Still umming and ahhing over whether to use your Wildcard in Gameweek 3 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL)? Or are you still tinkering with the right balance of players after activating it?
If either of those applies, we’ll assess the pros and cons of deploying the chip ahead of Friday’s deadline, before providing a couple of draft ideas.
PROS
Jump on Man City
The most obvious reason: Manchester City are at home to winless, goalless Coventry City. A leaky Manchester United then follow, with visits of Sunderland and Ipswich Town also to come in the next five Gameweeks.
You may have started the season without Erling Haaland (£15.5m) in your side, or the short-term lure of Rayan Cherki (£7.7m) – whatever the longer-term reservations about game-time – may be too much to resist.
No team, in any other fixture from Gameweeks 1-6, are projected to score as many goals as City (2.81) this weekend.
The domino effect of the final summer transfers
This is the first Gameweek that takes place after the closure of the transfer window, and there was plenty to dissect on deadline day.
Iliman Ndiaye (£6.0m) to Manchester City, for example. A great move for the Senegalese winger on paper, but he may/will lose reliable-90-minute-man status, penalties and DefCon-amassing abilities in one fell swoop.
We’ve documented more of the FPL winners and losers on deadline day in this piece.
A quantum of Tzolis doubt + Konsa’s cut-price availability
A Gameweek 2 half-time withdrawal has put the willies up some Christos Tzolis (£6.5m) owners. He’s now the second-most-sold player of Gameweek 3.
Is it time to offload the Greek winger? It may be somewhat premature but there’s no question that his Gameweek 3 pitch-time now looks iffy, and who knows what lies beyond it.
In any case, a Gameweek 3 Wildcard can help you get your Arsenal house in order. Cristhian Mosquera (£5.5m) is now a rotation risk, as well as Tzolis.
On the flip side, we’re not likely to get a reliable £4.4m starter in the Arsenal defence any time again soon, so Ezri Konsa is shooting up in popularity now that he has his first minutes under his belt.
Pre-season reservations about the early-season game-time of Bukayo Saka (£9.5m) – due to his World Cup participation – have also been put to bed.
Post-Bench Boost redistribution of funds
If you played your Bench Boost in Gameweek 1 or 2, as 1.15 million Fantasy managers did, then you might want to redistribute your funds now that you don’t want, or even need, four playing substitutes.
You will likely have gone without a £4.0m goalkeeper in your initial squad, for instance, in order to have two starting shot-stoppers to ‘boost’. Now, especially if you’re setting and forgetting an option like David Raya (£6.0m) or Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m), you might be content to have your back-up goalkeeper be the cheapest possible option.
Similarly, if you’ve gone down the 4-4-2/3-5-2 route, there’s the option of just spending the least amount you possibly need (£4.5m) on a non-playing third forward. That frees up funds to be lavished on your starting XI, with perhaps just one or two reliable subs needed.
CONS
Still need to see new signings bed in
Waiting even another couple of Gameweeks would give FPL managers more evidence on reliability of minutes and tactical roles.
How will the arrival of Enzo Fernandez (£6.9m) and Ayyoub Bouaddi (£5.5m) impact Nico O’Reilly (£6.5m) and Josko Gvardiol (£5.6m), for example? Enzo Maresca has only used O’Reilly in a midfield role so far but with Enzo especially now aboard, is it going to be a straight fight between O’Reilly and Gvardiol at left-back?
Are we really ready to draw conclusions on two weeks of data?
The biggest issue is that we’ve only seen two Gameweeks of Premier League football. A strong or poor opening couple of performances doesn’t necessarily tell us how a player or team will perform over the coming weeks, especially with squads being strengthened and weakened on deadline day.
Spurs could quickly improve, for example, with new bodies on board and others returning from injury.
How many were willing to write Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) off after a Gameweek 1 blank, only for him to smash his best-ever FPL score the following weekend?
Can’t Triple Captain in Gameweek 3
Using the Wildcard now means you can’t use another chip in Gameweek 3 – and the Triple Captain is mightily tempting.
Rate My Team (RMT) does project higher points for Cole Palmer (£9.6m) in Gameweek 4 and Haaland again in Gameweek 7 than the Norwegian this week, but will the start of the UEFA Champions League impact on these premium players’ minutes in future Gameweeks?
A week early for Chelsea assets
It’s fair to say that an early-season Wildcard is going to go quite heavy on Chelsea assets, given the favourable run ahead:
However, as you can see above, first comes the daunting test of Arsenal away.
A Chelsea double-up/triple-up will likely be the way to go after this weekend but would you want to be fielding the Blues at the Emirates?
Booking in a transfer – say, Cherki to Morgan Rogers (£7.5m) or Fernandes to Palmer – in Gameweek 4 would be one way to go. As could benching one or two Chelsea picks this week in favour of someone else. Of course, with seven goals scored in two Gameweeks, you might be perfectly content to field Pedro and co even against the might of the Arsenal defence!
GAMEWEEK 3 WILDCARD DRAFT
On the subject of ‘booking in a transfer’, here’s what we’ve put together for a Gameweek 3 Wildcard.
As mentioned above, Cherki and/or Fernandes could become Rogers and/or Palmer in Gameweek 4.
It’s a fairly template front three, with Newcastle embarking on the following favourable run from this weekend (and especially from Gameweek 5) onwards:
The ‘100% DefCon hit rate’ trio of Kristoffer Ajer (£4.5m), Lewis Hall (£5.1m) and Mamadou Sangare (£5.7m) features, as does the obligatory Arsenal defensive double-up.
Tyrick Mitchell (£4.5m) is the fifth defender, with the intention of covering a tricky period for our main four in Gameweeks 11-12 (and he is playable in Gameweek 4):
Kjell Scherpen (£4.5m) was about the best back-up ‘keeper we could find to cover Bart Verbruggen’s (£4.5m) iffier fixtures in Gameweeks 5, 8 and 9, but there’s a strong argument for Carl Rushworth (£4.5m) and maybe even Bernd Leno (£4.5m), too – not that Ipswich, Coventry or Fulham have convinced defensively so far, and you may want to simply set and forget Verbruggen regardless of any trickier tests:
BRUNO, PALMER + HAALAND DRAFT!
Finally, is it possible to house all of Palmer, Bruno and Haaland?
We’ve attempted it in this draft, sacrificing a second playing ‘keeper and Cherki, and downgrading Hall, Mitchell and Wissa to the assist-making Amar Dedic (£4.5m), the DefCon-amassing John Egan (£4.0m) and Everton striker Thierno Barry (£5.5m), who looks to have been the biggest winner of all on deadline day.
