In the latest article from our team of Hall of Famers and guest contributors, reigning worldwide champion Ali (FPL Gunz) reacts to the finalisation of Blank Gameweek 29 and the chip strategy thoughts that come to mind.

Our writers are providing regular Fantasy Premier League (FPL) articles and team reveals throughout the season. Only Premium Members can access every single one.

You can sign up here. Once aboard, you’ve locked in the price of your Premium Membership for good, so long as you don’t cancel.

FPL managers have been patiently waiting for this week’s FA Cup results in order to finally get clarity on the blanks and doubles ahead. Of course, all strategies to navigate through this chaotic upcoming schedule are team-dependent but sticking to the most optimal one should, in theory, lead us to significant rank gains.

Blank Gameweek 29 will only have four matches, as Burnley, Luton Town, Fulham and West Ham United hosting Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa accordingly. Managers who are in a lucky position to field eight or nine players with accurate planning should feel confident and save their Free Hit chip for later.

After all, it’s expected to be a low-scoring occasion, seeing so few matches and an absence of popular names from Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal. Free Hit could therefore provide better value later on in Double Gameweeks 34 or 37, where managers can use it to chase the upside potential.

WILDCARD TAKES PRIORITY

Firstly, for those who don’t want to make drastic changes to their team and be forced to Wildcard straight after, there is some sense in using it in Blank Gameweek 29. But another interesting option is to dead-end your team into Gameweek 29 and then pull the trigger on a Gameweek 30 Wildcard.

The strongest chip to use, the timing of a Wildcard greatly affects your season. Long-term points gains from it are much higher than the one-week gains of Free Hit, Bench Boost and Triple Captain, so we have to primarily focus on nailing its deployment.

For example, the popular combination of Wildcard with an immediate Bench Boost in the following week might not be the best idea this season because the biggest double is expected to be Gameweek 37, which is too late for a Wildcard as you only get three rounds with it. Also, it’s a time when some teams might not have any motivation to perform.

Ideally, managers will finish the season strongly and to do that we have to maximise a Wildcard’s impact by getting at least five Gameweeks out of it. Gameweek 34 is expected to be a double but, with few teams projected to feature twice, it might not be worthy of a Bench Boost.

My personal assessment of current circumstances is that the best time to Wildcard is between Gameweeks 30 and 33. Then, making sure there’s a playing bench likely to play twice in Gameweek 37 is key. Having a strong bench for this final stretch could backfire if good scores are stuck on it but it could also prove useful in case of rotation and unexpected injuries.

Strong teams are likely to go deep in their European competitions and it’s important to have squad depth that’s ready to step up when needed.

As for the Triple Captain chip, many engaged managers have already used it or are planning to use it on Dominic Solanke (£7.1m) in Double Gameweek 28. But there are doubts about his fitness, so there may be enough opportunities to use it in a future double. 

MY CHIP STRATEGY + GAMEWEEK 27 TEAM