Tips

The Complete Guide to FPL Blank Gameweek 27 tips and advice

Drowning in mayonnaise? Swimming in ketchup? Floating in salt and vinegar?

Chip planning can leave you feeling engulfed in a sea of condiments. Thankfully, like David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson striding down the beach ready to dive in and save us, we have our own David (aka DavidMunday815) and Neale (aka Skonto Rigga) to keep our heads above the vinegar.

And if that doesn’t cut the mustard, the Fantasy Football Scout guide to Gameweek 27 features a healthy dollop of fixture planning with a generous serving of discussion, strategising, and debate.

First a warning – don’t miss the deadline: remember this week we have a 18:45 UK Time deadline as two matches are taking place this evening.

The main topic of discussion in the lead up to the deadline has been the fixture developments following the draw for the FA Cup quarter-finals. The ensuing Blank and Double Gameweeks present opportunities for Fantasy managers. Neale, in his article last Tuesday, outlined the three popular strategies for navigating these crucial Gameweeks. However he pointed out that:

“There is no right or wrong way to deploy chips in FPL … Last season, Yusuf Shiekh Wildcarded in Gameweek 25, Bench Boosted in Gameweek 37 and used his Triple Captain chip in Gameweek 38 – and finished first in the world.”

This sentiment was echoed by the FPL General in his opinion piece on why you should tailor your chip strategy to your squad:

“The most important thing is to do what is right for your team. We are all going into this period from a different starting point.”

Discussion continued on the Scoutcast this week as David, Luke, and Az answered questions about chip strategies and outlined their thinking. Plans have also been debated on site with Flapjack looking at deploying his Free Hit chip in Gameweek 31 and Deulofail highlighting which players could do well.

Meanwhile, in his community article, Pep Pig put forward an alternative view focusing on which teams and players to target for those not using their Free Hit or Wildcard chips in Gameweek 31.

Elsewhere, Geoff started a Hot Topic on the three main chip strategies.

Although at this stage the picture is not entirely clear – we know about the Blank fixtures for Gameweek 31 and we have a good idea about the Gameweek 33 Blanks, but we don’t yet know when the rearranged fixtures will take place.

We could find out today when the broadcasters announce which matches they have chosen to show live in April, but there’s a chance we may not find out until after Gameweek 31.

For the moment, many FPL managers have assumed that the fixtures will simply move along to closest available Gameweek but others, such as Jarvish, have had a stab at predicting what would suit the TV companies. A Double Gameweek for Manchester City with fixtures against Fulham and Cardiff anyone?

No I’m not trying to give you nightmares but yes, that was Leroy ‘one-point-in-a-Double-Gameweek’ Sané scoring a belter of free-kick in the Champions League on Wednesday evening. City players continue to be the subject of debate – they Blank this Gameweek and in Gameweek 31, but they have three appealing fixtures in between and are in scintillating form. David gave his thoughts on what to do with their players in FPL Question Time.

Someone who never wants to give you nightmares is Greyhead, who this week enlisted the help of Britney Spears for his regular look at The Great and The Good. One manager who must feel like screaming and shouting after no doubt being driven crazy by his recent run of form is Ville Rönkä – it’s now 10 (ten!) red arrows in a row for the Career Top Ten Hall of Fame Manager.

Elsewhere in ‘The Great and The Good’, Torres Magic continues to stockpile his reserves – he’s made one transfer already this week with his money in the bank increasing from £7.7m to £8.9m. FPL Transfer Spy suggests he’s sold Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso for Leicester’s Ricardo Pereira.

The Portuguese international was the subject of a recent Members’ article, comparing him with his Leicester colleagues Chilwell and Maguire. The Foxes are the only club to avoid any of the “big six” in the next nine Gameweeks, with all five of their home matches during that time against teams currently in the bottom half of the table.

Attacking defenders were the focus of a community article by Chris Kish this week, who lamented the unreliability of clean sheets. While another Leicester City player, James Maddison features in the differentials article, spotlighting players with under 5% ownership.

