fantasy premier league blank gameweeks and double gameweeks – a potential schedule

Here’s my fantasy premier league blank gameweeks and double gameweeks article where we outline a potential schedule for both.  Plus we include some thoughts on using the 2nd wildcard, the triple captain and bench boost chip

fantasy premier league blank gameweeks and double gameweeks – a potential schedule

Firstly I’d just like to say that I’ve worked this out by going through the various fixture types and making some assumptions.  I don’t pretend to be the ultimate voice.  So any corrections or thoughts are definitely welcome.  Please put them in the comments section below.

Now we are into 2nd wildcard country, the FA Cup is in full swing and the EFL Cup semis are this week,  I thought I should work out a schedule for the potential double and blank gameweeks so I could be prepared.  It will take pride of place on the spare bedroom wall where I’m normally writing articles.

It’s a very simple schedule which outlines all the fixtures on a weekend and midweek basis to establish where the doubles and blank game weeks could be.

The basics 

Starting with the obvious.  Blanks are the result of EFL Cup fixtures and the FA Cup fixtures clashing with premier league fixtures and  forcing postponements in the gameweek.   Therefore blanks are created if the postponements can’t be moved to midweek of the same gameweek.

Double gameweeks result from when the postponed fixtures are moved into midweek of a future gameweek meaning some teams will play twice in 1 gameweek.

By loading up on those double gameweek players or planning for blank gameweeks in advance to maximise your FPL teams playing numbers you can potentially gain a significant points advantage.

Some assumptions

The biggest assumption is that UEFA keep to the rule that postponed domestic games cannot clash with European Matches irrespective of whether English teams are playing or not.  This has been relaxed in the past but only on the odd occasion

The FA Cup replays will go to the next available midweek space.  Quarter and semi final clashes do not go to replays.

My knowledge gap is that I don’t know time periods for notice of postponements which could be relevant.

How the schedule works

The schedule outlines each week of the season identifying PL, EFL (aka the Carabao) Cup, FA Cup and UCL/EL matches to identify which PL matches will need to be postponed and where there are gaps that will accommodate those postponed games.

 Each week is broken into weekend and midweek matches.  Midweek is where matches will most likely be postponed to.

Then the 3rd column identifies possible blank and double gameweeks

It’s worth noting that the FA can spring surprises very easily and these are only my theories following through the various fixtures and making some assumptions.

The Schedule

Potential Blank GW28

This is when the EFL Cup final on Sunday February 26 clashes with GW28 forcing postponements.  It is possible that the postponements could be played in the same gameweek if there are no clashes with 5th round FA Cup replays or  even be brought forward into GW26 (if there’s applicable notice) to create a double gameweek there if there are no clashes with 4th round replays.

The EFL semis are Man City v Bristol City and Arsenal v Chelsea.  Lets assume for a moment that Man City go through.  That would mean Arsenal v Man City is postponed.

If Arsenal win the other semi that will be the only postponed game.  However if Chelsea get through then Man Utd v Chelsea will be an additional postponed game as well.

We won’t know this until after GW24.  That would give us 4 transfers to get a full team out.

At the moment of the 4 potential teams I have Morata, Christensen, Otamendi and Sterling.  However over the next few weeks if you read my early thoughts on the FFGeek team article I could be bringing in Lingard, Jones and Aguero (replacing Morata).  That would mean 6 blank GW players which would potentially be manageable given the transfer numbers.

Potential blank GW31

This is the week that the premier league clashes with the FA Cup quarters and it could be a big week of postponements with no where to go except for midweek GW34 or midweek GW37.

This is when, at the moment,  I plan on using my free hit chip.  It will replace all the postponed teams with out having to do a multiweek prep job and then clean up afterwards.

Potential DGW 34 and DGW37

Depending on which games are postponed to where, there could be the double gameweeks ahead in both of these gameweeks.

As long as the same teams are in two of the EFL Final, the FA Cup quarters and the FA Cup semis then 2 double gameweeks will be needed.  City could easily be in all 3 which is why it wouldn’t surprise me if the GW28 postponements stay in GW28 or moved forward to GW26 although that would be quite short notice.

My plan at the moment is to use my 2nd wildcard the week before one of the DGWs and then use the bench boost in the double game week as 2 chips can’t be used in the same week.

That would take priority over the triple captain chip which my thoughts are to use in the remaining double.

Potential blank GW35

This is the clash between GW35 and the FA Cup semis.

The postponed games couldn’t be moved to midweek due to UCL/EL games and midweek GW37 seems the only home for them

Please add any comments

As I said above, I don’t pretend to be the ultimate expert in this.  I’ve just tried to match fixtures and join the dots.    So any corrections or thoughts are definitely welcome.  Please put them in the comments section below and I’ll update the article if needed.

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