We are in the administrative stage of the Fantasy Premier League season with regularly occurring blank and double gameweeks posing logistical challenges and transfer headaches to FPL managers.
Gameweek 26 has a typical schedule with 10 matches involving all 20 clubs staggered out from Saturday lunchtime to Monday evening. However, things are about to get a lot more hectic with double gameweeks taking place in 27 and 29 either side of a mega blank in 28. Those Free Hit and Bench Boost chips are going to be popular in the coming weeks.
Similarly to previous articles, our selections for this weekend have been partly influenced by the upcoming schedule. There are four clubs playing twice in Gameweek 27 – Brentford, Brighton, Crystal Palace and Southampton – and the first two clubs, in particular, should be a focus of immediate interest in the transfer market.
Also bear in mind that this week’s FA Cup fifth-round results are going to wreak havoc on the Premier League calendar, given that the quarter-finals are scheduled to take place on the weekend starting Saturday 18 March. Essentially, any Premier League clubs that make it through to the next round will not play in Gameweek 28.
Gameweek 25 top scorers
Goalkeepers:
- Martinez (Aston Villa) – 9
- Guaita (Crystal Palace) – 9
Defenders:
- Firpo (Leeds) – 15
- Dier (Spurs) – 12
- Gabriel (Arsenal) – 9
- Van Dijk (Liverpool) – 9
Midfielders:
- Foden (Man City) – 13
- McGinn (Aston Villa) – 12
- Martinelli (Arsenal), Rice (West Ham), Benrahma (West Ham), Sarabia (Wolves) – 10
Forwards:
- Ings (Aston Villa) – 13
- Alvarez (Man City) – 11
- Haaland (Man City) – 10
*Arsenal vs Everton and Liverpool vs Wolves yet to be played
Back to Gameweek 26, there are some notable games to target for points. Managers who loaded up on Arsenal assets for their recent double gameweeks will be in a strong position considering the league leaders host Bournemouth on Saturday. Elsewhere, Manchester City welcome a Newcastle team that is struggling for goals and on a downer after losing the Carabao Cup final, while Liverpool and Manchester United go head to head at Anfield on Sunday.
Here are i‘s picks for Gameweek 26:
Gameweek 26 fixtures
Saturday 4 March
- Man City vs Newcastle
- Arsenal vs Bournemouth
- Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace
- Brighton vs West Ham
- Chelsea vs Leeds
- Wolves vs Spurs
- Southampton vs Leicester
Sunday 5 March
- Nottingham Forest vs Everton
- Liverpool vs Man Utd
Monday 6 March
- Brentford vs Fulham
Fraser Forster (Spurs)
With Danny Ward reverting back to his unconvincing early season form since the World Cup, Fraser Forster has emerged as the best budget goalkeeper in the game after recording back-to-back clean sheets. At just £3.9m, Forster is currently the cheapest starting No 1 with the injured Hugo Lloris still a few weeks away from returning to action.
After a difficult first outing as the Frenchman’s understudy against Leicester, Forster has been a commanding presence for Spurs, albeit without being unduly tested by either West Ham or Chelsea. Spurs have been far more solid of late – besides that thrashing at the King Power – keeping four clean sheets in their last five league games.
Price: £3.9m Points: 14 Gameweek 26 fixture: Wolves (a)
Oleksandr Zinchenko (Arsenal)
Oleksandr Zinchenko is the lowest-owned option of Arsenal’s back five but could be a great differential in the coming weeks due to his improving attacking threat. The Ukrainian scored his first Arsenal goal (and first Premier League goal) in the recent win against Aston Villa and came close to adding his second against Leicester last weekend.
Interestingly, given he is a far from prolific goalscorer, Zinchenko ranks second among all defenders for attempts on goal (with 14) since the Premier League’s restart on Boxing Day, only behind Newcastle’s Fabian Schar (19), and is top for shots on target (five). He has also created a reasonable seven chances in that time too.
Price: £5.1m Points: 68 Gameweek 26 fixture: Bournemouth (h)
Lewis Dunk (Brighton)
Pervis Estupinan is a more exciting pick but the in-form left-back has been ruled out of Brighton’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Stoke. Keep an eye on Roberto De Zerbi’s pre-match press conference ahead of the West Ham game to see whether Estupinan is available as he probably shades Lewis Dunk as the Seagulls’ go-to defender.
That isn’t to say that Dunk is not a strong pick in his own right. In terms of security of starts, Dunk is far and away the best Brighton player to target as he has accumulated 500 more minutes than any other defender in their squad. Brighton’s opponents West Ham, meanwhile, have only scored seven goals on the road this term.
Price: £4.7m Points: 62 Gameweek 26 fixture: West Ham (h)
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Ruben Dias (Man City)
It has been a while since Ruben Dias was a lock in Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City defence, but since returning from a hamstring injury the Portuguese centre-back has started in three successive Premier League games, including in the crucial win against Arsenal when he was excellent.
