4 hours Ago By Gianni Butticè
Around 50% of engaged Fantasy Premier League managers are looking to use their triple captain chip this week on Mohamed Salah. It’s an obvious play for those still with the chip in hand and whilst Salah will likely double again later in the season, other chips could be better used around the larger double gameweeks. Use it on Salah now and you guarantee he’s fit, playing well and fresh off a rest in the Champions League.
It makes complete sense to push the button this week. Using Your Assistant Manager Chip The assistant manager chip is now available, and some will be looking to roll the dice on David Moyes knowing if he gets a result against Liverpool in the derby, he will earn 18+ points for a win and 9+ points for a draw. The table bonus system makes this chip fascinating; beat a team 5 places or more above you in the table and earn a 10-point bonus, draw and earn a 5-point bonus.
Ordinarily, a win gets you 6 points and a draw 3 points. Every goal scored earns an additional 1 point and every clean sheet earned is an extra 2 points. The chip is used for a three-game block so it’s worth using over a double gameweek to reach four games.
This chip comes with a higher points ceiling than most and should be central to your chip strategy. Managers come with different price points from 0.5–1.
5 million, and you can use your weekly transfer (or a -4 point hit) to move between managers. The manager also takes up one of your three-man allocation per team so you can’t own three Liverpool players and Arne Slot, for example. Double Gameweek this Weekend Gameweek 24 is the first of three likely double gameweeks this season.
Gameweek 33 and 36 will be bigger doubles than this week, which sees both Liverpool and Everton have an additional fixture. The first double game week of the season always carries lots of excitement and many feel it necessary to ensure they have their maximum quota of players playing twice. However, whilst tripling on Liverpool players feels sensible, stocking up on Everton players might be counter-intuitive.
Everton have seen an upturn in form under David Moyes and face two home fixtures against Leicester and Liverpool in Double Gameweek 24. Moyes has masterminded consecutive clean sheets against two reasonable attacks in Tottenham and Brighton and the likes of Vitalii Mykolenko, Jake O’Brien and Jordan Pickford are good players to buy this week, but how much can we trust Everton attackers to score goals? Favour Liverpool Attackers Under Sean Dyche Everton were shot-shy. We’ve seen slight improvement under the new manager but Everton still don’t look like a team that will score many.
Punting on an Everton attacker feels like it comes with higher risk than investing in a defensive player at Goodison Park. Whilst the likes of Abdoulaye Doucouré and Iliman Ndiaye aren’t bad options, they take up a valuable spot in your team, cost more than the defenders for similar output and can’t easily be hidden on your bench when the fixtures become more difficult after the double. Most FPL managers play with a back three formation so recruiting someone like Mykolenko and then benching him in trickier games is far easier than rotating an attacker where seven of your eight are often needed in the XI.
Coady Gakpo was a differential this time last week and in the space of seven days has gone up in price a couple of times and had an increase of 10% in ownership. He’s this week's poster boy after a 16 point haul versus Ipswich and its completely understandable. Many saw Gakpo as a rotation risk earlier in the season but he now has 11 consecutive starts in the Premier League in his preferred position on the left of a front three - and he’s in the best form we have seen since he arrived at Anfield.
His away form is questionable and trips to Bournemouth and Everton won’t be easy, but with two fixtures, he’s hard to ignore. Elsewhere at Liverpool, Dominik Szoboszlai (owned by 2% of managers) has caught the eye in recent weeks and against Ipswich both him and Luis Díaz played as false 9s, which was very interesting. Many engaged managers own Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold and those shopping for a third Liverpool player have a decision to make over investing in a second attacker or defender.
With Bournemouth and Everton having an upturn in form in recent weeks, clean sheet odds for Liverpool have been reduced and the ceiling for the attackers is clearly higher. So whilst the likes of Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson are perfectly fine options, Gakpo or Szoboszlai are potentially more explosive. Taking Hits in a Double Gameweek Through appearance points alone, a four-point hit is often reduced to a two-point hit, but if you’re using a transfer to sell that player after the double gameweek, then it’s rarely worth the gamble.
Liverpool players, who many will happily hold onto for the foreseeable future, are probably worth the hit, but it’s hard to justify the same for Everton players, especially if they’re a transfer out waiting to happen and they're not part of your long-term plans. Bournemouth and Brentford focus These two teams might not have a double gameweek but they’re flying high and have a wealth of good attacking players to pick from. Three stand out from each club, and all six players are arguably more attractive to buy this week than their Everton counterparts.
The Cherries have three lowly owned budget midfielders who are playing in the front three for a team scoring bundles of goals. Bournemouth are unbeaten in 11 games and after this week's fixture at home to Liverpool, are top of the fixture difficulty ratings table with great looking match ups on the horizon. Justin Kluivert, Antoine Semenyo and Dango Ouattara are all in red-hot form and it’s difficult to split them.
Semenyo has consistently been their best performer over the first 24 gameweeks, Kluivert is on penalties and has five goals in three games, whilst Ouattara is over half a million cheaper than the other two, fresh off a hattrick and playing as the central striker with long-term injuries to Evanilson and Enes Ünal. Brentford's attacking options are equally intriguing with Kevin Schade and Yoane Wissa two good budget options and Bryan Mbeumo the best value player in the game so far this season. Only three players have more FPL points than Mbeumo, and they all cost considerably more.
Brentford play Spurs this week, followed by West Ham, Leicester, Everton and Aston Villa. Find out more on FPL chips and when to use them ..
