This weeks sees the EFL Cup semis 2nd leg and the FA Cup 4th round. These fixtures will most likely have implications with blanks in GW26 and GW28. So we’ve updated our FPL calendar article so if you’re determined to make transfers before these games you’re going in with your eyes open.
fantasy premier league fixtures- the FPL calendar updated
Firstly you should be aware that this weekend is FA Cup 4th round weekend and gameweek 23 starts on Tuesday 31 January at 18.45 UK time.
At the moment I’m pretty reluctant to do any transfers before the cup fixtures are completed. This is from the injury and the increased clarity over the blank weeks perspective.
I’ll update this again after the midweek EFL semi’s and the FA Cup 4th round to make the picture clear but for now I’m going to make it really simple.
By the way, this is not meant to do anything other than just give you some food for thought before diving into transfers.
Firstly here’s the link to the FPL calendar article although I will copy some relevant parts.
Ok firstly here’s the summary of potentially affected gameweeks from that article. I’m not going through the whole process of how I got to that summary. It’s all in the calendar if you want to follow it through.
SUMMARY
Just for clarity a BLANK GW means some teams will have their game postponed. DGW GW means some teams will have 2 games in that gameweek
BLANK GW26 – EFL Cup finalists will have their games postponed as dates clash
BLANK GW28 – FA Cup quarter finalists will have their games postponed
DGW34 and BLANK GW34 – Likely time for some postponed games in midweek. Also FA Cup semi final weekend although postponed PL games due to this I imagine would be moved to midweek
DGW37 – Likely other time for postponed matches in midweek.
GW26
Here’s the 2nd Leg EFL Cup semi final fixtures which will see postponements in GW26
Here’s the GW26 fixtures. I’ve put in strikethough on the fixtures that COULD be postponed depending on results
Chelsea v Swansea
Crystal Palace v Middlesbrough
Everton v Sunderland
Hull v Burnley
Southampton v Arsenal
West Brom v Bournemouth
Watford v West Ham
Spurs v Stoke
Man City v Man Utd
Leicester v Liverpool
So for my team at the moment I have non playing Ake and Amat. Also potentially postponed could be any of Sanchez, Aguero, Ibrahimovic and Firmino. Thats 6 players. Now it wont be that as only 2 teams play in the final. It’s enough for me to at least wait until those games are over to see the implications as any of those 4 aren’t ideal benchwarmers. I have 5 transfers before GW26.
GW28
So GW28 is when the FA Cup quarters will see postponements of GW28. Now the quarters are the 6th round and not until March 11 so we still have 2 rounds to navigate so there’s alot of water under the bridge to come yet including, obviously, the 5th round where we don’t obviously even know the fixtures
Given that I’m going to start at the end. Here’s the GW28 fixture list. At the top separated are the only 2 safe fixtures:
Everton v West Brom
Bournemouth v West Ham
That means at the moment I have the grand total of GK Foster, Holgate, Fletcher and Stainislas guaranteed to be playing in GW28. I’ve got 7 transfers to deal with it. But as I said there’s alot of water under the bridge yet. It does mean that the 4 clubs above are safe from transfers from the cup postponement point of view as none are at risk for the EFL Cup either. So if you’re desperate for Chris Brunt, Lukaku, Phillips, Andy Carroll, Stanislas etc and willing to take the usual training risk then knock yourself out
The rest of GW28 needs further clarification. I’m not going into all the potential permutations. I’m sure we’ve both got better things to do. Here’s the remaining GW28 fixtures:
Arsenal v Leicester
Chelsea v Watford
Crystal Palace v Spurs
Hull v Swansea
Man City v Stoke
Middlesbrough v Sunderland
Southampton v Man Utd
Liverpool v Burnley
Here’s the 4th round FA CUP draw from the BBC website for info. The 5th round is between GW25 and GW26.
So I hope that gives you some food for thought. There will be more updates this week
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