Few pointers Swan:

1) Has it ever happened before that an original fixture was rescheduled to some other week and some other fixture instead was played in that original week? (Chelsea case with Watford and Southampton). I can't recall it, but then again, my memory isn't too good.

2) In the case of Boro, can they have their DGW in GW34? I think that midweek slot is free for them.

Whether you are right or wrong thanks for your time on this and sharing it here.

Guesswork so it doesn't really matter anyway, but why would you not have put Chelsea v Southampton in GW37?

Nice post
Thanks Swan 🙂

This is certainly food for thought, thank you.

Thanks Swan, that's well thought though and is a likely scenario.

I'm still wondering about the assumption that GW34 fixtures will stay in the same GW. Last season the games postponed due to the FA cup QFs were played before the SF postponements were.

I don't see why most of the GW 26 & 28 postponements cannot be played midweek in GW34, and the GW34 fixtures moved to GW37.

An HT? This is like guessing the FA Cup draw.

Jeez none of hose look outstanding
But then again th city one in 27 did

It is possible to play all the rearranged matches can be played in game-weeks 34 and 37 apart from SOU v ARS.
This would mean that only one match has to be played in a European week and clash with the Champions League.
This is likely to be more acceptable to UEFA than having two matches clashing with the Champions League.
SOU v ARS could be played in either GW35 or GW36.

One way to get all the other matches into GW34 and 37 would be to play MCI v MUN in GW34 midweek, move MCI v WBA from GW34 to GW37, move the other 3 matches from GW34 into GW34 midweek, and play the rest in GW37 (apart from MID v SUN, which could be either GW34 or GW37). This would give WBA a blank in GW34 followed by a double in GW37.

An alternative would be to play SOU v MUN and CHE v WAT in GW34 midweek, move CHE v SOU from GW34 to GW37, move the other 3 matches from GW34 into GW34 midweek, and play the rest in GW37 (apart possibly from MID v SUN). But this would give MCI a blank in GW34 followed by a double in GW37, which makes this arrangement less likely, since MCI will be competing for a position in the top four whereas WBA are safely in mid-table.

the Manchester derby will be in 34

why?

because sky control the fixtures as much as the Fa and it will be more likely to be a dead rubber in 37

they will want the bigger fixtures on different days and weeks where possible

I had something similar posted but it got lost. Can't see Chelsea Southampton going to a European night if it can be helped, even if the cost is a WBA blank. Original post:

Looking at all of the permutations, there are a lot of difficulties in GW34 with teams like Bournemouth not wanting to postpone a Saturday game at home to the midweek, just so Middlesbrough and Sunderland can play on the weekend instead (and they would be within their rights to stick to this). Then there are a whole series of knock-on events coming from the "simplest" solution where most of the GW34 games would go into the midweek if possible but the FA would need to make sure Man United, Man City, Southampton and Arsenal would fit their games in as a priority as they have more games than other teams to come up. As a knock on, I can only see the following fixture list happening:

All postponed GW 34 fixtures would take place in midweek except for MCI vs WBA, but there would be MCI vs MUN instead.

GW34 Doublers
Man United (bur, mci)

GW34 Blank
West Brom

GW32, 33, 35 or 36 Doublers (probably 35 or 36 due to Monday Night Football for 32 and 33)
Arsenal (tot/MUN, sot)
Southampton (HUL/mid, ARS)

GW37 Doublers
Arsenal (sto, LEI)
Chelsea (wba, WAT)
Leicester (mci, ars)
Man City (LEI, WBA)
Man United (tot, sot)
Middlesbrough (SOT, SUN)
Palace (HUL, TOT)
Southampton (mid, MUN)
Spurs (MUN, cpl)
Sunderland (SWA, mid)
Watford (eve, che)
West Brom (CHE, mci)

I must admit-I'm confused!

Thanks all, goodbye debate-the one thing I'm getting from this is a wc in 36 and a bb in 37 looks a lock in!

Great effort Swan! Guess we should start loading up on united then

Trust the Irish to have a National day that revolves around getting pished:-)

Happy paddies day lads.

Enjoy HVT, have a Guinness for me.....to be sure, to sure.....top o' the morning ta yah....

Thanks. I'm just glad of the day off to ponder which spuds to bring into my FF team. Never went in for the drinking side; leave that for the lower socioeconomic groups to terrorise tourists around Temple bar.

E is a very good point

Hmm. The wildcard is a really good chip though, and it would be a shame if its wasted on a gw37 dgw that didn't work out. Might make up a lot of ground from say gw 31-32-33 if you use it by then. Maybe even more valuable than fielding 13-14-15 dgw'ers.

I'm undecided though. Initial plan was wc gw26, but the above arguments may make me play it earlier.

Like your thinking. Would you play WC with my current team?

Foster, Jaku
Williams, Alonso, Yoshida, Brunt, Ward
Siggy, Capoue, Lallana, Phillips, Snoddy
Costa, Lukaku, Kane

I feel like I need to....

