After a brave battle with Paris Saint-Germain over two semi-final legs, Arsenal were eliminated from the Champions League this week. Whether it was deserved or not we’ll leave up to you, but what we can say is that it will have an impact on FPL planning for the remaining three gameweeks of the 2024-2025 season. The Gunners are currently leading the race for second place with a 3-point lead over Manchester City and a 4-points lead over Newcastle, and they still face champions Liverpool (this weekend) and the Magpies (in GW37), before visiting relegating Southampton to end the season. We expect this to be reflected in the FPL transfer stats over the coming days as well.

Besides that, England still has three other teams in Europe at the moment, with Manchester United and Spurs on the cusp of an all-English Europa League final, and Chelsea all but qualified for a Conference League final against either Real Betis of Fiorentina. These games are still to be played at the moment of writing. The Blues, in particular, have an intense ending of the season cut out for them, as they currently find themselves outside of the Premier League top-four on goal difference and with a tough schedule to come.

Neither Man United nor Spurs have any chance of a decent Premier League finish this season, considering their respective 15^th and 16^th (!) places in the league. Expect these sides to focus on the Europa League as much as they can, seeing as winning that title is their only way of qualifying for European football next season. The ramifications of this situation for FPL managers are minimal though, in our opinion, as neither team offers real stand-out fantasy picks and they both have a relatively challenging schedule to end the season.

Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 36 is set at 13h30 (UK time) on Saturday, May 10^th, 2025. The free to play FPL or pay to play season/weekend/daily games like FanTeam are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per May 8^th, 2025)

Premium pick

While not all of our Gameweek 35 fantasy picks delivered as hoped, the one who did (and in a big way) was Kevin de Bruyne (£9.5m). With Liverpool crowned champions, Bukayo Saka and Arsenal focusing on the Champions League, Erling Haaland only recently back from injury and Cole Palmer not in the best form of his life (in terms of FPL returns, that is), we identified Manchester City’s midfield maestro as an interesting premium fantasy pick, not only for the GW35 home game against Wolves, but until the end of the season. KDB rewarded the roughly 10% of FPL managers who own him with a handsome 11-pointer, courtesy of him scoring the only goal of the game last weekend. As a result, we are going with the Belgian again this weekend, when City visit relegated Southampton. While the Skyblues are well in the battle for a top-four finish, the Saints have already been relegated, in part due to their leaky defence. No team has conceded more than their 82 goals in 35 league games, which is why we feel confident in repeating KDB as our premium fantasy pick for Gameweek 36. On top of that, and as we said last week, KDB has something to prove after City informed him recently that his contract will not be extended at the end of this season.

Non-premium pick

We realise it might be a bit boring, but after repeating our premium fantasy pick, we are also repeating our non-premium fantasy pick of Gameweek 35. Bryan Mbeumo (£8.2m) was the other one of our picks last weekend who delivered, though we secretly hoped for a bit more from the home game against struggling Manchester United. In a 4-3 thriller, the Cameroon international, who already had 18 goals and 7 assists to his name at that point, came away with an assist for 5 FPL points. That’s better than nothing though, and up next for Brentford is a visit to Ipswich Town. In other words, another great chance for Mbeumo to work towards the impressive 20-goal milestone. The Tractor Boys have already been relegated, in great part due to the fact that they have conceded no less than 76 goals in 35 league games so far. Brentford, on the other hand, have nothing to play for anymore, though 8^th place (they are currently in 9^th, 1 point behind Bournemouth) might mean European football next season if Man United or Spurs win the Europa League, and Chelsea triumphs in the Conference League. We are confident that Mbeumo and co will play to win at Ipswich, which makes him one of the stand-out fantasy picks for Gameweek 36.

The budget enabler

We’re sticking with Brentford for our budget fantasy pick for Gameweek 36, as Kevin Schade (£5.1m) seems to have all the makings a good value investment at the moment. The German attacker has worked his way into manager Thomas Frank’s starting eleven this season and he has repaid that confidence handsomely with 10 goals and 4 assists from 23 league starts. No less than 3 of those goals were scored in the last two gameweeks, with a goal at Nottingham Forest in Gameweek 34 followed by a brace at home to Manchester United last weekend. Seeing as Brentford are facing Ipswich Town on the road next, Schade boasts the always promising form-plus-fixture combination. Add to that the fact that he costs just £5.1m at the moment of writing and what you get is a budget enabler with a more than decent ceiling. To top it off, Brentford’s remaining schedule is not bad either, especially for a player who you can easily use as your fifth midfielder as well, if needed. After their visit to Ipswich this weekend, the Bees are hosting Fulham before ending the 2024-2025 campaign at Molineux in Gameweek 38.

