⚽ FPL Gameweek 24 Tips

👋 Hello 👋

After a hectic few weeks of Double Gameweeks and fixture announcements, we might be in for a more quiet week in Gameweek 24. The calm before the storm you might say.

There's no Doubles or Blanks to concern yourself with, not until next week at least. It's also likely to be a Gameweek where a lot of FPL managers roll their transfer.

Whatever you're doing, keep in mind the deadline is Saturday 18 February, 11:00am UK time ⏰

 🔥 Gameweek 24 - Hot Topics 🔥

Could we really sell Trippier?

Some FPL managers have started talking about something which would usually sound crazy.....is there anything to be said for selling Kieran Trippier (£6.1m)?

There's a chance that Newcastle don't keep any clean sheets in the next three Gamweeks where they have Liverpool (h), no fixture in Gameweek 25, and then Manchester City (a).

Now I know it sounds crazy to be worried about Liverpool, but despite their poor performances recently, they are still creating chances. In fact, they've generated 13.3 xG since Gameweek 17 but only scored 8 goals. You'd fancy them to start converting more chances sooner rather than later.

The counter point would be that the Newcastle defence has been great, conceding just 0.85 xG per game, the second best numbers in the league behind Manchester City. With Newcastle's defensive capabilities and Trippier's attacking potential, it probably makes sense to keep him.

A lot of you will have money tied up in him, and after Gameweek 26 they have a pretty nice fixture run, including Nottingham Forest (a) in Gameweek 28 where other teams will end up blanking.

Everton vs Wolves vs Chelsea Defenders

Some of you may be looking for a new defender soon. Apart from Chelsea, it may seem strange picking one from these three sides, but each one has it's own benefits depending on what your team needs for the upcoming Blank and Double Gameweeks.

Without going into too much detail right now, there will be some Blank Gameweeks in all of Gameweek 25, 28 and 32. Gameweek 32 may feel like a long way away, and you may well have activated some of your Chips before then, but it's still worth thinking about.

Everton

Everton will not blank in any of the Gameweeks mentioned above. In fact their fixtures will be a Double of Aston Villa (h), Arsenal (a) in Gameweek 25, then Chelsea (a) and Crystal Palace (a) respectively.

They also have cheap nailed options like James Tarkowski (£4.2m) who you can leave on the bench when not needed.

If you are unsure of which chip strategy to go for right now (I know I am), then someone like Tarkowski could leave your options open a little bit whilst also allowing you to spend more of your budget elsewhere.

Wolves

Wolves have Bournemouth (h) in Gameweek 24 followed by a Double Gameweek of Fulham (a) and Liverpool (a).

In the short term they are definitely reasonable picks. You can either go for Max Kilman (£4.3m) as the cheapest option, or Craig Dawson (£4.8m) who provides a little more goal threat.

Longer term though the appeal of Wolves defenders definitely goes down. Their fixtures in Gameweek 26 and 27 are Spurs (h) and Newcastle (a). The fixtures in Gameweek 28 and Gameweek 32 are also not guaranteed.

If you need a new defender for Gameweek 24 and 25 then they may be better than Everton defenders, but outside of that I prefer going for someone from the Merseyside club.

Chelsea

Chelsea are clearly the better defence out of the three, but their players cost more money and might not be as nailed on for guaranteed minutes.

They don't have a Double Gameweek on the horizon (maybe in Gameweek 29), but they do have fixtures in Gameweek 25 and 28 (the one in Gameweek 32 isn't guaranteed).

My favourite option would be Reece James (£5.8m) who is building his way back to full fitness. He's the most attacking defender at Chelsea. The only worry is how many games he can fit in with Champions League back, we may see the odd pre-60 minute sub. If you're okay with that, he's who I would go with.

Thiago Silva (£5.5m) isn't all that exciting but he does seem like one of the most nailed starters for Chelsea. Even at the age of 38 he has only missed two games in the league this season. Benoît Badiashile (£5.0m) could provide a cheaper option. He's not in the Champions League squad as Chelsea could only register a certain number of new players. This does mean he's always well rested for the league. He's played 90 minutes in each of the last four league games so things are looking good. My only worry would be if Graham Potter wanted to give one of his other centre backs some game time with Thiago Silva before a Champions League game. For now though, Badiashile looks fairly safe.

Arsenal Minute Worries Continue...

In Gameweek 23, Ben White (£4.7m) was benched against Manchester City. It's led to some questions over whether he's first choice.

I think it's fairly clear he still is, but that doesn't guarantee you a starting place in the XI every single week. Takehiro Tomiyasu (£4.2m) didn't perform great against Manchester City, but I still think he'll be used at times by Mikel Arteta either from the start, or off the bench.

I don't think Ben White owners need to worry though, he should still start the majority of games and is a good price. With another Double Gameweek in Gameweek 25 for Arsenal you could swap him to Gabriel (£5.2m) or Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.1m) if you have the spare transfer and cash to do so, but it's probably a bit of a luxury.

I think the same applies to Gabriel Martinelli (£6.6m). We have seen a clear reduction in his minutes now that Leandro Trossard (£6.6m) is an option. Martinelli played 75, 61 and 58 minutes in the last three matches, compared to 81, 78, and 90 in the three games prior to that.

