***GAMEWEEK 26 DEADLINE: SATURDAY - 13:30 GMT***
First off - sorry I’m a day late. I should’ve said last time out, but I wanted to wait for the FA Cup results from this midweek, as they have a HUGE impact on FPL - they determine which teams will play in Gameweek 29. We now have that info…
When the FPL Community go mad for a player after poring over their underlying numbers, it usually pays to listen. Sometimes though, the FPL Twitter darling can really bomb. That’s what happened this week. Huge numbers of obsessives went for Hwang Hee-chan, as the Wolves midfielder has been banging them in and playing up front, and probably on penalties. In the end, we were lucky he even played - after looking like a picked up an injury in the warm up. Neto also blanked - targeting that Sheffield United fixture just didn’t work out. It was much better to keep it simple and go for Douglas Luiz from Villa or Bowen from West Ham - both definitely play in the Blank Gameweek in Gameweek 29 and have FPL pedigree. Both hauled. Ouch.
Have Hwang regrets? Got a transfer dilemma? Email me: fplislife@substack.com
We now know the fixtures for Gameweek 29
This is huge. Well, huge if you play a free football game on the internet. We now know the fixtures for Gameweek 29 - which in turn helps us decide our transfers from this week. The games will be:
Fulham vs Spurs
West Ham vs Aston Villa
Burnley vs Brentford
Luton Town vs Nottingham Forest
This early draft for a Gameweek 29 Free Hit is useful because it gives us a shortlist for the players you’ll need to be moving towards now if you don’t want to use the Free Hit chip that week. If you can get to 7/8 players with some of the key ones - Son, Richarlison, Maddison, Porro, Bowen, Watkins, Toney - you should be fine. Use fpl.team to plan. If you are Free Hitting in Gameweek 29, you can really go for attacking transfers now and ignore the (mostly) bad teams playing in that week.
This is another plum week for Arsenal
While we’re all busy planning ahead, the week in front of us is another great one for Arsenal, who suddenly have goalscoring incontinence. Only a random Newcastle attack stopped another cleansheet last time out. It’s also interesting that we can now look at Spurs again, as their Blank Gameweek last week is out of the way and they have a decent game this week. More below. Spurs, Villa and Bowen will be the big targeted teams I suspect, as they are the best teams to play in Blank Gameweek 29. Luiz, for example, keeps getting points.
Spurs and Son are back…
Spurs are now over their Blank Gameweek and a potential target - and anyone with De Bruyne in their team (hard to have a player of his price who’s a minutes risk) will be looking at Son (£9.6m). Some great points made by the All About FPL account on Spurs - it’s Palace this week after a week’s rest and their run is great. Palace are averaging 2.5 goals conceded per game over the last 6 games. Richarlison (£7.1m) and Maddison (£7.9m) are both fit if you can’t get to the main man.
UPDATE 01/03: Richarlison apparently now out for three weeks.
The Newcastle defence is officially awful
I was struck by this data below for calendar year 2024 - Newcastle are by far the worst for Expected Goals Conceded data. Injuries well and truly catching up with them - which is more than Dan Burn has done with any winger recently (sorry, Dan). Wolves next for Newcastle. maybe there will be redemption for Hwang and Neto. Hwang appeared to limp off last night, so keep an eye on that. The Newcastle attack could be worth looking at soon though, as the fixtures get really good from Gameweek 30 - especially if Wilson remains out. Isak is then an option.
Solanke injury? And the most popular front three
Some were thinking about removing Haaland next week, given he has Liverpool and then a Blank Gamweek - but given his five-goal haul vs Luton in the Cup (stop wasting your goals int he cup, Erling), I reckon this will be the front three of choice for many. Toney will also have a shout.
BUT ALAS - there is some suggestion that Solanke has a knee issue - he’s had an MRI and didn’t play in the cup. He’ll be a popular transfer in this week if fit, so one to keep an eye on and decide late on, in case we get more news.
A good captains graphic
There are plenty of chances to go against Haaland as captain coming up - not least because he plays Liverpool and Arsenal soon (the fixtures outlined in red are now not happening). Saka has been in superb form and maybe we haven’t been giving him enough attention in the captaincy discussion. After that Luton performance though, I suspect Haaland will still be the stand out captain option this week vs Man Utd.
Saka appreciation post
Just pushing home the point - an elite season. His data has always been good, even when his FPL returns dropped off. Warra player. Will you captain him vs Sheff United?
A keeper scores, but not the one you think
One of those “keeper up for a corner” goals… well, not quite…
Please get in touch with any FPL dilemmas or general football internet gold. PS - I’m on Twitter here. Please help me grow FPL Is Life by sharing… thanks! Typos entirely deliberate, but thanks for noticing.