Planning Ahead – DGW’s, Blanks etc… – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
“When are the double game-weeks?”
“Who misses GW27?”
“Why is everybody talking about GW30 in terms of some sort of FPL apocalypse?!”
“When is the best time to use my chips?”
“Are there any other ‘GW30’ type surprises on the way?”
These are just some of the more common questions we’ve been asked recently and so we wanted to clear it all up and make it as as easy to understand as possible. It’s dead simple really. When you know the answer. That largely depends on the question though. In this case we know the questions and we know part of the answers. The rest of it is guesswork right now but here’s what we know, what we don’t know and what we will know soon enough.
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“When are the double game-weeks?”
The double game-weeks will be in GW’s 34 & 37. We know this because of the scheduling of other competitions such as the Champions League and the Europa League. You cannot, by UEFA law, have an FPL game on the same midweek as one of their comps, which rules out a good few weeks and pretty much leaves the aforementioned weeks as our only options.
Let’s take the remaining weeks one by one to try and make this as simple as possible…
GW27
The following teams miss this week due to the League Cup Final-
Everton
Liverpool
Man City
Newcastle
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GW28
All teams play
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GW29
All teams play
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GW30
The Apocalypse! All managers panic!
This is the one which could get messy! Who plays in this one depends on which teams progress to the FA Cup 6th round.
As of now only two games are certain to go ahead in GW30 and those are –
Leicester v Newcastle
Stoke v Southampton
The rest depends upon the following teams winning or losing their FA Cup 5th round ties which are –
Shrewsbury vs Man United
Chelsea vs Man City
Reading vs West Brom
Watford vs Leeds
Blackburn vs West Ham
Spurs vs Crystal Palace
Arsenal vs Hull
Bournemouth vs Everton
The rest of the GW30 schedule looks like this as we stand now but could be decimated depending on the results of the FA Cup games. Every game below for GW30 is affected by the results of the games above.
Arsenal vs West Brom – off if either win
Man Utd vs Crystal Palace – off if either win
West Ham vs Watford – off if either win
Aston Villa vs Spurs – off if Spurs win
Liverpool vs Chelsea – off if Chelsea win
Sunderland vs Everton – off if Everton win
Norwich vs Man City – off if Man City win
Bournemouth vs Swansea – off if Bournemouth win
Tick them off as you go next weekend! For info this particular FA Cup round occurs this weekend (ie between GW26 & 27). You will need to plan your GW27 / 28 / 29 transfers accordingly so as to have as many GW30 players as is possible, which still may be less than than preferable, but panic not as many will be in the same boat. And rest assured even more that many won’t be aware of the perils ahead!
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GW31
All teams play
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GW32
All teams play
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GW33
All teams play
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GW34
All teams play and a potential DGW
This is the first of the windows for DGW’s. We don’t know who will feature but given the above information it is highly likely that at the very least Man City will need to get their first DGW out of the way on this week as it’s highly likely that they will have another in GW37.
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GW35
This FPL week clashes with the FA Cup semi-finals and so any teams lucky enough to have progressed that far will miss out this week, and so will their opponents. They will therefore almost certainly fulfil their missed GW35 fixture(s) in GW37. You need to take this weeks blanks into consideration when planning any DGW assault in GW34.
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GW36
All teams play
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GW37
The second potential bumper DGW
This may be a bumper one depending on how many make it through FA Cup R5 and subsequently R6. Certainly we will see the semi-finalists feature twice in this one but also the other teams that have been unable to reschedule previously in GW34.
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GW38
All teams play. Lots of managers have heart attacks!
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“When is the best time to use my remaining chips?”
If you have been prudent enough to save your second wildcard and also the bench boost and the triple captain chips then well done and you may reap the benefits very soon, all being well! The perceived wisdom here is that you will be best served by playing your WC the week before any DGW and then activating your bench boost on the week of it itself to hopefully maximise a full squad of DGW’ers. Which of the DGW’s you do this in will depend largely upon the pool of players available. If GW34 is looking light (4-6 DGW teams or less) then you may be best waiting for GW37. One of them will be busy anyway given how it’s looking so far. Pick the busiest one for this strategy as you need to remember that you will have that squad the week after it has finished too! If it happens to be GW37 then that may be less pertinent given that there is only one week left anyway but if it’s GW34 then it may need more thought and consideration as to what lies beyond.
As for the Triple Captain one then simply use this in the other DGW that you don’t use the Bench Boost for. Remember you can only use one chip per week and the wildcard itself is classed as a chip for this purpose.
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Thanks for reading Planning Ahead – DGW’s, Blanks etc… – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. This article was written by Inittowinit
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Great article, thanks. The chips have spiced things up a bit, no doubt some of us will make a catastrophic mistake. Personally, the chips kind of messed this seasons strategy as over the past couple of seasons I e found that I would have scored higher overall had i ignored the dgw’s! Surely that wont be the case this season though what with all these chips!
DB, I agree about the chips. I’m not a big fan. There’s already enough strategy to the game IMO. I’ve already made the mistake and wasted my triple cappo chip early on. Wasn’t thinking about DGWs at that point and Kun blanked against villa :/
Top class info and clearly laid out as well! Thx Init!
Awesome detail and preparation. I’m running out of space in my work cubicle for all Init’s wise missives. This one get’s pride of place; next week, maybe the ceiling!
I will not rest until it’s wall to wall, ceiling and carpet
I would give my left arm to still have my AOA chip this GW :/
Anyone reckon Bournemouth can keep Ighalo from scoring? He’s been awfully quiet lately so I’ll probably play Sanchez over him.
Hey Pancho! I’d keep Ighalo in there but then again tough who to bench! Maybe an injury betw/ now and then will help you out!
Pancho I’d bench Sanchez and play Ighalo, Watford really look good team at home and usually win so against Bournemouth I would be playing him, you can bench Alli too as you have him covered by Kane and Swansea defence has improved too
Wow Pancho….. tough choice.. Bench Alli imo…. Just!
I think GW 37 will be best to use WC as more teams are going to play and the fact that you have only 1 gw to manage after that and don’t need strategy to get back other players but would be really difficult to hold on till that! And that would mean triple captain should be used in gw 34. I hope City have dgw in gw 34 as Kun is the best candidate to triple captain
Snookie, City’s GW 34 fixture is away at Chelsea, so he may not be the best candidate that week. Arsenal, on the other hand, will probably have Palace and WBA both at home that week. I think an Ozil triple captain could be brilliant that week!
Another option is Rooney, as they will probably have Villa and Palace both at home, with Palace having already gotten beat up by Arsenal. Depending on their form Rooney/Martial could be the way to go.
Will depend on form of the teams around that week!
Great stuff init, i’ll be coming back to this quite a bit i think 😉
Cheers! :thumbup:
Init,
This is a terrific rundown of what we can expect over the remainder of the season.
A NiN says, we will all surely be referring back to this constantly over the next few weeks. We now wait and watch the F.A. Cup this weekend with great interest.
Thanks pal.