in play for GW12 and given that the average score for GW12 was 39 points, you'd have to say that at least 3 of them got their fingers burned. Even Emeka4 who scored 47 points with the chip in play managed to lose their head to head and drop from top spot to 2nd in the Classic League.

The chasing pack with chips up their sleeves

What's becoming apparent is that we could see some shifts in the Classic League standings over the next few weeks as those who have held onto their chips a little longer begin to deploy them.

Of the current top 11, only 8th placed The Cellas have more than 1 chip left to play (@blanchy is sitting on his wildcard and free hit). Meanwhile, 4 of the top 10 have already used all their chips and are waiting on GW20 for them to refresh.

However, it's a very different story as you look down the table. From 12th to 22nd 5 teams still have 3 chips left to play and then from 25th to 50th place you have 11 teams who haven't played a single chip yet this season.

Is this all part of the master plan or are they sleeping? Always difficult to say 100% but here are those 11 sides.

What is a reasonable return on your 4 chips? 40 to 50 points extra? Maybe more if you nail your wildcard and it allows you to gain ground over a number of weeks!

If so and assuming that these players use their chips and use them well then they should all be established in at least the top 20 by the turn of the year if not better. We'll have to check back in 7 weeks time to see ...

Division 1

GW12 Results

GW13 Fixtures

Division 2

GW12 Results

GW13 Fixtures

GW13 Player Picks and Tips

Here are our tips and picks for GW13 of the season...

Tripple captain Haaland?

It certainly seems to be an option that is getting a lot of chat across FPL communities this week. 13 of the top 50 players in the Hive FPL classic league are still sitting on their trip captain chip (see above for the list of main protagonists) and Leeds at home must feel like a fixture they could target.

After all, Haaland has only blanked once at home this year, that coming in City's opening match at the Ethiad against Spurs, and since then he's scored 9 times in 5 appearances in front of his own fans. The only thing missing for him so far has been a hattrick to add to the 11 he's already scored for City in the Premier League.

He, along with quite a few high profile teammates, was left on the bench midweek which should allay any fears that he might be rested for this one.

It's certainly difficult to envisage Leeds whose only away win this season came at bottom placed Wolves and who have conceded 15 goals away from home this season coming away with anything from the Ethiad.

Away records for Leeds and West Ham this season

With City so heavily reliant on Haaland to score them goals then he feels like a good bet to score but is there an even better opportunity in a few of weeks time when West Ham visit?

The Hammers have the 2nd worst xG against in the league this season (behind only Burnley) and while Nuno has delivered some points of late, he yet's to get a clean sheet. In fact, West Ham have conceded in their last 9 games.

The other issue with triple captaining Haaland this week or indeed against West Ham is that you can be pretty sure that half the game minimum will also be giving him the armband. That's means an advantage but not as big an advantage than going against the grain.

The bottom 3 all play away

City players in general might well be popular options this week. Foden, O'Reilly, Nunes, Cherki and Doku all joined Haaland on the bench against Leverkusen in midweek so it suggests that Pep's team for the match against Leeds is easier to predict than it might otherwise have been.

Elsewhere, Burnley visit Brentford and Wolves play against Villa, 2 sides with woeful away records against teams who are looking very strong at home this season.

Brentford have already welcomed Villa, United, City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle to the Gtech this season and have scored past all of them with the exception of City, totalling 12 goals in the process.

That includes 5 goals for Thiago as well as 4 goal involvements each for Schade and Dango in home games this season. They feel like the players to target for this one as opposed to Brentford defenders given that the Bees have conceded in their last 5 home matches too.

As for Villa, their midweek victory takes them to 7 straight wins at Villa Park this season in all competitions and they take on a Wolves team with only a single goal and a point on their travels this year. It suggests that Villa defenders might be worth taking a look at with the likes of Matty Cash also having a good year in regards goal involvements.

It's no major surprise that Villa's turnaround in form has coincided with the revival of Morgan Rogers who now has 5 goal involvements in his last 6 Premier League games as well as a couple of assists in his last 2 European outings.

The point of concern around Rogers is that he's not getting into goal scoring positions, particularly at home as his xG record shows.

He's had 1 decent chance at home this season against Burnley and failed to score. He's gone 3 home matches without even taking a shot and even games against Fulham and Bournemouth in which Villa were dominant he failed to come close to scoring.

Picking Villa attackers in general is a bit of a minefield at the moment. Malen scored twice in the Europa League this week and has scored 3 Premier Leagues goals too but has only started 3 domestic matches. It's a similar story for Buendia who has 5 goals involvements from 5 starts in the league. Ollie Watkins, Unai's go to man in the EPL, his started 11 games but scored just once.

Who to replace popular Chelsea picks with?

The likes of Joao Pedro and Enzo Fernando remain popular picks across FPL with Chelsea having enjoyed a favourable run of fixtures over the last month or so.

However, their game against league leaders Arsenal and some of their upcoming ties don't look so good on paper and therefore it might be necessary to look elsewhere.

Brentford next 5 games

We've already noted Brentford's forwards and midfield options and beyond this week, the Bees have a couple of tough away London derbies but then a really decent run of matches in late 25, early 26 that might be worth targeting.

Bournemouth next 5 games

Bournemouth too have some decent fixtures coming up with their home game against Everton offering a good alternative over Brentford's away match at Arsenal.

With Semenyo injured and soon to depart for AFCON, the real question is which Bournemouth attacker would you target to take advantage of some of those opportunities?

I've always thought that Marcus Tavernier is an unrated footballer, technically very good but does he have the game to deliver the goals and assists that fantasy managers crave?

Who are you picking for your FPL team this week?