Here, we run through some of the pros and cons of using your Wildcard in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 22 rather than waiting until later in the campaign, and offer a few different draft ideas.
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WHY WILDCARD NOW?
REFRESH YOUR SQUAD
Aaand breathe. The crazy festive period is over, but has your FPL team managed to emerge unscathed? Chances are, it hasn’t – at least not entirely.
Whether it be Antoine Semenyo’s (£7.6m) move to Manchester City (potentially making him a far less appealing [read: nailed-on] pick on paper), injuries to the likes of Josko Gvardiol (£6.0m), Hugo Ekitike (£8.9m) and Yankuba Minteh (£5.9m) or a new suspension like that suffered by Michael Keane (£4.8m), there may be plenty of colourful flags cropping up around your squad like something resembling an unwelcome late Christmas tree.
Wildcarding now enables you to fix all of those issues while also refreshing the rest of your XV to ensure you’re ready to charge into the rest of the campaign with a full-strength group.
REACT TO FIXTURE SWINGS
A Gameweek 22 Wildcard also allows you to get ahead of upcoming fixture swings.
Glancing at our trusty Season Ticker, we can see that Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth (in that order) are top for ease of fixtures over the next six rounds.
Backing some assets from those clubs could therefore be a clever move, although it’s worth noting that each of them has struggled to string wins together recently.
CATCH PRICE CHANGES
There’s an age until the next deadline, relative to the congested festive fixture flurry of recent weeks.
That means there’s also plenty of time for price changes, which have been happening at a blisteringly fast rate this season.
If you were to Wildcard well in advance of the Gameweek 22 deadline, you could therefore build or at least maintain team value by buying and selling players in accordance with this market activity, particularly when it comes to those that may be set to rise in price multiple times.
MANAGER CHANGES (THE POSITIVE)
There are also potential positives to some of the managerial changes we’ve seen happen since the turn of the year.
For example, could Liam Rosenior’s arrival at Chelsea help the Blues get out of their festive rut and reinvigorate some of their FPL assets?
At Old Trafford, meanwhile, we don’t yet know who the next full-time Manchester United manager will be but there were some signs of a corner being turned under current interim boss Darren Fletcher. As the Red Devils welcome several stars back, they too could feature more heavily in our FPL thoughts.
WHY SAVE THE WILDCARD?
MANAGER CHANGES (THE NEGATIVE)
To start with the inverse argument involving managerial changes, we can predict what Rosenior will do at Chelsea with the squad he has available and his own background, but we won’t know for sure until we’ve seen his side in action a few times.
Rosenoir will be in the dugout against Charlton Athletic in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday, as well as in the midweek Carabao Cup clash against Arsenal, but the earliest that will happen in the Premier League is Gameweek 22.
It’s a similar story with United, who may well continue to line up in different ways under whichever manager is brought in until the end of the season (or permanently, if the Red Devils decide they find the right person prior to the summer). They’ll also be having more and more players returning to the first team squad in the coming weeks, which – combined with any January signings – could cause more gametime uncertainty.
Lots of questions and few answers yet, but we may receive some by waiting a few more weeks before Wildcarding.
ACTIVE TRANSFER MARKET + STAGGERED AFCON RETURNS
A similar point can be made regarding the fact that we’re in the midst of an active transfer window as well as the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
AFCON players like Mohamed Salah (£14.0m), Bryan Mbeumo (£8.1m), Omar Marmoush (£8.3m) and Ismaila Sarr (£6.4m) may not return for another couple of weeks yet, depending on how far their country goes at the tournament, but whenever they do it will inevitably cause more uncertainty than there is right now regarding who starts where, and how many minutes certain rotation-prone players receive in each game.
The same will be true when it comes to any new signings at Premier League teams through the February 2nd transfer deadline day. Semenyo, for example, will surely be less of a 90-minute man at City than he has been at Bournemouth, but he will still take gametime away from Pep Guardiola’s existing players.
Other clubs will inevitably bring in new players that shake up the established pecking orders as well, while any surprise departures this month would leave you shaking your head in dismay if you happen to have brought that player in on a Wildcard a week or two prior.
BETTER FIXTURE SWINGS TO COME?
Chelsea’s fixture swing is even stronger from Gameweek 24-27 than it is from Gameweek 22 onwards, and filtering the Season Ticker to start at Gameweek 24 reveals that to be a nice-looking entry point for a few more clubs, too.
For example, should you wait until Gameweek 24 to Wildcard, you would dodge less appealing immediate fixtures for the likes of Bournemouth (bha/LIV), Crystal Palace (sun/CHE) and in particular United (MCI/ars) and instead be faced with even better ones for all of the above:
DGW/BGW AND OPTIMUM CHIP TIMINGS STILL UNCERTAIN
Plus, while we’re able to estimate when we might face Double Gameweeks and Blank Gameweeks in the back-end of this season, we still won’t know these things for sure until more action has happened in the various cup competitions.
You can therefore chance your luck at backing teams who may end up with a Double Gameweek by appearing in the Carabao Cup final, for example, such as Arsenal, City, Chelsea or Newcastle, or wait to find out for certain who will be there before Wildcarding.
Wildcards can also be useful when used in combination with other FPL chips, like directly before or after a Bench Boost, and there’s a strong likelihood that many managers will be saving their second one of those for one of the aforementioned future doubles.
How well will you be able to navigate the blanks/doubles ahead without one?
