The biggest Blank Gameweek of the season so far is here!
Four clubs are without a Premier League fixture in Gameweek 29: Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Newcastle United.
This quartet are blanking due to the involvement of Newcastle and Liverpool in the EFL Cup final on Sunday.
Looking at the figures found on LiveFPL (correct as of last Saturday’s deadline), we check on how well Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers are prepared for this eight-match Gameweek.
We’re using the top 100k as a sample in this article. This should be a better gauge of active managers as there are fewer dead/ghost teams.
HOW MANY ‘BLANKERS’ DOES THE AVERAGE TOP 100K MANAGER OWN?
The top 100k are in pretty decent shape going into Gameweek 29, quantity wise at least.
The average manager in this sample owns just over 10 players with an unaffected league fixture in the upcoming Gameweek.
Mohamed Salah (£13.8m), Alexander Isak (£9.4m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) are the most-owned blankers, each with around 75% ownership or more.
WHO ARE THE MOST-OWNED GAMEWEEK 29 PLAYERS IN THE TOP 100K?
Now, a look at the FPL assets whose teams have a Gameweek 29 fixture.
Here are the most-owned players in the top 100k:
| Player | Ownership | Player | Ownership | Player | Ownership |
| Palmer | 0.91 | Bowen | 0.205 | Nwaneri | 0.09 |
| Wood | 0.752 | Cunha | 0.201 | J.Timber | 0.08 |
| Mbeumo | 0.741 | O.Dango | 0.194 | Cucurella | 0.067 |
| Kluivert | 0.603 | Aït-Nouri | 0.142 | Castagne | 0.066 |
| Gabriel | 0.502 | Raya | 0.14 | Harwood-Bellis | 0.066 |
| Robinson | 0.45 | Greaves | 0.133 | Faes | 0.065 |
| Fabianski | 0.357 | Beto | 0.13 | Colwill | 0.062 |
| Pickford | 0.349 | Semenyo | 0.122 | Saliba | 0.061 |
| Mykolenko | 0.331 | Valdimarsson | 0.115 | Mitoma | 0.058 |
| Wissa | 0.318 | Flekken | 0.11 | Milenković | 0.057 |
| Aina | 0.3 | João Pedro | 0.104 | B.Fernandes | 0.053 |
| Kerkez | 0.28 | Huijsen | 0.098 | Gvardiol | 0.051 |
| Sels | 0.252 | Marmoush | 0.098 | Other | 1.48 |
Cole Palmer (£11.0m) has a 91% ownership in the top 100k but expect that to dwindle ahead of Saturday’s deadline.
Already sold by over 110,000 managers in the game overall, Palmer is the only player in the top 10 transfers out column who isn’t blanking or suspended in Gameweek 29.
Zero returns against Southampton and Leicester City, plus a trip to Arsenal next, have led to a bit of a mass sale.
We mentioned ‘quantity’ in terms of Gameweek 29 numbers above – but quality is another question.
Lukasz Fabianski (£4.1m) and Hakon Valdimarsson (£3.9m) are goalkeeping back-ups, Matheus Cunha (£7.0m) is serving a ban and Dango Ouattara (£5.2m) and Omar Marmoush (£7.2m) dropped to the bench in Gameweek 28. You’d at least still expect minutes of some variety from the latter two.
Then there are the bench fodder defenders like Jacob Greaves (£3.9m), Wout Faes (£3.9m) and Taylor Harwood-Bellis (£4.0m), who – let’s be honest – we aren’t expecting much of in Gameweek 29.
Erling Haaland (£14.7m) doesn’t even appear on the list but we can expect his figure to rise based on incomings. Bruno Fernandes (£8.3m), among others, should also shoot up the ownership standings based on transfers in.
MOST-REPRESENTED CLUBS
| Team | Num of Players | Team | Num of Players |
| Nott’m Forest | 1.468 | Wolves | 0.424 |
| Brentford | 1.386 | Brighton | 0.282 |
| Bournemouth | 1.35 | Ipswich | 0.224 |
| Chelsea | 1.261 | Man City | 0.211 |
| Everton | 0.935 | Man Utd | 0.146 |
| Arsenal | 0.907 | Leicester | 0.136 |
| West Ham | 0.652 | Southampton | 0.13 |
| Fulham | 0.61 | Spurs | 0.076 |
Again, these above figures reflect the landscape before any Gameweek 29 transfers have been made.
Nottingham Forest are the most well represented club and that number looks set to rise above 2.0 this week based on the purchases of Chris Wood (£7.3m), Ola Aina (£5.3m), Morgan Gibbs-White (£6.5m) and others. Forest have Ipswich Town away next weekend.
There has been scant interest in both Manchester clubs until now. Tottenham Hotspur, remarkably, are even less represented than the bottom three.
With Fulham potentially tricky opponents, and a UEFA Europa League match to come less than 72 hours before the clash at Craven Cottage, there likely won’t be a mad rush for the Lilywhites. Indeed, there’s only one Spurs player in the top 40 most-bought players of Gameweek 29.
CURRENT TEMPLATE TEAM
This is how the template Gameweek 29 squad currently looks, weeding out the blankers but before factoring in new transfers.
Haaland and Joao Pedro (£5.5m) will be making a push for the third forward slot, while Fernandes will likely be gatecrashing the midfield party.
As for Free Hit drafts themselves? That’s one of our next articles of the day…