However both Maddison and Chilwell were mentioned as injury doubts in Claude Puel’s press conference, as reported by Neale in his first team news bulletin. Neale will round up all the team news later on today after the remaining press conferences, and there should be a summary from Rotation’s Alter Ego.

With City and Chelsea Blanking this week, and Manchester United hosting Liverpool, attention in the short term turns to Arsenal. David has delved into the numbers to uncover who are the best Arsenal players to sign for Blank Gameweek 27. While on this week’s Captaincy video David and Neale discussed Aubameyang’s armband credentials.

With Gabonese international playing the full ninety minutes in last night’s Europa League action, perhaps a rested Alexandre Lacazette could prove the better option. David’s Captain Sensible article will no doubt help us to make up our minds, but it is a tricky debate this week.

According to G-Whizz, who serves up the latest DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds, Arsenal are joined by their north London rivals Tottenham as the stand out options ahead of the Gameweek. The inclusion of Spurs is a little surprising given that they travel to a Burnley side who are undefeated in their last seven matches.

Finally, Liverpool players should not be discounted either this week or in the long term: after their trip to Old Trafford they have a favourable fixture run and matches in both Blank Gameweek 31 & 33. David asked whether it might be time to bring in Sadio Mané alongside, or perhaps instead of, Mohamed Salah?

To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page, and if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.

If you’re a member and are yet to get to grips with the custom statistics tables, you can view this movie for an explanation of how they work. Also, remember to tag them so that people can find the tables with ease.

COMMUNITY TOURNAMENTS

Gameweek 26 saw the finals of both FFS cup competitions take place. The free-to-all FFS Cup was won by Man-Chest-Heir F.C, who transferred in Son for Richarlison on his way to a score of 67, while Jay # was victorious in the FFS Members Cup. Jay # took a bold 8 point hit ahead of the final but each of this new signings – Son, Pogba, Lacazette – delivered.

Well done to both managers on their success in the competitions, and commiserations to our losing finalists Jambo17 and Get It Inter Ya.

Happily they don’t have to wait long for another chance at cup glory as the next FFS cup competitions start within a week – FPL managers have from now right up to 18:45 GMT on Tuesday February 26 to enter their teams. For details on how to enter please follow this link.

In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing competition the safety score in Gameweek 26 was 57, this saw 82 managers eliminated. 534 teams are through to Gameweek 27, when the threshold for elimination moves up to 14%, a minimum of 75 managers will depart. The final will take place in Gameweek 37.

Jay Lovejoy is the new leader of our main FFS League, with Sean Tobin second on the same number of points. They are both 3 points ahead of Omer Weisberg, the previous leader, who drops to fourth. Jay and Sean move up to sixth and seventh overall, only 19 points behind the new world number one Joel Tesfai.

Jay is in his thirteenth FPL season with one previous top 10,000 finish – 9,256 in 2013/14. Sean has had five top 5,000 finishes in eight seasons, the best of which was 923 in 2014/15. He is number one in our Live Hall of Fame and recently appeared in one of J0E‘s Meet the Manager videos.

For insights into the Hall of Fame managers, last week Neale put together an analysis of the current top ten in the Live Hall of Fame, including player ownership and chip usage.

Adam Levy has increased his lead over Tore Bjørheim to 18 points at the head of our FFS Members League. He’s up to eighth overall, only one point behind Jay and Sean. It’s getting very tight at the top! This is Adam’s sixth season, his best finish of 10,847 came last year.

Mark maintained his 39-point lead over David in the FFS Mods & Cons. He is number two in our Live Hall of Fame and recently appeared in another of J0E‘s Meet the Manager videos. Rumour has it that he’s brought in Newcastle’s Salomón Rondón as one of his two transfers this week.

James Wells strengthened his grip on first place in RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league. He holds a 32-point lead over Callum Croal (aka Jambo17) the runner-up in our FFS Members Cup.

