Premier League: 4 FanDuel Value Plays for Matchweek 27

A smaller slate of games awaits FanDuel Premier League players this Saturday. Many of the fixtures will be contested by teams out of contention for a European slot next season.

The smaller slate means less players priced on the high range of the scale and much easier roster construction -- in theory. Only 12 players are priced at or above $9,000, and it is no surprise that the top three are from Manchester City.

Over 30 defenders are priced at or above $6,000. A total of 18 are priced right at the $6,000 mark. The keepers are again priced between $5,500 and $4,500.

With the lay of the land established, let's get to it.

Forward

Alexander Sorloth ($7,000): This is likely a week where most FanDuel players pay up for forwards. The general value of those under the $9,000 tag is down on the smaller slate as fewer goals are predicted. Three games have an over/under of just two goals.

However, January transfer Sorloth will likely be forced into action following an injury to Wilfried Zaha and could surprise Everton running off of Christian Benteke. Sorloth scored 15 goals and added 9 assists in 26 appearances for FC Midtjylland before moving to Palace. Four of those goals came in the Europa League.

Everton allowed five goals last weekend. That capped a rough stretch of games, which saw the Toffees allow 17 goals over the last seven matches in all competitions. They also allowed two goals to Palace in the previous fixture this season, one of which came from the striker position.

Midfielder

Bernardo Silva ($7,500): Manchester City could be missing seven players at home on Saturday. That means a Citizens starting attacker is finally priced in the value range, so get him while you can.

City are still an attack-minded team that is averaging 3.5 goals at home this season. They have also won their last 12 home games and still have the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, and Raheem Sterling for Silva to work with against Leicester City. Surrounded by talent, Silva could record an easy assist as he did last weekend on Danilo's wonder goal.

Silva has created chances when given the opportunity to play. He is credited with at least one chance creation in 9 of his last 10 appearances. He played only four minutes in the match in which he did not record one and was a sub in four of the other matches. His season high is five chances created against Swansea in December. Clearly, he is a creative player who can fit right into the Manchester City system.

Defender

Marvin Zeegelaar ($5,000): Watford are coming off a 4-1 victory over Chelsea in which Zeegelaar was the victim of a Victor Moses headbutt, but he appears to be in line to start in the wing-back role this weekend against West Ham.

Zeegelaar was one of two Hornets brought back into the side against Chelsea, and Watford dismantled the defending champs, especially once Chelsea went down to 10 men for the last hour. Given the team performance and the long injury list at Watford, Zeegelaar should once again be handed the role of getting down the left side on attack and tracking back defensively.

Zeegelaar scored 17 FanDuel points in the Chelsea match. He was credited with two chances created, three fouls drawn, and five defensive actions. That is the same number of defensive actions that he was credited for in the previous matchup with West Ham. Watford is unbeaten in their last three against West Ham and shut them out back in November.

Keeper

Wayne Hennessey ($4,500): Even though a Palace attacker is featured here, they are dealing with a lot of injuries that could leave them scrambling for organization against Everton. That may mean plenty of save opportunities for Hennessey in net.

Palace have allowed more than one goal only once in their past four Premier League games. Hennessey had seven saves last weekend against Newcastle, which propelled him to a 22-FanDuel-point outing. That tied his third-best output of the season.

Hennessey probably won't be highly owned this weekend given Palace's general inability to hold a clean sheet. Other keepers like Lukasz Fabianski should be favored by many. However, Hennessey has the third-highest points per game total for the year amoing all expected starting keepers on this slate.

Douglas Smith is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Douglas Smith also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username aquemini03. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.