City have been frustratingly leaky of late, conceding exactly one goal in each of their last five league games, but have a decent chance of keeping an overdue clea sheet against a Newcastle team struggling for goals. The Magpies have failed to score in five of their last 12 matches in all competitions.
Price: £5.9m Points: 47 Gameweek 26 fixture: Newcastle (h)
Marcus Rashford (Man Utd)
On the one hand, an excellent player badly out of form; on the other, an excellent player in the form of his life. Trent Alexander-Arnold vs Marcus Rashford is perhaps the most intriguing subplot to Sunday’s meeting at Anfield given the pair’s contrasting fortunes this campaign.
Alexander-Arnold was the poster boy for Liverpool’s sloppiness at Selhurst Park and was mightily fortunate that Jean-Philippe Mateta could not punish two lax pieces of defending. Rashford has led the line in recent games, but Erik ten Hag may well be inclined to stick him in his favoured position on the left given Alexander-Arnold’s fragile confidence.
Price: £7.2m Points: 151 Gameweek 26 fixture: Liverpool (a)
Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
Bukayo Saka was one of the most captained players of Gameweek 25 and although he drew a frustrating blank in his first match against Leicester, he could have easily hauled on another day. Saka scored only for it to be disallowed due to a tight offside call and probably should have been awarded a penalty after being manhandled by Harry Souttar.
All is not lost for Saka owners and captainers as he still has a home fixture against Everton to play before attentions switch to the weekend visit of Bournemouth. With a little over a third of the season remaining, Saka has already contributed nine goals and nine FPL assists in 24 appearances.
Price: £8.5m Points: 135 Gameweek 26 fixture: Bournemouth (h)
Martin Odegaard (Arsenal)
After an explosive run of form, Martin Odegaard’s FPL returns have diminished of late, with just one attacking return in his last five appearances – prior to Arsenal’s second game of the double gameweek. Nevertheless, he remains the third-highest-scoring midfielder in FPL and returned 16 points on his previous appearance against Bournemouth.
Arsenal’s opponents have the worst away defensive record in the league, conceding 32 goals in 12 games so doubling up on the Arsenal attack is almost essential this week. With Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard and Eddie Nketiah all rotation risks, the Saka and Odegaard combo still looks to be the safest pairing.
Price: £7.0m Points: 134 Gameweek 26 fixture: Bournemouth (h)
Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton)
World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister has been overshadowed by Kaoru Mitoma and Solly March in FPL over the past couple of months, but since being shifted into a more advanced No 10 role following Adam Lallana’s injury, his attacking stats have shot right up.
According to FPL, who have recently added expected metrics into the game, Mac Allister has recorded a combined xG total of 1.92 across his previous two appearances against Crystal Palace and Fulham without scoring. That suggests that goals are on the way for the Argentine who is also the Seagulls’ first-choice penalty taker.
Price: £5.4m Points: 70 Gameweek 26 fixture: West Ham (h)
Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
Over the past five gameweeks only two players have scored more than three times: one is Rashford, a player in the best form of his career; another is Erling Haaland who is comfortably on course to beat Mo Salah’s record for the most goals scored in a 38-game Premier League season. The other? Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.
Villa’s decision to sell Danny Ings to West Ham was a big statement of faith in Watkins’ qualities and since his former strike partner’s departure, Watkins has enjoyed his best run of form in a Villa shirt. The 27-year-old has scored a goal in each of his last five league matches, becoming the first Villa player to do so in the competition’s history.
Price: £7.3m Points: 100 Gameweek 26 fixture: Crystal Palace (h)
Erling Haaland (Man City)
Erling Haaland had been chugging along with an assist and a goal in his four appearances pre-Gameweek 25 but it was still nice to see him register a first double-digit haul since Gameweek 21 during City’s comprehensive 4-1 victory over Bournemouth last weekend.
Haaland got the “assist” for Julian Alvarez’s opener after his shot ricocheted into the Argentine’s path via the bar and then doubled City’s lead with a predatory finish. After being relegated behind Saka and Mo Salah in the captaincy pecking order last weekend, he is back in the conversation ahead of City’s clash with out-of-form Newcastle.
Price: £12.2m Points: 193 Gameweek 26 fixture: Newcastle (h)
Ivan Toney (Brentford)
Ivan Toney still has the FA’s charges for alleged betting breaches hanging over him, but until that matter is resolved he remains an excellent FPL pick: only Haaland (with 193 points) and Harry Kane (161) have outscored Brentford’s main man among forwards this season.
Toney is the most transferred in player ahead of Saturday’s deadline with FPL managers evidently backing him to produce the goods against Fulham on Monday night. The Bees should be full of confidence for the west London derby given they are currently on the longest unbeaten streak in the top-flight.
Price: £7.6m Points: 122 Gameweek 26 fixture: Fulham (h)
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