FPL Fixtures, the Longview: Which teams should we target and avoid?
Long-term planning is ideal but sometimes difficult to execute. With this in mind, let’s assess FPL fixtures beyond the next couple of weeks.
FPL Fixtures
The Fantasy Football Scout season ticker allows managers to look at an editable period of Gameweeks of their choosing. Managers can delete Gameweeks, change the ratings of games and sort by difficulty. Here is the ticker for the rest of the season, following the big Blank Gameweek 30:
The FFScout season ticker also offers separate rankings focused on both attack and defence.
Teams to target
Arsenal are fighting for fourth, in good form and out of all cup competitions. Defensive assets like Aaron Ramsdale and Ben White are definitely worth holding onto, while Gabriel Martinelli offers a maverick midfield alternative to the more-guaranteed minutes of Bukayo Saka. The lack of consistent FPL strikers adds to Alexandre Lacazette‘s appeal, despite being more of an assister than scorer in recent times.
North London rivals Spurs join them in the top two. Owners of Son Heung-min and Harry Kane will be excited for the subsequent matches against Newcastle, Brighton and Brentford, with curiosity over whether Matt Doherty will continue to play at right wing-back. Alternatively, budget restrictions could offer Dejan Kulusevski as appealing in-form coverage.
Elsewhere, this beautiful visual from Legomane shows the quantity of strong home fixtures left for Leicester. Matches against Norwich (H), Everton (a) and Chelsea (a) are still unscheduled. Therefore, it may be worth observing whether James Maddison plays consistent minutes. Or perhaps Harvey Barnes is the way to proceed whilst Jamie Vardy is injured.
Chelsea’s fixture run is a sea of green, meaning defensive coverage is important. Although the midweek resting of Antonio Rudiger proved that even he isn’t rotation-proof. It’s a problem further upfield too, where Mason Mount may be deemed the most likely to get consistent minutes.
Both Manchester sides have promising fixtures but with contrasting appeal. Ralf Rangnick’s men are hard to predict, expensive FPL assets. The competitive title race will keep Man City and Liverpool assets like Joao Cancelo, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson in their managers’ line-ups, with every game mattering. Harder to predict will be City’s midfield, apart from the expensive Kevin De Bruyne.
Teams to avoid
The season ticker shows there are currently no Double Gameweek matches scheduled but the only blank – Everton vs Crystal Palace – perhaps skews the low ranking of both sides. Palace in particular have a nice run against Leeds (H), Southampton (a) and Watford (H).
Thus Newcastle have the toughest run until Gameweek 28 and even they are unbeaten in over two months, with Eddie Howe just named ‘Manager of the Month’. Still, they’ve held little FPL appeal all season apart from Allan Saint-Maximin.
Finally, Watford rank low but still have time to face Leeds, Brentford and Burnley at home within four matches. It might tempt some to give Emmanuel Dennis another chance.
Longview is a regular segment on the Official FPL Podcast, brought to you each week by Kelly Somers and a selection of experts.
