The FA Cup results this week have shaken things up a bit in FPL with Brentford v Leicester, Southampton v Tottenham and Wolves v Leeds now being added to the fixture list in gameweek 28.
This has got managers thinking about playing the wildcard either this week or next week and building a squad to navigate gameweek 28 without the need for a Free Hit chip and then attacking double gameweek 29 with the Bench Boost chip when 12 teams have a double gameweek.
You might feel your current squad doesn’t need a wildcard to set it up for gameweek 29 and that you’ll be able to get close to your ideal line-up by just making a couple of extra transfers over the next couple of weeks, in which case it might be better to save the wildcard for further down the line.
Equally you may have already played your wildcard but I think you should still be looking at signing some of the players we are about to discuss.
A strong wildcard squad will contain at least four players from Brentford and Brighton as they double in gameweeks 27 and 29, your Arsenal assets are good to stay and so are Kieran Trippier, Marcus Rashford and Erling Haaland. Then you’ll be looking to add the likes of Reece James, James Maddison, Ollie Watkins or Harry Kane.
It could look something like this:
David Raya, Kepa Arrizabalaga
Kieran Trippier, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Reece James, Pervis Estupinan, Sven Botman
Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Marcus Rashford, James Maddison, Kaoru Mitoma
Erling Haaland, Ivan Toney, Ollie Watkins
You can’t afford Harry Kane in this example but you could easily switch Solly March in for Maddison and go for the double Brighton attack while bringing Ben Mee in for James to keep it under budget.
Remember to keep an eye on how many starters you will have in gameweek 28 with Brighton, Manchester City and Manchester United all blanking but don’t forget you don’t necessarily have to have a full starting XI, sometimes eight or nine is enough to get you through.
You can then make a couple of transfers in gameweek 29 to maximise a potential Bench Boost, maybe replacing your Arsenal players with Manchester United assets like Luke Shaw and Bruno Fernandes.
Also keep an eye on the injury updates before pushing that wildcard button as you’ll need to hear on the likes of Estupinan, March and Maddison before you take the plunge. It’s easy to switch things around though – Estupinan can become Lewis Dunk or Mee, March could be Alexis Mac Allister and Maddison could be Harvey Barnes.
Whether you’re playing the wildcard or not it’s no surprise that Ivan Toney has been the most popular signing so far this week – Brentford have six fixtures across the next four gameweeks with the first four of those matches against Fulham, Everton, Southampton and Leicester.
He’s currently on eight yellow cards so two more and he’ll have to serve a two-game suspension so have a back-up plan for that eventuality. He’s also accepted breaking Football Association betting rules this week before appearing before a disciplinary panel so potentially faces a lengthy ban at some point this season.
Kelechi Iheanacho (£6.2m) and Ollie Watkins (£7.3m) are both good options up front if you want to go for someone other than Toney. Both have a fixture in gameweek 28 and both double in gameweek 29.
This week Villa host Crystal Palace and Leicester are away at Southampton so there’s really not much to choose between them. I would probably go for Watkins as he seems a certain starter in Unai Emery’s team every week whereas Iheanacho still has strong competition for his place from Jamie Vardy and Patson Daka.
The captaincy choice isn’t clear-cut this week although Haaland will be fresh and raring to go at home to Newcastle having sat on the bench for Manchester City’s win at Bristol City in the FA Cup. His goalscoring record at Etihad Stadium in the Premier League is 18 goals in 12 games so that’s hard to ignore but there are definitely other good options available.
I’d back Marcus Rashford to score at Anfield given his current form and I’d fancy Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard to pick up attacking returns for Arsenal at home to Bournemouth. Kane away to Wolves and Toney at home to Fulham are also tempting.
I think our Liverpool assets may be the ones to sell over the next couple of weeks given that they now blank in gameweek 28 and follow that with a double away to Manchester City and Chelsea.
Don’t be afraid to sell your Manchester City players either, apart from Haaland of course.
Alistair Bruce-Ball presents the Fantasy 606 podcast alongside former Premier League winner Chris Sutton and Statman Dave. The latest episode is available on the BBC Sounds app.
