The Digest – Gameweek 35

We end our retrospective coverage of Gameweek 35 with our usual summary as we assess the latest player, team and talking point to draw our attention.

Alexandre Lacazette helps steer Free Hit chip managers up the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) rankings with a rare double-digit points haul. Man City continue to rack up the goals to cement a place in our plans for the final three rounds of fixtures. Meanwhile, the Free Hit is confirmed as the perfect and powerful solution to fixture postponements.

The Player

Never mind the Anfield Express, Arsene Wenger’s pre-match press conference on Thursday was hugely influential on the plans of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers for Gameweek 35.

The Arsenal manager’s admission that he would name a line-up in preparation for tomorrow’s Europa League clash with Atletico Madrid persuaded many to swap in Alexandre Lacazette for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with their Free Hit chips.

Handed the lone striker role for the second successive Gameweek, Lacazette scored twice to equal his season-high haul of 13 FPL points – only the second time this term he’s managed double-digits.

It’s now four goals in as many league outings for the Frenchman since returning from injury.

As Ragabolly’s Metrics article from last Saturday explained, among the 10,000 FPL managers playing Free Hit chips in Gameweek 35, Lacazette was the sixth most owned player (63.93%).

By comparison, just 2.11% of the top 10k managers without the chip in play held the summer signing.

Assessed against Aubameyang – who had a 28.63% ownership for Gameweek 35 Free Hit managers and 51.4% of those without – it’s fair to say that Wenger’s teamsheet was pivotal in many managers’ climbing the ranks.

Conversely, though, the Gunners’ upcoming European schedule now swings momentum away from Lacazette and back towards Aubameyang.

Each of Arsenal’s semi-final matches against the Spanish side takes place three days before their respective next two league fixtures.

Bearing in mind that Aubameyang is ineligible for this competition, there would be no real surprise to see Lacazette’s minutes managed as Wenger bids for silverware in his final season at the Emirates.

With a Double Gameweek 37 on the agenda and a final-day trip to Huddersfield, Aubameyang now has the platform to maintain a run that’s served up points in six successive appearances.

But Lacazette will always have Gameweek 35.

The Team

If there were any concerns over Man City losing their focus after clinching the title, Sunday’s 5-0 win over Swansea put them to rest.

Despite resting the likes of Nicolas Otamendi, Kyle Walker and Leroy Sane, the champions ran riot against Carlos Carvalhal’s relegation-battlers.

As if we needed reminding of their collective ability to rack up the Fantasy returns, each of City’s front five found themselves on the scoresheet. Meanwhile, three of them – Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and David Silva – all brought in double-figure hauls.

With trips to West Ham and Southampton on either side of pair of Double Gameweek 37 home encounters with Huddersfield and Brighton, Pep Guardiola’s side could barely have a more inviting schedule for would-be investors.

As a result, Jesus and Sterling are among the top three players for transfers in ahead of this weekend’s deadline – only Harry Kane has been more popular.

However, as Guardiola’s weekend starting XI also suggests, we should expect the unexpected from here on in.

With the likes of Phil Foden and Benjamin Mendy pushing for starts and Fernandinho now back from suspension, there’d be no surprise if the City boss continued to chop and change his set-up, given that many regulars have the small matter of a summer World Cup looming.

In turn, that could dent their prospects when it comes to selecting the Triple Captain chip for Double Gameweek 37 – arguably, Guardiola’s tinkering could mean that not one of his outfield players starts all four remaining matches.

While that promotes Kane’s appeal as a Triple Captain – particularly if he still has a chance of claiming the Golden Boot – City’s ability to deliver big points surely makes at least one or two of their big-hitters worth the risk for that very favourable run-in.

The Talking Point

Echoing the impact of Gameweek 31, the Gameweek 35 Free Hit chip helped managers made up significant ground in the overall rankings.

Remarkably, although the average score for Free Hit managers was considerably different over each of these Gameweeks (95.5 vs 58.2), the points gained over non-Free Hit rivals was near-identical.

In Gameweek 31 the average gain was 25.4 points, and in Gameweek 35 the average gain was 25.7 points.

However, a further analysis into the data shows that those managers who played their Free Hit chip in Gameweek 35 averaged 79.8 points in Double Gameweek 34, whereas those who didn’t play their Free Hit chip in Gameweek 35 averaged 71.1 points in Double Gameweek 34.

We can deduce, then, that those who had the Free Hit chip to play in Gameweek 35 earned some advantage in their preparations for Double Gameweek 34.

The Wildcard also played a part, with many playing this chip in Gameweek 32 or 33 to load up on players who played twice in both Gameweek 34 and 37.

And with many Free Hit Gameweek 35 managers now holding a host of players with a Double Gameweek 37, it won’t be until the season comes to a close before we can look back and assess the true impact of delaying the Free Hit chip until last weekend.

The one thing we can say with certainty, though, is that the Free Hit chip has the power to shake up the rankings and is the perfect solution to a reduced set of fixtures.

It already seems very unlikely that experienced FPL managers will consider deploying the chip in any other scenario next season.