The differential

While Nottingham Forest’s form (and results) have dipped a bit over the past few gameweeks, the Tricky Trees still find themselves in an impressive sixth place in the league with just three gameweeks to go. That means they are really close now to their first qualification for European football since the 1994-1995 season, when they qualified for the UEFA Cup. In order to make that a reality, a victory in the upcoming home game against Leicester City looks crucial. The Foxes have already been relegated and bar Southampton, no side has scored as few goals as Leicester, which is why we are picking Neco Williams (£4.5m) as our differential fantasy pick for Gameweek 36. We are opting for the Forest wing-back because of his potential for points at both ends of the pitch this weekend. Forest have been excellent in defence this season and with a bit of luck, Williams adds to his current 1 goal and 3 assists against Leicester City on Sunday.

The (vice-)captaincy

After his fine performance and 11-point haul in Gameweek 35, we are backing Kevin de Bruyne as our captain again this weekend, when Manchester City face Southampton at Saint Mary’s.

Gameweek 36 offers a few very interesting alternatives to the Belgian as well, especially on the Brentford roster. Both Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa look like great shouts for the armband when the Bees visit Ipswich Town. The same goes for Manchester City players Omar Marmoush and Josko Gvardiol when they face Southampton away.

For further thoughts and discussions (including minleagues and side games) on the FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.

Gameweek 35 is the first regular gameweek in a while, but there still are some important factors to take into consideration in the build-up to the Friday FPL deadline.

First of all, at the moment of writing, there is still one game from Double Gameweek 34 to be played. On Thursday, May 1^st, Nottingham Forest take on Brentford at the City Ground, which is an especially big game for the home side. While Brentford are kind of played out for the season, Forest are still very much in the race for European football next season. Actually, they are just a single point behind a top-four spot at the moment, with a game in hand.

Second of all, Arsenal have just played the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain. That is important to know, because the Gunners have a relatively favourable home fixture against Bournemouth coming up this weekend. This will undoubtedly make more than a few managers consider Arsenal assets, but expect rotation to be rife in manager Mikel Arteta’s starting eleven.

Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 35 is set at 18h30 (UK time) on Friday, May2^nd, 2025. The free to play FPL or pay to play season/weekend/daily games like FanTeam are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per April 30^th, 2025)

Premium pick

Contrary to most of the Gameweeks this season, choosing a premium fantasy pick for Gameweek 35 was not easy. Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah was just crowned a Premier League champion, Man City’s Erling Haaland is injured, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer has been underwhelming of late (plus the Blues are facing Liverpool) and Bukayo Saka is a major rotation risk. On top of that, Heung-Min Son is part of a sub-par Spurs side and flagged for injury as well. We have therefore opted for Kevin de Bruyne (£9.4m), who is not having his best season, but who can look forward to a pretty favourable end of the 2024-2025 Premier League campaign, fixture-wise. The Belgian midfielder, who will be leaving Man City at the end of this season, has a home game against Wolves coming up, followed by Southampton away, Bournemouth home and Fulham away. What makes KDB extra appealing is the fact that Manchester City will very likely be battling for a top-four spot until the end of the season. Combine that with their fixtures and their creator-in-chief could very well turn out to be a fantastic, slightly left-field pick (due to his price) to finish the season with.

Non-premium pick

A few players have greatly impressed this season next to the usual suspects and Bryan Mbeumo (£8.1m) is absolutely one of them. The Cameroon international has been nothing short of impressive with 18 goals and 7 assists from 33 league starts, for a total of 210 FPL points. He sits second only to Mo Salah in terms of FPL points. As a matter of fact, Salah and Mbeumo are the only two players so far to have passed the 200-point barrier this season. Brentford do have a Gameweek 34 game coming up still, so we recommend waiting with transferring Mbeumo in until Thursday evening, in case he gets injured or suspended, but if he doesn’t, he should probably be around the top of your scouting list. On Sunday, the Bees are hosting struggling Manchester United and after that it’s a visit to relegated Ipswich Town for them. They end the season with a home game against Fulham and an away game against Wolves. In other words, we would be very surprised if Mbeumo does NOT reach the 20-goal mark before the end of the season. Who knows, he might even go for broke and try for the FPL double-double with 20+ goals and at least 10 assists.

