Tips

The Complete Guide to Scout’s tips and advice to Double Gameweek 25

Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout Guide to Double Gameweek 25 ahead of today’s 18:30 GMT deadline.

Leeds United and Southampton are the two teams with the extra fixture – the Saints travel to Elland Road on Tuesday evening.

The other main talking point as we plot our moves for the current round of fixtures and beyond, is the potential of more Double Gameweeks in the near future. Pep Guardiola hinted that Gameweeks 26 and 27 will be Doubles for his side but at the time of writing, we await confirmation from the Premier League.

Captain Candidates

Patrick Bamford (£6.9), Raphinha (£5.4m) and Danny Ings (£8.5m) are the leading trio in the captain poll, with the highly-owned Bamford the popular choice.

The best-value forward in FPL, returning over 19.1 points per million spent, Bamford has garnered over 50 per cent of the vote. This in itself poses Fantasy managers an intriguing shield/sword dilemma:

[Bamford]’s currently in just over 53 per cent of teams, the bulk of those will captain him so if you don’t captain Bamford you will probably get pretty much no ranking gain from him, [and] you could possibly get a red arrow if there’s a surge of support in people drafting him in. Whereas Raphinha was in under three per cent of teams [so] if you captain him the gains could be absolutely huge.

– Joe, Captaincy Video

The potential for either Leeds player to do well is there, especially in that Tuesday fixture. As Jan pointed out in his Captain Sensible article, Southampton have given up 11 big chances in the last four matches, the joint-most in the Premier League, while only Liverpool have a worse expected goals conceded (xGC) figure.

Encouraging stuff. But two bits of team news could influence our decisions.

Marcelo Bielsa confirmed that Kalvin Phillips (£4.9m) will miss the first match against Wolves and could possibly sit out the Southampton game too. While Ralph Hasenhüttl revealed that Southampton will be without Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.7m) for a few weeks. 

Without Kalvin Phillips they are really not the same team, he is the guy that holds the whole thing together both defensively and going forward … he’s missed five games this year and … Bamford’s blanked in three of those five games so it makes me a bit worried about him.

– David, Captaincy Video

Speaking on the Scoutcast, “professor of LeedsSeb, as he was dubbed by Joe, conceded that Phillips offers more than Pascal Struijk (£3.9m) in an attacking sense. But, nonetheless, his optimal Leeds trio for the Double would be Bamford, Raphinha and Jack Harrison (£5.5m).

The absence of Walker-Peters is good news for Harrison in particular. The Saints have conceded 17 chances down their right flank over their last four matches and with Walker-Peters missing out, it means we could see one of the centre-backs filling in.

Although, Brazilian Raphinha could also benefit:

Harrison and Raphinha have swapped sides a couple of times in the last few matches … Harrison was obviously subbed off last match … but Raphinha actually moved to the left with Hélder Costa coming on the right, so there is a chance you’ll see Raphinha on the left.

And on Harrison himself, his last two goals I believe, certainly his last goal, came straight down the middle. So if he’s up against the weak full-back that might be more for the assist [but] for the actual goals we might see him making those runs through the middle.

So I think realistically, what’s the crux of this conversation, it’s all quite close. Get the three attackers if you can, if you can’t get Bamford and Raphinha.

– Seb

Raphinha and Harrison touch heatmap last four matches

When it comes to deciding who to captain, it’s worth noting that Raphinha takes corners while Bamford is expected to stay on penalty duties.

No Premier League team has conceded more spot-kicks this season than Wolves (seven). And Southampton are not doing particularly well in that department, either, having given up four penalties  in 2020/21.

But Danny Ings should not be discounted, the Saints talisman has recorded six attempts on goal in his last two Premier League fixtures, including three big chances. And Southampton’s high-press could prove effective against Leeds, as Arsenal discovered in Gameweek 24 scoring four goals. 

Speaking on FPL Black Box, Pro Pundit Mark revealed that he is contemplating buying Ings with one of his two free transfers, factoring in that Southampton may have three Double Gameweeks in the next four. Although, as Greyhead noted in the 100th edition of The Great and The Good, how many of us will trust Danny Ings’ fragile hamstring to manage two games in quick succession?

And, as Jamie pointed out in his Members-only analysis of Southampton, if Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side are to get the best out of Ings, then they will need to create more chances, with the Saints creation ranking near the bottom in their last six matches.

Nonetheless, Ings is the only Southampton player included in the Scout Picks starting XI alongside a triple up of Bamford, Raphinha and Stuart Dallas (£5.0m) from Marcelo Bielsa’s troops.

Pro Pundit Plans

Along with Jack Harrison, the other players who could exploit the weakness down Southampton’s right side are Timo Werner (£9.2m) and Marcos Alonso (£5.7m).

I get the feeling that [Alonso] could drop a 15-pointer in any game if he continues in the same attacking vein. It looks like Tuchel is going to persist with the 3-4-3 formation and his comments with regards to Alonso seems particularly encouraging.

