Navigating the Blank Gameweeks

We’ve reached the point in the Fantasy Premier League season where “blank” Gameweeks are looming and, by preparing your squad early, you could give yourself the edge over mini-league rivals.

A “blank” occurs when a Premier League fixture has to be postponed and cannot be rescheduled to a date within the same Gameweek.

The most common reason for postponements in the Premier League is when fixtures clash with the latter rounds of the two main domestic cup competitions. Like last season, postponements this time around will be caused by clashes with the EFL Cup Final (Gameweek 26), the FA Cup Quarter-finals (Gameweek 28) and the FA Cup Semi-finals (Gameweek 34).

Gameweek 26

Southampton and Manchester United will meet in the EFL Cup Final on Sunday February 26 and the Gameweek 26 fixtures featuring those teams have already been postponed. Those fixtures are:

Southampton vs Arsenal
Manchester City vs Manchester United

It’s safe to assume that these postponed fixtures will be blanks. The following midweek is reserved for potential FA Cup Fifth Round replays and Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs have reached that round, so it’s unlikely that they’d risk rescheduling either fixture to those midweek dates.

Gameweek 28

Again, the postponed fixtures in Gameweek 28 will almost certainly result in blanks; there will be Champions League ties in the following midweek and we know for a fact that rearranged Premier League matches can only played on the same night as Champions League matches if there are no other available dates; this won’t be the case in Gameweek 28.

Any Gameweek 28 fixture that features an FA Cup Quarter-finalist will become a blank.

The draw for the FA Cup Fifth Round has been made this evening and is detailed below.

Burnley vs Lincoln
Fulham vs Tottenham Hotspur
Blackburn Rovers vs Manchester United
Sutton United vs Arsenal
Middlesbrough vs Oxford United
Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Chelsea
Huddersfield vs Manchester City
Millwall vs Leicester City or Derby County

Below we’ve listed the Gameweek 28 fixtures and next to each match you can see the probability of it becoming a blank and the permutations that will cause it to become a blank.

The probabilities are calculated using the bookies’ odds of each team progressing to the FA Cup Quarter-finals. These are based on early odds and may be revised in the next 24-hours.

Three of the fixtures are between teams that have both already been knocked out of the FA Cup, so we know that the following teams definitely won’t have blanks in Gameweek 28.

Bournemouth
West Ham United
Everton
West Bromwich Albion
Hull City
Swansea City

Incredibly, all eight FA Cup Fifth Round ties feature Premier League teams facing up against teams from the lower leagues (assuming Leicester win their Fourth Round replay against Derby), so we could get a maximum of seven blank fixtures in Gameweek 28.

We could even get zero blanks in Gameweek 28, but for that to happen all eight remaining Premier League sides would have to lose to their lower league opponents. The odds of that happening are astronomical.

Gameweek 34

The Premier League teams who reach the FA Cup semi-finals will have their Gameweek 34 fixtures postponed.

However, the midweek in Gameweek 34 is one of two slots in the second half of the season which are kept vacant to be used for rescheduling purposes. Therefore, it seems likely that the postponed Gameweek 34 fixtures will be moved forward a few days to midweek dates and thus protecting the semi-finalists from suffering blanks.

The other free slot open for the scheduling of postponed fixtures is Gameweek 37: I remain confident that this will be the most significant double Gameweek of the season.

Transfer Plans

The Blanks in Gameweeks 26 and 28 will be particularly difficult to navigate. Some of the most valuable and widely owned FPL players – including Alexis Sanchez and Zlatan Ibrahimovic – will blank in Gameweek 26, while Gameweek 28 could be even more chaotic.

In the main, it’s recommended that the upcoming blanks inform every transfer decision that you make between now Gameweek 30.

Thankfully, most* of the Gameweek 28 Blanks will be confirmed before the Gameweek 26 deadline; the FA Cup Fifth Round ties will be played on the weekend of February 18 and the Gameweek 26 deadline is on February 25.

Regardless of the state of your current FPL squad, I’d strongly advise preserving two free transfers heading into FA Cup Fifth Round weekend; if you’ll need to take a four point hit to field a full active XI in Gameweek 26, take the hit after the Fifth Round.

Ideally, between now and the Gameweek 25 deadline, you should spend the fewest possible transfers and only acquire players from teams who definitely won’t suffer blanks in Gameweeks 26 and 28 (Bournemouth, West Ham, Everton, West Brom, Hull and Swansea).

According to the Fixture Ticker and as revealed in this week’s Frisking the Fixtures article, Everton and Swansea have the second and third most favourable fixtures between now and Gameweek 30 respectively.

Gylfi Sigurdsson (7.2) is the key target at Swansea, but if you’re looking for a cheaper option, then new signing Tom Carroll (4.2) was outstanding on his debut at Anfield.

Meanwhile, the Toffees have scored eight without conceding in their three league games in 2017 and their popular FPL assets all appear to offer strong value over the coming weeks. Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman (both 5.6), Kevin Mirallas (6.1), Ross Barkley (7.0) and Romelu Lukaku (9.6) will all prove popular targets from this point on.

Mason Holgate (4.1) and Tom Davies (4.4) could also present strong budget options, although their starting roles are still not guaranteed. Assured starters are essential for cover in the blank Gameweeks: Roberto Funes Mori (4.6) might be a safer alternative to Holgate, for example.

When deciding who to sell before the Gameweek 25 deadline, your first priority should be to make sure that you can get a full active XI in Gameweek 26, and then concentrate on preparing for Gameweek 28. Save the tougher transfer decisions for after the Fifth Round of the FA Cup.

Remember, you can keep three outfield players with blanks on your bench during Gameweeks 26 and 28.

There are a number of factors to consider when deciding which players with blanks to keep and bench.

You should consider how much the player’s value has increased since you bought them, whether they’ll have two blanks or just one, the strength of their fixtures around their blank Gameweeks and, of course, their current form.

Unless you’re unable to field full active XI in the blank Gameweeks without many four point hits, I’d advise against using the Wildcard to prepare for the upcoming blanks. You’ll gain more of an advantage from putting it to use preparing for the double Gameweeks later in the season.

I’ll provide another article in the week leading up to the Gameweek 26 deadline.

Most*, if not all of the Gameweek 28 blanks will have been confirmed by then, so a transfer plan will be easier to devise, hopefully allowing you to ensure you have a full XI of active players in both of the upcoming blank Gameweeks.

*If an FA Cup Fifth Round tie involving a Premier League team goes to a replay, we’ll have to wait until the midweek after Gameweek 26 (February 28th/March 1st) for all of the Gameweek 28 Blanks to be confirmed.