The budget enabler

Like Mbeumo and Brentford, Anthony Elanga (£5.4m) and Nottingham Forest still have a game to play as part of Gameweek 34, so keep that in mind. Having said that, when it comes to budget fantasy picks for Gameweek 35 and beyond, we see few better options than the former Manchester United promise. Thanks to 6 goals and 9 assists in 26 league starts, he is Nottingham Forest’s highest-scoring midfielder with 135 FPL points. Not bad, right, for a winger who is classified as a midfielder and who started the season with a £5.0m price tag? Incredibly enough, Forest are still in the race for a top-four finish and in order to clinch a historic Champions League spot, they will need to deal with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Monday. After that, it’s relegated Leicester city at home, a visit to West Ham United, and a home game against Chelsea to finish their fantastic 2024-2025 Premier League campaign. As for Elanga, he will continue to play a key role for the Tricky Trees and if you are looking for a budget enabler for your squad, we definitely recommend keeping an eye on him come Thursday when Forest visit Brentford for the final fixture of Double Gameweek 34.

The differential

It didn’t take certain bookies very long at the beginning of this season to declare Everton a guaranteed relegation side, which resulted in early payouts for people who had bet on the Toffees not making it. Unfortunately for the bookies though, that’s not what happened and while the Toffees did have a horrid start to the season, they managed to somewhat find their feet, with a current 15^th place in the league as a result. They have little left to play for as relegation is out of the question, which is important to keep in mind when it comes to our differential fantasy pick for Gameweek 35, but they also have one of the best fixture runs until the end of the season. That’s why we are going with Iliman Ndiaye (£5.2m) as an extreme differential, considering his ownership sits at just 0.9% at the moment of writing. The Senegal international is generally a starter under manager David Moyes and he is also the most prolific Toffee so far this season, with 7 goals. What’s more, he is the highest-scoring Everton asset behind goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and central defender James Tarkowski. Ndiaye’s price tag makes him an interesting candidate for the third forward spot in any squad, especially with a home game against Ipswich Town coming up, followed by Fulham away and Southampton home.

The (vice-)captaincy

If you have the possibility to line up Kevin de Bruyne in Gameweek 35 for Man City’s home game against Wolves, we’d probably slap the armband on him as well. If not, Bryan Mbeumo at home to Manchester United looks like a relatively safe option.

More differential captaincy picks for Gameweek 35 include Ollie Watkins at home against Fulham, Leandro Trossard for Arsenal’s home game against Bournemouth and Alexander Isak for Newcastle’s visit to Brighton on Sunday.

For further thoughts and discussions (including minleagues and side games) on the FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is on course to break the all-time points record in the popular Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game.

Previously most famous in fantasy football circles for inspiring some of the best fantasy football teams names, Salah has already set a new record for the most points (320) in a single FPL season and still has another five games to add to his tally.

He broke his own record that was set in 2017/18 when he finished the campaign on 303 points and he could feasibly break the 350-points barrier this term.

Salah’s efforts during 2024/25 have made him the top performing Liverpool player in FPL, overtaking midfielder Steven Gerrard who previously held third place.

Only Wayne Rooney (2,338 points) and Frank Lampard (2,318 points) are ahead of Salah in the all-time standings and he will likely overhaul both of them next season.

He is 243 points behind the former Manchester United striker heading into Gameweek 34 and looks nailed on to reduce that deficit between now and the end of the season.

Salah has totalled 211 points or more in each of the last eight seasons, so should claim top spot in 2025/26 if he continues his stellar form and steers clear of major injuries.

Only three other current players feature alongside Salah in the all-time FPL top 10 – James Milner, Raheem Sterling and Heung-min Son.

However, Son is the only one of that group to garner more than 100 points this season, meaning Salah has no competition in the race to claim top spot.

All-time FPL points top 10

Haaland could be a long-term threat to Salah

Salah’s rise up the FPL rankings is particularly impressive when considering he has broken through the 2,000-points barrier in less than 300 games.

Lampard garnered his tally of 2,318 points in 424 appearances, while Rooney amassed his 2,338 points in 491 matches.

If Salah maintains his average of around seven points per game over the next couple of seasons, his FPL tally would be somewhere around 2,560 points.

Of the current crop of Premier League players, only Manchester City striker Erling Braut Haaland has a realistic chance of getting anywhere near Salah’s mark.

The Norwegian star racked up 489 points in his first two seasons in the English top flight and added another 171 this term before picking up an ankle injury.