Yeah I have to agree with this.

Depending on how your team looks some people may need to play it GW34 for the first doubles.

Assuming we here about the doubles shortly though we should be able to use or free transfers to stock up for GW34 with it being a small double.

Certainly think waiting as long as possible is the best way.

WC 36, BB 37 is what I've had in mind all season, however I may move this forward a GW if Arsenal and Southampton have a DGW35. Three players from each of those sides should be easy to incorporate into our squads, given that there is no blank GW between then and the end of the season.

Luck is going to have a lot do with it. If the earlier WCers are lucky with injuries, suspension, rotation, and have players who end up having decent and meaningful fixtures in DGW37, they are probably going to be quids in.

The fixtures announcement is going to dictate a lot.

But with possible 2dgw by that time you will may loose some points in between.
AD.A Kun is needed from gw34 either way, so as Ibra. That can planned in Gw30 with no problem. His change for Jesus is even easier then.
Ad.B Conte is not going to rotate his squad with 360 degrees as he has winning mentality despite the circumstances.
AD.C don't see that as a factor when it comes to top6 battling for UCL.
AD.D Eriksen, Costa, Spurs def, Che def, Sanchez are examples of consistent source of points. You just need to reduce the risk.
AD.E I disagree. Defenders and 5th mids having at least on dgw like Yoshida, Holebas, Capoue, Kante, Romeu are safe picks.
So as Pickford, Valdes or Deeney.
Some budget options already can be selected with low probability of being out of favour.
Injury risk is always a factor. FT should do the job.

wait for fixtures release then i decide... probably still will wildcard in gw31 or gw32. Is when my team have a change of fixtures

When would you play it if you didn't have the BB? That's the best question.

If your BB dictates when you wildcard then in my opinion the tail is wagging the dog.

all down to when the other DGWs fall and what the actual fixtures are for GW 37.
there may well be more games in GW37 but there are some pretty unattractive options for these games e.g. top sides playing each other, weaker sides (those where many bench players would probably come from) away at top sides etc.

Good points, seems obvious and it's suprising that many have changed their view on this over the last week or so. I think people are overthinking things again, like with recent captain picks on here such as Siggy a few weeks ago and Mane last week.

I played the wildcard in January last year and it worked a treat, but surely if you have waited this long and your team is in reasonable shape you may as well wait.

I used my BB a GWs back as I felt my whole squad had decent fixtures and form. It didn't work to the magnitude that I'd hoped it would, admittedly, but I did gain me green arrows and that's the desired effect, no?

My WC is active now and I'm setting up for the long haul. I've drafted in players that have form, fixtures and DGWs approaching. I have a few planned transfers ready for GW32 (No points for guessing which team I have in mind!)

I think people place a lot of faith in a WC before a BB DGW when you'd get near enough the same amount of points if you used it it any other DGW or SGW to be honest. Luck has a huge part to play also.

I'm in my WC at the moment. I'm 4 points down in my ML and I caught up 30 points last week as my rival did not prepare and had already used his WC. But now I want Spurs, Chelsea etc and my defense was rubbish. So using my WC now lets me set myself up for the coming weeks. If I have to take a -12 or so to maximise my BB in GW 37 so be it, but I'm confident I'll have benefited a lot more than that by using my WC now. No right or wrong time to WC in my opinion. If you're happy with your team now, then save it. To each their own.

I agree that WC 36 for BB 37 still looks best. I think perhaps some people are basing a strategy to WC early on last year's failings such as Liverpool rotation. I suspect the solution is to pick players who as you say have something definite to play for - relegation battlers in particular for me - and make sure you have the greatest chance of getting 15 DGWers . I also like the fact that a late WC allows you to essentially forget about it now and concentrate transfers on getting the most out of the period before GW36.

This would be true if the teams who have doubles didn't have decent fixtures up until GW37. Arsenal is a prime example, decent fixtures until the end of the season and a DGW guaranteed so there's no need not to hold 3 Arsenal players going forward. The same case can be made for Man Utd, Spurs and to a lesser extent Southampton

If people hold their wild cards that late I think the most that can be gained would be 20 points.

As an early wild carder, I will make transfer moves to load up on DGW players in the short term and then take hits galore to field the absolute best teams for all of the DGWs so I can maximize all of them. For DGW 37, if it is as big as it seems it might be, with a -12 or -16 I will be able to match the number of DGW players a late wild carder will have. The other advantage for them would be one extra FT in GW37 if they wild card GW36, hence 20 points maximum. A few Bench Boosted differentials and that gap can certainly be narrowed.

I am of the opinion that shrewd hits can more than offset the advantage of a late wild carder, especially if they avoid fixing SGW problems in their team between now and then.

Only the 4 that were over 100 tonight that did not rise. This is getting repetitive.

No risers? 4 players were supposed to rise today, weird..