In our weekly chip poll, around 7% of users say they are planning to use their Bench Boost in Gameweek 5.
That’s roughly as many as said they were doing so in the previous three Gameweeks combined.
Having had a wider look at chip strategy last week, here we focus specifically on the Bench Boost and ask: is now the time to hit ‘play’?
Many of those intending to use the Bench Boost will no doubt have already made their mind up, and have tailored their squads accordingly.
But for those on the fence, we look at the considerations.
PROMOTED TRIO FACING TEAMS IN TURMOIL OR TRANSITION
Many of our squads will contain one, two or maybe three £4.0m goalkeepers and defenders. It’s usually these type of players, ie the bench fodder, that we ‘boost’ when using the chip.
It’s fair to assume most of these £4.0m picks will play for Burnley, Leeds United or Sunderland:
Above: The seven most-owned £4.0m-and-under players all play for a newly promoted club, the top six of whom should start in Gameweek 5
And all of them have decent-ish fixtures in Gameweek 5 – which is not something we thought we’d be saying at the start of 2025/26.
Leeds United travel to a bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers, who could potentially be again blunted by the absence of Jorgen Strand Larsen (£6.4m).
Sunderland meanwhile host Aston Villa, who have flopped badly in the opening four Gameweeks. They are the only side yet to score a Premier League goal.
And finally, Burnley host a Nottingham Forest side in a state of transition following the recent managerial change.
They’re not all outstanding fixtures, but matches that nevertheless look less daunting than they did a month ago.
A RARE CHANCE TO PLAY DARLOW
If you’re one of the circa 280,000 managers who owns Karl Darlow (£4.0m), you might have a very narrow window in which to field him.
Darlow started the season off playing second fiddle behind Lucas Perri (£4.5m) but an injury to the Brazilian has presented his understudy with a chance to impress – even if it’s only a brief chance.
Just a mention for Karl Darlow
First PL game in nearly four years and pulls off two worldies
Clung to the ball superbly and came off his line well all game
Not gonna usurp Perri but Farke saying there’s less of a need to rush Perri back was a compliment he deserved #lufc
— Isaac Johnson (@isaacjohnsonLL) September 13, 2025
It’s not just the minutes but a decent clean sheet chance, too, with Wolves struggling in attack.
CLEAN SHEETS ARE UP – STRIKE WHILE THE IRON’S HOT?
Sunderland, Burnley and Leeds have combined for five clean sheets already this season, and we’re only in mid-September. Last year’s rabble got eight in the entirety of 2024/25!
It may not always be the case that the new boys are looking so solid. Leeds and Burnley are largely injury-free at the back, for instance, and a key future lay-off or two could weaken them defensively.
Division-wide, clean sheets are up. We’ve already had over 20% of the shut-outs we saw in the entirety of 2023/24. Again, this might be a blip – something we’ll look at in a follow-up piece – but why not ride the crest of a wave by Bench Boosting your budget defenders now?
MIXED WEEK FOR BOOSTING CHEAP ATTACKERS
Anton Stach (£5.0m) – the only FPL midfielder to hit double figures for both shots and chances created this season! – and Elliot Anderson (£5.5m) have very decent fixtures this week, so if either of these two is your ‘eighth attacker’, then they’re very boostable. Josh King (£4.5m), providing he keeps his place, has Brentford at home.
It’s not so good if you count the likes of Tijjani Reijnders (£5.7m) and Kiernan Dewsbury–Hall (£5.0m) among your ranks. One encounters the mean defence of Arsenal, the other is away at Liverpool.
And then there’s Marc Guiu (£4.4m). By now, we would had envisaged him challenging for a start in the Sunderland XI or at least getting decent minutes off the bench. But one loan recall later and, despite the injuries at Chelsea, he’s not even making his parent club’s Premier League matchday squad. He was an unused substitute in the Champions League on Wednesday.
If Guiu is your third forward, it goes without saying that it’s far from ideal to Bench Boost him given that he may not make it onto the field at Old Trafford on Saturday night.
GAMEWEEK 5 BENCH BOOST V OTHER WEEKS
Looking at other possible windows in which the Bench Boost could be used, we’ve isolated the fixtures of Burnley, Leeds and Sunderland above.
Gameweek 8 immediately leaps out. Burnley and Leeds play each other, with Sunderland hosting bottom-of-the-table Wolves. Gameweek 9 is also decent for Burnley and Leeds, if not the Black Cats.
Again, in both those Gameweeks, it’s a mixed bag for some of the more popular budget midfielders/forwards. Dewsbury-Hall has it tough against Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Anderson has Chelsea and Bournemouth. King encounters Newcastle and Arsenal.
It’s at least better for Stach and Reijnders, the latter of whom has Everton and Aston Villa. Guiu faces Forest and Sunderland, meanwhile, and by then we might have a better idea of how many minutes he’s going to get for Chelsea – or if he’s a definite ‘sell’.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So, to sum up, Gameweek 5 looks like a decent time for a Bench Boost if you’ve got:
- Dubravka or, especially so, Darlow as your second ‘keeper
- One or two cheap defenders from the promoted clubs
- No Guiu
- Anderson, Stach and/or King as benched attackers, with the caveat that the latter’s minutes aren’t completely secure
One question you’d have to ask yourself is: if I wasn’t playing a Bench Boost, would I start these players anyway? Man City face Arsenal in Gameweek 5, so you might entertain the notion of starting Anderson regardless and benching, say, someone like Eberechi Eze (£7.5m). Is this a week when you’d start Joe Rodon (£4.0m) over Riccardo Calafiori (£5.7m) in normal, chip-less circumstances? The decision to make is then whether Arsenal assets are ‘boostable’.
It’s all very squad dependent, of course.
We’d probably favour Gameweek 8 given a blank canvas, just as the promoted trio’s fixtures are superior in that week. It may be accompanied by a Gameweek 6/7 Wildcard, which could be used to tap into fixture swings for Arsenal et al and get rid of dead wood like Guiu. If his expected minutes are still strong, Lyle Foster (£5.0m) has a strong Gameweek 8 fixture and could be a decent Guiu alternative. Darlow, of course, may not be starting by then.
The downside to Gameweek 8/9 is that it’s still a month away and the FPL landscape may look somewhat different by then. Will Leeds and Sunderland still be looking as stubborn by that point? That’s the risk we take of holding the chip till mid-October.