Man City expect Haaland to return to action before the end of the campaign and he could add to his overall tally of 660 points if he hits the ground running.

If Salah decides to leave Liverpool when his contract expires in 2027, the pathway would be clear for Haaland to try and catch him in the FPL points standings.

Based on his current FPL points average, it would take Haaland another nine seasons to pass the mark Salah is currently on course to set.

However, given that the Man City striker has made no secret of his desire to play in La Liga one day, he may ultimately have to settle for a place in the all-time top 10.

With an average score of 56 FPL points and a highest score of 158 FPL points, Double Gameweek 33 did not disappoint. Especially if you were among the roughly 3% of fantasy managers who included Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard in their squads prior to the DGW33 deadline. The Belgian looked primed for a main role during the Double Gameweek and he delivered in a big way. A brace during the visit to Ipswich Town followed by a goal in the 2-2 draw at home to Crystal Palace meant no less than 24 FPL points for the Arsenal forward, who is listed as a midfielder in the official fantasy game. No player did better than him, though Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo made a great effort by scoring two goals and providing an assist against Brighton for 18 FPL points.

On to Gameweek 34, which is going to be a blank and a serious one at that. After doubles in GW33 for Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Manchester City, those same four teams now have a blank to deal with in GW34. This is the result of the FA Cup semi-finals, which are taking place this weekend. You can therefore expect plenty of chips to be activated in the build-up to the Blank Gameweek 34 deadline, especially Free Hits. That is not only because the same four teams that doubled last week are blanking this week, but also because there is very likely another big double gameweek coming up in GW36, followed by another blank gameweek in GW37

Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 34 is set at 11h00 (UK time) on Saturday, April 26^th, 2025. The free to play FPL or pay to play season/weekend/daily games like FanTeam are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per April 24^th, 2025)

Premium pick

When it comes to big names disappointing this season, much of the spotlights have been on Manchester United (and with good reason). As a side effect though, Tottenham Hotspur’s abominable performance has been snowed under a little bit. Sure, the London outfit has been on the receiving end of plenty of criticism this season, but are you aware that they currently find themselves, after 33 Premier League games, in 16^th place? They sit on a mere 37 points as we speak and the numbers only become worse when we look at their away games so far: 16 away games, 5 victories, 1 draw, 10 defeats for a total of 16 points. All this to say that Mohamed Salah (£13.8m) is our premium fantasy pick for Blank Gameweek 34, as Liverpool prepare for a visit of Spurs on Sunday. We don’t need to repeat how good the Egyptian superstar is (27 goals and 18 assists in 33 league starts!), so before we move on, we just want to mention that the upcoming encounter at Anfield is not just any encounter. If the Reds manage a draw against Spurs at the very least, they will officially crown themselves champions of England for the twentieth time in history. Do you think this current Spurs side is going to spoil that occasion?

Non-premium pick

From Anfield to Molineux, where we have high hopes for our non-premium fantasy pick for Blank Gameweek 34. On Sunday, Matheus Cunha (£6.9m) and his teammates welcome Leicester City, whose relegation to the Championship was recently confirmed after their latest 0-1 defeat at the hands of Liverpool. A 4-match suspension kept the Brazilian out of Premier League action between Gameweek 28 and 31, but that barely seems to have had any effect on the excellent form he has been displaying so far this season. In 25 league starts, Cunha has amassed 14 goals and 5 assists, which is outstanding for a forward who started the 2024-2025 FPL campaign with a £6.5m price tag. Since his return to action, he scored a goal in GW32 against Spurs and provided an assist for the only goal of the game in GW33 against Manchester United. Next up for Cunha and Wolves are Leicester City, who have shipped 73 goals in 33 league games. Only Southampton have conceded more often, with 78 goals. Even though Leicester have already been relegated and Wolves have little to play for until the end of the season, we see good chances for Cunha here to build on his current tallies and further shoot himself up the radars of the English and international top clubs before the summer transfer window opens.

The budget enabler

The resurgence of Ryan Sessegnon (£4.1m) as a valid consideration in the official fantasy game could not come at a better time for many managers. The Fulham defender conquered a spot in the starting eleven back in GW31, in which he immediately scored against Liverpool, and he has been starting ever since. What’s more, in GW33 he got an assist on top of a clean sheet against Chelsea for a very nice 11-point haul. What we’ve got now is an absolute bargain defender, playing as a winger for a decent team, and facing the Premier League’s worst defence in Blank Gameweek 34. Like we said, a dream for fantasy managers as many prepare for to deploy their Free Hit chips. Fulham are visiting Southampton on Saturday and we see potential at both ends of the pitch for Sessegnon in that game. Apart from the fact that the Saints have conceded more goals than any other side in the league (78 goals conceded in 33 games), they are also far from prolific in front of the opposition’s goal. They have scored just 24 goals so far, the least of all teams in the league, and just 11 of those goals were scored in front of their own fans. Despite Fulham not really having anything left to play for this season, we are absolutely recommending including Ryan Sessegnon on your scouting lists, especially if you are in need of a bargain defender.