– Lateriser

As high-flying Pro Pundit Andy mentioned, the Spaniard offers massive potential at both ends of the pitch if you can cope with him missing the odd game.

Chelsea were picked out by both Andy and Lateriser due to their appealing fixtures, despite a difficult-looking Gameweek 26.

West Brom, Leeds and Palace are all in the bottom three for expected goals conceded this season, with Everton the seventh-worst team in the league. The fixtures from Gameweek 27 look prime for goals.

– Andy

Werner, who has started Chelsea’s last four matches under new boss Thomas Tuchel, has accumulated the joint-highest number of big chances (five) over the last four Gameweeks. 

Lateriser also noted that for those who are not Wildcarding in Gameweeks 25/26, there is a decent fixture swing in Gameweek 31, and it could be a good time to Wildcard. Something fellow Pro Pundit Az is planning to do, his thinking no doubt supported by some colourful spreadsheets!

Meanwhile, Werner was not one of the forward options being considered by Hall of Fame No 1 Fábio Borges.

The consistent top 10,000 manager is looking to replace the injured Michail Antonio (£6.6m) in his side and, after running the rule over several candidates, it boiled down to getting Danny Ings now or benching Antonio before buying Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.7m) for Double Gameweek 26.

Community Competitions and Head-to-Head Fixtures

This is your last chance to enter the open-to-all Fantasy Football Scout Cup with qualifying for the first round taking place in Gameweek 25. Qualifying for the Members Cup – entry for Premium Members only – gets underway in Gameweek 26.

A total of £300 in prizes is available across the two tournaments.

RedLightning rounded-up the latest Community mini-leagues and competitions.

Impressively, the two main FFScout mini-leagues are the top two Leagues in FPL, followed by Andy’s own mini-league. Well done to the top five managers in each of those mini-leagues.

There’s been another small tweak this week by Mat (aka matzi11a) to the fixtures and results displayed on the Head-to-Head Leagues main page.

From now on the scores and tables will update each night, so managers can see how they are getting on as the Gameweek unfolds.

The fixtures for Gameweek 25 can be found below:

Use the drop-down menus to show your league and division. To find out which league and division you are in, follow the instructions on the main Head-to-Head page.

Once the Gameweek starts, if you click on your opponent’s name you will be linked to their team on the FPL website.

May your arrows be green!

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

2,870 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Il Capitano
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Classic stuff

  2. Shark Team
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    GLAD I BOUGHT WATKINS CAUSE HE HAS LEE(A) SHU(A)

  3. grumpyman
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Wildcard deployed.

    Lloris
    Cancelo Aina Dallas
    Barnes Fernandes Son Raphinia
    Ings Kane Bamford (c)

    Martinez Gundog Stones Digne

    Good luck everyone.

  4. DAZZ
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Who have the PL trolled? The ones who planned on using the WC but didnt? 🙂

    1. DycheDycheBaby
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Sums up this pathetic season lol

  5. Fudgy
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Utter chaos season over for us early wildcarders

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

      why not play FH?

      1. Fudgy
        • 4 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        I've wildcarded

        1. Big boy Bowen
          • 7 Years
          3 years, 1 month ago

          Same x

    2. Garlana
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Always positive

    3. Botman and Robben
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Relax. You will have another 100+ pt GW.

    4. Drexl Spivey
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Poor Fudgy.

  6. DaisyDaisyDaisyDaisy
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    The lines between real and fantasy football are now blurring. The league and the players are far more aware of it

    1. Gomolon
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Bamford will have captained himself this week

  7. badgerboy
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Crellin deniers seething. No hiding place for them.

  8. Flair
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    You can't convince me this wasn't intentional.

    1. Big boy Bowen
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Exactly, fuming

    2. Gomolon
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Yeah, it definitely was intentional. 1 minute past the deadline isn't a mistake

    3. Catastrophe
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      This was the perfect time for them to announce it with the least risk of crashing their site 😀

  9. JohnnyRev7
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Was about to post a RMT but it's pen down time.

    Good luck all!

  10. Runaway
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    After hours of waiting and searching, I did Grealish + Coufal > Raphinha + Shaw for free in the very last minute. I was planning to roll the 1FT to keep 2 for BB26 and pass Raphinha for this week but I somehow believed in the Grealish rumour and it changed everything I planned, already regretting that!

    Good luck to everyone!

    1. Boomerang V
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      I did Grealish to Raphinha and I might just revert that next week. I would have kept my FT if I had more faith in Ben.

  11. OverTinker
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    So I might have to play my FH in 26 now. Can prepare for 29 blank

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

    I am relived for Ben Crellin's sake.

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

      so am I

    2. LǝgleSs e|even
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Why?
      Is DGW26 certain?

    3. Tango74
      • 3 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      How much did he get right for GW26?

      1. A. PRISE
        • 3 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        Everything

        1. Tango74
          • 3 Years
          3 years, 1 month ago

          Great.

