Fixtures – The Panic Room Game-week’s 28 & 29 – FPL Fantasy Football Premier League

We really need to talk about game-week 29…… Well we need to talk about game-week 28 as well, but it is really 29 that is scrambling a few brains and causing night sweats for many a fantasy manger. Rest assured though, you are not alone. We usually ramble on about who has good fixtures and who hasn’t and the relevant players in this article but this week we will cut to the chase and keep it simple. You need to know which teams are actually playing for the next few weeks are which teams are not. Most fantasy managers will have 3 free transfers left ahead of GW29 unless you were prudent or lucky enough to save one up, in which case it’s 4 at a maximum. You may well need them all! Let’s get to it then….

This is how the land lies for the next three weeks.

The fixtures in RED are those that are not playing in that game-week.

All the GREEN ones are playing.

The YELLOW is basically the West Ham vs Hull game. If Hull win tonight then that one is off as well. We will update this article to show that as and when we know. Come on Brighton!!!

The teams on the left in RED have at least one missing fixture in either GW28 or 29.

So let’s try and make this as simple as possible –

GW27

Every team plays.

GW28

These teams do not play –

Man City
Man Utd
Sunderland
West Brom

GW29

These teams do not play –

Arsenal
Aston Villa
Everton
Liverpool
Man City
Newcastle
Sunderland
Swansea

Combined GW28 and 29 blanks –

Man City
Sunderland

So GW28 looks like this-

Everton vs West Ham
Fulham vs Chelsea
Hull vs Newcastle
Stoke vs Arsenal
Southampton vs Liverpool
Aston Villa vs Norwich
Swansea vs Crystal Palace
Tottenham vs Cardiff

And GW29 looks like this –

West Brom vs Man Utd
Norwich vs Stoke
Cardiff vs Fulham
Crystal Palace vs Southampton
Chelsea vs Tottenham
West Ham vs Hull **Subject to Hull losing in the FA Cup**

We hope that makes it as simple as possible for you. Basically our recommendations would be –

Transfer out any Man City or Sunderland players ahead of GW28 as they have two blank weeks. Probably prioritising Sunderland this week as they are away at Arsenal whereas City are at home to Stoke so keep those City players for GW27 if possible and plan to abandon ship next week.

Do not transfer in anyone who has a missing week coming up. Sounds obvious but the fact of the matter is that over 50,000 managers have transfered in Sturridge already this week and over 5,000 have transfered in both Adam Johnson and Yaya Toure and neither will be playing for two consequetive weeks after this one. Do not fall into this trap. Looking at how few games there are left in GW29 already, every spot on your squad will be valuable towards being able to field anything like a full team.

If you are lucky enough to still have your wildcard we would advise you think long and hard before using it here. The fact is that you would obviously be able to field X1 with no hits and it seems like the easy way around this problem. What we would say though is that because all of these games will have to be rearranged as well as the Everton and Man City ones from last week there will be a good number of bumper double game-weeks on the horizon. Now would you rather be able to field an extra player or two this week or potentially be able to effectively field 18, 19 or even 22 in an upcoming week…. Thought so!

GAME-WEEK 27
Let’s not forget though that there is actually a full fixture list this week! GW27 presents us with the following stand out favourable fixtures –

Liverpool vs Swansea – expect Suarez and Sturridge to be the big point scorers in this one given Liverpool’s rampant nature at Anfield recently. Stevie G is bang in form as well despite the recent premature news of his supposed decline due to his deeper role.

Man City vs Stoke – if we knew which combination of Dzeko / Jovetic / Negredo that Pellegrini would go with then we would recommend one of them. We don’t though which is the problem here. Perhaps just stick with the tried and trusted in Yaya and Silva if you have them. As stated above though do not transfer any of them in as they will then miss two weeks.

Norwich vs Spurs – Adebayor. That’s probably all you need to know for this one. The Ivorian has been on form and big time recently. Sherwood has rejuvinated him and he is looking deadly. Spurs have a clean bill of health fixture wise as well so buy, buy, buy!

IN SUMMARY
A quick straw poll around the FF247 offices suggests that the average team currently has between 5 – 7 players on their squad at the moment who would be playing in GW29. If we take the best case situation of 7 then, three free transfers and the odd hit should be sufficient to field a full X1, so maybe it is not quite the doomsday scenario after all. Use the above tools and information, plan your transfers wisely, make yourself a strong pot of tea and cross your fingers and toes on the injury and suspension front and you should just about be able to see yourself through to GW30 in one piece.

FIXTURE FUN

Well there’s plenty of that already isn’t there but just to add to the confusion the Champions League and Europa League have resumed this week meaning that Man City, Arsenal, Swansea and Tottenham all play games this midweek ahead of GW27. So keep an eye out on those for any injuries or possible rotation.

DOUBLE GAME-WEEKS, DATES FOR YOUR DIARY!

There are obviously a lot of games that now need to be rearranged. As we speak there is only one confirmed DGW which involves Man Utd and Man City and is in GW31. There is the faint possibility that some of the GW29 ones could be played in mid-week that week and so still come under the umbrella of GW29. It is however already a designated Champions League week and so the Premier League would have to go cap in hand to UEFA on that one. The likes of Man City and Arsenal will not be able to do this as they are actually playing in it though!

The fixtures that currently need to be rearranged are –

Everton vs Crystal Palace
Man City vs Sunderland
Sunderland vs WBA
Man City vs Aston Villa
Liverpool vs Sunderland
Newcastle vs Everton
Arsenal vs Swansea

So without boring you to tears and going over the infinite possibilities we have simply put together a list of the other competitions outside of the Premier League and how their key dates interact with our game-weeks. You may be able to take an educated guess based on this information as to when the rescheduled games are likely to take place. Should Man City progress in the CL though quite where their games will end up is anybody’s guess.

FA Cup

6^th Round (Q/Final) – (GW29)

Semi Final – (GW34)

Final – 17^th May

Capital One Cup Final – Man City vs Sunderland (GW28)

International Friendlies – 4/5 March 2014 (between GW28/29)

Champions League:

Man City vs Barcelona Tues 18^th Feb (between GW26/27)

Arsenal vs Bayern Munich Wed 19^th Feb (between GW26/27)

Olympiacos vs Man Utd Tues 25^th Feb (between GW27/28)

Galatasaray vs Chelsea Wed 26^th Feb (between GW27/28)

Arsenal vs Bayern Munich Tues 11^th March (between GW29/30)

Barcelona vs Man City Wed 12th March (between GW29/30)

Chelsea vs Galatasaray Tues 18^th March (between GW30/31)

Man Utd vs Olympiacos Wed 19^th March (between GW30/31)

Quarter Finals

1^st leg  Tues 1 Apr & Wed 2 Apr (between GW32/33)

2^nd leg Tues 8 Apr & Wed 9 Apr (between GW33/34)

Semi Finals

1^st leg Tues 22 Apr & Weds 23 Apr (between GW35/36)

2^nd leg Tues 29 Apr & Weds 30 Apr (between GW36/37)

Final

Saturday 24^th May

As ever, good luck to everyone for GW27. And oh yeah, don’t panic!

Thanks for reading Fixtures – The Panic Room Game-week’s 28 & 29 , this article was written by Inittowinit