The differential

To be honest, we are quite excited about Blank Gameweek 34, as it’s offering us plenty of interesting fantasy options, despite a few of the major teams missing out. It took us a while to decide on our differential fantasy pick for GW34, but we have eventually gone with Harvey Barnes (£6.0m). The Newcastle winger, who is listed as a midfielder in the official fantasy game, got back in manager Eddie Howe’s starting eleven back in Gameweek 28, due to an injury to Anthony Gordon. In the six league games Newcastle played since then, Barnes recorded an incredible 4 goals and 4 assists for a total of 51 FPL points. Despite those impressive numbers and his price tag of just £6.0m, the Magpie winger is still sitting in just over 5% of all squads in the official fantasy game, at the moment of writing. That form makes him a stand-out differential option for Blank Gameweek 34, when Newcastle are hosting Ipswich Town. The Tractor Boys’ relegation to the Championship has already been confirmed, while Newcastle are still very much in the race for Champions League football next season, so we are expecting a rather one-sided affair at Saint James’ Park on Saturday. Hopefully, Barnes can benefit from that with another attacking return or two.

The (vice-)captaincy

We are seeing a few very good candidates for the armband in Blank Gameweek 34, but we have gone with the predictable choice. Mo Salah, this season’s best player, is preparing for a home game against an unreliable Spurs that could bring Liverpool the twentieth league title in their history. He is our captain for Blank Gameweek 34.

Blank Gameweek 34 is offering plenty of good alternatives for the Egyptian though, in case you don’t trust him with the armband for some obscure reason. On the Newcastle roster, you’ve got Alexander Isak and Harvey Barnes for their home game against Ipswich Town. At Wolves, you’ve got Matheus Cunha for the home game against Leicester City. And there is always Cole Palmer, of course, who is facing Everton at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

For further thoughts and discussions (including minleagues and side games) on the FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.

If you went all in on Newcastle for Double Gameweek 33, hats off to you, because the Magpies dominated practically all of the FPL-related rankings this past week. An impressive 4-1 victory over Manchester United was followed up with a 5-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace, which resulted in a Team of the Week with no less than five Newcastle players. Stand-out performer by far was Harvey Barnes, who got 3 goals, an assist and 27 FPL points over two games, followed by budget gem (and our DGW32 Budget Enabler) Jacob Murphy with 19 FPL points, courtesy of a goal and 2 assists.

No rest for the wicked though, as we are moving straight into another Double Gameweek on Saturday. This time four teams have a double (see overview below) and the ultimate goal here is to identify “this double gameweek’s Newcastle”. Unfortunately, none of the doubles look as enticing as Newcastle’s did in DGW32, but that doesn’t mean there is not a lot of potential. In that sense, we are particularly looking at Arsenal, who come off a heroic elimination of Real Madrid in the Champions League and who are now set to face Ipswich away and Palace at home. The other doubling side we’d punt on are Manchester City, with a visit to Everton followed by a home game against Aston Villa.

As far as single-fixture teams are concerned, you should probably not sleep on Liverpool. The Reds are visiting leaky Leicester City on Sunday and it feels like there will be goals in this one.

The doubling teams and their fixtures in Double Gameweek 33:

Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 33 is set at 15h00 (UK time) on Saturday, April 19^th, 2025. The free to play FPL or pay to play season/weekend/daily games like FanTeam are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per April 17^th, 2025)

Premium pick

Now, before we continue, we have to mention that this premium fantasy pick comes with some risk, in the sense that Bukayo Saka (£10.5m) only relatively recently returned from injury. He was brought in from the bench back in Gameweek 30 (and immediately scored) and played no longer than 45 minutes in a league game since then. It should be noted though, that this minute management in the league also had to do with Arsenal’s Champions League quarterfinal clash with Real Madrid, in which Saka completed 74 minutes (in the first leg) and 77 minutes (in the second leg), scoring one goal in the second leg. Now that Los Blancos have been dispatched of and the Gunners find themselves in the Champions League semifinals for the first time since the 2020-2021 campaign, the focus can go back on the Prem for a bit. Saka is obviously an integral part of manager Mikel Arteta’s side and while we are fully aware of the risks surrounding his playing time (rotation, recent injury history, fatigue), he looks like a must-have to us for DGW33. The Gunners are facing Ipswich Town away first, followed by a home encounter with Crystal Palace. We are convinced that Saka will get sufficient playing time, at least 120 minutes of action over both games, which makes him a shoo-in for us as the stand-out premium fantasy pick for Double Gameweek 33.