Jonathan Horrocks is the new leader in RedLightning’s January to May League following an impressive Gameweek score of 96, as previous leader JOZ V drops to tenth. Jonathan has had five previous top 10,000 finishes in twelve seasons, the best being 1,673 in 2010/11.

If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round-Ups, please email us a summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head-to-head competition at geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk

TopMarx Fan of Fantasy Football and Monty Python. "Archimedes out to Socrates, Socrates back to Archimedes, Archimedes out to Heraclitus, he beats Hegel. Heraclitus a little flick, here he comes on the far post, Socrates is there, Socrates heads it in! Socrates has scored! The Greeks are going mad, the Greeks are going mad! Socrates scores, got a beautiful cross from Archimedes. The Germans are disputing it. Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside. Follow them on Twitter

1,640 Comments Post a Comment
  1. THE SHEEP HUNTERS
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Best of Luck All! 🙂

    1. FPL Daniel
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Go Auba

    2. Ógie
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      U2 S&G 🙂

  2. El Matador
    • 10 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Anderson (c)

    Bricking it

    1. TOPCAT1960
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Haha.....been on Anderson all week, but just gone for Son eeeekkk

    2. Dave Bauer
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Haha same. Already regretting it.

    3. Rhodes your boat
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Was gonna be bringing him in all week for martial but awb changed that! Hope he blanks sorry

  3. Atters
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Anyone considering Chris Wood?

    1. Dave Bauer
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Got to be better at saving pens than Shilton. Worth a go.

    2. Now I'm Panicking
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Always, mainly just for the "I've got Wood" jokes.

  4. Dele
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    pens down

  5. FPL Forward Thinker
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 5 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    End of an era.

    My final Ever present since before GW1 , Wan Bissaka joins the list of seasons sales.

    1. Team Cruel
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      That's actually the only reason I kept him.

      1. Kiwivillan
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        Same

    2. FPL Daniel
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Omg

    3. Differentiator
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Ditto

    4. Rash
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      I've had flappy from gw1 as my sole survivor

  6. moz_1983
    • 11 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Worth a -4 to get rid of Obi Wan so that I have a full starting XI? Currently on 10 starters, no subs.

    1. Miguel Sanchez
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      too late

    2. Kiwivillan
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Deadline passed

    3. Dave Bauer
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      YES DO IT QUICK!!!!

  7. Rainer
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Peltier dead again.

    1. tucaoneo
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Boo

  8. Forza Papac
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Arnie 🙁

  9. The Polymath
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Pens down!

  10. Team Cruel
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Benched Salah and Pogba. Will it end in tears?

    1. The Polymath
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Yes

    2. Miguel Sanchez
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Bench w***ery?

    3. Amey
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Autosubs

    4. diesel001
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Nah. They'll be autosubbed on.

    5. Rainer
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Benching players that play on the final day of games... You need to improve your benchwankery.

      1. Team Cruel
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 8 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        I know, it was a rushed last second move as I made my transfers one minute before deadline. Even managed to play Etheridge over Button 🙁

    6. FPL Forward Thinker
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Could be a good move. Both are pretty poor players and not really fpl assists either

  11. Revival
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Gunnarsson benched on the one week I want my bench fodder to start!

    1. tisza
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      me too! Thought i might have had a sneaky 3+ pts

  12. fr3d
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Anyone else that didn't captain Rondon?

    1. MASTER ROSHI
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      \o/
      Captained arnie instead.

    2. FPL Forward Thinker
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      I captained Sterling and Hazard vice captain and vice vice captain was Aubameyang

  13. diesel001
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    No AWB and Camarasa this GW is going to hurt a lot of FPL players.....

    1. DeadStarComing
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Yep. It's week like these you need these cheapies and then even they miss out! I'm so disappointed with Camarasa. Another player I could use to sum up my season. So much promise, so much disappointment.

    2. Paul Psychic Octopus
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Going to cost us 2 pts each

      1. DeadStarComing
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        That's unfair 🙂 . Camarasa has been pretty good when starting. Even got an assist last GW off bench. And Wan Bissaka will likely be in the team of the year.

