Fixtures – Planning ahead, GW’s 28 & 29 and beyond – FPL Fantasy Football Premier League

The silly season is upon us then as the dreaded GW’s 28 & 29 are finally looming large on the horizon and with them some major headaches as regards to squad selection. Well, we say squad selection but come GW29 most of us will be lucky to field a team never mind a squad! Last week we gave you a heads up as to what lay ahead and a bit of advice as to how to approach it all. We made some very obvious pointers like not transferring in any more Man City or Sunderland players and being careful to ensure you would be able to field as many players as possible over the next few weeks. This week we make no apologies for going over some of that ground again as it is all still extremely relevant but we will also expand on how life looks beyond GW’s 28 & 29 with a view to planning ahead accordingly. We have tried to make it as simple as possible and will present to you various lists and tables that hopefully will be of some use in enabling you to navigate through this mess successfully and get a jump on your mini-league rivals who may not be so informed.

Lets start with an overview then of how the next four game-weeks look on the fixture tracker.

The fixtures in RED highlight those that are blank in that game-week.

The fixtures in GREEN go ahead, obviously.

The BLUE ones are the exciting bits, double game-weeks!

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

Teams that play every week with no blanks –

Cardiff
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Fulham
Norwich
Southampton
Stoke
Tottenham

The obvious thing here is that if you own a player from this list – keep them! At least until GW30….

These teams do not play in GW28

Man City
Man Utd
Sunderland
West Brom

These teams do not play GW29

Arsenal
Aston Villa
Everton
Hull
Liverpool
Man City
Newcastle
Sunderland
Swansea
West Ham

Combined GW28 and 29 blanks –

Man City
Sunderland

GW31 Double game-week for these teams –

Hull
Liverpool
Man City
Man Utd
Sunderland
West Ham

So GW28 looks like this….

And GW29 looks like this….

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Game-week 28 in isolation

Despite all of the planning ahead that is required let’s not forget the actual game-week that is immediately in front of us – GW28. We feel that the following teams should do well this week.

Everton v West Ham

Everton have a fantastic home record and despite West Ham winning their last four league games we feel that the Toffee men will show up well here. Romelu Lukaku should be back to bolster the recent non-existent attack force and we think this and home advantage should be just enough to see Everton take the spoils in this one. Don’t discount West Ham entirely though as they are having a mini renaissance as of late and Kevin Nolan has become a pivotal figure within this with five goals in his last four games.

Fulham v Chelsea

It’s full steam ahead for Chelsea now as they push on with their title bid. You know the one, the one that Jose keeps telling us is a pipe dream. Don’t believe him. He senses blood and Fulham may well spill it this week as Chelsea rock up at the Cottage with a slender lead of just one point to protect. We expect they will do just that and dispose of a poor Fulham side. Eden Hazard has had a quiet couple of weeks since that hat-trick but this will be as good an opportunity as any for him to explode back to life.

Southampton v Liverpool 

Are they still in the title race? An enthralling 4-3 victory over Swansea this week means that they are, just about. Southampton away will be no pushover, but if this title dream is a reality then three points here are a must. We wouldn’t recommend rushing to put any Liverpool defenders in your team as it does seem to be very much a case of simply outscoring the opposition at the moment. As such expect Suarez and Sturridge to be in amongst the points as ever.

Tottenham v Cardiff

Almost certainly the home banker of the week this one. Spurs have improved massively under Tim Sherwood and in particular the enigmatic Emmanuel Adebayor has found a new lease of life. Last weeks slip up at Carrow Road was probably inevitable and almost certainly an example of why the Europa League is best avoided at all costs. Cardiff on the other hand are fast becoming the whipping boys of the league. Expect a comfortable home win for Spurs.

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Life after GW29…..

Any fantasy manger worth his or her salt is planning ahead of course and let’s not forget that there is indeed life after the dreaded GW29. What you do before GW29 will impact on how you are set for GW’s 30, 31 and beyond. The trouble with the beyond bit is that there will be lots and lots of double game-weeks but we just do not know when yet. So let’s deal with what we do know.

We know that both Man City and Man Utd have a double in GW31. City have Fulham (h) and Man Utd (a) whilst Man Utd have West Ham (a) and City (h).  Whatever you think of those fixtures the fact is that both place twice in GW31 and so you would be advised to have as many players from each that you can stretch to given the time scale and of course the rules! (3 from each).

BREAKING – Hull vs West Ham has now been added to GW31 also. So a DGW for both of these teams sees Hull play WBA (h), West Ham (a) and West Ham play Man Utd (h) and Hull (h).

BREAKING – Liverpool vs Sunderland has now been added to GW31 also. Liverpool will play Cardiff (a), Sunderland (h) and Sunderland will play Norwich (a), Liverpool (a).

This should play a part in your planning for GW’s 28 and 29. It will be tempting to ditch all of those Man City assets given that they play in neither but a quick look ahead to GW31 suggests that you will soon be wanting them all back in. Perhaps the best bet will be to simply bench them if you can and save yourself having to transfer them out and then straight back in again, if you can. GW29 itself is not exactly left with a who’s who of the fantasy elite so you should be able to do this and get away with it.

GW30 looks like this… with attractive fixtures we feel for the likes of  Man City, Everton, Southampton and Chelsea so just be aware of these before you get too trigger happy ahead of GW29….

GW31, to complete the set…

Just so you have all of the info in one place then here is what GW31 looks like with all of those double game-weeks added.

DOUBLE GAME-WEEKS, STILL TO BE ADDED….

There are obviously a lot of games that still need to be rearranged. As we speak there is only one confirmed DGW which involves Man Utd and Man City and is in GW31. A quick look at the list below suggests that there are a lot of big players that will be having a double very soon. Factor this into your planning as these dates will be announced shortly and you will need those players for those double weeks. So whilst we don’t yet know when they are, there are only 11 weeks left so it will be sooner than you think!

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
Newcastle vs Everton
Arsenal vs Swansea

Summary

Our advice then would be as follows –

City and Sunderland miss two weeks in a row. City have a double game-week to come in GW31 that includes Fulham at home. Bench your City players if you can rather than selling them. Sell any Sunderland boys if you have to.

Look ahead to the GW30 and GW31 fixtures. Figure these into your planning for 28 and 29. Plan accordingly. Do not sell players who you know you will be wanting back just because they miss a week or two, if you can help it.

Do not go mad on hits just to field 11 players for GW29. There are not that many attractive propositions in GW29 to justify it. Consider Man Utd away at West Brom and possibly Nolan at home to Hull for this one but do not mortgage to the hilt on it.

You may have to roll the dice on one or two players who you would not normally consider given the way the fixtures look for GW29. Ensure you have checked their stats and their fixtures before doing so but don’t be afraid to take the odd punt. Just make sure it’s only the odd one though! Don’t forget that a lot of the big teams will have double game-weeks added very shortly, as mentioned above, so do not sell too many of their players if you can help it. Roll those dice too far and it could be a long way back!

Fixture Fun

Ahead of GW28 there are Champions League fixtures for both Chelsea and Man Utd as well as that FA Cup replay for Hull on Monday night so as ever check closely for any injury or suspension news as a result.

Good luck for GW28 and we hope you are able to plan ahead a little bit better as a result of the above info…

Thanks for reading Fixtures – Planning Ahead, GW’s 28, 29 and beyond… this article was written by Inittowinit