And we're back!
I hope last weekend's break for the FA Cup has left you refreshed and ready to crack on with the remainder of the FPL season.
With several Premier League clubs falling at the first hurdle of the FA Cup, it does mean that some teams are left with a single focus for the remainder of the season while others still have a significant number of games to play.
With injuries and squad rotations on the rise, these are important considerations to bear in mind, particularly if your finger is itching to pull the trigger on a couple of the refreshed chips you have at your disposal.
Who's left in which competitions?
| Team | League Games Remaining | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 17 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| City | 17 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Newcastle | 17 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chelsea | 17 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Villa | 17 | Yes | No | Yes |
| Liverpool | 17 | Yes | No | Yes |
| Palace | 17 | No | No | Yes |
| Spurs | 17 | No | No | Yes |
| Forest | 17 | No | No | Yes |
| Brentford | 17 | Yes | No | No |
| Fulham | 17 | Yes | No | No |
| Sunderland | 17 | Yes | No | No |
| Brighton | 17 | Yes | No | No |
| Leeds | 17 | Yes | No | No |
| Burnley | 17 | Yes | No | No |
| Wolves | 17 | Yes | No | No |
| United | 17 | No | No | No |
| Everton | 17 | No | No | No |
| Bournemouth | 17 | No | No | No |
| West Ham | 17 | No | No | No |
The table above is ordered from most to least matches remaining this season. Of course, other than the 17 remaining league matches, no one can say for sure how many more games each of these sides will play in the respective domestic and European cups but for some of those teams looking to compete on all fronts, that could easily be another 10+ fixtures...
It's probably most helpful to think of the clubs within 5 distinct groups.
You've got the 4 at the top who are still in every competition and who played midweek this week in the semi-finals of the League Cup.
You've got Villa and Liverpool who are in everything but the League Cup and then Palace, Forest and Spurs who are out of the domestic cups but remain in Europe.
All English sides still in Europe have another 2 group stage matches to play but it is then looking very likely that they will all play at least another 2 matches after that.
You've then got 7 Premier League sides whose chances of glory this season are limited purely to the the FA Cup and finally the group of 4 clubs whose sole focus is now the league.
That of course includes Manchester United whose defeat in the first round of both domestic cups plus their failure to qualify for Europe means that they will play just 40 matches this season - the fewest games they've played in a season since 1914/15!
While the above gives an indication of which players may be subject to rest and rotation for the remainder of the season , what is also now taking shape and is of equal importance is when the blank and double game weeks might fall as administrators try to cram all these remaining games into the next 4 months.
GW26 and GW31 potential blank and double game weeks
There are 3 factors that will decide whether these weeks might break from the standard 10 fixtures.
- Who reaches the League Cup Final
- Which English clubs avoid the additional qualification phase of the Champions League
- The whims of the Premier League's scheduling gods
Based on how things stand at the moment, the most likely set of circumstances would be double game weeks for Arsenal and Wolves in GW26 with both sides then having a blank GW31.
However, we won't know that for sure until around mid-February so watch this space...
Division 1
GW21 Results
GW22 Fixtures
Division 2
GW21 Results
| Team | Hive Account | Score | Score | Team | Hive Account |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mighty Fc |  | 53 | 50 | Hasaaland |  |
| Tangram |  | 59 | 39 | Holohive |  |
| SportsNerd |  | 54 | 60 | Stevenson Fc | @Stevenson7 |
| Rubilu |  | 43 | 40 | Wongi |  |
| Micheal Fc |  | 57 | 48 | Corkscrew |  |
| PHOENIX FC |  | 46 | 62 | Show Not Tel |  |
| Rys FC |  | 44 | 42 | Chrisamuda FC |  |
| Bennett's Boys |  | 42 | 43 | Magical McFizzy |  |
| WIKE BOYS |  | 23 | 50 | Working 9 to 5 |  |
| The Cellas |  | 49 | 46 | Los Magos del Balón |  |
| gentleshaid |  | 69 | 56 | Murima |  |
| Garuda XI |  | 48 | 28 | Sportin |  |
| HappyBoys FC |  | 49 | 36 | Noobmaster69 |  |
| Matz Sels Seashells |  | 51 | 31 | ThtHive |  |
| ARFANTASY FC |  | 65 | 60 | racibo |  |
| adewalehafis |  | 41 | 67 | Newton Heath RFC |  |
| Funwarriors | @Jmis101 | 26 | 50 | Large in the Rear |  |
| K Empire Balls |  | 56 | 46 | TheVulcAns⚓️ |  |
| Teamkoko |  | 49 | 50 | Blue Mooners |  |
| Eh, No, Ah, Meh. |  | 51 | 61 | Corner |  |
| Pepzerbi |  | 39 | 49 | Tengo Rangers |  |
| Uwabbs FC |  | 47 | 41 | Six and the City |  |
| Deals on Wheels |  | 51 | 55 | Bankai |  |
| Kingsleyy |  | 59 | 29 | Akatsuki |  |
| Jeremie Ping Pong |  | 66 | 57 | Cygnus FC |  |
| Könttyrät FC |  | 41 | 70 | Krake99 |  |
| valchiz Fc |  | 50 | 60 | Fire Power #N/A | |
| Hadji |  | 61 | 58 | Amirirans |  |
| Emeka4 |  | 55 | 54 | The People's XV |  |
| Kelsco FC |  | 46 | 38 | hamzamusic | @Hamza-art |
| Queen dynasty |  | 49 | 42 | Sutter Kane |  |
| Itachi FC |  | 27 | 30 | Top 10k? |  |
| Dapomola Fc |  | 68 | 64 | Blugrana |  |
GW22 Fixtures
Midfield goals galore at Newcastle
As I've noted in multiple previews of late, it's really difficult to find teams and players in form at the moment. The one exception to that rule appears to be Newcastle who have won their last 3 Premier League matches scoring 9 goals in the process.
