2 FanDuel Premier League Trends to Exploit for Matchweek 27

Spotting trends is one way to stay ahead of the crowd in Premier League DFS. Here, we're going to try to hone in on recent occurrences across the EPL DFS landscape that appear to be a sign of things to come.

This article is geared toward FanDuel's main slate, which begins at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday and features five matches.

Let's get real, folks. Anybody with a bean of sense is going to hit up the big guns on Man City on Saturday, and Xherdan Shaqiri is going to be popular, too. But the purpose of this article is to try to sound out some nice trends to ponder going into this round.

That said, we'll be looking at much maligned Christian Benteke. The Belgian has been woeful in front of goal, but he has pretty consistent FanDuel returns. On top of the one-time prolific Premier League striker, we'll toss our hat in the ring of the revitalized Hornets with Abdoulaye Doucoure, Watford's Mr. Reliable.

C'mon Christian Give Us A Goal, Give Us A Goal....

To paraphrase the irrepressible Barry Glendenning from the Guardian (specifically, in this case, the Football Weekly Podcast), whenever Mo Salah has a chance in the box, you expect him to score; you don't expect Christian Benteke to score. Benteke has now missed more clear chances (17) than anyone else in the Premier League, but fear not, friends, we are concerned only with FanDuel points and, surprisingly, the big Belgian frontman is quite consistent.

In his last five Premier League games, he has put up FanDuel totals of 22, 23.75, 22.5, 21 and 24 points despite only hitting the back of the net once, proving he is not goal reliant from a DFS perspective.

Crystal Palace have been rocked by the news that Wilfred Zaha could be out for a month, but there could be a silver lining in the form of Alexander Sorloth, Palace's deadline-day signing from FC Midtjylland. Benteke ($8,000) made his name as a prolific Premier League striker whilst plying his trade with Aston Villa, and during that time, he was used to having support up front, so maybe the arrival of Sorloth will take a weight off the Belgian's back.

In his career, Benteke has scored five Premier League goals against Everton, including one at Goodison last season, so there is some history for us to take advantage of, too. And if he can find his form in front of goal, Benteke could finally turn one of his pretty good FanDuel outings into a great one.

Watford's Midfield Dynamo Starting to Catch the Eye

Well, well, well. What a difference a couple of games can make. Watford were in serious free fall before Marco Silva was sacked on January 21st, but they seem to have taken on a new lease of life since Javi Gracia took over on the same day. They have taken four points from their last two games, including a 4-1 home drubbing of Chelsea on Monday, and we should be in for an entertaining game when the Hornets travel to West Ham on Saturday.

In West Ham's last three games, they have conceded 5 total goals and allowed 31 shots (11 on target), and considering the opposition was Brighton, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, Watford should fancy their chances to -- at a minimum -- have plenty of opportunities.

Unfortunately, the newly-acquired Gerard Deulofeu, who was superb against Chelsea, is not on this week's FanDuel roster. Richarlison, although having scored in the reverse fixture, is just not reliable enough to consider averaging 8.0 FanDuel points over his last five games.

That brings us to Abdoulaye Doucoure ($8,500). The Frenchman is having such a good season that sides like Spurs and Liverpool have reportedly started sniffing around prior to a potential summer bid. Over the past five matchweeks, Doucoure has recorded FanDuel outings of 49.75, 15.75, 21, 28.5 and 22 points. Over that period, he netted just one goal so he offers a nice floor and can deliver some big-time upside if he did score a goal.