Gameweek 18 is the penultimate round of fixtures in the first half of the 2025\/26 Premier League and also the division\u2019s traditional Boxing Day slate. Below are the first goalscorer selections and the form context that informs them for each matchday pick.<\/p>\n
After his brace against Chelsea at the weekend, Manchester United\u2019s leaky backline had better watch out for Newcastle striker Nick Woltemade. The towering German combines physical presence with finishing that can unsettle defences.<\/p>\n
Two more last time out mean that Erling Haaland has now scored an even higher proportion of Manchester City\u2019s Premier League goals this season than before gameweek 17.<\/p>\n
Viktor Gy\u00f6keres returned to the scoresheet from the penalty spot as Arsenal beat Everton, breaking the deadlock with what turned out to be the only goal of that game.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been four Premier League games without a goal for Brentford striker Igor Thiago. However, playing the percentages suggest that he\u2019s due after scoring 11 in his first 13 appearances of the season.<\/p>\n
Goals have been harder to come by for Everton since the November international window, with strikes frequently arriving in the second half. By that stage, Beto is usually off the bench and could capitalise against a Burnley side likely to be ground down.<\/p>\n
The injury to Alexander Isak has only strengthened the grip that Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 has on Liverpool\u2019s starting No. 9 position. The Frenchman opened the scoring for the third game running when the Reds beat Spurs on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Jarrod Bowen has hit form in recent games, netting in two out of his last three outings after not previously scoring in the Premier League since September. As a team, West Ham will fancy their chances in this East vs. West London derby.<\/p>\n
Cole Palmer is regaining fitness and that makes him dangerous. The Chelsea talisman managed 78 minutes against Newcastle at the weekend, his most in a single game since September. When he\u2019s on it, the Englishman can score a goal out of nothing.<\/p>\n
Into the first of Sunday, December 28\u2019s kick offs, Wilson Isiodor is the one to watch as Sunderland host Leeds United in a fixture that was last played in the Premier League in 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Picks for first goalscorer across Gameweek 18: key forwards, form notes and Boxing Day context. 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1344,172,1125],"tags":[1162,1305,1208],"class_list":["post-5387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gameweek-18","category-epl","category-strikers","tag-analytics","tag-bench-selection","tag-boxing-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}