They hit another 3 against Bournemouth in the FA Cup at the weekend before losing to nil against City in the League Cup.
Of those 12 goals in the last 18 days, 11 have come from midfield with Guimarães (mentioned last week) getting 3, fellow Brazilian Joelinton 2 and Harvey Barnes netting 4 times (2 in the league, 2 in the cup).
Barnes has always had a goal in him as his stats below show. The difficulty has been him getting a regular run of starts either due to injury or competition for places at Newcastle.
Harvey Barnes has maintained a consistent xG per 90 of around 0.4 throughout his Newcastle career
With Jacob Murphy a doubt for the games against bottom club Wolves and Elanga out longer term then it would appear that the in-form Barnes will get some more game time. At 1.5% ownership he could prove a significant differential in GW22.
Filling a Semenyo shaped hole
The 2nd most owned player in FPL 25/26 has finally completed his move to City and has started his new life at the Ethiad with 2 goals in 2 cup matches.
We wait to see whether he'll go straight into the Premier League starting XI with a massive game for City at Old Trafford this weekend. The fact that Semenyo's ownership has decreased over the last 3 GWs is linked in part to the feeling that he won't be an automatic starter for Pep. At previous club Bournemouth, he missed just a single match this season (at West Ham) and played the full 90mins in all other fixtures.
If managers do begin to move away from Semenyo then perhaps the players left to fill his void at Bournemouth would be worth a look at. To be honest, with Semenyo leaving and an ongoing injury crisis the Cherries don't have many options in that part of the pitch to choose from which in itself does at least provide you with the assurance of game time.
Most goal involvements for players at £5.5 mil or under
Marcus Tavernier's 7 goal involvements this season makes him the 3rd best midfield at £5.5 mil or under in the game. I've always felt that his technical ability and flexibility make him an underated player and perhaps it's the later of those skills that has stopped him delivering more FPL points.
He's played across every midfield position this season for Bournemouth including as part of their double pivot but with Semenyo gone, Kluivert out for the season and Lewis Cook coming back to fitness, it might be that Tavernier is finally able to establish himself as Bournemouth's attacking fulcrum. He's likely to take a lot of set-pieces and is probably on penalty duty too...
Alternatively you could go for another Cherries star who is flying under the radar a little. Junior Kroupi has 7 Premier League goals already this season which makes him the joint top goal scoring teenager in Europe's big 5 leagues alongside Lamine Yamal. He's only 3 short of Dele Alli's record 10 goals in an EPL season for a teenager set back in 15/16.
What I like about the highlights package above is that even though it's a small sample size, he's scoring a variety of goals. Left foot, right foot, header, long range and tap in - he's a threat inside and outside the box.
With Evanilson back to fitness and scoring in his last 2 matches, Kroupi may need to make do with a slightly deeper role playing off the Brazilian but as we saw in the game against Spurs, that doesn't mean he won't pop-up in the box in goal scoring positions...
Welcome to the shit show Mr Carrick
It's still slightly difficult for me as fan who grew-up watching the Premier League in the 90s to get my head around the fact that a trip to Old Trafford has zero fear factor in the modern age.
Back in the days of my youth, you'd be lucky to come away from a match at United with anything. Even if you did play out of your skin, the referee would surely intervene to ensure that fortress Old Trafford remained in tact.
United are enduring another difficult season with just 2 clean sheets in 21 games being one of the primary issues that new boss Michael Carrick needs to fix. Of course, kicking his reign off with a home game against City and an away trip to Arsenal isn't exactly easing him into the role. United have just come off a run of matches where they played the current bottom 6 since the start of December but only managed a single victory.
Bruno Fernandes is back to fitness and I'm sure will be on a lot of manager's wish lists from GW24 onwards. However, it remains to be seen where other big name players will fit in to the new manager's system.
Cunha, a player who saw big transfer movements in GW18 and GW19 as managers looked to replace Bruno for the aforementioned run of 'easy games' looks particularly vulnerable if we consider that Carrick is likely to abandon Amorim's failed 2 x number 10 formation. He'll be in direct competition with Bruno for a single number 10 role or Sesko as the lone striker.
As for this week, you'd have to back Haaland as captain against a defensive line that hasn't looked settled in years. Again, you'd assume Carrick will move away from Amorim's back 3 system which he remained wedded to despite it's consistent failure throughout his tenure but will that be enough to stop this City forward line?