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Following hot on the heels of a points-packed double gameweek for (some) Fantasy Premier League managers comes another bumper schedule, albeit for only two clubs.
Chelsea, humiliated 5-0 by Arsenal in their last fixture, and Tottenham Hotspur, thrashed 4-0 by Newcastle in theirs, are the pair in question with each playing twice in Gameweek 35.
Mauricio Pochettino’s bruised Blues take on highly-flying Aston Villa at Villa Park and Ange Postecoglou’s stuttering Spurs host title-chasing Arsenal in N17 at the weekend before facing one another at Stamford Bridge next Thursday.
In a strange quirk of fate, the Chelsea vs Spurs fixture will commence on 2 May, eight years to the day of the infamous Battle of the Bridge, when Pochettino was in the opposing dugout. If it’s anything as feisty as that meeting was, we’re in for a cracker…
i’s top scorers in Gameweek 34
- Eberechi Eze – 14 points vs West Ham and Newcastle: Crystal Palace’s silky smooth playmaker was ultimately outshone by Jean-Philippe Mateta but still produced a strong overall score after scoring a superb goal and setting another one up in the 5-2 win over West Ham.
- William Saliba – 14 points vs Wolves and Chelsea: Ben White proved to be the best Arsenal defender to own in the double after amassing a huge 26 points, but Saliba still managed a healthy return by registering two clean sheets and scooping a couple of bonus points for good measure.
- Diogo Jota – 12 points vs Fulham: A goal and an assist in Liverpool’s first match of the double got Diogo Jota off to a flyer, but sadly for him and the Reds he suffered an injury in that game and missed the Merseyside derby against Everton. Oh how they missed his composure in front of goal…
Includes players selected in i’s Fantasy Football newsletter
Both Chelsea and Spurs are among a group of six clubs playing twice in Gameweek 37 too, along with Brighton, Manchester City, Manchester United and Newcastle.
Unless you’re still in possession of your second Wildcard (in which case, what have you been waiting for?) players from those teams should be the focus of your transfers over the next couple of weeks.
The Gameweek 35 deadline is at 11am on Saturday 27 April.
Gameweek 35 fixtures
Saturday 27 April
*3pm kick-off unless otherwise stated
- West Ham vs Liverpool (12.30pm)
- Fulham vs Crystal Palace
- Man Utd vs Burnley
- Newcastle vs Sheffield Utd
- Wolves vs Luton
- Everton vs Brentford (5.30pm)
- Aston Villa vs Chelsea (8pm)
Sunday 28 April
- Bournemouth vs Brighton (2pm)
- Tottenham vs Arsenal (2pm)
- Nottingham Forest vs Man City (4.30pm)
Thursday 2 May
- Chelsea vs Spurs (7.30pm)
Nicolas Jackson (Chelsea)
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room right away. Nicolas Jackson is not a great finisher, as last weekend’s loss to Manchester City and the subsequent thumping at Arsenal emphatically demonstrated. Whether he can truly polish his skills sufficiently to become the goalscoring No 9 that Chelsea desperately need is certainly up for debate.
However, it’s a double gameweek in which he is the only striker likely to start both games through the middle.
Timo Werner is the only other player listed as a forward who is likely to get minutes in two fixtures this gameweek and it is tricky to see consecutive starts for the German, who has exclusively played on the left wing for Postecoglou, in Spurs’ double-header.
Jackson may look short of confidence but he did produce a 14-point haul in Chelsea’s 6-0 victory over Everton in Gameweek 33 and managed 16 points in their corresponding fixture with Spurs in north London earlier in the season. On his day, he can be a handful and with a low ownership and two double gameweeks coming up, he could be worth a punt.
Price: £6.8m Points: 109 Gameweek 35 fixture(s): Aston Villa (a), Tottenham (h)
Son Heung-min (Spurs)
Son Heung-min’s form has been a bit patchy lately with the Spurs skipper providing just one goal and one assist in his last five Premier League matches. Son has largely adapted well to playing as a centre-forward this season but has struggled to influence games of late, so much so that he was dragged off before the hour mark during that collective headloss at St James’ Park.