Non-premium pick

We considered Gabriel Martinelli for this category, Ollie Watkins, William Saliba, but we have been playing FPL for some time now and one of the things we have learned over those many years is this: when Kevin de Bruyne (£9.3m) doubles, you pick Kevin de Bruyne. Rumours of increasing bad blood between the Belgian midfield maestro and Manchester City have surfaced over the past few days, as a result of the club’s decision to not extend the player’s contract at the end of this season, and if you know the player Kevin de Bruyne a little, those are the kind of circumstances in which he can rise to unrivalled heights. Combine that possibility with his many extraordinary qualities, add to that a double against Everton (away) and Aston Villa (home), and what you get is pure, raw, double-digit-haul potential. He absolutely bossed City’s last game against Palace, which resulted in a goal and an assist for 12 FPL points, and that’s not even all. He also fired six shots in that game and he created two big chances, making him Manchester City’s creator in chief by some distance. We all know Pep Guardiola’s love for rotation, but considering his side’s position at the moment and the fact that they only have the Premier League left to play for, we are pretty certain that KDB will play a majority of the minutes available during City’s Double Gameweek 33.

The budget enabler

In Double Gameweek 32, budget fantasy pick Jacob Murphy stood out with a wonderful 19-point haul. In Double Gameweek 33, we have a feeling that Morgan Rogers (£5.6m) might take on that role as Aston Villa prepare for a home game against Newcastle and an away game Manchester City. Granted, opponent-wise Rogers’ double is considerably harder than Murphy’s was last week, so we’re not expecting 19 FPL points here, but we can definitely see a return or two for the young winger. Villa did just get eliminated by Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League, so rotation might be a factor here, but our confidence in Rogers’ minutes is strengthened by the fact that he is the third-most used player under manager Unai Emery, right behind midfielder Youri Tielemans and goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. That’s not that surprising if you look at his attacking returns in the Premier League up to this point: 31 starts, 8 goals, 8 assists, 7 clean sheets and 14 bonus points for a total of 138 FPL points. Only striker Ollie Watkins has more at this point amongst all players on the Villa roster (156 points).

The differential

With the likes of Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus out injured, and the likelihood of rotation for players like Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka due to Champions League exertions, Leandro Trossard (£6.7m) has all the makings of a great differential fantasy pick for Double Gameweek 33. He featured only 29 minutes spread over two legs against Real Madrid, but completed the 90 minutes in six of the last seven Premier League games, which makes it clear for us how Arteta sees the Belgian’s role at the moment. With a double against Ipswich away and Palace away, it could be a perfect coming-together of circumstances for the player and for the roughly 3% of fantasy managers who currently have them in their squads. Trossard has started in 23 games so far, in which he amassed 2,092 playing minutes, and got 5 goals and 6 assists for a total of 112 FPL points. That is actually just a few points behind goalkeeper David Raya (123), central defenders William Saliba (120) and Gabriel (117) and winger Bukayo Saka (117), who are all undisputed starters under Arteta. It just shows how effective Trossard can be, even when he gets less minutes than he would like, and what an interesting differential fantasy pick he currently is for Double Gameweek 33.

The (vice-)captaincy

The armband decision is not an easy one in Double Gameweek 33. We are very much divided between Kevin de Bruyne, thanks to his practically guaranteed minutes in squad full of exceptional players that needs the points, and Bukayo Saka, who has good fixtures in the double but who is at risk of some minute management by his coach. We ended up slapping the armband on KDB.

Outside of De Bruyne and Saka, we like the look of Gabriel Martinelli and Ollie Watkins as well, despite the latter’s challenging Double Gameweek fixtures. Leandro Trossard is out stand-out differential captain, while Mohamed Salah (away at Leicester) is always there for those managers who prefer security (the man has just broken the record for total goals + assists in a 38-game Premier League season) over Double Gameweek anxiety.

For further thoughts and discussions (including minleagues and side games) on the FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.