  14. Hy liverpool
    • 10 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Was going to get arnautovic but those tweets stopped me ... Cheees ffs

  15. FPL Forward Thinker
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 5 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Always slightly uncomfortable with a Friday night captain but hopefully it’s a good start to the weekend.

    Guess who my captain is?

    1. Saïss Doesn't Mat…
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Jack Sparrow??

    2. Tingate
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Fabianski?

    3. SADIO SANÉ
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Arnautovic

    4. The Polymath
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Cook?

    5. Rhodes your boat
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Lanzini?

    6. Our Man Charlie
      • 13 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Noble

  16. Saïss Doesn't Mat…
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    After all that hype the cordova-reid guy is benched lol

    1. Rainer
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Who?

      1. Eytexi
        • 5 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        Bobby reid

      2. Saïss Doesn't Mat…
        • 7 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        Exactly....

  17. The Polymath
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Good luck to all..... who have the same players as me. 😀

  18. MASTER ROSHI
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Arnie (c) great start to the gw....

      1. MASTER ROSHI
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 6 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        I've been reading everything all day and then I managed to miss that! ¬¬

    1. Dave Bauer
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Ouch, that is harsh. All is not lost though.

  19. Boomerang V
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    OMG Can't believe what I did. In the last minute before deadline I changed my captain from Anderson to Jimenez lol

    This last minute changes never work so congrats to all of you who captain Anderson!

    1. SUPERMAN
      • 11 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Oh dear.

    2. SUPERMAN
      • 11 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Happy happy?

  20. Syd.
    • 14 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    I missed the deadline

    Was intending to take a few hits as I will probably only have 8 or 9 starters but was busy decorating rushed down downstairs tried to make the changes but it was too late

    1. GOTHAM City F.C.
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Happens all the time

    2. Team Cruel
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Look on the bright side, FPL 19/20 opens in a few months.

    3. Kiwivillan
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      I did AWB>Rice but messes up potential future moves because 0.2m

      1. Kiwivillan
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        -4 might turn out was better to go player short

    4. Rhodes your boat
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Unlucky syd good luck anyway

    5. how now brown cow
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      I did awb to clyne and got updating...

      Assuming too late.

      Kids brushing teeth issues for me.

    6. Hy liverpool
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      It's going to be better than doing transfers then. Don't worry mate

    7. CliveTilds
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      You only had 2 weeks to get it sorted.

  21. Kiwivillan
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Wooo Snodgrass at least starting. May just field 10 this week

  22. QUEN
    • 5 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Cor no peltier camarasa or peltier

    Means I have 8 players this week (assuming the rest play)

    1. QUEN
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Or AWB*

  23. Malcolm Tucker for England …
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Lanzini enters the equation...

    1. Rhodes your boat
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Was thinking the same... didn’t get anderson because of awb

    2. Halftime
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Brought him into my draft team, great player.

  24. Differentiator
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Imagine not captaining a very in-form Son

    SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON you will regret it

  25. Hazz
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Yep, thought Camarasa would be crooked again.

    1. Here's Tom with the We…
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Yep, didn’t think he would play either. Couldn’t see anyone worth a -4 though

      1. Hazz
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 6 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        Hello McNeil next week! (Potentially...)

  26. Gruu
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Benched Salah for Kamara

  27. IAWC ( It's a Wonderfu…
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Haha peltier doesn't play the game I got him for and Morrison back this quick.Haha u gotta laugh.

  28. Wheyyyy
    • 5 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Score predictions for tonight?

    1-1
    3-1

  29. The Darkest Knight
    • 13 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Holy craaap... something remarkable is going to happen this week...
    as during the last minutes I have decided to go with King over Arnautovic.

  30. Drop Dead Tsimikas
    • 12 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Welp, that'll be a red for me today (0 players), but at least the rest of the weekend can't get worse 🙂