fantasy premier league double gameweeks and blanks – updated schedules plus a hypothetical scenario run

Fantasy Premier League

So here’s our latest fantasy premier league double gameweeks and blanks article.  Here we update our blank schedules plus run hypothetical FA Cup results to the end of the season to see how that could play out in terms of doubles and blank weeks

 fantasy premier league double gameweeks and blanks – updated schedules plus a hypothetical scenario run





By the way you could see my original calendar article here and the previous blanks and doubles article with this link

Background

So if you’ve not read an article up to now it’s worth stating quickly that a double gameweek is where a team plays twice in a gameweek and a blank gameweek is where premier league fixtures have been removed.  Both result as PL games clash with FA or EFL Cup games.

Here’s what I think is the likely timetable, if previous precedent of not clashing with European matches holds up

GW25  – Double –  Everton and Man City

GW27 – Blank – Everton, Man City, Chelsea Brighton

GW31 – Blank – FA Cup quarters clashes

GW32 – Double – FA Cup postponements

GW33 – Blank – FA Cup semi clashes

GW35 – Double  – FA Cup postponements

This is what I’ve put forward as a possible use of Chips

  fantasy premier league double gameweeks and blanks

The up to date blank gameweek 31 and 33 schedules

So here they are with the up to date information after the 5th round draw.  The fixtures in green will definitely be on as both sides have been knocked out of the cup so no clashes.

Firstly for GW31

  fantasy premier league double gameweeks

Secondly for GW33

fantasy Premier league double gameweeks

At the moment Bournemouth, Burnley, Liverpool, Leicester and Huddersfield have fixtures in both GW31 and GW33

Hypothetical scenario

Here I’m going to make some assumptions about the FA Cup results up to the semis and see how that plays out with the doubles and blanks

The 5th round draw and results

Bristol City 🆚 Shrewsbury/Wolves
AFC Wimbledon 🆚 Millwall
Doncaster 🆚 Crystal Palace
Middlesbrough/Newport 🆚 Man City
Chelsea 🆚 Man Utd
Swansea 🆚 Barnet/Brentford
Portsmouth/QPR 🆚 Watford
Brighton/West Brom 🆚 Derby

I’ve assumed the following teams win:

Wolves, Milwall, C Palace, Man City, Chelsea (as per bookie odds), Swansea, Watford, WBA

Assumed quarter finals fixtures and results

I used a number randomiser and came up with the following quarter final draw:

Swansea v Millwall
Wolves v Watford
Chelsea v WBA
C Palace v Man City

I then assumed the winners would be and therefore the semi finalists:

Swansea, Wolves, Chelsea and Man City.

How would the blanks look in this scenario?

GW31

emier league double gameweeks

An additional fixture of Brighton v Cardiff is added.

GW33

fantasy Premier league double gameweeks

In this scenario 3 additional fixtures would be added.

The following 8 teams would now have fixtures in both GW31 and GW33.

Bournemouth
Burnley
Leicester
Huddersfield
Liverpool
Newcastle
Brighton
Fulham



How would double gameweeks 32 and 35 look

Firstly I am going to assume that the fixtures from GW31 will go to GW32 and GW33 will go to GW35.  That wasn’t the case last season and with the semi finalists known after GW31 the postponements could be mixed and matched for maximum TV viewing.

GW32

Original fixtures

Fulham v Man City
Brighton v Southampton
Burnley v Wolves
C Palace v Huddersfield
Leicester v Bournemouth
Man Utd v Watford
West Ham v Everton
Cardiff v Chelsea
Liverpool v Spurs
Arsenal v Newcastle

GW31 Postponements added

Everton v Chelsea
Man Utd v Man City
Spurs v Palace
Watford v Southampton
Wolves v Arsenal

The following teams would have doubles:

Everton –  West Ham A Chelsea H
Chelsea –  Cardiff A Everton A
Man Utd –  Watford H Man City H
Man City –  Fulham A Man Utd A
Spurs –  Liverpool A Palace H
Palace –  Huddersfield H Spurs A
Watford –  Man Utd A Southampton H
Southampton –  Brighton A Watford A
Wolves –  Burnley A Arsenal H
Arsenal –  Newcastle H Wolves A

GW35

Original fixtures

Arsenal v C Palace
Bournemouth V Fulham
Cardiff v Liverpool
Chelsea v Burnley
Everton v Man Utd
Huddersfield v Watford
Man City v Spurs
Newcastle v Southampton
West Ham v Leicester
Wolves v Brighton

Postponed fixtures

Chelsea v West Ham
Man City v Cardiff
Wolves v Man Utd

The following teams would have doubles:

Chelsea –  Burnley H West Ham H
West Ham –  Leicester H Chelsea A
Man City  – Spurs H Cardiff H
Wolves  – Brighton H Man Utd H
Man Utd  – Everton A Wolves A
Cardiff  – Liverpool H Man City A

So which teams would have doubles in GW32 and GW35?

Chelsea
Man City
Wolves
Man Utd

 

So what does this mean?

So firstly remember the above hypothetical scenario is exactly that.  Hypothetical.  However, it does help for illustration purposes.

On the blanks front it shows that potentially GW33 at least doesn’t look that scary and that planning in advance, rather than using a chip, for GW31 and GW33 shouldn’t be that problematic.

Your team leading up to GW31  could be 3 Liverpool players plus 4 of the likes of Rashford Pogba Aubameyang etc meaning your starting 11 up to GW31 would only need 4 from the likes of Burnley and Bournemouth etc.  You would still have to carry 8 of the Burnley Bournemouth etc players in your squad of 15 up to GW31 but hopefully as 4 would be permanently on your bench it shouldn’t be too disruptive.  Your starting 11 in GW31 though would obviously be 3 Liverpool players plus 8 from the likes of Burnley, Bournemouth etc.

Secondly GW35 will be a minority double if the postponements follow the quarters and semi clashes.  That won’t necessarily happen in my view as the TV companies may want to maximise viewing schedules.

Obviously if Chelsea get to the semi finals of the FA Cup, which is a big if, another double will be needed as they have the EFL final postponement still to be fitted in somewhere so 3 postponements are needed into 2 vacancies.  If this is desired there will be no fixture date postponement announcements until after GW31

If you don’t have a wildcard you could prepare for GW31 and GW33 as I mentioned above and then free hit in GW32 for the big double.  However transitioning from 33 to 35 would be difficult as none of the teams with doubles in 35 would have fixtures in GW33.  That means you could have 4 bench players in GW33 plus 3 transfers maximum for GW35.  Not the end of the world for hopefully the benefit you got out of an early wildcard.

If GW35 is limited as it is in the illustration it does make me think that the triple captain could be of more use then the bench boost.  Otherwise it doesn’t particularly change my 2 options at the moment apart from maybe holding off the triple captain for GW25.

I hope you found this helpful.  Rob Reid has used his 2nd wildcard and I’m hoping he will be coming up with an article on his plans to deal with the blanks and doubles.  The same for Costas Chari

I don’t pretend to be any expert on the blanks and doubles so please leave your comments on anything I’ve got wrong or anything else you think is helpful.  All will be welcome.

 

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