Four teams provide us with a pair of fixtures this week: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Manchester City.
Our Scout Picks XI contains nine ‘doublers’, with Liverpool and West Ham United both supplying us with a player apiece.
We deliberated over the Scout Squad submissions made by Marc, Sam, Tom J and Tom F before coming up with our final team.
As ever, we are limited by certain restrictions:
- An £83.0m budget for our starting XI
- An overall squad limit of £100.0m
- No more than three players per team
GAMEWEEK 33 SCOUT PICKS
GOALKEEPER
Arsenal’s pair of matches against Ipswich Town and Palace earn David Raya (£5.6m) the goalkeeper’s jersey.
The Gunners have chalked up four clean sheets across their last 10 games, conceding fewer goals than any other side (six).
Ipswich, meanwhile, are one of the lowest scorers in the division and have lost six in a row on home turf. Then it’s Palace, who have suffered back-to-back defeats.
A guaranteed starter, which is more than can be said for much of the Arsenal team, Raya was a unanimous pick among our Scout Squad panel.
DEFENDERS
Four clean sheets in the last seven bodes well for Josko Gvardiol’s (£6.2m) prospects.
Recent run-outs at centre-half, rather than as an attacking left-back, may have curtailed his attacking instincts, but security of starts is firmly in Gvardiol’s favour amid the rotation elsewhere.
City travel to Everton before entertaining Villa at the Etihad in Double Gameweek 33.
Palace may have struggled defensively in Double Gameweek 32, but we’re keeping faith in Daniel Munoz (£5.3m) for the upcoming encounters against Bournemouth and Arsenal.
The Cherries have won just once in seven matches, providing a good opportunity for Palace to get back on track after two heavy defeats.
And with four goals and five assists to his name this season, the raiding wing-back still looks the likeliest source of points at both ends of the pitch for Oliver Glasner’s side.
We’ve opted to double up on Arsenal’s backline and call upon Jakub Kiwior (£4.8m) for our three-man defence.
The Polish international was lavished with praise by his manager ahead of Gameweek 32 and a clean sheet at Portman Road seems feasible: Ipswich are the third-worst attacking team in the top-flight according to expected goals (xG).
‘Bus Team’ pick William Saliba (£6.5m) was simply overlooked for budgetary reasons, meanwhile.
MIDFIELDERS
Mohamed Salah (£13.8m) is a nailed-on option for Liverpool’s visit to Leicester City.
The Egyptian, who has delivered 12 double-digit returns in 16 away starts in 2024/25, betters every other player for shots in the box, penalty box touches and big chances created this season.
Up against a defence that has shipped 23 goals in the previous eight Gameweeks, Salah remains one of the best captaincy options this week, despite only playing once.
Bukayo Saka (£10.5m) has been eased back in since returning from injury, coming off the bench in each of Arsenal’s last three Premier League games.
One of those substitute appearances resulted in a goal, however, while he was also on the scoresheet against Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Saka’s minutes might be managed in this ‘double’, of course, but we still expect him to play a prominent role, making him an obvious choice for the Scout Picks.
Prior to injury, Saka had scored five goals and provided 11 assists in 16 starts.
There’s no doubt Jarrod Bowen (£7.5m) will be key to West Ham’s hopes of getting the better of relegated Southampton this weekend.
The England winger has scored or assisted in five of his nine matches since returning from injury.
Bowen scored in his last home clash, too, racking up four shots and six penalty box touches, so he looks primed for points against one of the worst teams in Premier League history.
Despite that penalty miss, Eberechi Eze (£6.9m) has produced 15 points across his previous three appearances.
In addition, the England international has attempted more shots and created more chances than any other team-mate this season, and looks pivotal to Palace’s prospects in Double Gameweek 33.
Bournemouth, who Palace host on Saturday, may have kept a clean sheet last time out, but rode their luck several times against Fulham. It was their first shut-out since Gameweek 23, too.
Morgan Rogers (£5.7m) looks to be the safest Aston Villa attacker to own in Double Gameweek 33, having survived Unai Emery’s rotation against both Nottingham Forest and Southampton, as well as starting twice against Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League.
In fact, Rogers, who has picked up two goals and three assists in his last five outings, is yet to be benched in a Premier League game this season.
His underlying stats catch the eye, with a total of seven big chance involvements in the last six Gameweeks.
FORWARDS
Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.8m) is slightly fortunate to retain his place in the Scout Picks, having served up just two points across his two matches in Double Gameweek 32, after failing to reach the hour mark in either fixture.
The Palace forward has earned enough goodwill from his nine goals in 2025, however, the joint-most of any FPL forward.
Oliver Glasner has also confirmed that Mateta will start against Bournemouth this weekend.
Omar Marmoush (£7.6m), who is one of the standout captaincy contenders this week, takes the final spot.
The former Eintracht Frankfurt man’s run of six goals, one assist and 10 bonus in his last eight appearances make him an enticing option as Man City attempt to secure UEFA Champions League qualification.
Marmoush has thrown up some solid underlying stats since he first arrived in January, with the second-highest expected goal involvement (xGI) among team-mates. There is a decent chance he’ll be on penalties, too.
SUBSTITUTES
- Alphonse Areola (£4.2m): West Ham face the division’s lowest scorers in Gameweek 33.
- Conor Bradley (£4.7m): Leicester hadn’t scored in eight league matches before last week’s unexpected draw at Brighton. With Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m) not ready to start, we can expect Bradley to get 60-70 minutes before his nearly-fit-again positional rival comes off the bench.
- Emmanuel Agbadou (£4.0m): With only £4.0m to spend on our second substitute defender, we’ve opted for Wolves’ influential stopper ahead of a clash with a Manchester United side taken to extra time on Thursday. Ruben Amorim has already hinted he will rotate for Sunday’s fixture.
- Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.4m): One of FPL’s form forwards has five goals in his last four outings and will be coming up against a United side whose priorities lie elsewhere than the Premier League.
THE CAPTAIN
We chose the Scout Picks captain using a vote between our Scout Squad panel.
- Marc: Marmoush, Saka, Salah
- Tom J: Marmoush, Salah, Saka
- Tom: Saka, Marmoush, Salah
- Neale: Saka, Marmoush, Salah
We’re handing Omar Marmoush the armband this week, with Bukayo Saka named as the vice-captain.
COMMUNITY CHAMPION
A Fantasy Football Scout community member takes on the Scout Picks each week.
The community member who beats our team by the largest margin will win a £100 Amazon voucher. They’ll also get a place in our Moderators and Contributors League for the following season.
Boleyn Boy’s 80-44 victory in Gameweek 6 gave them the biggest win (36-point difference) of 2024/25 so far.
Our champion this week is FPL Xylophone, who has gone for: Ortega; Saliba, Bradley, van Dijk; De Bruyne, Bowen, Salah (c), Rashford, Merino; Marmoush (vc), Mateta.
The Scout Picks are 19-10 up on the community this season.
FOLLOW THE SCOUT’S WEEKLY TRANSFER PLANS
We’re running a Scout FPL community team this season, with regulars like TopMarx, Tom Freeman, Marc Jobling and more contributing to the weekly decisions.
And we’re not just looking one week ahead like we are with the Scout Picks but instead planning in advance for the weeks and months to come.
You can follow our team via the Premier Fantasy Tools Pro Planner, which you can read more about here.
