Fixtures Game-week 33 and Planning Ahead – FPL Fantasy Football Premier League

After the feast of GW31 we were certainly brought back down to earth with GW32. The good news is that there are another couple of doubles on the horizon in GW’s 34 and 37 and you may be as well to begin to planning ahead if you haven’t already started to do so. This week we shall endeavour to take a look at GW34’s double teams in particular and how the whole picture looks for them when taking into account this week and also GW35 which follows the double. We shall hopefully help build you a guide to successfully negotiate the next few weeks and aid in planning how best to maximise your transfers ahead of the double GW34. We imagine that most of you will have a firm eye on GW34 when making transfer selections this week. The thing with transfers for a double game-week though is that it’s a bit like that ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas’ advert. So yeah, whilst they may look cute sitting on your lap after the turkey’s all done, don’t forget that they may well still be shitting on your carpet come New Years Day. In other words they have to last you beyond it and in this case, before it also. [divider_1px]

Here are the next four weeks in their entirety…

Red have a missing game in GW34 so just the three games in four weeks for Hull and Man Utd.

Yellow have a standard set of fixtures – four games in four weeks.

Blue have a double in GW34 and so five games in four weeks for Palace, Everton, Man City and Sunderland.

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Double GW37 info –

Whilst not on here and a while away yet, it is worth noting that the following have a double game-week scheduled for GW37 –

Aston Villa
Hull
Man City
Man Utd
Sunderland
West Brom

You will have 3 or 4 transfers between GW34 and GW37 to plan for that one though but it is worth noting now just in case you are looking at taking any players out from these teams.

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Analysis of the four DGW34 teams…

So assuming you bring in a player with a double this week and are likely to still own them come GW35, let’s take a look at how the four teams involved fare over the whole piece.

Crystal Palace

GW33 Cardiff (a)
A trip to Cardiff fresh from an outstanding victory over Chelsea could be an opportunity for Palace to put some distance between themselves and the relegation zone. While Cardiff are still playing with a bit of reckless abandon, Palace are the antithesis of this, being well drilled and giving little away. Of course they aren’t the most exciting attacking team as a result of this and so your best bet will be clean sheets and they have a great opportunity to do just that here.

GW34 Aston Villa (h), Everton (a)
The double itself sees them host Villa and then they have a more tricky trip to Goodison. Again probably the former will be of more interest but certainly they still have a chance of keeping Everton at bay albeit only a slim one. In fact Palace have a bit of a woeful away record being without a win in the last six and having only won twice on the road all season. They will try and keep both games tight and hope to nick a winner against Villa and probably try and park to the bus at Goodison for a nil-nil but probably to no avail.

GW35 West Ham (a)
Again given their away record this is probably not the best game to go into after the double. They will go for a nil-nil here also but will have a slightly better chance of achieving it than at Everton we imagine.

Players to watch
Probably just the odd defender then for Palace unless you fancy a sneaky punt on Jason Puncheon to grab you the odd goal or assist.

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Everton

GW33 Arsenal (h)
This one could well make or break either teams season. An Everton victory will probably give them the momentum to believe they can achieve the unexpected and nick a Champions League spot. It’s a tough one to call this. Everton’s defence has been leaky but they may sense a frailty in Arsenal here and go for it.

GW 34 Sunderland (a), Palace (h)
The double has been kind to Everton. The trip to Sunderland is the sort of game that suits them as Sunderland will invite the pressure and we fully expect Everton will have the quality to punish them. They then host Palace who as we said will try and keep this one tight. This will benefit managers who hold Everton defenders of course but we also expect they will have enough to break down the Palace resolve.

GW35 Man Utd (h)
Everton exit the double with one of their most anticipated games of the season. The return of Moyes. And Rooney. And Fellaini. Probably enough said right there but Goodison will be bouncing and Martinez will not have to do much to wind his charges up for this one. It’ll be a difficult one to call but don’t be afraid to keep and play your Everton players in what will be a frenetic and fascinating encounter.

Players to watch.
The Everton defence (Coleman, Baines) and attack (Lukaku) pick themselves but it’s the midfield where the real headaches begin. Martinez effectively has seven players all vying for three spots. Everton deploy Barry and McCarthy as holders and then three in front of them and just behind Lukaku in a 4-2-3-1 formation. The trouble is he rotates the heck out of those seven. Barkley and McGeady are the cheap options, Mirallas is the luxury one, Osman is the unfashionable one, Naismith and Deulofeu are the out of position ones (they are classed as forwards so don’t pick them) and Pienaar is the injured one. The good news though is that if you punt on one don’t despair if they are on the bench. Martinez has the joint best record for substitutes scoring in the league with nine goals from the bench as evidenced quite brilliantly last weekend at Fulham.

