The schedule for Blank Gameweek 31 will be determined by the results of the FA Cup fifth round this week.
The quarter-finals of that competition clash with the Premier League’s final set of fixtures before the March international break, so any top-flight club progressing to the last eight of the FA Cup will blank in FPL.
Ahead of this week’s cup ties, we had only two Premier League fixtures definitely going ahead in Blank Gameweek 31:
Burnley v Watford
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Bournemouth
One of Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United or Norwich City v Everton will definitely go ahead in Gameweek 31, as Jose Mourinho and Daniel Farke’s sides meet each other in the FA Cup on Wednesday and one of those two clubs will be eliminated.
The ties in the FA Cup fifth round are as follows:
Monday 2nd March
Portsmouth v Arsenal
Tuesday 3rd March
Chelsea v Liverpool
Reading v Sheffield United
West Bromwich Albion v Newcastle United
Wednesday 4th March
Leicester City v Birmingham City
Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester City
Tottenham Hotspur v Norwich City
Thursday 5th March
Derby County v Manchester United
Therefore, at the time of writing, we can still have anything between two and seven blanks in Gameweek 31.
If Sheffield United see off Reading, then we will know the full fixture list for Gameweek 31 even before Manchester United face Derby County on Thursday.
Blanks will be confirmed in Gameweek 31 if the following events occur:
| GW31 Premier League fixture | A blank will happen if the following happens in the FA Cup fifth round: |
| Spurs v West Ham | Spurs beat Norwich |
| Chelsea v Man City | Chelsea beat Liverpool or Man City beat Sheff Wed |
| Man Utd v Sheff Utd | Man Utd beat Derby or Sheff Utd beat Reading |
| Newcastle v Aston Villa | Newcastle beat West Brom |
| Norwich v Everton | Norwich beat Spurs |
| Liverpool v Crystal Palace | Liverpool beat Chelsea |
| Leicester v Brighton | Leicester beat Birmingham |
| Southampton v Arsenal | Arsenal beat Portsmouth |
The maximum of seven blanks will happen in Gameweek 31 if Manchester City, Leicester, Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle all win their FA Cup fifth-round ties and at least one of Manchester United or Sheffield United also progress.
Looking further ahead to Gameweek 34, which clashes with the FA Cup semi-finals, there are again only two Premier League matches currently confirmed as going ahead:
Everton v Southampton
West Ham United v Burnley
The results of the FA Cup fifth round and quarter-finals will determine which of the other scheduled Premier League games will survive.
There’ll be fewer blanks in Gameweek 34 (a maximum of four) and, given that there is a free midweek after that set of fixtures, it is widely assumed that 2019/20’s first ‘big’ Double Gameweek will fall then, with outstanding fixtures from Gameweek 28/31/34 needing to be rearranged.
As many as eight scheduled Gameweek 34 fixtures could be confirmed as going ahead this week, although that would require a succession of cup shocks.
More details of the prospective blanks and doubles can be read below:
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