          Concerned no DCL doubles ?

          So it’s mass sell Bamford this week ?

  13. Reeker
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    This is why I never do my team too late... 5 minutes to deadline I took out Bruno for Son and upgrades bits of my team with the money.... ahahaha kill me

    1. LǝgleSs e|even
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Funny, as I took Son out for Raphinha

    2. Gomolon
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      ouch!

    3. HuttonDressedasLahm
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Bruno out before NEW?!!!

  14. Wild Rover
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Funniest thing ever. Bravo PL 😀

    1. Flair
      • 3 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Absolutely hilarious 😆

    2. LǝgleSs e|even
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      What happened WR?

  15. Flair
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Everton facing West Brom in 29. Juicy

    1. DAZZ
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Perfect for those without FH.

      1. Flair
        • 3 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        Meant 26*

      2. Mr. O'Connell
        • 11 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        Free hit in 29 is a dud play anyway

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

        I am playing FH in 26

    2. DaisyDaisyDaisyDaisy
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Fulham part 2 probably

  16. Jimmy Boy
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Areola and Maja on the wildcard bb26 squad, counting my lucky stars that they moved Fulham v Spurs to 26 and not Spurs v Soton

    1. JJeyy
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      It made the most sense, thats why i went areola

      1. Jimmy Boy
        • 7 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        Good call, McCarthy temptation will have been there for many. I've had him all season and couldn't take it any more so switched to Areola

        1. JJeyy
          • 8 Years
          3 years, 1 month ago

          Yea it would have made no sense for southampton to play 3 doubles in a row

  17. Rainer
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Most games where expected tbf.

    1. Mr. O'Connell
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      I was hoping Southampton would double next week, but I think it was rumoured they weren't anyway.

    2. Sun Jihai
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Main one is the Soton vs. Fulham DGW

  18. DaisyDaisyDaisyDaisy
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    I blame Rockstar. This deadline business is now out of hand

    1. Gomolon
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Even the PL admins want a go at it!

  19. Gomolon
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Hope Ben Crellin's got himself a massive drink lol

  20. Christina.
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    We move
    😆

    1. Pat Bonner
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      You wildcard?

      1. Christina.
        • 14 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        yes, with 10 mins to go

        1. Pat Bonner
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 12 Years
          3 years, 1 month ago

          Nice! Same here, went with this so looks good for next week with a -4 to remove 2 Leeds

          Areola Martinez
          Dias stones shaw targett Dallas
          Salah Bruno gundogan barnes raphinha
          Bamford Ings Kane

  21. JONALDINHO
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Wildcarders and Raphinha captainers unite!

    1. JJeyy
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      and Fulham owners

    2. unclesbasement
      • 3 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      LITERALLY DID THIS WITH 10 MINS TO SPARE. MOST STRESSFUL MOMENT OF MY FPL LIFE

  22. Flair
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Triple Villa facing Leeds and Sheff Utd in 26. You love to see it

    1. DaisyDaisyDaisyDaisy
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      With a fecked Grealish

    2. Mr. O'Connell
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Grealish out for the season tho

      1. The Suspended One
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 10 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        You love to see it

    3. Sun Jihai
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Depends on Grealish though IMO - created just under a third of all their chances this season

  23. Tommy Tynans Left Shin Pad
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Queue the 'darn, I forgot to change the captain to Henry' posts!

  24. Tsparkes10
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Saved my ft... really confused about this announcement and trolling thing though?? Can someone fill me in plz

    1. Hooky
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      You asking for a fight?

    2. The Suspended One
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      They waited until after gw 25 WC to prevent massive 26 BB

      Literally no other reason for the timing

      1. Tsparkes10
        • 5 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        Ahhh right, so only a problem for wcers?

        1. The Suspended One
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 10 Years
          3 years, 1 month ago

          Really only BBers

        2. Gomolon
          • 9 Years
          3 years, 1 month ago

          No, I played wc and trusted in our lord and saviour Ben Crellin 🙂

  25. ADucksBehind
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Having a Meh season, so just pulled the WC to BB DGW26 coz why the F not.

  26. Ginkapo FPL
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Is it trolling to make the game equally accessible to all?

    Some of you need rehab

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

      I'd rather be at home with Ray
      I ain't got seventy days

  27. Pat Bonner
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Glad Fulham have a double as went Areola over McCarthy

    1. The Suspended One
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Ditto

    2. The Suspended One
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      With I would have gotten more of that Everton DGW tho..

      I just WCd out James and Rich punts and they get Sou Wba

  28. EmreCan Hustle
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Can someone provide me with the actual source of the fixtures? I trust Ben Crellin completely but I just want to see the original source.

      1. EmreCan Hustle
        • 11 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        Cheers.

  29. Isco Disco
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Unbelievable! HAHAHAH
    How can they do this to us? Does Premier League hate FPL so much?
    I don't understand the hate and the reason for this troll