The biggest Blank Gameweek of the season so far is upon us, with four teams not in action.
Here are five things to consider ahead of the upcoming Gameweek 26 deadline.
KLOPP FACES THE MEDIA ON TUESDAY
Darwin Nunez (£7.6m), Diogo Jota (£8.3m), Curtis Jones (£4.9m)… and maybe even Mohamed Salah (£13.0m)?
Liverpool’s 4-1 win over Brentford came at a cost.
Jurgen Klopp had seen his injury list grow by three by half-time at the Gtech Community Stadium after Jones, Jota and Darwin had been forced off.
Alisson (£5.8m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m) had missed out on that game altogether.
Rumours, and they’re only rumours at this stage, suggest Salah might have joined them.
We won’t have long to wait for a (hopefully) definitive answer, however, as Klopp faces the media at 1.30pm GMT on Tuesday.
This is his pre-match press conference before the clash with Luton Town at Anfield on Wednesday.
We’ll actually get three more of these pressers before Liverpool are in Premier League action again: one this Friday (before the EFL Cup final), one early next week (before the FA Cup fifth round) and one next Friday (before Gameweek 27).
So, Fantasy managers should be armed with plenty of updates before they come to a decision on Jota and co in this Gameweek or the next.
Rob Edwards will also be facing reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
ARSENAL IN EUROPE
Someone else who will be fulfilling their media obligations on Tuesday is Mikel Arteta, not that he’s usually any help with team news.
Arsenal are in UEFA Champions League action on Wednesday, travelling to Porto 72 hours before they take on Newcastle United on the domestic front.
So, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on any knocks and niggles that the Gunners pick up as we very likely won’t get any subsequent clarification on injuries from their taciturn manager.
Arteta has been of no use providing timelines on the likes of Gabriel Jesus (£7.8m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.1m) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (£4.5m), so perhaps our only way of gauging their fitness will be seeing if they’re involved in the matchday squad in Portugal.
NEW MANAGER BOUNCE?
Eleven months after Roy Hodgson swept back into Selhurst Park in his 1936 Stutz Bearcat, he’s gone.
Oliver Glasner is his replacement in the Eagles’ hot seat, and there are parallels with Hodgson’s reappointment last March.
Then, Hodgson had the fortune of rejoining the club just in time for a favourable fixture swing. That came right off the back of an awful run of games for poor old Patrick Vieira:
PATRICK VIEIRA’S FINAL MATCHES IN CHARGE
ROY HODGSON’S FIRST MATCHES IN CHARGE
Above image from Wikipedia
And the ‘new manager bounce’ may be in evidence again as Glasner similarly takes charge just in time for a decent run of games, starting with the visit of relegation-threatened Burnley in Gameweek 26:
The Gameweek 29 fixture against Newcastle United may fall by the wayside, of course, due to the clash with the FA Cup quarter–finals.
We’ll have a Scout Report on Glasner in the next day or two.
NO EARLY KICK-OFF
Next Saturday’s deadline is at a later than usual 13:30 GMT, thanks to the absence of a lunchtime fixture.
The Fantasy marmite that is team leaks could be more widespread than usual, then, although none of the four games at the traditional kick-off time are really what you’d call marquee fixtures:
Manchester City are in action in the 17:30 GMT match, however, so there is a decent chance that we might at least know the travelling squad for the trip to Bournemouth by that time.
That extra two and a half hours, thanks to the later deadline, might be crucial in that regard.
THE LAST DEADLINE BEFORE BLANK GAMEWEEK 29 IS RUBBER STAMPED
This is the final Fantasy deadline where there will be any doubt about the make-up of Blank Gameweek 29.
In just over a week’s time, and in advance of Gameweek 27, we’ll know exactly who will blank and who will have a fixture in the final round matches before the March international break.
Not only that, but the fifth-round results and quarter-final draw will give us a better idea of how Blank/Double Gameweek 34 will look.
Medium-term planning, and perhaps chip strategy, can finally be rubberstamped at that point.
For anyone building a team towards Gameweek 29 this week, the six clubs we know for certain are in action are Aston Villa, West Ham United, Brentford, Burnley, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur.
- READ MORE: How FPL Blank Gameweek 29 looks right now