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Man City

GW33 Southampton (h)
City begin with a home game against Southampton which may not be the banker that it probably should be. We say this mainly due to Southampton’s recent form which has seen them win three of their last four games, scoring eleven in the process. Lambert, Lallana and J-Rod are driving this and they will be keen to show Roy Hodgson that they can mix it with the best here.

GW34 Liverpool (a), Sunderland (h)
The double itself is a mixed bag for City which begins with a potential firecracker, and possibly a title deciding trip to Anfield. The Kop will notch up the intensity in this one and Anfield will be rocking, a veritable cauldron of screaming Scandinavian sightseers, oops erm we mean Scousers 😉 This could go either way but expect Liverpool to go for City from the off as is their way but also expect City to have chances aplenty as Liverpool really are taking the approach of you score one, we’ll score two. Despite what the 4-0 scoreline suggested from the weekend game, Spurs actually had more chances than Liverpool. The good news for City then is that they tend to be a bit more clinical than Soldado and co. Just don’t bank on a City clean sheet in this one.

The second game in the double should be a whole lot more straight forward as City host Sunderland who are floundering away in the relegation zone. We expect a comfortable home win in this one and this is where your clean sheet hopes should come to fruition.

GW35 West Brom (h)
You can be safe in the knowledge that your City players will exit the double with a very comfortable looking game at home to another relegation candidate in West Brom. Much like the Sunderland game this should have goals and clean sheets written all over it for City.

Players to watch.
The obvious ones are Yaya Toure and David Silva. If you are on more of a budget then Samir Nasri and Jesus Navas could be very nifty differentials. At the back you can take your fancy but please just stay away from Kolarov! He’s the hokey kokey King of the Premiership and will be lucky to start two out of the four. Up top a lot depends on the Sergio Aguero news. At the time of writing he is indicating as slow reintroduction himself and admits he has an eye on the World Cup. That’ll please Pell then as they are battling for the small matter of the Premiership title! Even if he is declared fit for the double, are you willing to take the risk that he doesn’t break down in the first 30mins of the first game again? Buyers beware.

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Sunderland

GW33 Spurs (a)
Sunderland begin this run of nightmarish fixtures with a trip to Spurs which is actually probably the least challenging of the four! Anyone who watched the Spurs capitulation at Anfield will know that the Spurs players are not just on the plane for their summer jollies but that they are already on the beach, Pina Colado’s in hand. Given the other three fixtures then this could be Sunderland’s one chance to get something out of this run but even then we wouldn’t bank on it.

GW34 Everton (h), Man City (a)
The new five at the back system will probably be rolled out for both of these games again as they host Everton and then visit the Etihad. Whether they can hold either remains to be seen. They may have the chance of a goal or two in the first but we doubt that will be true of the second. Don’t be surprised if they lose the pair.

GW35 Chelsea (a)
Just to round off their run Sunderland have a trip to Jose and co. Again don’t expect much here and in fact if you do decide to go for any of their players for the double then these are the ones you probably want to be planning to offload as soon as possible.

Players to watch.
Well a good many of us have spent the last two weeks watching Adam Johnson….watching the Sunderland games. From the bench. In one of the more confusing and extraordinary decisions of the season Poyet has decided that the best form of attack is defence and his big solution has been to bench his best player. Scratch that actually, his only good player. Whatever the reason, Johnson came on at Anfield and changed the game, produced an assist and very almost, inadvertently, sent the title elsewhere. His reward was to watch his team struggle in the following game at home to West Ham, again from the bench, before he was unleashed to save the game and he nearly did with a goal and a flurry of chances created that were squandered by his hapless team-mates. Given the fixtures he’s probably the only one to even consider, that’s if Poyet allows it.

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Fixture Fun
This evening sees Chelsea face PSG in the Champions League and Man United played last night. If your plans include players from either of these teams it might be wise to hold fire on your transfers so as to assess any issues such as injuries that may arise or have arisen as a result of these games. Not that Moyes will tell you anyway…

We wish you the best of luck for GW33 and beyond, happy planning!

Thanks for reading Fixtures Game-week 33 and Planning Ahead, this article was written by Inittowinit