A rather unexpected 2-6 Chelsea victory over Wolves at Molineux shot three Blues players into the Gameweek 3 Team of the Week, including Noni Madueke who collected 20 FPL points, courtesy of a hattrick. Cole Palmer recorded a hattrick as well, but of assists, plus a goal for a total of 17 FPL points, while forward Nicolas Jackson qualified with 10 FPL points. Manchester City delivered two players to the Team of the Week (both tipped by us in our FPL GW2 preview), hattrick hero Erling Haaland (17 FPL points) and an excellent Kevin de Bruyne (12 FPL points), as did Spurs: Heung-Min Son with a brace (16 points) and defender Cuti Romero with 14 FPL points. The big differential pick of GW2 was Nottingham Forest defender Ola Aina, who brought the roughly 1% people who owned him 9 points, thanks to a clean sheet and 3 bonus points.
Whereas in GW2 Man City hosted Ipswich and Chelsea visited a Wolves side still very much in the building stage, Gameweek 3 seems to offer a tougher set of fixtures, from a fantasy point of view at least. Or perhaps better said, there are less stand-out fixtures to focus on and more clashes between big names. On Saturday, for example, Arsenal are hosting Brighton and Man City are travelling to West Ham. A day later, Spurs go to Newcastle and Manchester United welcome Liverpool to Old Trafford for one of English football’s biggest games. Sunday kicks off with an interesting one though, as a Chelsea side brimming with confidence welcome Crystal Palace to Stamford Bridge.
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 3 is set at 11h00 (UK time) on Saturday, August 31st, 2024. The free to play FPL or pay to play games like FanTeam (which has a £200,000 prize fund and a late-entry option) are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.
Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per August 29th, 2024)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Pickford (EVE), Henderson (CRY), Martinez (AST) | Raya (ARS), Martinez (AST), Steele (BRI) | |
| DEF | Barco (BRI), Gvardiol (MCI), Andersen (FUL) | Faes (LEI), Romero (TOT), Robinson (FUL) | All transferred-in defenders had attacking returns in GW3, Barco transfer |
| MID | Eze (CRY), Nkunku (CHE), Foden (MCI) | Madueke (CHE), Smith Rowe (FUL), Palmer (CHE) | Madueke + Palmer GW3 haul, |
| FOR | Isak (NEW), Solanke (TOT), Watkins (AST) | Welbeck (BRI), Haaland (MCI), Pedro (BRI) | Welbeck form, Haaland GW3 haul, Solanke injury doubt |
Premium pick
We are often not big fans of “chasing the points”, but in the case of picking Cole Palmer (£10.5m) as our premium fantasy pick for gameweek 3, we don’t think it’s a case of chasing the points as much as getting in early on proven form. The Chelsea midfielder recorded an incredible 22 goals and 13 assists last season, and while he failed to return in gameweek 1 of the current season, it should be noted that the Blues played reigning champions Manchester City then. Palmer made more than up for it last weekend though, as he was instrumental in Chelsea’s 2-6 demolition of Wolves. The England international grabbed a hattrick of assists and topped it off with a goal for a total of 17 FPL points, and he now looks to have the juiciest fixture out of all premium-priced fantasy assets in Gameweek 3. Visitors Crystal Palace are one of five teams still without a win this season and the Eagles have conceded 4 goals already. In a weekend in which a few expected top-six contenders are facing stern opposition, Chelsea could be the big winner, especially if Palmer continues his form from GW2. Chelsea upcoming fixture list is promising too.
Non-premium pick
We mentioned Crystal Palace as one of five teams who are still winless after the first two gameweeks of the season and Southampton is another. The Saints have not only not gotten a point yet, they are also without a goal still and they haven’t looked very good overall so far. Therefore, we feel that Bryan Mbuemo (£7.0m) might be an interesting non-premium fantasy pick, as Brentford host the Saints this coming Saturday. Ivan Toney has not featured yet this season and we don’t expect him to do so as the striker is waiting for a lucrative transfer, which means that Mbeumo is set to keep playing a key role for the Bees. Last weekend’s away game at Anfield was a tough one for Brentford, but they booked a deserved victory over Crystal Palace back in GW1, in which Mbuemo scored a goal and recorded 9 FPL points. He is now back on his home ground for the game against Southampton, which we feel is a good opportunity to build on his effective performance from Gameweek 1. The Cameroonian is also on penalties, though it should be noted as well that in the games after Southampton, Brentford play Man City away and Spurs at home.
The budget enabler
Talking about fixtures, Fulham have got a decent run coming up after their 2-1 victory over Leicester last weekend. On Saturday, the Cottagers go to Ipswich Town, followed by a home game against West Ham in GW4, another home game against Newcastle in GW5 and a visit to Nottingham Forest in GW6. That’s why this week could be the perfect moment to bring in Emile Smith Rowe (5.6m), after the former Arsenal man got a 10-pointer versus Leicester a few days ago. This also explains why he is currently amongst the most-transferred-in players in the build-up to the Gameweek 3 deadline and why his price has already increased by £0.1m. His price is still more than affordable though, and with the previously mentioned run of fixtures coming up plus the fact that Fulham are looking like a decent side again this season, Smith Rowe could be a great budget enabler for the fifth midfielder spot in your squad.
The differential
When we wrote about Cole Palmer earlier, we said that it wasn’t about chasing points as much as him seemingly getting back to where he left off last season. That is much less the case with our differential fantasy pick for gameweek 3, as Noni Madueke (£6.5m) is still far from being a proven FPL asset. Going for him on a punt might therefore be seen much more easily as chasing the points, though there are good arguments in his favour. To start, of course, his hattrick at Molineux last weekend, which raked in 20 FPL points. It must have done his confidence a mountain of good, on top of the fact that he was already chosen to start out of an insanely high number of players currently on the Chelsea roster. Assuming it did, and assuming that Chelsea manager Enzo Maresa has no reason whatsoever to not start him this weekend, bringing him in for the coming home clash with Crystal Palace feels like a punt with a considerable high ceiling. The Eagles have not been great so far and we expect the Blues to go all out again to make it 6 points out of 9 in the first three games of the season, with Madueke starting on one of the flanks.
The (vice-)captaincy
We haven’t mentioned Erling Haaland yet in this article, but it seems like we can’t go without doing so. The Norwegian scored 1 goal at Chelsea in Gameweek 1 and followed that up with a hattrick at home against Ipswich town last weekend. City’s next game, away at West Ham, is not the easiest, but this is Haaland and we’ve learned (the hard way) not to get against him when he gets on a roll. Our captain for Gameweek 3.
Cole Palmer provides a good alternative to Haaland as Gameweek 3 captain, for his home game against Crystal Palace, as does Mo Salah, whose unbeaten Liverpool visit a Manchester United side that lost to Brighton in underwhelming fashion last weekend. Other interesting picks for the armband include Bukayo Saka at home to Brighton, Bryan Mbuemo at home to Southampton and Kevin de Bruyne for City’s visit to West Ham.
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