Here’s our FPL blank gameweeks and doubles article which we’ve updated for the Tuesday 4th round replays. There’s also some thoughts on various ways to navigate them
FPL blank gameweeks and doubles – updated for the 4th round replays
Tuesday 4th round replay results
So last night the 4th round replays were played except for WBA v Brighton. I’ll update the schedule again tomorrow for that fixture.
So here were the results last night:
Brentford 3 Barnet 1
Newport 2 Middlesboro 0
QPR 2 Portsmouth 0
Wolves 3 Shrewsbury 2
The full 5th round draw
Queens Park Rangers v Watford
Brighton or West Brom v Derby County
AFC Wimbledon v Millwall
Swansea City v Brentford
Newport County v Manchester City
Bristol City v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Doncaster Rovers v Crystal Palace
Chelsea v Manchester United
A brief blanks and doubles time table
Assuming this season follows previous seasons precedents of not clashing postponed PL games with European competitions then a time table for blanks and doubles is as follows:
Blank GW27 – EFL Cup final postponements.
Blank GW31 – FA Cup quarter final PL postponements
Double GW32 – Potential home for postponements
Blank GW33 – FA Cup semi finals PL postponements
Double GW35 – Potential home for postponements
The blank gameweek schedules for GW31 and GW33
So here’s the latest blank schedules updated for those fixtures last night. I’ve taken Yaniv’s suggestion and used the to qualify odds rather than win in 90 odds although with no replays in the 5th round the difference in practicality is less. I’ll update them again after the Brighton replay tonight
With Wolves winning there’s no change to the blank fixtures in GW31 and GW33. The current guaranteed fixtures that are on as both teams are knocked out are in green.
GW31
GW33
As I’ve said before only 5 teams at the moment in Bournemouth, Burnley, Huddersfield, Leicester and Liverpool have guaranteed fixtures in GW31 and GW33.
A couple of points worth mentioning
Firstly the 5th round fixtures are between GW26 and GW27. So I’m assuming on Monday before GW27 we will know the quarter final draw and then can make assumptions on what teams could be added to the 5 teams above that have guaranteed fixtures in GW31 and GW33.
We’ll also know the 5th round results. In particular if Chelsea lose to Man Utd that opens things up with Chelsea, Everton and West Ham all having guaranteed fixtures in GW31 and GW33. Making it much easier to navigate.
The 2nd point is where the postponed fixtures go to. Last season for TV reasons the postponed fixtures were mixed around to maximise viewing fixtures. After the quarters in GW31 the FA will know the full list of postponements as they will know the semi finalists. Matches can be moved to GW32 or GW35 depending on what the TV companies want. That will drastically affect the make up of the doubles. If they don’t announce the GW31 postponements before GW27 when the quarter finalists are known then they maybe deferring announcements for that reason.
For example in my last blanks and doubles article I ran a hypothetical set of results. Those results saw the postponed
GW31 games as
Everton v Chelsea
Man Utd v Man City
Spurs v Palace
Watford v Southampton
Wolves v Arsenal
If they moved these 2 GW32 (there is an international break between them) then all those teams will have doubles.
GW33 postponements in the hypothetical scenario are:
Chelsea v West Ham
Man City v Cardiff
Wolves v Man Utd
If these moved to GW35 then all those teams will have doubles.
In that hypothetical scenario Chelsea, Man City, Wolves and Man Utd have doubles in both as semi finalists.
But what if the TV companies decided that they wanted Spurs v Palace and Watford v Southampton in GW35 and fancied switching the Chelsea games around.
Your GW32 and GW35 doubles look very different. Putting Son HM in at GW28 for an anticipated double in GW32 won’t work out.
If the rearranged fixtures aren’t announced by the time GW27 kicks off then it maybe that they won’t be announced until after GW31 when they can be planned accordingly. That will make planning for GW32 without using a free hit or a wildcard difficult
4 options for using the chips
These assume you have all your chips intact. Rob Reid has done an excellent article on navigating the blanks and doubles without a 2nd wildcard.
Here’s the 4 options:
You’ll see I’ve added a 4th option which I’ve seen floated around.
At the moment my thoughts are still to go for option 1 or 2. I probably prefer option 2 although the 5th round results and the quarter final draw before GW27 will clarify things more.
The reason I’m not wild about the Yaniv option and option 4 is that if there are no announcements are made on where the postponements are going until GW31 then you’re preparing blind for GW32 if they mix and match the fixtures as I mentioned above.
Now if they don’t announce them before GW27 then you can decide if you want to still follow that path. If they do announce the GW31 postponements before GW27 I may switch paths.
As I said I’m probably doing the Aguero to Aubameyang transfer this week so at the moment I don’t need think further than that.
The option 1 and 2 strategy though mean preparing for GW31 in advance which means filling the team with Bournemouth, Burnley, Huddersfield, Leicester and Liverp0ol players.
For GW31 I would certainly have 3 Liverpool players with my bench being something like Rashford, Pogba and Aubameyang and a preferred GK. That would mean I would only need 4 players from the likes of the 5 teams above in my starting 11 in the games up to GW31 which sounds less of a burden. Up to GW31 the other 4 of the starters in GW31 from those 4 teams would just sit on my bench in the gameweeks up to GW31. This situation though could be improved depending on 5th round results as I mentioned above. Chelsea losing would make GW31 alot easier to navigate.
As far as the triple captain is concerned in option 1 and 2. You either used that in the double GW25 or will use it in GW36 for Salah v Huddersfield or use it if Chelsea get an extra double gameweek if they get to the semi finals or if the weather does you a favour and creates postponements.
Final thoughts
In short, wait to see the 5th round results and quarter final draw before GW27 before finalising your strategy. If the postponements aren’t given a home before GW27 then assess the risk that the postponements could be mixed and matched between 32 and 35 making the gameweeks the clubs benefiting from double gameweeks hard to predict until after GW31.
Lastly I don’t consider myself an expert at all on this. I’ve just tried to follow it logically. If you have any comments or challenges please leave them in the comments column.
See the popular transfers in and out in our bandwagons and sinking ships article
If you want to see how any players performed over the season see our cumulative underlying stats article or if just for GW25 see our GW25 review article
Also see our fixture ease article for players with the best upcoming fixtures
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