A lot of this week’s attention and content has been focused on the high Free Hit usage for Gameweek 32, when Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Brighton and Hove Albion will all blank.
Yet over four million Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers have already used this chip, putting them in a tougher position to navigate a schedule that also has Double Gameweek 34, an anticipated Double Gameweek 37 and the recently-added Newcastle United v Brighton to Gameweek 36.
For that group, here is a list of the best team and players that will help during these upcoming weeks.
BLANKS AND DOUBLES
Using our Season Ticker, it’s possible to pinpoint the teams to aim for.
| Plays in GW32? | Number of GW33-38 fixtures | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | 9 | Brighton | |||
| NO | 8 | Man City | Man United | ||
| NO | 7 | Chelsea | |||
| YES | 7 | Liverpool | Newcastle | West Ham | Fulham |
| YES | 6 | Arsenal | Aston Villa | Bournemouth | Brentford |
| C Palace | Everton | Leeds | Leicester | ||
| N Forest | Southampton | Tottenham | Wolves |
Non-Free Hit managers are likely struggling to field 11 players and therefore don’t have the luxury of using this week’s free transfer on someone that blanks, so the sweet spot is to capture players from Liverpool, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Fulham.
The outstanding Brighton v Man City and Man United v Chelsea matches are expected to create a Double Gameweek 37, although the announcement hasn’t yet arrived.
LIVERPOOL
With an outstanding Saturday fixture at home to Nottingham Forest soon followed by Double Gameweek 34, we focused on Liverpool’s best assets earlier in the week. Free Hit or otherwise, grabbing Mohamed Salah (£12.9m) and possibly even Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.4m) should be deemed priorities, although other players mentioned like Cody Gakpo (£7.7m) and Diogo Jota (£8.7m) are medium-term rotation risks.
Monday’s heavy 6-1 win at Leeds United saw Salah score twice, ensuring he has a league-high expected goal involvement (xGI) of 5.78 over the last six outings. Then again, 1.58 of this number was for penalties – both of which he missed.
A pair of assists arrived from Alexander-Arnold’s new inverted full-back role. In a small sample size of two matches, he’s seemingly on fewer crosses but more touches from influential central positions.
The problem with getting a Liverpool defender like Alexander-Arnold or Andrew Robertson (£6.8m) is that, as a team, they’re the season’s third-worst for conceding big chances (88) and have allowed more shots on target than 20th-placed Southampton.
ABOVE: Most big chances conceded this season
As for other attacking options, the return of Luis Diaz (£7.8m) means that Jurgen Klopp has five options for three spots while Roberto Firmino (£8.0m) recovers from a muscle issue. One is Darwin Nunez (£8.7m), an explosive option with the best minutes-per-chance rate of all players with over 600 minutes.
That doesn’t bode well for Gakpo and Jota’s game time, even if last week’s double-digit hauls might keep them in Gameweek 32’s line-up.
NEWCASTLE
Initially, it’s a tough home fixture for the Magpies at home to Spurs but, beyond that, their final seven matches include four against the current bottom five – Everton (a), Southampton (h), Leeds (a) and Leicester City (h).
FPL mainstay Kieran Trippier (£6.2m) is fixture-proof, with a points total far ahead of all other defenders. He also sits top in his position for chances created (86), big chances created (19), crosses (302) and xGI (9.89).
You likely already have him, so there’s a temptation to get a second Newcastle defender for this run such as Sven Botman (£4.5m), even though they’ve only kept one clean sheet in ten matches.
Competition up front has recently brought the best out of Alexander Isak (£6.7m) and Callum Wilson (£6.9m). It’s not ideal for FPL, although the Swede probably has better odds of starting.
WEST HAM
Fighting relegation but in the Europa Conference League semi-finals, it’s hard to find appeal in West Ham fixtures after this trip to Bournemouth. And even that is tricky, given the Cherries’ recent form.
Only three teams have kept fewer clean sheets all season but their defence ranks sixth-best for expected goals conceded (39.07) and shots conceded inside the box (226). With an attacking set piece threat, Kurt Zouma (£4.4m) is the pick from the back.
Then it comes to Jarrod Bowen (£8.0m) with a return in three successive games, albeit nowhere near the impressiveness of his superb 12 goals and 17 assists of last season. The cheaper Said Benrahma (£5.5m) has started nine of West Ham’s last 11 and takes their penalties.
FULHAM
Seemingly set for the beach, mid-table Fulham ended their streak of four defeats by beating Everton 3-1 at Goodison Park.
It’s been forgotten lately just how great Andreas Pereira (£4.3m) has been for FPL – sitting as many people’s cheap fifth midfielder, yet he’s delivered three goals and ten assists. In fact, no player throughout FPL has had more goal attempts in their last six matches.
ABOVE: Most goal attempts in the last six appearances
Two other midfield options, Willian (£5.5m) and Harry Wilson (£5.7m), impressed at Goodison Park, with Willian registering five shots and three chances and goalscorer Wilson delivering a man-of-the-match display.
Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.6m) is suspended until Gameweek 36, while Fulham’s strong defensive run from the festive restart has completely died down.
MORE NON-BLANK PLAYERS WITH GOOD FIXTURES
Rejuvenated during the returning Roy Hodgson’s three matches, Crystal Palace have both the form and fixtures to provide great bargains – especially in midfield.
Whilst Odsonne Edouard (£5.0m) has been chosen up front each time, there’s a battle for FPL attention taking place between Michael Olise (£5.5m), Eberechi Eze (£5.6m) and Jordan Ayew (£5.2m).
The trio have contributed five goals and five assists during these three wins, each with a different strength. Eze has more attempts (9) and shots on target (6), Ayew is ahead for touches (19) and shots (6) inside the penalty area whilst Olise creates more chances (10).
It could be Ayew’s place at threat once Wilfried Zaha (£7.2m) returns from injury but, then again, why rush to change something that’s working so well?
For Leicester, it’s purely fixture-based, as being winless in nine matches has caused a freefall into the relegation zone. Visiting Man City in his first match isn’t a fair way to judge new manager Dean Smith, so it remains to be seen if James Maddison (£8.1m) can return to the form of last autumn.
Should Smith stick with a wing-back system, perhaps attack-minded Timothy Castagne (£4.3m) also becomes a viable option.
Above: Attacking stats from the last four Gameweeks
Finally, what a job Gary O’Neil is doing at Bournemouth. Four wins from six have put them in 14th place, with the strong recent underlying stats of Dominic Solanke (£5.6m) paying off at Spurs last weekend. He bagged one goal, two assists and 15 points, boosting his capabilities as an enabler for FPL managers that need to downgrade a forward before spending that money elsewhere.
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