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Pens down! The Fantasy Premier League (FPL) deadline has passed and now you’re left twiddling your thumbs.

So why not fill the next 90 minutes or so by trying SPITCH, where you effectively have a Free Hit chip to play every week and are only judged on your best five matchdays a season.

The deadline is at kick-off, too, so you can digest the teamsheets from the lunchtime fixture.

READ MORE: Southampton v Man Utd team news – Ronaldo benched

And that means that one or several weeks of accidentally forgetting to play isn’t the disaster it is in FPL – you can even start in April and win big.

There are two season-long options for the 2022/23 campaign, one of which is free and has a £2,500 prize pool.

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HOW TO PLAY SPITCH

SPITCH is a platform where managers can use their football knowledge to defeat others and win money prizes.

As with FPL, managers commit to a formation and have a budget to buy players for their line-up, in the quest to score points and win prizes.

But unlike FPL, managers can actually go under or over their budget – this will determine how many positive or negative points they begin the round with.

Each week of ‘Season’ mode requires a new line-up with no captains. Managers are allowed up to nine players from the same club and can alter teams mid-matchday. ‘Safety Net’ automatically replaces non-starters, whilst a sophisticated scoring system rewards defensive actions in a way that FPL does not.

MATCHDAY 3 REVIEW

These were the top-scoring players of the weekend matches.

Meanwhile, 16 players finished with a negative score, including the three Leicester City forwards Jamie Vardy (-14), Kelechi Iheanacho (-40) and Patson Daka (-46).

SCOUT’S MATCHDAY 4 LINE-UP

The selection for Matchday 3 totalled 2,399 points, which ranked at 3,574th place.

Unfortunately, those negative Vardy points were part of our picks. The week total already began on -19 points, as SPITCH allows managers to go over budget with this proviso.

High-scoring Dean Henderson (418) and Ivan Toney (364) were thankfully included but Dejan Kulusevski (39) disappointed.

This time we’ll be slightly under the ₵1,200 budget and take advantage of some bargain price tags that remain locked until mid-season.

Aaron Ramsdale (₵42) covers the Arsenal defence at home to Fulham, as the Gunners will expect a clean sheet despite the visitors having the league’s second-best expected goals (xG) total so far. The goalkeeper will have saves to make.

The 3-3-4 formation includes attacking defensive threats Kieran Trippier (₵67), Joao Cancelo (₵175) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (₵150). Although the latter has had a poor start to the season, a home clash with Bournemouth is the perfect way to respond.

Newcastle United full-back Trippier is one of a handful of players to have scored at least six points in every FPL match so far, thanks to two clean sheets and netting a free-kick against Manchester City.

In midfield, Mason Mount (₵128) is backed in a similar way to Alexander-Arnold. His zero returns and expected goal involvement (xGI) of just 0.83 has let FPL owners down but he now gets to play leaky Leicester.

In-form duo Pascal Gross (₵85) and Rodrigo (₵66) face off on the south coast, with the latter currently the highest-scoring player in the game with 1,305 points. His four goals and 35 FPL points are a phenomenal return from the opening three outings.

As mentioned with their earlier colleagues, Mohamed Salah (₵250) and Martin Odegaard (₵72) have enticing home fixtures versus newly-promoted sides, whilst Brentford’s Ivan Toney (₵100) gets to host Everton on the back of four attacking returns.

The final forward is Che Adams (₵62) – a cheap player who has just scored twice in a cameo appearance at Leicester to bag 508 points.

JOIN THE FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT COMMUNITY ON SPITCH

You can join other Fantasy Football Scout users in our community on Spitch here.

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