Whoever thought that things might calm down a bit after two small but fascinating double gameweeks in a row will likely have felt deceived by the time the last ball of Gameweek 27 was kicked. With ten games, various clashes between top-six contenders, 33 goals scored and an FPL average of 62 points this round, it turned out to be every bit as exciting as a decent double gameweek. And for the roughly 1% of managers who owned Spanish-Dutch winger Marcos Asensio even more so, as the Aston Villa ace bagged a brace and 15 FPL points against Chelsea, crowning himself as the highest-scoring player of the week in his third appearance for his new club.
Onto Gameweek 27 though, as there are just about 36 hours between the end of GW26’s final clash between Man City and Liverpool, and the start of GW 27’s opener between Brighton and Bournemouth at the AmEx. That is also one of the matches to look forward to this mid-week matchday, as we get another set of clashes between top-six contenders and they are all served on Wednesday evening: Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal, Spurs vs Manchester City and Liverpool vs Newcastle. From a fantasy point of view, Chelsea vs Southampton on Tuesday evening stands out though, while we wouldn’t be surprised either to see a few goals in the Gameweek 27 opener between Brighton and Bournemouth at the AmEx.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 27 is set at 18h00 (UK time) on Tuesday, February 25th, 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 February 24th, 2025)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Sanchez (CHE), Sels (NFO), Raya (ARS) | Flekken (BRE), Pickford (EVE), Henderson (CRY) | |
| DEF | Aina (NFO), Porro (TOT), Hall (NEW) | Muñoz (CRY), Alexander-Arnold (LIV), Cucurella (CHE) | Alexander-Arnold consistent returns recently, |
| MID | Rogers (AST), Amad (MUN), Palmer (CHE) | Mbeumo (BRE), Bowen (WHU), Asensio (AST) | Rogers injury doubt, Amad injured |
| FOR | Gakpo (LIV), Wood (NFO), Haaland (MCI) | Cunha (WOL), Beto (EVE), Marmoush (MCI) | Cunha and Beto form + fixtures, Haaland injury doubt |
Premium pick
Cole Palmer (£11.1m) has cooled down a bit of late in terms goals and assists, but we find it hard to overlook him now that Chelsea are preparing for a home encounter with Southampton. Especially with the premium category usuals Mohamed Salah playing Newcastle at home, Erling Haaland a doubt for the visit to Spurs and Bukayo Saka out injured, the Chelsea playmaker seems like the stand-out premium fantasy pick for Gameweek 27. What’s more, Palmer and the rest of the Blues have got another very enticing fixture right after their visit to Saint Mary’s, namely a visit to Leicester City’s King Power Stadium on Sunday. We know Chelsea have been a bit unpredictable this season, but that’s a couple of fixtures you should try and benefit from. And when it comes to benefiting from Chelsea as a fantasy manager, that usually means betting on Cole Palmer. Considering his 14 goals and 8 assists from 26 league starts so far, that makes a lot of sense of well.
Non-premium pick
Matheus Cunha (£6.9m) took a little break from scoring between gameweeks 19 and 23, so it seems, before getting back to his goal-scoring ways. Before Gameweek 19, the Brazilian forward recorded 10 goals and 4 assists from 18 league starts for Wolves, he then went dry for about five weeks, and now he seems to back to his scoring ways. The Wolves talisman has scored a goal in each of his last three league games, a run that consisted of a home game against Aston Villa, and visits to Liverpool and high-flying Bournemouth. Cunha now has Fulham at home coming up on Tuesday evening, followed by Everton at home, Southampton away, West Ham at home and Ipswich Town away. In other words, the kind of run you want to get in on as a fantasy manager, especially when it concerns a quality player like Cunha who, to top it all off, is also in great form. If Wolves want to stay out of the relegation zone and secure at least one other season of Premier League football as soon as possible, you better believe their Brazilian starman will be involved left, right and centre.
The budget enabler
For our budget fantasy pick for Gameweek 27, we have also fished in the Wolves pond. The side from Wolverhampton has shown signs of improvement of late and, as we wrote above, we believe that the coming run of fixtures is going to determine what the tail end of their season will look like. Are they securing Premier League survival well before the end or will they be sucked into the relegation battle until the very end? As we said, a lot will depend on Matheus Cunha, but if you are currently looking for a budget defender, then Matt Doherty (£4.4m) is worth looking at as well. The Irish right-back is a nailed-on part of manager Vitor Pereira’s starting eleven and even though he will no longer be delivering 2019-2020-style numbers (4 goals, 8 assists, 167 FPL points), he is still an interesting option if you need to free up some budget. Doherty is a starter with a good run of fixtures coming up and a decent ceiling, considering his attacking threat. The Ireland international already managed 2 goals and an assist this season, and we would not be surprised to see him add one or two more of those of the coming weeks, as well as a few clean sheets. Don’t fancy Doherty? Then Semedo (4.5m) and Ait-Nouri (£4.7m) are alternatives for a bit more money.
The differential
Our differential fantasy pick this week is a player who, when looking at his FPL history, we doubt should ever be in this category. The current 2024-2025 Premier League campaign is the sixth season in which Jarrod Bowen (£7.3m) features and especially his last four show what we mean. Bowen’s breakthrough came in 2020-2021, when he got 141 FPL points, followed by his best ever FPL season (12 goals, 17 assists, 206 FPL points). He then went on to record 145 FPL points in 2022-2023 and 182 FPL points last season, courtesy of 16 goals and 6 assists. What we are trying to say here is that Jarrod Bowen undeniably has Premier League and FPL pedigree, even when his side are not performing well, which is exactly the case for West Ham this season. Despite their current 16th place in the league, Bowen has still managed 7 goals and 6 assists from 22 league starts, which comes down to 112 FPL points. The England international scored two of those goals over the last three Gameweeks: one in the 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge in GW24 and the only goal in the visit to Arsenal last weekend. Add to that his current ownership of just 4.4% and an upcoming home clash with Leicester, who have already conceded 32 goals in twelve away games this season, and we feel Bowen could represent considerable value as a differential fantasy pick in Gameweek 27.
The (vice-)captaincy
Looking purely at the fixtures and opponents, Cole Palmer looks like the one to give the armband to in Gameweek 27, but we are still going with Mo Salah. The Egyptian has simply been too good this season to skip him for Liverpool’s upcoming home game against Newcastle.
As we said, Cole Palmer is an excellent alternative though, for those who have the funds or who have indeed already managed to bring the Chelsea star in. More differential captains in Gameweek 27 would be Matheus Cunha for Wolves’ home game against Fulham, Bruno Fernandes for Manchester United’s home game against Ipswich Town and Jarrod Bowen for West Ham’s home game against Leicester City.
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