We are in the administrative phase of the Fantasy Premier League season and the regular empty and double match weeks are creating logistical issues and transfer headaches for FPL managers.
Match 26 has a typical 10-match schedule involving all 20 clubs, played from Saturday afternoon to Monday evening. However, things get a lot more tense when the double in-game weeks at 27 and 29 occur on either side of the mega-empty at 28. Those Free Hit and Bench Boost chips will be popular for a few more weeks.
As in previous articles, our picks for this weekend were partly influenced by the upcoming schedule. Four clubs play twice in the 27th round – Brentford, Brighton, Crystal Palace AND Southampton and the first two clubs in particular are likely to be the focus of the transfer market.
Also remember that the FA Cup fifth round results should wreak havoc on the Premier League calendar this week, with the quarter-finals set for the weekend starting on Saturday 18 March. Essentially, all Premier League clubs that advance to the next round will not play in Matchday 28.
Top scorers of the 25th round
Goalkeeper:
- Martinez (Aston Mansion) – 9
- Guaita (Crystal Palace) – 9
Defender:
- fipo (Leeds) – 15
- animal (spurs) – 12
- Gabriel (Arsenal) – 9
- Van Dyck (Liverpool) – 9th place
Midfielder:
- foden (Manchester City) – 13
- McGinn (Aston Villa)-12
- Martinelli (Arsenal), rice (West Ham) Benrahma (West Ham) Sarabia (Wolves) – 10
Forward:
- engineer (Aston Villa)-13
- Alvarez (Manchester City) – 11
- Haland (Manchester City) – 10
*Arsenal v Everton and Liverpool v Wolverhampton are under consideration.
Going back to Gameweek 26, there are some notable games to earn points in. Managers who have loaded Arsenal’s assets in recent weeks with double plays will be in a strong position when the leaders host Bournemouth on Saturday. Elsewhere, Manchester City will welcome a Newcastle team struggling for goals and feeling depressed after losing the Champions League final when Liverpool and Manchester United meet at Anfield on Sunday.
Stay here IChoice of the 26th round:
Game week 26 games
Saturday, March 4
- Manchester City vs Newcastle
- Arsenal vs Bournemouth
- Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace
- Brighton vs West Ham
- Chelsea vs Leeds
- Wolves against tracks
- Southampton vs Leicester
Sunday, March 5
- Nottingham Forest – Everton
- Liverpool vs Manchester United
Monday, March 6
- Brentford vs Fulham
Fraser Forester (Tottenham)
After Danny Ward returned to his unconvincing form at the start of the season after the World Cup, Frazier Forster became the game’s best budget goaltender, keeping two clean sheets in a row. At just £3.9m, Forster is the cheapest starter No. 1 so far, with injured Hugo Lloris still weeks away from his return to action.
After a difficult first game as the Frenchman’s understudy against Leicester, Forster was a formidable player for Spurs but was unnecessarily tested by West Ham or Chelsea. The Spurs have been a lot firmer lately – aside from hitting the King Power – four clean sheets in their last five league games.
Price: £3.9 million Points: 14 26th gaming week. wolves (a)
Oleksandr Zinchenko (Arsenal)
Oleksandr Zinchenko is the least possessive player in Arsenal’s back five, but he could play a big role in the coming weeks as his attacking threat rises. The Ukrainian scored his debut goal for Arsenal (and a Premier League goal) in a recent win over Aston Villa and narrowly missed scoring his second against Leicester last weekend.
Interestingly, Zinchenko is far from being a successful scorer. As the Premier League resumed on Boxing Day, Zinchenko is second among all defenders in shots on target (14), behind only Newcastle’s Fabian Shar (19) and leads the team in shots on target. (five). He also created a reasonable seven chances in that time.
Price: £5.1 million Points: 68 26th gaming week. Bournemouth (h)
Lewis Dunk (Brighton)
Purvis Estupinan is the more exciting choice, but a fit left-back was ruled out of Brighton’s FA Cup fifth round game against Stoke. Keep an eye out for Roberto De Zerbi’s press conference ahead of West Ham to see if Estupinan is available as he is likely to outshine Lewis Dunk as a Chaika defender.
This does not mean that Dunk is not a standalone choice. In terms of safety from the start, Dunk is by far Brighton’s best player with 500 more minutes than any other defender on his team. Brighton’s rivals West Ham have scored just seven times this season.
Price: £4.7 million Points: 62 26th gaming week. western ham (h)
Ruben Diaz (Manchester City)
It’s been a long time since Rubén Dias was an integral part of Pep Guardiola’s defense at Manchester City, but since he returned from a hamstring injury, the Portuguese centre-back has started three successive Premier League matches, including a decisive win over Arsenal when he was outstanding. . .
