Burnley to have an FPL Double Gameweek 27 against Palace and Leicester

Burnley will have a Double Gameweek 27 after their previously postponed home match against Leicester City was rearranged for Tuesday 1 March.

It’s not a Double Gameweek for Leicester, however: the Foxes had been due to blank because their scheduled weekend match against Chelsea was postponed due to the clash with the EFL Cup final.

The Clarets’ other Double Gameweek 27 fixture is against Crystal Palace away.

Sean Dyche’s side also ‘double’ in Gameweek 26 against Brighton and Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur.

Leicester have three fixtures still be rearranged after today’s news, while Burnley have two.

INITIAL REACTION

As soon as Leicester were eliminated from the FA Cup on Sunday, this fixture always looked likely to be placed within Gameweek 27 as there currently are a limited number of free windows in which the Foxes can fulfil their four outstanding league matches.

This could, of course, change if Brendan Rodgers’ side are knocked out of Europe.

For the Foxes, developments over the last few days mean that they now have a fixture in Blank Gameweeks 27 and 30 when they could so easily have had none:

It’s Burnley where the initial attention lies from an FPL perspective, however.

The Clarets have ‘doubles’ in Gameweeks 26 and 27 and they stand a reasonable chance of their Gameweek 30 fixture going ahead; that would happen in Southampton are knocked out of the FA Cup by West Ham in round five but we won’t know that until the midweek before Gameweek 28.

DOUBLE GAMEWEEKS 26 and 27: BEST BURNLEY BUYS?

Nick Pope (£5.4m) and Wout Weghorst (£6.5m) are probably the stand-out targets at either end of the field.

After a shaky start to the campaign, Burnley’s backline has tightened up a tad. Pope’s own personal form has improved significantly too and he’s conceded just two goals in his last six Premier League appearances, averaging 6.7 points per match in the process.

The England goalkeeper’s expected goals prevented (xGP) tally has been a commendable +2.80 in his last half-dozen starts; before that, it was a league-worst -6.30 in 2021/22.

Burnley’s style of play – low pass completion among defenders, few goals scored at the other end – also works to Pope’s advantage on the Bonus Points System.

As for Weghorst, who we analysed in a recent Scout Report, he turned in a promising display against Manchester United on Tuesday and claimed his first attacking return as a Clarets player.

A lack of service for the Dutchman was one of our main concerns but Dyche turned to a more attacking set-up in Gameweek 24, moving ‘second striker’ Maxwel Cornet (£5.9m) out wide and introducing another forward in the shape of Jay Rodriguez (£5.2m) – something he did in the closing stages of the Gameweek 23 clash with Watford after a dour stalemate.

Five shots, four of them in the box, in two appearances is a decent start, even if we can’t quite expect the volume of goals he scored in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg.

Cornet’s fitness is the main downside to the goal-hungry Ivorian: the knock/cramp that forced him off against United was his fourth injury-related FPL ‘flag’ of the season and he has completed 90 minutes just once.

No-one else stands out in a goal-shy midfield but there are cheaper alternatives to Pope in the form of set-piece threats James Tarkowski (£4.9m) and Ben Mee (£4.8m). If Charlie Taylor (£4.4m) was still sidelined, then a cut-price Erik Pieters (£4.2m) would offer a real budget-friendly route into the Burnley backline, if not much in the way of attacking menace.

None of the Double Gameweek 26 and 27 fixtures really scream ‘clean sheet potential’, however, save perhaps Brighton away.

FPL DOUBLE GAMEWEEK 27 FIXTURE OVERVIEW

• Double Gameweek: Burnley
• Blank Gameweek: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool
• Single Gameweek: All other 16 Premier League sides

DOUBLE GAMEWEEK LATEST

• Gameweek 24: A Blank Gameweek for Chelsea and Brighton, no doubles.
• Gameweek 25: A Double Gameweek for Man Utd and Brighton, a Blank Gameweek for Chelsea and Arsenal.
• Gameweek 26: A Double Gameweek for Arsenal, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Leeds, Liverpool, Spurs, Watford and Wolves.
• Gameweek 27: A Double Gameweek for Burnley. Three sides, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, will have their weekend matches postponed because of the EFL Cup final, however.
• Gameweek 28: A possible Double Gameweek for anyone bar Brentford, Crystal Palace, Man City, Man Utd, West Ham, Liverpool, Leicester (if they are still in the Conference League) and Norwich (if Leicester are still in the Conference League).
• Gameweek 29: A possible Double Gameweek for anyone bar Brentford, Crystal Palace, Man City, Man Utd, West Ham, Chelsea, Leicester (if they are still in the Conference League) and Norwich (if Leicester are still in the Conference League)
• Gameweek 30: No chance of a Double Gameweek and a near-certain chance of it being a Blank Gameweek, as it will clash with the FA Cup quarter-finals. Aston Villa v Arsenal, Wolves v Leeds and Leicester v Brentford are the only fixtures that so far will definitely go ahead.
• Gameweek 33: A free midweek does allow for a Double Gameweek, although the weekend games do clash with the FA Cup semi-finals, too.
• Gameweek 36: A free midweek allows for a Double Gameweek. This is likely to be the biggest Double Gameweek of the season.

There is also a chance of there being other small Double Gameweeks in Gameweeks 31, 32, 34, 35 and 37, with the results of cup competitions home and abroad likely to dictate that.

TEAMS WITH THE MOST FIXTURES OUTSTANDING

• Arsenal, Everton, Leicester (3)
• Aston Villa, Burnley, Chelsea, Newcastle, Spurs (2)
• Brighton, Leeds, Liverpool, Norwich, Southampton, Watford, Wolves (1)
• Brentford, Crystal Palace, Man City, Man Utd, West Ham (0)

The above figures are based on outstanding matches from Gameweek 28 onwards and include games in coming weeks that we know will need to be reorganised (e.g. Arsenal’s fixtures in Gameweeks 25 and 27).