The injury to Bukayo Saka (£10.1m) – plus seeing Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Brighton and Hove Albion face each other – could tempt a few Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers into using a Gameweek 8 Free Hit.
While you can never be sure of FPL’s upcoming chaos, our Premium Members Area can help via the Rate My Team (RMT) tool.
Here, we use its points projections to build this week’s ideal Free Hit squad. One that fits within a £100.0m budget, with no more than three players per club.
WHAT IS A FREE HIT?
Each FPL team is provided with numerous chips to use throughout the season. The Free Hit can be activated once, at the manager’s choice, allowing them to form a squad for one Gameweek only.
- READ MORE: How do you use the Free Hit chip?
Afterwards, the squad will return to its regular line-up of players for the following Gameweek.
BEST GAMEWEEK 8 FREE HIT
Using RMT’s numbers and the brilliant PlanFPL website, the addition of four very cheap substitutes gives the below squad a value of £99.8m.
The starting line-up has five players in common with our Gameweek 8 Scout Picks bus team.
Furthermore, Erling Haaland (£15.4m) is recommended as this week’s captain, taking the projected Free Hit score to 60.77 points.
GK: Arijanet Muric (£4.4m)
Getting things underway is the first part of an Ipswich Town triple-up, as they prepare to host Everton. Muric is predicted to get fewer points than Ederson (£5.5m) and David Raya (£5.6m) but he costs over a million less, with funds tight in a line-up containing both Haaland and Mohamed Salah (£12.7m).
DEF: Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.2m)
An out-of-character Arsenal failed to keep clean sheets at home to either Leicester City or Southampton. Not only that, a tricky evening trip to Bournemouth is taking place on Saturday. Though it should be noted that Mikel Arteta’s side has successful shut-outs in three of four matches against the Cherries. And the goal threat of Gabriel is well-established.
DEF: Pedro Porro (£5.5m)
Another triple-up features Tottenham Hotspur, whose defence has been surprisingly ok so far. For example, they’ve conceded the second-fewest attempts (61).
What full-back Porro also gives is attacking potential. The defender with the most shots (12) encounters a leaky West Ham United backline on Saturday lunchtime.
DEF: Leif Davis (£4.5m)
Suggested as a good Ezri Konsa (£4.5m) replacement, we believe Davis is worth the extra half-million over team-mate Jacob Greaves (£4.0m).
Last season, he racked up an incredible 18 Championship assists from left-back and the 24-year-old is currently the best FPL defender for chances created (17) and big chances created (five)
Combine his league-leading 38 crosses with opponent Everton conceding the most right-sided ones (82) and Davis is suddenly an easy pick.
MID: Mohamed Salah (£12.6m)
Released early from international duty by Egypt, Salah’s four goals throughout 13 league meetings with Chelsea looks relatively poor.
However, the Blues will be without suspended defenders Marc Cucurella (£5.0m) and Wesley Fofana (£4.5m) at Anfield. His 6.80 projected points are far ahead of the next-best midfielders’ 5.19, justifying the high-value inclusion in this XI.
MID: James Maddison (£7.5m)
Joint with Bruno Fernandes (£8.2m) below Salah is the lower-priced Maddison, who RMT backs over his even cheaper in-form team-mate Brennan Johnson (£6.6m). That’s probably because the Welshman picked up a knock versus Iceland and was pulled off at half-time.
Maddison has accumulated eight shots inside the box during his latest three outings and will relish facing West Ham.
MID: Anthony Gordon (£7.3m)
It’s a slight shock seeing Newcastle attacker Gordon here, as the Magpies have to find a way past Brighton. Especially as his Gameweek 7 penalty miss is likely to remove one route to points.
But let’s remember that the majority of his 27 attacking returns of 2023/24 came at home and he could be played up front again, should Alexander Isak (£8.3m) remain absent.
MID: Eberechi Eze (£6.8m)
Another midfielder to have dropped £0.2m from his initial value is Eze. The blanks continue for him – just one return in seven matches for winless Crystal Palace, despite still ranking third for overall shots (27). On Monday night, they travel to face the solid defence of Nottingham Forest.
FOR: Erling Haaland (£15.4m)
Meanwhile, up front, the game’s most expensive player. One who has disappointed many recent managerial captaincies with successive blanks.
Yet Haaland receives the armband here because he remains the best for points (67), goals (10), attempts (35) and shots on target (23). He gets to have another go at last-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers – a side he scored four goals past in May, making it eight from four meetings.
FOR: Dominic Solanke (£7.6m)
Joining him is the forward spearheading a Spurs team with good attacking numbers. He’s brought in a steady stream of returns in the last three matches, being the league leader for big chances (seven) in that time.
In fact, Solanke sits joint-fifth for them overall despite playing in just two of the other four Gameweeks.
FOR: Liam Delap (£5.6m)
Finally, completing the 3-4-3 is someone with three goals from Gameweeks 6 and 7. Delap has scored four of newly-promoted Ipswich’s six so far. Cheap and with a great home fixture for this weekend, he costs £3.5m less than the marginally better Watkins projection.
