Gameweek 32 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) was the week of the Wildcard.
The Bench Boost was then very popular in Gameweek 33.
And, in Gameweek 34, Free Hits were flying, left, right and centre.
Now we reach Gameweek 35, and we’ve come full circle.
In our weekly user poll, over 30% of responders say they are planning to Wildcard in Gameweek 35. That makes it the most popular chip of the week, for those intending to use one.
So, in this article, it’s time to look at a few Gameweek 35 Wildcard drafts! These have been put together on the condition that Man City and Crystal Palace get a Double Gameweek 36. If anything else happens (ie City and Bournemouth getting a ‘double’ in Gameweek 36 instead), we’ll make the necessary edits.
We’ll follow this up with another article comparing the relative merits of a Gameweek 35 v 36 Wildcard.
GAMEWEEK 35 WILDCARD – DRAFT 1 (NO BENCH BOOST)
With no Bench Boost to plan around, we can go heavy on low-cost Leeds picks this week. The Whites face relegated Burnley at home, and still need points to mathematically secure safety.
James Justin‘s (£3.9m) inclusion is contingent on Gabriel Gudmundsson (£3.8m) being ruled out, as the versatile Justin is the only real cover for the injured Swede at left wing-back. Another low-cost Leeds defender is, of course, an option, with Pascal Struijk (£4.3m) probably about the safest centre-half at present.
With concerns over a weaker side being sent out in Gameweek 35, our Palace players can be benched this week and wheeled out for the Gameweek 36 ‘double’. There’s always the chance that rotation could strike then too, of course, but Oliver Glasner so far hasn’t really touched his defence, even around UEFA Conference League games:
Above: Palace’s five most recent matches
Do we want a third Palace player in there? We have to consider that a) there could be rotation in Gameweek 36, b) one of the games is against Man City and c) the fixtures around the double, including a final-day clash with Arsenal, aren’t great.
If desired, Ismaila Sarr (£6.3m) could take the place of Eberechi Eze (£7.2m) or Morgan Rogers (£7.5m) in this draft.
Speaking of whom, Rogers is in for the next two Gameweeks before being benched/shipped out (potentially for an Everton midfielder) in Gameweek 37/38. Eze’s inclusion is for an excellent-looking final four Gameweeks – if he’s fit, of course:
You can’t eliminate the rotation risk with Eze but, presently, he’s the Arsenal attacker most likely to conjure something up.
Harry Wilson (£6.0m), meanwhile, has a fine-looking last two fixtures, so we can park him on the bench this week.
Probably the uneasiest exclusions are those of Jarrod Bowen (£7.8m), who just keeps chipping away with points, and the in-form Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.6m). Their remaining fixtures aren’t straightforward, and Gibbs-White faces up to three Europa League ties in the run-in, but are we looking a gift horse in the mouth with the pair?
GAMEWEEK 35 WILDCARD – DRAFT 2 (GAMEWEEK 36 BENCH BOOST)
In Gameweek 36, you wouldn’t really be ‘boosting’ Palace and City assets. They’d be in your starting XI, regardless of whether you were playing a chip or not.
So, which single Gameweekers have the best fixtures in Gameweek 36?
Brighton and Aston Villa stand out, so we’ve added some assets from these two clubs with a Gameweek 36 Bench Boost in mind.
The Gameweek 36 Bench Boost squad would thus look like this:
*Double Gameweek 36 fixtures are yet to be added
Ollie Watkins (£8.8m) could then be sold for Bowen or Igor Thiago (£7.4m) after Gameweek 36, when Villa’s fixtures stiffen (and they could have a Europa League final in between Gameweek 37 and 38).
Again, a third Palace asset could easily be added (eg Chris Richards (£4.4m) in place of Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.6m)), if desired.
GAMEWEEK 35 WILDCARD – DRAFT 3 (GAMEWEEK 37 BENCH BOOST)
We’ve got five Double Gameweek 36 assets already in place in this Gameweek 35 draft.
So, once again, we’re looking at the stand-out single Gameweek fixtures in Gameweek 37 for inspiration:
An Arsenal triple-up is a given, and indeed features in all three of these Wildcard teams.
So, this time, we’re looking at ways to incorporate Everton and Fulham players.
We’ve included DefCon machines Michael Keane and Joachim Andersen (both £4.5m), as well as Wilson, as substitutes in our initial draft.
We could then use two transfers in Gameweek 37 to bring in further Fulham/Everton picks. We’ve gone with Jordan Pickford (£5.7m) and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5.1m) in this draft.
The good thing is that Everton and Fulham also have decent Gameweek 38 fixtures, against Spurs and Newcastle respectively. The hope is that they’ve still got something to play for by that point.
Here’s how a Gameweek 37 Bench Boost could look with those two booked-in aforementioned transfers:
*rearranged Gameweek 37 fixtures are yet to be added
It’s perhaps a weaker play, with a drawback being that a ‘boosted’ Palace defender faces one of our forwards, Thiago. A lot of money is tied up in two premium goalkeepers, too, while ‘booking in transfers’ can sometimes be a risky approach if any other problems come up in the interim.
