Double gameweek 34 is marking the start of a run of three FPL double gameweeks in just four rounds. This week, seven teams are doubling (see table below), in GW35 two sides have a double and in GW37, another six teams play twice. You can therefore expect chip activation to explode over the coming gameweeks, also because we have just six gameweeks to go in total. Keep this in mind when interpreting the transfer stats in the build-up to the DGW34 deadline. The teams doubling this week are:
| TEAM | FIXTURE 1 | FIXTURE 2 |
| Arsenal | Wolves (away) | Chelsea (home) |
| Bournemouth | Aston Villa (away) | Wolves (away) |
| Crystal Palace | West Ham (home) | Newcastle (home) |
| Everton | Forest (home) | Liverpool (home) |
| Liverpool | Fulham (away) | Everton (away) |
| Sheffield United | Burnley (home) | Man United (away) |
| Wolves | Arsenal (home) | Bournemouth (home) |
On top of that, and this one is especially important for the (few) Spurs-heavy fantasy squads out there, Spurs will be blanking this week. The likes of Son, Maddison and Porro are without a game in double gameweek 34, though it should be noted that they are also one of the only two sides to then double in both DGW35 and DGW37.
Check out FISO’s FPL Forum for the latest discussion and don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 34 is set at 13h30 (UK time) on Saturday, April 20th, 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 April 18th, 2024)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Areola (WHU), Kelleher (LIV), Vicario (TOT) | Pickford (EVE), Raya (ARS), Henderson (CRY) | DGW34, Areola injury doubt |
| DEF | Porro (TOT), Bradley (LIV), Trippier (NEW) | Schär (NEW), White (ARS), Mitchell (CRY) | DGW34, Bradley injured, Porro + Trippier injury doubts |
| MID | Son (TOT), Bowen (WHU), Foden (MCI) | Gordon (NEW), Saka (ARS), Diaz (LIV) | DGW34, Son blank, Bowen injury doubt |
| FOR | Toney (BRE), Muniz (FUL), Haaland (MCI) | Isak (NEW), Cunha (WOL), Solanke (BOU) | DGW34, Toney benchings, Isak, Cunha + Solanke form + fixtures |
Premium pick
Liverpool disappointed enormously in gameweek 33 as they lost at home to Crystal Palace at a moment in which they could have taken the Premier League lead by themselves. Instead, Jurgen Klopp’s side dropped to third place, tied with Arsenal and two points behind current leaders Manchester City. So, despite last weekend’s disappointment, Liverpool are still very much in the title race, which is why we feel we can’t look past Mohamed Salah (£13.5m) for the upcoming double gameweek 34. Liverpool are playing away from home twice in a row, including a Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park, which is not ideal. Nevertheless, both the visit to Everton and the preceding visit to Craven Cottage count as favourable fixtures for the Reds and perhaps more importantly, as crucial fixtures for them to keep their title dreams alive. As far as Salah himself goes, the Egyptian attacker is still in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot, having already scored 17 goals in 24 league starts so far. He also provided another 9 assists in those games. It’s redemption time for the Reds and hopefully Salah will be the one to deliver it.
Non-premium pick
Players qualify for our premium fantasy pick category as soon as their price exceeds the £9.0m mark and luckily for us, Bukayo Saka (£9.0m) has not met that threshold yet at the time of writing. Even though the Arsenal star has not really been delivering returns of late (just a single goal in his last four league starts), we can hardly say that he is having an underwhelming season. Saka has already managed 14 goals and 10 assists from thirty league starts overall this 2023-24 campaign, bringing him 193 FPL points. To put those stats into perspective: only the on-fire Cole Palmer (208 FPL points) and Ollie Watkins (208 points) have collected more points than Saka at this point. The England attacker is a nailed-on part of manager Mikel Arteta’s starting lineup and he has got plenty of set-piece duties in his pocket, including some of the penalties. All of this makes him an almost obligatory inclusion in your fantasy squad for double gameweek 34, as Arsenal have a relatively promising double coming up against Wolves (away) and Chelsea (home).
The budget enabler
After his poker of goals (that means, 4 goals in one game) against Everton in gameweek 33, Cole Palmer has finally (and we expect, definitely) left the budget fantasy pick territories. Instead, we decided to highlight a player who could be perfect for those FPL managers still looking for a cheap midfielder who is a guaranteed starter (preferably for a top-six team) and has a good ceiling. In his first season as a Red, Alexis Mac Allister (£5.9m) did not take long to grow into a key cog in Jurgen Klopp’s footballing machine. He is not the most prolific Red in front of goal, currently sitting on 4 goals and 5 assists from 26 league starts, but that is also reflected by his current price tag. We see potential for him to build on his numbers this week though, in which Liverpool play Fulham away first, followed by a visit to arch-rivals Everton. As we wrote before when talking about Mo Salah, the Reds are still in the title race despite losing to Palace at Anfield last weekend, and we expect them to come out guns blazing during DGW34. Mac Allister might very well benefit from that once FPL points-wise or twice over the next two games.
The differential
Now, for our double gameweek 34 differential fantasy pick, we are breaking our own threshold rule, but hear us out. Usually, we consider a player a differential when he is owned by less than 5.0% of managers, which is not the case for Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.4m). The Liverpool right-back slash midfielder sits in 8.7% of all teams currently, but the reason we consider him a differential for the season run-in is that we strongly suspect that a majority of the teams that contain TAA at the moment are actually inactive teams. We are confident that the England man’s real ownership percentage amongst active managers sits well below 5.0% at the moment, due to his elevated price and the fact that he was injured for the past 10 games or so. Having said that, we are recommending him as a serious differential fantasy pick for double gameweek 34, in which he will be facing Fulham and Everton, both away from home. We all know what Alexander-Arnold is capable of by now, and we see points potential at both ends of the pitch in both games for the 25-year-old. If you can afford him, for example on a wildcard, then he could be a very shrewd pick for the upcoming double as well as for the rest of the 2023-24 campaign.
The (vice-)captaincy
With a double of away games against Fulham and Everton coming up this double gameweek 34, we have decided to make Mo Salah our captain. Seeing how the gameweek has turned out fixture-wise, we expect more than a few other managers to make the same armband decision.
Luis Diaz and Darwin Nuñez provide interesting alternatives to their Egyptian teammate, as does Bukayo Saka for his double versus Wolves (away) and Chelsea (home). More differential captains for double gameweek 34 include Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard, Dominic Solanke for his double against Villa and Wolves (both away) and Wolves forward Matheus Cunha, who just scored a brace against Forest in GW33 and now has home games against Arsenal and Bournemouth coming up.