Even though the FPL season is long, the coming two gameweeks will prove to be one of the make-or-break moments of the season for many managers. We’ve got a small double gameweek coming up, followed by an enormous blank gameweek that features just four matches. The way in which you make your decisions and possibly activate any chips over this period is likely to have a considerable impact on the rest of your season and your eventual (mini league) ranking.
| DOUBLING TEAMS | FIXTURE 1 | FIXTURE 2 |
| Bournemouth | Luton Town (home) | Sheffield United (home) |
| Luton Town | Crystal Palace (away) | Bournemouth (away) |
Looking at the upcoming doubles, it looks quite limited at first sight, were it not for the fact that Bournemouth offer us, on paper at least, a very good combination of form and excellent fixtures. Luton do not have the most difficult double imaginable, but they do play away from home twice and they won’t be expecting too many points from those encounters. As a result, our fantasy picks for double gameweek 28 include a few Cherries, but no Hatters. That’s also because a couple of regular single-gameweek teams have a favourable match-up this weekend as well, including Arsenal, West Ham and Brighton.
Check out FISO’s FPL Forum for the latest discussion and don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 28 is set at 11h00 (UK time) on Saturday, March 2nd, 2024. If you fancy playing a fantasy premier league game just based on Saturday’s or the Weekend’s fixtures then have a look at FanTeam’s Daily Fantasy Games (18+ only).
Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per March 7th, 2024)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Alisson (LIV), Raya (ARS), Pickford (EVE) | Neto (BOU), Areola (WHU), Kelleher (LIV) | |
| DEF | Trippier (NEW), Porro (TOT), Estupiñan (BRI) | Doughty (LUT), Zabarnyi (BOU), Romero (TOT) | Luton + Bournemouth DGW28, Trippier + Porro injury doubts |
| MID | Richarlison (TOT), De Bruyne (MCI), Hee Chan (WOL) | Son (TOT), Bowen (WHU), Foden (MCI) | Bowen + Foden form, Hee Chan + Richarlison injuries |
| FOR | Alvarez (MCI), Toney (BRE), Haaland (MCI) | Solanke (BOU), Morris (LUT), Watkins (AST) | Luton + Bournemouth DGW28, Watkins + Solanke form |
Premium pick
GW 22: Goal versus Nottingham Forest away.
GW23: Goal versus Liverpool at home.
GW24: Brace versus West Ham away.
GW25: Brace versus Burnley away.
GW26: Goal versus Newcastle at home.
GW27: 2 assists versus Sheffield United away (before being withdrawn at half-time).
Looking at these recent numbers, it’s hard to imagine that around gameweek 20, the opinion was forming amongst many FPL managers that Bukayo Saka (£9.8m) was perhaps overpriced and no longer worth considering. Oh Gods of football, how you fool us sometimes! The England international has been nothing short of exceptional for the Gunners over the last six gameweeks, a period over which he collected an impressive 66 FPL points. That’s 11 points per game on average, in case you hadn’t realised it yet. Up next are Brentford for Saka and even though Arsenal have a blank in GW29 followed by a visit to Man City, we feel there are few better assets in the official fantasy game than the Arsenal star at the moment who is expected to recover from illness to face Brentford.
Non-premium pick
Despite his (goal-scoring) form having somewhat dropped off lately, there is no avoiding Dominic Solanke (£7.1m) in double gameweek 28. The 26-year-old forward represents a potentially explosive mix of fantasy football ingredients at the moment, as he is coming into a very favourable double in good form. Solanke is already sitting on 14 goals and 3 assists from 26 league starts, and faces two of the leakiest defences overall in DGW28. As a matter of fact, Sheffield United is actually the least-resistant defence in the league, having conceded a worrying 72 goals in 27 games. Luton compares nicely to the Blades, but they still sit on 54 conceded goals from 26 league games. To make the case for Solanke even juicier, it should also be noted that he is an absolute guarantee to start for Bournemouth and he is their designated penalty taker as well. Starting to regret your decision to triple captain Haaland a few weeks ago yet, Captain Hindsight?
The budget enabler
Much of double gameweek 28 attention is focused on Dominic Solanke, and deservedly so, but it’s causing another Bournemouth attacker to go under the radar a bit. Antoine Semenyo (£4.5m) has been in great form for the Cherries of late, scoring 2 goals in his last three league games. League games which he all started, by the way. As a matter of fact, over that period of three matches, the Ghana international even outscored Solanke in terms of FPL points: 17 versus 16 FPL points. With home games against Luton Town and Sheffield United up next, Semenyo looks like the budget enabler par excellence, even despite his blank in gameweek 29. His price tag of just £4.5m allows you to essentially bring him in as your third attacker, who can start for your squad this DGW28 and then be benched in BGW29, if you’re not planning on using a chip there.
The differential
One of the big advantages of Bournemouth’s double this gameweek, apart from the favourable fixtures, is the fact that their roster contains quite a few assets with good differential potential. We were actually planning to include Marcos Senesi in this category this week, but seeing as he is currently flagged in the official game with a 50% chance of playing, we’ve decided to recommend Illia Zabarnyi (£4.4m) instead and guess what? Senesi’s partner in the heart of the Cherries defence is even £0.2m cheaper than the Argentinian international and owned by just 1.3% of managers (Senesi’s ownership just crossed 5%). Zabarnyi is a guaranteed part of Bournemouth’s starting eleven, but do keep in mind that you would bring in the Ukrainian for his clean sheet potential, not for his attacking returns. As far as goals and returns go, Zabarnyi has amassed exactly zero from 26 league starts so far, but he did bring in 6 clean sheets. We’re hoping that with a bit of luck, our differential of choice will make that 8 clean sheets from 28 league starts this upcoming double gameweek 28.
The (vice-)captaincy
Thanks to his very favourable double against Luton Town and Sheffield United, both at home, we’re placing the armband on Dominic Solanke for DGW28. If you still have the Triple Captain chip at your disposal, we would even recommend considering using it on the Bournemouth striker. Sounds kind of unnatural, right?
In case Solanke doesn’t have you as convinced as he does us, Bukayo Saka at home to Brentford is probably a pretty safe pick. There are also the usual suspects Erling Haaland and Mo Salah, but they face each other at Anfield on Sunday. More differential captaincy fantasy picks include Jarrod Bowen at home to Burnley, Ollie Watkins at home to Spurs, and Carlton Morris for his double with Luton against Palace and Bournemouth (both away).