With the draw for the Europa League having taken place recently, all of the fixtures have been checked and verified, and now scheduled into team diaries. This leaves us once again with a couple of Premier League teams facing a fantasy gameweek with no match to play – often many managers nightmare or dream scenario (depending on how well you can plan ahead).

With Everton and Fulham the only two English teams remaining the situation is not as fraught as the previously debated gameweek 2 situation. These fixtures in question are also an awful long way away – but nothing beats being well prepared and knowing what is to come…

So, in gameweek 17 (only a short 13 gameweeks away, in mid-December) Everton had been due a trip to the KC stadium to face Hull, but must now host BATE at Goodison in their final Europa League group match. Fulham were also due a tough trip up to the Potteries to face Tony Pulis’ Stoke. They will instead be facing a midweek trip to Switzerland and a clash with Basle.

With so much time yet to go this is not likely to catch out many fantasy managers, but those of us stocking up on Everton and Hull players thanks to their good short-to-medium term fixtures, must take note. You need to make sure you’re prepared to either bench or remove them before December rolls around.

In addition, it’s worth noting that both Everton and Fulham now have two fixtures to be rescheduled having already missed gameweek 2. These offer a couple of forthcoming double gameweek opportunties then. While these are yet to be scheduled, we need to keep an eye on just when they fall within the current fixture list. Of course, we’ll keep you posted on these as soon as they do materialise and discuss the likely player picks involved.

In the meantime, don’t forget, you can use the Season Ticker to plot and plan your long-term strategies when it comes to the fixture list.