The fixture calendar for the rest of the Premier League season is pretty much set so now it’s up to you to decide on your strategy depending on what chips you have left in the game.
We know there are seven teams with a double gameweek 34 – Arsenal, Liverpool, Wolves, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Everton and Sheffield United.
Tottenham don’t have a fixture in gameweek 34, which makes things slightly trickier if you don’t have a Free Hit chip, because they will then have two double gameweeks before the end of the season.
Chelsea will also double twice in the last four gameweeks of the season, while Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle and Brighton will all have a double gameweek, which is almost certainly going to be in gameweek 37.
Managers who still have their second wildcard available will rightly be debating whether to play it now, either in gameweek 30 or 31, or in gameweek 35 to really attack the last four weeks of the season with a potential Bench Boost in mind for gameweek 37.
If you’ve still got that Free Hit chip then the earlier wildcard could be tempting because you can bring in as many Tottenham and Chelsea players as you like without having to worry about gameweek, 34 when Tottenham blank and Chelsea are away to Arsenal.
I like that strategy because the fixtures look good for both Tottenham and Chelsea in the next few weeks – but if you’ve already used your Free Hit then you might want to hold on to the wildcard until gameweek 35 and focus your transfers on Liverpool and Arsenal in the short-term as we start to build up towards gameweek 34.
Captaincy
Those managers who can get Mohamed Salah into their squads this week will certainly want to consider him for Liverpool’s game against Brighton at Anfield on Sunday as his ownership is relatively low.
Many will be taking a points hit to get him because they can’t afford him in a straight swap or they may decide to wait until next week, which will give those of you who get him on the wildcard a nice little edge.
If you don’t own Salah then I would suggest a Tottenham attacker for their game at home to Luton, preferably Son Heung-Min, or the man I’m looking to as a slightly differential captaincy pick this week in Cole Palmer, who has a home game against Burnley.
Fixtures to target
This is one of those gameweeks when two of the best teams in the Premier League go head-to-head and we own four or five of their players, in this case Manchester City and Arsenal, who face each other at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
I would be very happy to field my attackers in this game, the likes of Bukayo Saka and Erling Haaland, but I would try to bench my defenders if I could.
Arsenal’s defence has been superb this season and we know all about their prowess at set-pieces so fielding one of Gabriel, William Saliba or Ben White isn’t really too much of a problem, but I wouldn’t want to have two of them in my starting line-up if I could avoid it.
If you’re looking for a defender to bring into your squad this week then Statman Dave and Chris Sutton each had a suggestion in this week’s Fantasy 606 podcast – Dave has gone for Chelsea’s Malo Gusto, while Chris likes the look of Conor Bradley for Liverpool – and both come in at only £4.2 million.
Bradley has the advantage of the double gameweek 34 but if Trent Alexander-Arnold returns to fitness in the next few weeks then he is less likely to start every game. Gusto looks undroppable for Chelsea at the moment and we still don’t know when Reece James may return to action to provide competition for him.
Differentials
Fulham striker Rodrigo Muniz was one of the rare successes in gameweek 29, his two goals in Fulham’s 3-0 win against Tottenham taking his tally to seven goals in his past seven games and his next three matches are against Sheffield United, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle.
He only costs £4.6 million, which also makes him a great makeweight if you’re having to use two transfers to get to Salah this week.
Gamble of the week
We run a listeners’ team on the Fantasy 606 podcast whereby a different listener comes on each week to manage the side. This week’s listener, Alex from Vancouver, has taken the gamble to remove Haaland from the squad to enable the signing of Salah.
Haaland obviously has the tougher fixture this week, he doesn’t have a double like Salah in gameweek 34 and it enables the listeners to have Salah, Son and Saka in their midfield.
It comes down to your budget – if, like me, you can’t afford to have all four of Haaland, Salah, Son and Saka then which one makes way? It’s Son for me, who will be replaced by Salah next week, but I might then have to turn to a cheaper Tottenham attacker to try to fill Son’s boots.
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