Our regular frisk of the fixtures sees us assess the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) clubs and players with – in theory – the strongest run of league matches.
We typically take a routine look at the next six matches in this article but with Blank and Double Gameweeks littering the landscape, we’ve tweaked the format slightly.
This should hopefully help you plan ahead, whatever your chip strategy is.
Our colour-coded Season Ticker is the primary source for this piece; using this tool as a Premium Member, you can sort by difficulty, rank by attacking and defensive potential or find budget rotation pairings. You can even set your own difficulty ratings, should you disagree with our own.
MOST FIXTURES REMAINING
- Burnley, Everton, Leicester (11)
- Arsenal, Chelsea (10)
- Aston Villa, Brighton, Crystal Palace, Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton, Spurs, Watford (9)
- Brentford, Leeds, West Ham, Wolves (8)
MOST DOUBLE GAMEWEEKS REMAINING
- Burnley, Everton, Leicester (3)
- Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea (2)
- Brighton, Crystal Palace, Leeds, Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton, Spurs, Watford, Wolves (1)
- Brentford, West Ham* (0)
*West Ham could have a Double Gameweek 36 and Blank Gameweek 37 if they reach the Europa League final and Manchester City reach the FA Cup final.
BEST FIXTURES BETWEEN GAMEWEEKS 31-33
The above image is hopefully handy for FPL managers who are dead-ending their team into Gameweek 33, with a view to Wildcarding thereafter.
For a blend of quantity and quality of fixture, Burnley come out on top: they have more matches (five) and Double Gameweeks (two) than any other team over this period. These include meetings with 20th-place Norwich City, an Everton side with the league’s worst away record and a potentially ‘on the beach’ Southampton outfit who have lost their last four matches in all competitions. Whether the goal-shy Clarets are strong enough to take advantage of that run, of course, is another question.
Contrast this with Leeds United, Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers, who play only twice over the next three Gameweeks thanks to their Gameweek 33 postponements. Villa’s two matches, in particular, aren’t too enticing, given their record against the top eight sides this season.
Manchester United, out of all cup competitions at home and abroad, are one of three top-seven sides who are free to concentrate solely on league matches between now and the end of the season. They too face struggling Everton and Burnley, along with two clubs who have packed schedules over the coming two months, Leicester and Liverpool.
Arsenal assets are easy holds for those of us who went big on the Gunners for Blank Gameweek 30, as they have two decent fixtures (one of which is against the team on the joint-longest current losing run in the division, Brighton) before their Double Gameweek 33.
Newcastle United get to play three games in succession on Tyneside between Gameweeks 32 and 33, meanwhile.
West Ham United don’t have any confirmed ‘doubles’ to speak of but have three fixtures against clubs in the bottom half of the Premier League table – that’s as many as Arsenal, Burnley and Leicester City have in their own upcoming Gameweek 31-33 matches.
BEST FIXTURES *WITHOUT* GAMEWEEK 33
The images below may be useful for Gameweek 33 Free Hitters, as it eliminates that Gameweek from the equation.
The image above stops at Gameweek 35, as so much is unknown about what the Gameweeks will look like after that point.
For those managers playing their Free Hit in Gameweek 33, then Wolverhampton Wanderers assets suddenly look a lot more appealing as they face four sides all in the bottom half of the table.
The above image sorts clubs by fixture difficulty from Gameweeks 31-38 (excluding Gameweek 33) but only by the toughness/ease of fixture of those matches already confirmed in the schedule (ie none of the nine outstanding games).
We have, however, manually added the still-to-be-arranged fixtures in an additional end column.
The good news is that most of the clubs with another Double Gameweek to come after Gameweek 33 also have attractive-looking fixtures around it: the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Chelsea for example.
Long-term planners and Gameweek 33 Free Hitters probably want to overlook Newcastle United, Brentford and West Ham United with their free transfers, however.
What we haven’t looked at yet amongst this packed schedule is the spectre of rotation, which deputy editor Tom Freeman will tackle in a stand-alone article tomorrow.
2 years, 2 months agoTime to Wildcard or be patient?
No Kane/Son worries me and with some injuries/crap players.
Have WC, 1FH and BB left.
(1FT, 1.5 itb)
Ramsdale*
TAA*/Cancelo/Rudiger/Doherty
Salah/Saka/Coutinho/Kulusevski/Raphinha
Lacazette
Bench: Foster, Dawson, Antonio, Toney