FF247 Site Team News GW17-21 Christmas Special
Ho ho hell yeah, points!!
Welcome to FF247 Site Team GW17
The next few weeks feel like a real chance for us to finally kick-start our season — a festive resurrection, if you will. We’re now lined up to play three chips across the next three gameweeks, and with a sprinkling of Christmas luck, we could head into the holidays looking far more like our former selves. Or at least less like a team that’s been on the naughty list since August.
This week, Lady Luck came dressed as Santa and actually delivered, but let’s face it, now more than ever, this game is all about luck. Planning, watching matches, researching stats? Largely pointless. Dave from accounts is top of the league, has declared himself an FPL savant, and delivers a weekly carol dedicated to FPL Harry and Let’s Talk FPL. Throw in his Hub subscription and, naturally, he owns all the same players as you — just a gameweek earlier. Festive miracles everywhere.
Anyway, back to us. We unwrapped a few points, and the transfers mostly paid off. While Raya and Anderson delivered coal, Ekitike played the role of Christmas miracle with a tasty 13-pointer. Foden kept the goodwill flowing with 11pts, and while we may have slightly fluffed the captaincy — consider it a stocking filler gone wrong — the damage was minimal at just 2pts lost. Four of our eleven blanked, but the other seven worked overtime to drag us safely down the chimney.
By full-time, we’d racked up 82pts — a generous 22pts over the average. A festive green arrow followed, hoisting us up from 3,684,352 to 2,948,834. Not quite a Christmas number one, but definite progress as we edge toward the top half of the advent calendar.
Our Gameweek 16 Result
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We have £01m in the bank and 1 free transfer to use ahead of GW17. Let’s go see what was decided….
Our GW17 Transfer(s)
We’ve now pressed the Free Hit button, locking in our festive chip strategy. Next week brings the Wildcard, followed by a slightly unhinged Bench Boost in peak rotation season. Sensible? No. Seasonal chaos? Absolutely.
The XI largely picks itself. There’s a triple-up on Bournemouth for their plum fixture against Burnley, while City at home to West Ham feels like an early Christmas present. Form players Wilson and Foden make the cut, and we’re asking Arsenal for a clean sheet — which feels about as safe as leaving mince pies unattended around Big Sam.
The only mild surprise is our decision to keep faith with Ekitike. But after delivering 13pts last week, he’s earned another go. Add in a Spurs side arriving fresh off a 3–0 stuffing, and suddenly the decision feels very much in the spirit of goodwill.
Haaland wears the armband. He’ll be Triple Captained by plenty this week, so going against him feels like asking for socks when everyone else is opening PlayStations. We’ll take the sensible gift and move on.
To confirm then we have played our Free Hit
Captain – Haaland
Our GW17 team in full…
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For the remainder of the Christmas period we shall update the FF247 team and post our moves in the comments to this one.
You can follow the progress of the FF247 Site Team here
Thanks for reading FF247 Site Team News GW17-20 Christmas Special. This article was written by Fantasy Football 247
PREDICTED LINE-UPS
Back by popular demand! Well, sort of… Drafthound have changed their line-up approach this season and what it means for us is that we are no longer able to display a live feed of it on here due to some technical difficulties. That said, what they have done looks great and is still only a click away so if you want to access those they are HERE
VOTE ON THIS WEEK’S CAPTAIN POLL
FPL FIXTURE TRACKER
Fantasy Football 247 League Codes:
This is our main public FF247 League for the 2025/26 season, which anyone is welcome to join and can be accessed using the code below or this auto-join link
League Code: z6n8ox
Our Regulars League* for 2025/26 is sponsored by FF247. The total cash prize pool is £300. The first 4 places are paid out in a tiered system.
To enter this one you need to be an active and recognised site member and you need to e-mail us for the league code:
jamie251069@yahoo.co.uk
Our FF247 Cup is also included and attracts a prize of £50 for the winner.
