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 1st, 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, May2nd, 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 30th, 2025)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Raya (ARS), Henderson (CRY), Fabianski (WHU) | Pickford (EVE), Sels (NFO), Flekken (BRE) | |
| DEF | Robinson (FUL), Aina (NFO), Kerkez (BOU) | Gvardiol (MCI), Ait-Nouri (WOL), Milenkovic (NFO) | Robinson and Aina injury doubts |
| MID | Palmer (CHE), Rashford (AST), Saka (ARS) | Mbeumo (BRE), Rogers (AST), Bowen (WHU) | Mbeumo and Bowen form + fixtures, Rashford injury doubt |
| FOR | Evanilson (BOU), Pedro (BRI), Mateta (CRY) | Cunha (WOL), Marmoush (MCI), Wissa (BRE) | Cunha form, Pedro suspended |
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 15th 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.