He's still first choice and should continue to start, but his points will be affected slightly by Trossard. If you have the luxury to move him on, I'd go for whoever you don't own out of Martin Ødegaard (£7.0m) or Bukayo Saka (£8.3m) with Saka being the priority.

Arteta did say in today's press conference that Trossard is an option when asked whether he deserves to start a game.

We need to remember however that Arteta needs to keep all his players happy and he was never going to say that Trossard will always be on the bench.

The key for me is that any time the Arsenal team sheet comes out, there is a slight worry (no matter how small) that White or Martinelli might be on the bench. With great fixtures coming up including a Double in Gameweek 25, it could still be worth moving them on if you get a chance.

📈 Transfer Activity 📉

João Félix (£7.6m) is the most transferred in forward this week with 223,690 new owners. We haven't seen him in a huge amount of games for Chelsea yet, but every time he's played I've been impressed.

Even with the huge number of signings Chelsea have made, I have a feeling that João Félix will be someone who sees regular starts and gets good minutes. Chelsea have a nice fixture run that includes Southampton (h), Leeds (h), Leicester (a) and Everton (h) in the next five Gameweeks. They also play in Blank Gameweek 25 and what will eventually be confirmed as Blank Gameweek 28 as well. I think he's a great buy.

Riyad Mahrez (£7.8m) continues to be heavily transferred in as well. Off the back of his 14 pointer in Gameweek 23 he has 175,419 new owners. Since the World Cup he's started eight of Man City's nine Premier League games. For that price he just looks like excellent value with Forest (a), Bournemouth (a), Newcastle (h) and Crystal Palace (a) in the next four fixtures.

The only slight downside I can think of (and I'm just playing devil's advocate), is in two of the last three games he's come off around the 60th minute and Bernardo Silva (£6.8m) has moved to right wing. Could we see that happen from the start soon? Man City also have Champions League about to start up again, so the minutes of a lot of players might be even harder to predict than they normally are.

👑 Captaincy 👑

I think the biggest challenge with this newsletter might be having to come up with a different way to say Erling Haaland (£12.2m) is the best captain every single week.

I've seen some people talk about his away form not being fantastic since the World Cup. When you look at the fixtures it's not all that surprising. Man City have played five away games in that time against Leeds, Chelsea, Man united, Spurs and Arsenal.

Haaland got 13 points against Leeds and 6 or fewer in the rest. Fixtures matter, even for Haaland.

He already has one hat-trick against Nottingham Forest this season, although having to play them away might be a little tougher. Forest aren't quite as bad a defence as a lot of us expected them to be. They have conceded 1.32 xG per 90 minutes in the league which puts them 12th, not bad!

Man City do have Champions League starting back up next week, but we've been here a lot with Haaland. He tends to start most games he's fit for and comes off once the game is won. That's the situation I can see happening this week and so he'll definitely be my captain.

If you do want to go with someone different, it probably has to be Marcus Rashford (£7.3m). Even Barcelona can't stop him scoring as we saw in the Europa League this week. I think Leicester will cause Man United somewhat of a challenge, but that's mostly in attack. Defensively they are the third worst team so far this season, conceding 1.52 xG per 90 minutes.

If you want to back against the crowd that will go with Haaland, then go ahead and put your trust in Rashford.

💪 My Team 💪

I'm having a pretty rough season so far, I just cannot get a run of green arrows going whatsoever.

I almost halved my rank in the first Gameweek back after the World Cup, but since then I have gotten nowhere.

I think it would be easier to handle if I felt like I'd made lots of bad decisions, or hated my team, but I don't really.

Even this week, I know Ederson (£5.4m) has been really poor, but having to play him against Nottingham Forest doesn't seem that bad and next week he has Bournemouth (a).

Ultimately I only have 1 free transfer and I don't see any good single transfer moves to make that also help with Blank/Double Gameweek 25. I have considered Ederson to Kepa Arrizabalaga (£4.7m) and then Aleksandar Mitrović (£6.9m) to João Félix for a four point hit. It looks good this week with Chelsea playing Southampton (h) but doesn't help me massively for Gameweek 25.

I also think Mitrovic will probably play against Brighton despite being flagged. At this point he owes me some points!

It's probably best to roll the transfer and then generate funds from selling Bruno Fernandes (£9.9m) in Gameweek 25 and maybe upgrading Nathan Aké (£5.1m) who seems a headache every week.

I'm playing James Tarkowski (£4.2m) simply because I don't feel like I can trust Aké to start. This is a move that could definitely backfire.

I just need a week where all of my differential players deliver, I'm looking at you Fernandes, Ederson, Tarkowski, Mitrovic and Mohamed Salah (£12.6m).

Captain as above, I think I have to go with Haaland. It will be much more interesting in Gameweek 25 when Arsenal and Liverpool both have Double Gameweeks and I'm picking between them for captaincy instead.

📽️ My YouTube Content 📽️

Make sure to check out my Final Thoughts video that went out earlier today. I covered the latest news and information as well as answering some of your questions.

I'll also be doing my regular Deadline Live Stream on YouTube around 9:45am UK time Saturday morning. Answering all of your questions ahead of the Gameweek 24 Deadline!

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