*terms and conditions apply and the FF247 Management reserve the right to review membership of this league on an ongoing basis which is dependent upon regular comment / community activity.
All prizes must be claimed within 30 days of the final GW.
Both leagues will be closed to new entrants on 01/02/26.
Terminators
I am going with this, this is Bruno.G’s last chance as I’ll be doing Bruno.G & Neto to Bruno.F and another MID.
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Nasarkhan1
Any news on the site team?
MattX
*Hello all, Site Team Updates here*
We have played our wildcard this week.
We will be playing our Bench Boost next week so we needed to find a balance between 15 starters but also not wanting to spread the cash too much as we won’t need the bench for the foreseeable.
Raya and Dubravka are obvious.
Defence we threw in a few different names. We were going to go Clyne and Stach but swapped it to Yoro and Potts instead. Let us know which pair you would have chosen?
Thiaw and Van Hecke are about to embark on a nice run and are low owned.
Midfield again we have gone Gordon for his good run and hope that he might have pens. The minutes is a slight worry. Potts we have explained as he’s cheap and playing so let’s see how that goes. The rest of the midfield speaks for itself.
Our forward like is template except we have splurged on Bowen. The main man at West Ham. While they have been rubbish, he hasn’t. If they score he tends to be involved.
Give us your thoughts on our WC team.
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Terminators
I think having Raya is a waste of money, having a Arsenal Def is more cost effective per point.
MattX
Very fair point. Who would you get instead? Verbruggen and swap Van Hecke to Timber?
Terminators
That would be better imo.
Miley is a far better option than Potts for the same price.
I was surprised not to see Saka > Rice.
MattX
Yeah I did prefer Miley but when I did the original draft I didn’t want to go triple Newcastle straight out the gate. I own Miley and Bruno G in my own team.
I’ve been debating selling Saka in my own team so when given the chance I got rid of him and don’t think Rice is needed right now. Can easily go Foden/Gordon/Cunha to him in a few games anyway.
Shrivathsa
Like the Yoro idea, assuming that they can keep a CS against Wolves, next week should pay off. Newcastle away are iffy, so maybe Nunes / O Reilly or downgrade Raya to Donnarumma and switch to Hincampie instead of Thiaw. Could also go Miley instead of Potts for the BB next week.
MattX
Yeah when we were doing it. Looking at who had a good fixture in 19 and just felt Yoro was a nicer little punt than Clyne.
moewenger
Across English Football League history:
▫️ Man Utd have the most Boxing Day wins (54)
▪️ Newcastle have the most Boxing Day losses (47)
Man Utd v Newcastle is the only Boxing Day fixture in 2025
MattX
Another new update for the site team. We said we would listen to you all more this season and let you have a say.
Thus we have swapped Van Hecke and Potts to Calafiori and Miley but we noticed this left us with enough to get Sanchez.
Our team looks like this now.
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Shrivathsa
Since Calafiori is out so that the BB is not wasted, move to Gabriel and to fund that move from Grealish to Wilkon. A pity that the Yoro move did not work. Dorgu? Never saw that coming.
Nasarkhan1
I can’t believe I took out dorgu and bought in yoro too lol
hammerfan_lm
Ok, this is my wildcard punt.
How is it looking?
Should I play Wilson or swap him for a bench player?
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Terminators
I think you have it right, just see what the news is on Wilson before the deadline, if he isn’t going to play your bench is set up right.
I would go with Ekitiké as VC (I am very tempted to C him over Haaland), Haaland has passed Pep’s weight rule though! So he’s sure to start.
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hammerfan_lm
Cheers Terminators, and thanks for your help in setting up my wildcard (and others who contributed)
Terminators
Terminators
I am still undecided on who to captain, Ekitiké or Haaland
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Shrivathsa
Might be worth going against the crowd and captaining Ekitike. That is the same dilemma I have . Site team has gone with Haaland and they are on a roll of late. So there is that too which points to Haaland.