FPL in 5 minutes: All you need to know about Gameweek 18

If you’re in a rush and need some last-minute Fantasy Premier League (FPL) advice, here’s a quick round-up of what you need to know about Gameweek 18.

• READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 18 tips: Best players, predicted line-ups, team news + more

WHEN’S THE FPL GAMEWEEK 18 DEADLINE?

All transfers and team selections need to be done by 11:00 GMT on Thursday 26 December.

SAKA REPLACEMENTS

Bukayo Saka (£10.4m) will be out for “many weeks” – so Tom Freeman offered up plenty of suggestions as to who the best replacement is.

Lateriser also supplied his own opinion on who his favoured Saka stand-ins are, while Zophar tackled the subject in his weekly Q&A.

WILL CUNHA PLAY?

Matheus Cunha (£7.1m) is, so far as we know, available to play on Boxing Day. The Football Association charge has yet to turn into a ban.

However, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ fixtures are turning for the worse soon anyway.

Pras discussed the ‘keep or sell’ dilemma in his latest article, as well as identifying a few potential replacements.

ANY LATE TEAM NEWS?

There wasn’t much late team news on Christmas Day.

Arne Slot’s press conference finally dropped, with the Liverpool boss revealing that Ibrahima Konate (£5.1m) and Conor Bradley (£4.7m) remained out and that Federico Chiesa (£6.8m) has recently been battling illness.

Ange Postecoglou also revealed that Ben Davies (£4.3m) was back in training but that Gameweek 18 would probably come too soon.

For the rest of the team news for the upcoming Gameweek, check out our round-ups below:

• FPL Gameweek 18 team news: Xmas Eve’s live injury updates
• FPL Gameweek 18 team news: Monday’s live updates, Saka latest

CHAOTIC CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE

In terms of tight festive turnarounds, we’ve already discovered that certain teams have it better than others.

Whether it’s due to age, injury history or being part of a big squad, notable names like Nicolas Jackson (£8.3m), Pedro Porro (£5.5m) and others could see themselves benched in Gameweek 18 or 19.

BEST FPL GAMEWEEK 18 CAPTAIN

Mohamed Salah (£13.5m) is, unsurprisingly, the recommended armband recipient of both Captain Sensible and our Rate My Team (RMT) algorithm.

The Egyptian is the runaway winner of our on-site captain poll, too.

SCOUT PICKS + DIFFERENTIALS

Our weekly selection – which is essentially a Free Hit in all but name – goes big on Liverpool and Arsenal.

Gabriel Martinelli (£6.7m) is one of Tom Freeman’s three Gameweek 18 differentials, too.

PREDICTED LINE-UPS

We’ve predicted the starting XIs of all 20 Premier League teams.

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