The first Double Gameweek of the season is upon us! Champions Manchester City, who broke all sorts of records last season, have two fixtures against struggling defences – this is the stuff of FPL dreams. So why aren’t we more excited?
The stampede to acquire their players hasn’t fully materialised in part because of their unexpected defeated to Newcastle in midweek. Many are now calling the Double Gameweek a trap, with Jealous Viper at a loss to explain City’s fall from grace.
Others, such as Geoff, are more circumspect:
I can’t help wondering if everyone saying ‘it’s a trap’ is actually the real trap..
Will Gameweek 25 end up being remembered as the ‘Double Bluff’ Gameweek?
Time will tell. The lack of enthusiasm for the Double Gameweek clubs – City and Everton – can be summarised as follows: rotation, form, and a blank in two Gameweeks.
Rotation is more of a concern for City players, the term ‘Peptation’ is familiar to all FPL managers. In his article entitled “Which Man City options will start both Double Gameweek 25 matches?”, David examines in detail how Pep has used his players this season. Recommended reading for all those still contemplating City assets.
And there are valid reasons for buying a City player – they are at the top of the predicted goals chart by some distance, with a total of 4.57 goals over the two fixtures, and are the standout option according to G-Whizz who brings us the latest DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds.
Choosing to focus on the positives, Pep Pig even makes the case for deploying the Triple Captain chip. He’s not alone – featured recently in a Meet the Manager interview, current Live HoF number 5 Aleksander Våge Nilsen is another committed to playing the TC chip.
On the subject of chips, MINUS FOUR dropped by to offer his thoughts. No, not on how to win at Baccarat in a Monte Carlo casino, this week the ‘James Bond of FPL’ was proposing a strategy for using the Free Hit chip in Gameweek 31. He certainly rises to meet a challenge.
Not one to be shaken or stirred, J0E was plugging his ever popular Goals Imminent table on both the Scoutcast and Captaincy video after it proved remarkably accurate in Gameweek 24 – predicting returns for Richarlison, Aubameyang, Barnes, Mitrovic, and even Rondón. This week two Everton players feature prominently along with a certain Chelsea talisman.
Everton are in danger of being overlooked despite offering a security of starts for the Double Gameweek. Richarlison and Sigurdsson are the two Evertonians who have underperformed recently and perhaps with good reason – as J0E points out, the statistics show why Richarlison is quite good but not that good. He’s had 10 shots in the box over the last four Gameweeks but only two of those have been on target. Sigurdsson is a more intriguing choice in J0E’s opinion, the Icelandic international has taken 11 shots over the same period, but four of those have been on target.
As David mentions, if you are willing to overlook the blank in Gameweek 27, the matches following the Double Gameweek are tempting fixtures against Watford and Cardiff. So signing an Everton player is more than just a one week move.
The Chelsea player in question is that well known scourge of FPL teams Eden Hazard. The Belgian has been up to his old tricks lately with only a single assist over the last five Gameweeks. Predictably he scored when it didn’t matter, in the League Cup semi-final against Spurs.
What are we to make of Chelsea’s recent malaise?
Sarri seems unwilling to change his tactics. The acquisition on loan of his former charge Gonzalo Higuain was intended to put another piece in place as he molds his squad to fit his ‘Sarri-ball’ approach.
A 4-0 defeat to Bournemouth came as a shock to all, prompting a
This week’s Captain Sensible article takes a look at City’s Double Gameweek candidates and, given concerns about their players being rotated, possible single Gameweek captains. Will Hazard finally haul? Will Salah exploit West Ham’s defence as Wolves did in midweek?
The door on the January transfer window shut rather softly yesterday compared to its usual slam, as spending fell for the first time since 2012. Neale (aka Skonto Rigga) followed the deadline day action with news of all the confirmed transfers. As the latest signings were gradually added to FPL, rainy asked which of the new arrivals interested FFS managers?
Former Liverpool player Ryan Babel (£5.5m) hit the ground running at his new club Fulham, conjuring two assists against Brighton. Meanwhile David hopes new Leicester signing Youri Tielemans (£6.0m) can live up to his computer game potential, with Luke describing him as a beast in Football Manager.
The team news ahead of the weekend has been rounded-up by Neale, and separately by Rotation’s Alter Ego in a handy hot topic.
To complete the guide to the first Double Gameweek of the season, there’s a City differential to consider. Kevin De Bruyne (£9.7m) returned a total of 408 points in his previous two seasons, hampered by injury this season his overall ownership remains below 5%.