GAMEWEEK 22 WILDCARD DRAFTS
DRAFT 1: SOLE STRIKER
Robin Roefs (£4.9m) plus Martin Dubravka (£4.0m) is the chosen goalkeeper pairing here, while Matty Cash (£4.8m) and Marcos Senesi (£4.8m) also get the nod in the backline alongside Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.7m).
Jurrien Timber (£6.3m) joins them given his own attacking threat and membership of the league’s best defence, and so too does three-goal centre-back Trevoh Chalobah (£5.5m), provided he remains an integral part of Chelsea’s defence under Rosenior ahead of the Blues’ appealing fixture run.
In midfield, that last point also earns Enzo Fernandez (£6.4m) a spot.
Elsewhere, Harry Wilson (£5.8m) is joined in the middle of the park by Phil Foden (£8.7m), whose price is dropping again following five straight blanks but who also grabbed a double-digit haul in the last Manchester derby and is up against a United side in flux that have rarely managed a clean sheet against anyone recently, let alone City. After that, it’s Wolves at home, followed by a trip to leaky Spurs.
Declan Rice (£7.3m) is selected over Bukayo Saka (£10.2m) for the sake of keeping some cash tucked away for flexibility. Completing the midfield, meanwhile, is Morgan Rogers (£7.6m). The Villa star has quietened down in terms of output recently after his prolific December, registering just one assist in his last four games, but he remains dangerous and a key cog in Unai Emery’s title-challenging machine.
That brings us nicely to the frontline, where Erling Haaland (£15.1m) is the sole starter at present. However, a glance at the bench reveals that’s because we suddenly have two viable budget-friendly forwards!
The first of those, Bournemouth’s Eli Kroupi Junior (£4.6m), is no new commodity – he has seven Premier League goals already in less than 600 minutes this term, including two in his two most recent outings – but his gametime could be about to spike following the departure of Semenyo. With the Cherries’ upcoming fixtures, that’s a recipe for a potential bargain enabler if it happens.
Then there’s Mateus Mane (£4.5m). Wolves, despite suddenly being unbeaten in three games, may still be destined for the drop. Still, a few bright cameos for this 18-year-old forward led to his first Premier League start in Gameweek 18, and he hasn’t left Rob Edwards’ XI since, going on to bag two goals and an assist in his last two appearances. The fixtures aren’t great, but you can’t complain about the price, and what the savings Mane and/or Kroupi Jr offer(s) to enable bigger spending elsewhere.
DRAFT 2: TWO UP TOP
What about a two-man frontline? On current form, you’d have to say that it’s Brentford striker Igor Thiago (£7.1m) who deserves to be up there with Haaland. The Bees’ frontman is already on 16 Premier League goals in 2025/26.
There are plenty of other forwards who appeal for various reasons and to varying degrees, but we’ll discuss some of those in Draft 3. For now, this midfield is built around Saka, who has an impressive seven assists (plus a goal) in his last nine appearances, and Bruno Fernandes (£9.1m), who was instantly back amongst the points on his return to United’s starting XI last time out and has some good upcoming fixtures.
Elsewhere, Newcastle’s Bruno Guimaraes (£7.2m) just keeps finding ways to return FPL points, notching his third successive double-digit haul last time out via his eighth goal, fifth assist and 18th bonus point of the campaign.
At the back, Gabriel is joined this time by a few new faces just to show the range of defensive options available to us. Among them are Brentford captain Nathan Collins (£5.0m), who has finally started adding some of last season’s attacking threat (he has a goal and two assists in his last two games) to this one’s defensive contribution (DefCon) abilities, as well as Everton’s own DefCon monster James Tarkowski (£5.7m) and Brighton’s Ferdi Kadıoğlu (£4.4m), a natural left-back who is capable of filling in on the wing, as he did in Gameweek 21.
We’ve spoken about Palace’s decent medium-term run of upcoming games, but didn’t include any of their defensive troops in our first draft – that’s rectified here. The relentlessly attacking Daniel Munoz (£5.8m) should be back from his knee injury soon so could be more of an option for future Wildcarders, while there’s some uncertainty over whether skipper Marc Guehi (£5.3m) will still be at Selhurst Park come February 3rd given the club may want to cash in one in the in-demand England international while they can. For those reasons, goalkeeper Dean Henderson (£5.1m) offers an alternative route into the Eagles’ backline for those who may prefer other defenders to Maxence Lacroix (£5.1m).
DRAFT 3: BIG AT THE FRONT
Or, how about three forwards? This is where it gets tricky, because if you back Haaland and Thiago that leaves just a single spot for one of Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m), Raul Jimenez (£6.2m), Ollie Watkins (£8.7m) or Ekitike, and there could soon be more options than those to choose from – especially when you factor in Kroupi Jr and Mane.
Ekitike may have struggled with a hamstring injury in these last couple of weeks, but the time off before Gameweek 22 commences could see him passed fit to start against Burnley, who are without a win in 12 games and have only one clean sheet in that time.
In midfield, Marcus Tavernier (£5.5m) is another with some dead-ball duties, and his importance to Bournemouth could be about to increase in light of Semenyo’s departure; he may even take penalties now!
At the back, Nordi Mukiele (£4.4m) has bagged DefCon points in four straight games, meaning he has met that threshold 10 times overall this season, alongside his goal and two assists. The Black Cats have three great games starting in Gameweek 22, but DefCon means Mukiele’s points ‘floor’ should never be too low even in the tougher fixtures after that.