Nevertheless, he remains the standout Spurs option for this gameweek by a country mile given his FPL pedigree. Despite enduring a barren spell by his standards in recent weeks, Son is still fifth in the overall FPL standings with 186 points for the campaign. That’s more than Phil Foden, Erling Haaland and Dominic Solanke, among others, have managed.
Son’s USP is his historical overperformance in front of goal. According to FBREF, Son ranks top among all players in the Premier League for his Goals-Minus Expected Goals tally which is 5.7. Essentially, this means that Son has scored almost six goals that he wouldn’t be expected to score based on the quality of the chances that he has had.
If Spurs are to galvanise their top-four charge they will need Son firing.
Price: £9.8m Points: 186 Gameweek 35 fixture(s): Arsenal (h), Chelsea (a)
Double gameweek teams
Chelsea: Aston Villa (a), Spurs (h)
Spurs: Arsenal (h), Chelsea (a)
Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd)
It has been some time since Bruno Fernandes was regarded as an essential FPL pick – he provided 18 goals, 14 assists and 244 points in the 2020-21 campaign – but he is becoming increasingly hard to ignore after rediscovering his shooting boots.
The United skipper scored twice, including once from the penalty spot, during Wednesday’s 3-2 win over Sheffield United, extending his goalscoring run to five games in all competitions. As well as scoring six times in his last four Premier League appearances, he was also on target in last weekend’s FA Cup semi-final win against Coventry. Unlike Antony, he took and scored a pressure penalty in the shootout too.
It is indicative of Fernandes’ uptick in form that Cole Palmer is the only player to have supplied more FPL points than him – with 79 to 63 – since Gameweek 28. The prospects of Fernandes adding to his goal tally this weekend look good considering United host Burnley, the second leakiest defence away from home, at Old Trafford.
Snapping Fernandes up now would be shrewd considering United are one of six clubs playing twice in Gameweek 37.
Price: £8.3m Points: 139 Gameweek 35 fixture: Burnley (h)
Fabian Schar (Newcastle)
There is a double benefit to buying Fabian Schar as the Newcastle defender has two excellent fixtures coming up followed by a double gameweek in 37.
The Magpies are at home against Sheffield United, the lowest-scoring team in away matches, this weekend and then travel to Burnley, the lowest-scoring team in home games, next weekend. Then in Gameweek 37, they host Brighton at St James’ Park before travelling to Old Trafford to play Manchester United in their next game. They then end their campaign away at Brentford.
It’s a reasonable run for a side looking to secure European football next season in either the Europa League or Conference League, and Schar looks like the third best Newcastle asset to own after Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak.
The Swiss centre-back has scored four times this season, level with Ben White and Cristian Romero at the top of the defender standings.
Price: £5.7m Points: 121 Gameweek 35 fixture: Sheffield Utd (h)
Guglielmo Vicario (Spurs)
Tottenham haven’t been especially solid at the back this season, keeping only six clean sheets and conceding 49 goals in their 32 matches, and have a tricky double gameweek against their two fiercest London rivals.
Readers may question the wisdom in tipping up Guglielmo Vicario in light of the above, but it basically boils down to this: he will play six fixtures in the final four gameweeks (injury and suspension permitting) while most others will only play four matches. FPL is a numbers game, after all.
Even if Vicario doesn’t record a clean sheet against either Arsenal or Chelsea, there’s a reasonable chance that he will make enough saves to earn additional FPL points. The Italian has averaged 2.9 saves per game this season, which is only just under the three required to get a save point in FPL. You’d fancy both Arsenal and Chelsea to register at least three shots on target.
Although Spurs also have Liverpool and Manchester City to play, they have more favourable fixtures against Burnley and Sheffield United too, which boosts Vicario’s chances of adding to his clean sheets.
Price: £5.3m Points: 98 Gameweek 35 fixture(s): Arsenal (h), Chelsea (a)