The Belgian could well be the differential needed to propel you up the leaderboard. Among the top 10,000 managers Sané and Richarlison are the two highly owned players, for those looking to consolidate their position.
To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page, and if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.
If you’re a member and are yet to get to grips with the custom statistics tables, you can view this movie for an explanation of how they work. Also, remember to tag them so that people can find the tables with ease.
COMMUNITY TOURNAMENTS
The semi-finals of the two FFS cup competitions will take place this Gameweek. The finals were due to take place in Gameweek 25 however the cup competitions were unable to be run in Gameweek 23 so the quarter-finals were pushed back a week. I apologise for giving you the wrong information last week.
In the first of the semi-finals in the FFS Cup Justmatt will take on Get It Inter Ya. Justmatt goes into the tie as the lower ranked manager at 41,115 with Get It Inter Ya an impressive 775th overall. However Justmatt may have an edge given that he has an extra Double Gameweek player in Richarlison. Both managers have two free transfers to use ahead of the deadline.
In the second semi-final Tibbles will take on Man-Chest-Heir F.C. Tibbles scored an impressive 70 points in his quarter-final victory over The Quiff, his decision to captain Aubameyang paying off handsomely. He has Double Gameweek players Sané, Richarlison, and Keane in place for his last four tie. Last week, Keane made Digne owners reflect on what might have been with a 9 point return against Huddersfield.
His opponent Man-Chest-Heir F.C. also owns Sané and Richarlison. Both managers have one free transfer to use ahead of the deadline.
In the semi-finals of the FFS Members Cup Jambo17 will take on AKÉ MEYER DANN U, and Jay # faces Eedee.
Ranked at 515 overall, Jambo17 has two Double Gameweek players in Richarlison and Laporte. He has two free transfers to make changes to his side – will Hazard make way for a City midfielder? Will he match his opponent AKÉ MEYER DANN U who already has Sterling?
In addition to the England player AKÉ MEYER DANN U is another manager to own Richarlison, but he only has one free transfer left.
Eedee goes into his last four tie against Jay # as the higher ranked manager – currently 4,992 in the standings. They have the same Double Gameweek players in Sané and, you guessed it – Richarlison. However Eedee perhaps has a slight advantage with an extra free transfer, it looks like being a very close tie this one.
We await the result of the final of the FFS Manager Melee Community Tournament featuring American Dycho against The Godfather: Pardew. Last week Greyhead previewed all the action in a special article.
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score in Gameweek 24 was 35, this saw 83 managers eliminated meaning 686 survive out of the 4,614 managers to have taken part. The final will take place in Gameweek 37.
The lead has swapped again in our main FFS League with Miroslav Pujic regaining top spot from Matthieu Raoux. Miroslav brought in Aubameyang for Kane, having only sold the Arsenal man in Gameweek 23. The plan worked and contributed towards his 58 point total.
Miroslav moves up to second place overall although he is someway behind the currently FPL leader Finland’s Toni Haapanen. Toni has a 39 point lead but has played both his Triple Captain and his Free Hit chip, so maybe there’s an opportunity around the later blank and Double Gameweeks for Miroslav to bridge the gap. Miroslav still has all his chips available.
Sean Tobin remains the leader in the FFS Live Hall of Fame. A successful transfer of Deulofeu to Son helped him to 53 points and sees him move up to 12th overall. Sean featured in J0E’s Meet the Manager video last week.
A score of 45 points was enough for Tore Bjørheim to hold onto first place in the FFS Members League although the gap to second place has been cut slightly to 15 points. He remains 14th in the overall rankings.
David’s lead at the top of the FFS Mods & Cons is down to 7 points as Mark closed the gap. Mark’s decision to bring in Kolasinac ahead of Digne for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold proving a good one.
Luke Aiello still occupies top spot in RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league, although his advantage has been reduced to 12 points and he’s slipped to 89th in the overall standings.
Lesego Maforah made it five green arrows in five Gameweeks to extend his lead over Andrew Fu to 9 points at the top of RedLightning’s January to May League. Over that period he’s risen from 578k to 143k overall. He saved a transfer in Gameweek 24, so heading into the Double Gameweek he has two free transfers available with Aguero, Sané, and Richarlison already in his side.
If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round-Ups, please email us a summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head-to-head competition at geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk
