DRAFT 1: SCOUT PICKS BUS TEAM

Our first Gameweek 22 Free Hit draft may look familiar if you’ve been using our site to stay up to date with all of the domestic cup goings-on since Gameweek 21’s action concluded.

That’s because it’s the Gameweek 22 Scout Picks ‘Bus Team’! Fuller reasonings for these selections can be found here, but here’s a quick run-down.

Robin Roefs (£4.9m) remains FPL’s top-scoring goalkeeper, shot-stopping for a Sunderland team that has conceded fewer Premier League goals this term (seven) than all teams bar Arsenal and Manchester City. The Black Cats have seven clean sheets, too, with Roefs’ saves to thank for a few of those, are unbeaten at home and now face a Crystal Palace side that have been struggling in attack recently.

Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.7m) pretty much picks himself and is part of an Arsenal double-up alongside Bukayo Saka (£10.2m) – who has registered an attacking return in eight of the last 11 Gameweeks – ahead of the trip to Nottingham Forest.

There are three more defender-midfielder double-ups, two of them in the starting XI with Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk (£5.9m) and the improving Florian Wirtz (£8.2m) hosting (most likely) Championship-bound Burnley plus Aston Villa star Morgan Rogers (£7.7m) – back on the scoresheet in Saturday’s FA Cup win – and attack-minded backlinesman Matty Cash (£4.8m) up in their home fortress against an Everton side on the slide.

Kaoru Mitoma (£6.1m), meanwhile, is fit again, scoring again, and likely to be a key man for Brighton once again when they welcome leaky Bournemouth to the Amex, where the Seagulls have lost just once in 2025/26. His defensive teammate Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.5m) joins Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven (£4.6m) – facing a must-win home game against West Ham – and Wolves’ breakthrough budget forward Mateus Mane (£4.5m) on the bench alongside Marco Bizot (£4.2m), who has done well as Villa’s stand-in goalie when called upon.

Also given the nod are City frontman and league-leading goal-scorer Erling Haaland (£15.1m), who quite likes a Manchester derby, and key Chelsea man Enzo Fernandez (£6.4m), who could be shunted back into a No10 role if the Blues are able to welcome a few of his teammates back for their home London derby versus admittedly high-flying Brentford.

DRAFT 2: RMT XI

Moving on to our Free Hit Draft #2, this one represents the best possible XI that we could put together based on the Gameweek 22 points projections of the Rate My Team (RMT) tool available in our Members’ Area.

Saka – selected here instead of Cole Palmer (£10.4m) due to ongoing fitness concerns surrounding the Chelsea star – and Gabriel are made into an Arsenal triple-up with David Raya (£5.7m), as the best backline in the land are generally expected to keep out a relatively lacklustre Forest group.

The RMT tool expects Spurs’ attacking right-back Pedro Porro (£5.2m) and returning skipper Cristian Romero (£5.0m) to slightly outscore Van de Ven against the relegation-threatened Hammers, and also predicts Gameweek 21 goal-getter Mathys Tel (£6.2m) to continue his run of starts in Thomas Frank’s injury-hit team.

A third triple-up comes from Anfield, where Hugo Ekitike (£8.9m) – instantly back amongst the goals earlier this week – is projected to play a central role in any possible rout of Burnley; so too is Cody Gakpo (£7.3m), a differential to Wirtz in midfield, as well as Jeremie Frimpong (£5.7m), who has three assists in his last five league appearances to go with Monday’s FA Cup goal.

Haaland stays put, naturally, but our representation from Villa’s attacking ranks changes from Rogers to Ollie Watkins (£8.8m) based on the RMT tool’s suggestion.

To accommodate this fairly expensive squad, the bench would have to be a pretty cheap one. That doesn’t mean the likes of Newcastle utility man Lewis Miley (£4.5m) versus Wolves or Sunderland’s defensive contribution (DefCon) machine Nordi Mukiele (£4.4m) at home to vulnerable Palace are bad picks, mind.

DRAFT 3: A FEW DIFFERENTIALS

In Gameweek 22 Free Hit Draft #3, we’ve tried to put a few differential options in there alongside the usual suspects. 

However, this draft as it is leaves – depending on your own team value – a good £2 million or so to play with and use for whatever changes, reshuffles or upgrades you might see fit!

Xavi Simons (£6.5m) registered an assist for Spurs in their loss to Bournemouth and was then a bright spark in the FA Cup defeat against Villa, so he – likely to be Frank’s No10 again – could prove pivotal in securing three points at the expense of West Ham. 

Alejandro Garnacho (£6.4m) had an even better time in his most recent cup appearance, netting twice against Arsenal on Wednesday; is that enough for Liam Rosenior to hand the Argentine winger a starting spot this weekend?

Bruno Guimaraes (£7.2m) and Newcastle in general haven’t gotten much love from our Bus Team or the RMT tool, so we’ll give them some here. Upcoming opponents Wolves have shown signs of turning a corner recently but Guimaraes has been a talisman and FPL points machine of late, and the Magpies’ matches have been full of goals recently.

Declan Rice (£7.3m) is also proving to be a fantastic value-for-money FPL asset this season, with his multiple routes to points – including his role in set-pieces, which we all know Arsenal are ridiculously dominant at and which earned him another assist during the week – a strong selling point. He’s also averaging more points per start away from home (7.5/4.9) over the season so far than pricier teammate Saka.