With Everton’s progress to the FA Cup Semi-Finals sealed last night, we’ve seen confirmation of the postponement of the Toffee’s clash with Stoke this morning. Our Season Tickers have been updated accordingly and they now show eight teams without a fixture in Gameweek 34.
With this in mind, we thought we’d briefly summarise the situation with the Gameweek – discussing the possible outcomes, pitfalls and the possible benefits of the fixture pile-up mounting.
Right now we have four games postponed from Gameweek 34:
- Stoke vs Everton
- Bolton vs Spurs
- Chelsea vs Newcastle
- Liverpool vs Fulham
With the midweek Tuesday/Wednesday slot free on April 17/18, there’s every chance that we’ll see these games shifted to evening kick-offs, thus keeping them within the Gameweek. Certainly that was the precedence set by the postponements caused by the previous round of the FA Cup. There is, however, a slight caveat – it’s possible that the April 17/18 midweek slot would not be seen as viable given that half of the teams will be involved in sapping FA Cup ties at Wembley the weekend prior.
There is also a likely exception. The Chelsea vs Newcastle fixture may be forced into a double Gameweek slot due to Chelsea’s progress in the Champions League. Having grabbed an away goal advantage in Benfica last night, Chelsea look favourites to make it through to the last four. The ties for that round will be played on April 17/18 – ruling out the possibility of the Newcastle league game being shifted to one of those nights.
That would create a double Gameweek, bringing assets such as Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse, Juan Mata and Gary Cahill to the fore. With a possible Champions League second leg on April 24/25, it could be that the league fixture would shift to May 2, creating a double in Gameweek 36. Newcastle currently face Wigan in that Gameweek, while Chelsea take on QPR at the Bridge on Sunday.
Right now then, we’re awaiting confirmation from the Premier League on the rescheduling of these matches, with both Chelsea and Newcastle most likely to miss out and hand us a late and potentially profitable double fixture. Fantasy managers are left to progress with caution then – perhaps preparing two strategies for transfers around Gameweek 34, with numerous outcomes still possible.
We’re also still waiting on confirmation of the rescheduled date for Bolton’s meeting with Aston Villa. At some point then – both those teams will deliver a double Gameweek with various midweeks slots available – April 24/25 (Gameweek 35) and May 1/2 (Gameweek 36) are looking the most likely to accommodate this match. There’s also the possibility that the aforementioned Gameweek 34 slot – April 17/18 could be used for this fixture, with the Bolton vs Spurs encounter slipping further.
Confused? Hopefully all will become clear soon enough. We’ll keep you posted.
