The news that many of us were expecting was finally confirmed on Tuesday: Manchester City and Crystal Palace will both ‘double’ in Gameweek 36.
The two clubs’ meeting at the Etihad, postponed in Gameweek 31 due to City’s involvement in the EFL Cup final that same weekend, will now take place on Wednesday 13 May.
City and Palace are the only two teams playing twice in that Gameweek. In fact, it’s the last Double Gameweek of 2025/26.
Barring any weather-related postponements, we’ll also have no more Blank Gameweeks.
WHAT DOES DOUBLE GAMEWEEK 36 LOOK LIKE?
Here are the fixtures for Double Gameweek 36. The other 18 clubs all play once in this round:
It’s not a straightforward double for City, although both fixtures are at least at home.
The Cityzens also defeated Brentford (1-0) and Palace (3-0) without conceding in the reverse fixtures. Erling Haaland (£14.5m) scored three of those four goals, while Ruben Dias (£5.5m) – now currently injured – banked DefCon points in both games.
The combined expected goals (xG) tallies from those two games do imply that they were fortunate, however: it was 2.04-2.58 to the opposition!
As for Palace, they lost both of their reverse fixtures against Everton (1-2) and City (0-3). Again, though, the xG had them up at 3.41-2.28.
Daniel Munoz (£5.8m) netted the Eagles’ only goal across those two fixtures.
CHIP USE?
The Free Hits, Wildcards and Bench Boosts have been flying around in Double Gameweek 33 and Blank Gameweek 34 but Double Gameweek 36 could represent the last hurrah for those still holding a chip.
As mentioned in the intro, we’re not expecting any more ‘doubles’ or ‘blanks’ after Gameweek 36.
TRIPLE CAPTAIN
Those with the Triple Captain chip still in play will no doubt be flocking to Haaland, especially as the title race is very much alive and likely ensures a strong starting XI in both Gameweek 36 fixtures.
BENCH BOOST
As for Bench Boost, it’s essentially a week in which single Gameweekers will be ‘boosted’. Even if you’re going big on Palace and City players, you’d surely start them if you were only fielding an XI.
Brighton and Hove Albion, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur/Leeds United (depending on who you fancy for that clash!) have decent-to-excellent fixtures, so the likes of Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m), Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.6m), Matty Cash (£4.7m), Karl Darlow (£3.9m), Pascal Struijk (£4.3m) and Kevin Danso (£4.2m) are all possible names to consider.
Bear in mind that Villa will have been in European semi-final action less than 72 hours before their Gameweek 36 fixture, however. So too will Palace, so perhaps Everton picks like Michael Keane (£4.5m) and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5.1m) can catch them cold.
Here’s a ‘Bench Boost Gameweek 36’ side we put together in our Gameweek 35 Wildcard piece:
FREE HIT
In terms of a Free Hit, there’ll be plenty of time to tinker ahead of the Gameweek 36 deadline.
We’ll also be able to respond to developments in Europe that week, especially re Palace and Villa picks. A Palace attacker, if desired, could maybe be nailed down and replace one of the defenders closer to the time.
But at this early stage, are we looking at something close to this?
WHAT ABOUT THE GAMEWEEK 37 POSTPONEMENTS?
The Premier League fixtures clashing with the FA Cup final, Bournemouth v Manchester City and Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur, stay in Gameweek 37.
They’ll be contested on Tuesday 19 May.
Gameweek 37 will have a Friday deadline, with the first match featuring whichever club makes it to the Europa League final:
Friday 15 May
20:00 Aston Villa v Liverpool/Man Utd v Nott’m Forest
Sunday 17 May
12:30 Aston Villa v Liverpool/Man Utd v Nott’m Forest
15:00 Brentford v Crystal Palace
15:00 Everton v Sunderland
15:00 Leeds v Brighton
15:00 Wolves v Fulham
17:30 Newcastle v West Ham
Monday 18 May
20:00 Arsenal v Burnley
Tuesday 19 May
19:30 AFC Bournemouth v Man City
20:15 Chelsea v Spurs
