The top 10,000 Fantasy Premier League managers invested rather modestly in the transfer market during the build-up to Double Gameweek 24.
With Manchester City, Everton, Burnley and Fulham all facing two fixtures, it appears that Double fever did not hit particularly strong either in terms of squad set-up or chip usage.
From the template of most-owned players at this level, just six from a possible 15 were from those four Double Gameweek clubs.
As you can see from the matrix above, the defence was where most of the Double Gameweek investment occurred.
João Cancelo (£6.1m) remains the most-popular defender among top 10,000 managers, owned by 56.9% as of Saturday’s deadline.
John Stones (£5.2m) and Ruben Dias (£6.1m) complete a trio of Manchester City stoppers among the top-five in this position.
The former remains the second-most fashionable defender in the top 10k but Dias’ stock is falling slightly at this level.
He was owned by 42.1% of the top 10k in Gameweek 23; a figure that fell to 38.2% for his first benching of the campaign against Spurs.
Unsurprisingly, James Justin (£5.1m) has dropped out of the top-five drastically following his midweek knee injury.
The Leicester man was in 54.6% of top 10k teams when the previous deadline passed.
Ahead of two fixtures in Double Gameweek 25, Stuart Dallas (£4.8m) appears to have been a popular replacement, firing himself back into the top-five most popular top 10k defenders with 51.9% ownership.
Alex McCarthy (£4.5m) has seen his stock fall once again, helped this time by Burnley’s Double Gameweek.
Nick Pope (£5.5m) replaces the Southampton goalkeeper in the matrix of most-owned players among the top 10k, although Emiliano MartÃnez (£5.2m) has tightened his control at this level.
58.5% of the top 10k owned him for Gameweek 23 and he earned a rise of 2.9 percentage points between the two most recent deadlines.
Ilkay Gündogan (£6.0m) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.7m) are the only template assets among midfielders and forwards to represent one of Manchester City, Everton, Burnley or Fulham.
And what particularly interests is how the top 10k have responded to Calvert-Lewin’s FA Cup hamstring injury.
Carlo Ancelotti ruled the forward out of the meeting with Fulham on Sunday, meaning Calvert-Lewin effectively faces just one fixture in Double Gameweek 24.
That the Toffees are likely to enjoy another Double Gameweek soon seems to have influenced the widely-taken decision to hold Calvert-Lewin.
He was in 47.9% of top 10k squads for Gameweek 23, his ownership at this level falling only as far as 45.9% for Double Gameweek 24.
The captaincy statistics show us how much of a differential Raheem Sterling (£11.6m) can be this week.
Despite not featuring among the top-five most-popular midfielders in the top 10k, he was behind only Gündogan for total armbands in Double Gameweek 24.
The German was overwhelmingly popular skipper, rewarding his 50.4% backing with 19 points in a 3-0 win over Spurs.
But Sterling managed to get himself at least an assist at the Etihad Stadium, which could help him rival Gündogan by the end of the round.
As things stand, the budget midfielder is awaiting an assessment for a groin problem and could be a doubt to face Everton on Wednesday evening.
Bruno Fernandes (£11.5m) managed to convince 9.7% of the top 10k to captain him despite facing just one match in Double Gameweek 24.
That is hardly a surprise, considering West Bromwich Albion have conceded at least twice in each of their last eight Premier League matches.
Meanwhile, the clamour for a Pope captaincy did not amount to too much among the top 10k.
1.9% backing is certainly more than we would normally expect for a goalkeeper, even one playing two favourable opponents, but it was only good enough for fourth-place among the top 10k’s favourite captains.
CHIP USAGE OVERALL
FPL managers gave the chips some consideration for Double Gameweek 24, although less so in the top 10k.
As you can see from the charts above, 3.2% of worldwide Wildcards were deployed this weekend.
2.5% deployed their Triple Captain while a similar number put their Bench Boost into action.
By comparison, the top 10k were less enthusiastic.
Just 2% went for a new squad, 1.6% went for an enhanced armband and only 1.5% had enough faith in their substitutes to pull the trigger on a Bench Boost.
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