City have been disappointing lately, conceding exactly one goal in each of their last five league games, but they stand a good chance of falling behind goal-challenging Newcastle. The Magpies haven’t scored in five of their last 12 games in all competitions.
Price: £5.9 million Points: 47 26th gaming week. Newcastle (h)
Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
On the one hand, a great player who is seriously out of shape; on the other hand, a great player in the shape of his life. Trent Alexander-Arnold vs. Marcus Rashford is arguably the most intriguing plot of Sunday’s meeting at Anfield given the pair’s opposing fate in this campaign.
Alexander-Arnold was the epitome of Liverpool’s carelessness at Selhurst Park and he was very lucky that Jean-Philippe Mateta was unable to penalize two weak defenders. Rashford has been in charge for the past few games, but Erik ten Hag might be tempted to leave him in his favored position on the left given Alexander-Arnold’s uncertainty.
Price: £7.2 million Points: 151 26th gaming week. Liverpool (a)
Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
Bukayo Saka was one of the Gameweek 25 captains and despite losing his first game against Leicester, he could easily have won another day. Saka only scored a goal, but he was kept out for a close offside and should have probably been awarded a penalty after Harry Suttar roughed him around.
All is not lost for Saki’s owners and captains as he has one more home game against Everton before all attention shifts to a weekend visit to Bournemouth. Over the remaining third of the season, Saka scored nine goals and provided nine assists in 24 games.
Price: £8.5 million Points: 135 26th gaming week. Bournemouth (h)
Martin Odegaard (Arsenal)
After an explosive rise in form, Martin Odegaard’s return to the FPL has been on the wane of late, with just one offensive response in the last five matches ahead of Arsenal’s second doubles game of the week. Despite this, he remains the third-highest-scoring midfielder in the FPL with 16 points since his last match against Bournemouth.
Rivals Arsenal have the worst defensive record in the league with 32 goals in 12 games, so doubling Arsenal’s attack this week is a must. With Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossar and Eddie Nketiah at risk of rotation, the combination of Saki and Odegaard still seems like the safest combination.
Price: £7.0 million Points: 134 26th gaming week. Bournemouth (h)
Alexis McAllister (Brighton)
World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister has been overshadowed by Kaoru Mitoma and Solly March in the FPL in recent months, but since switching to a more advanced role at number 10 after Adam Lallana’s injury, his offensive performance has skyrocketed.
According to the FPL, which recently added expected stats to the game, Mack Allister’s total xG is 1.92 in his last two goalless matches against Crystal Palace and Fulham. This suggests that the Argentine, who is also the Seagulls’ number one player, has goals on the way.
Price: £5.4 million Points: 70 26th gaming week. western ham (h)
Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
In the last five weeks of games, only two players have scored more than three times: one is Rashford, the player in the best shape of his career; The other is Erling Haaland, who is set to break Mo Salah’s record for most goals scored in a 38-game Premier League season. Another? Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa.
Villa’s decision to sell Danny Ings to West Ham was a huge expression of confidence in Watkins’ qualities, and with the departure of his former striker, Watkins showed his best form in a Villa shirt. The 27-year-old has scored in each of his last five league games, becoming the first Villa player in league history.
Price: £7.3 million Points: 100 26th gaming week. Crystal Palace (h)
Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
Erling Haaland provided one assist and scored one goal in his four appearances ahead of Matchday 25 but it was still good to see him pull off his first double-digit win since Matchday 21 in City’s comprehensive victory over Bournemouth 4:1 last weekend. .
Haaland received a “head pass” from Julián Alvarez after his shot bounced off the crossbar in the Argentine’s way and then doubled City’s lead with a rapacious finish. After being demoted from the captaincy last weekend following Saka and Mo Salah, he is back in talks ahead of City’s out-of-form Newcastle game.
Price: £12.2 million Points: 193 26th gaming week. Newcastle (h)
Ivan Tony (Brentford)
Ivan Tony is still battling the FA over alleged betting violations, but until that case is resolved he remains a solid choice for the FPL, with only Haaland (193) and Harry Kane (161) beating Brentford this season , the captain among the intruders. .
Tony is the player with the most transfers before the Saturday deadline and FPL managers seem to be backing him to make amends against Fulham on Monday night. The Bees should have confidence in the West London derby as they currently have the longest unbeaten run in the top flight.
Price: £7.6 million Points: 122 26th gaming week. Fulham (h)
Source: I News
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.