When Should You Play Your First Half Chips in FPL 26/27?

In this piece, we will be looking at how to use our first half chips in 26/27 Fantasy Premier League (FPL).

If you don’t know what chips are, check out our FPL explained section.

Right, let’s get into it!

Two Schools of Thought – Planners & The Others

There are two basic schools of thought to chips in FPL.

We have the managers who like to plan out their chips and then we have the other guys.

I sit firmly in the planning category. Whilst I think you can do perfectly well without a plan, I think it requires a bit of luck and/or a certain skill to know when the right moment to play your chips is that most of us don’t possess.

With a plan, I can identify the moments ahead of time, make picks that make the most of those moments and I can always adjust plans as I go along.

Wildcard

There are two key factors of when to wildcard for me.

Firstly, information. At the start of the season we have the least amount of information available to us. We haven’t seen the new managers, new signings and new tactics. So, the biggest information jump is from gameweek 0 to gameweek 1 – we get a huge amount of new information from that. In gameweek 2 we get a tonne of new information but it’s less than gameweek 1; gameweek 3 we get more new information but it’s less than gameweek 2. And so the trend goes on.

So, we will probably want to and probably should wildcard early to fix our mistaken thinking. But, we also need enough information to make this wildcard worth doing.

The second factor is fixtures. Naturally in FPL, you want to pick players with good fixtures. A wildcard allows you to rapidly switch to a bunch of guys with good fixtures. Most of the time, teams fixtures either get better or worse in different gameweeks. But some weeks there are more teams than others and we call these ‘big fixture swings.’

Those weeks are:

Gameweek 4 – Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle, Palace and Everton have a good run of fixtures.
Gameweek 6 – Arsenal, Bournemouth, Fulham all have good runs.

Of course, you could also just use your wildcard when you’re in a bit of trouble with injuries and the like. But, realistically, I don’t think it’s likely that you end up with five injuries in your fifteen. And, with the ability to save up to five free transfers in FPL, it is even less likely that you will need a wildcard to save you.

Triple Captain

Triple Captain is actually one of the easiest to figure out. Just pick the best players in the game against the worst opposition in the league. And, to make it easier for you I have identified those gameweeks:

Haaland v.s.	GW	Bruno v.s.	GW
Coventry (H)	3	Hull (A)	1
Ipswich (H)	7	Ipswich (H)	2
Hull (H)	16	Coventry (H)	14

The best fixture is probably Haaland at home to Hull. At the moment and until proven otherwise, Hull are the worst team in the league and Haaland has the highest ceiling of any pick in the game.

However, waiting to gameweek 16 comes with risk. Haaland might not be fit at that point and there is no other obvious pick as all Bruno’s games have been played. He may also simply be rotated in an easy fixture against weak opposition following a couple of intensive months and just before the intense Christmas period.

So, I think a less risky and still excellent pick is Haaland at home to Coventry in gameweek 3.

It’s at home, there isn’t any European football either side so his minutes should be reassured and we know he scores more goals earlier in the season.

Of course, there is nothing to stop you playing your triple captain on anyone else in the league. Someone like Palmer or Saka could have excellent gameweeks but this carries a bit more risk as they tend not to hit the heights of Bruno or Haaland.

Free Hit

Free hit is also a relatively simple one. Pick a week when you have no players playing against a rubbish team or pick a week when your best players play against each other or both!

If you have lots of Chelsea or Arsenal assets in your gameweek 1 team, you could free hit them out in favour of Man City players in gameweek 3 against Coventry (though obviously you cannot triple captain too!) and Liverpool players against Ipswich.

Alternatively, if you have lots of Man United or Man City players in your gameweek 1 team, you could switch them to Chelsea assets in gameweek 4 when they play Hull.

Bench Boost

Bench boost is probably the most complex out of all these chips. It’s a bit frustrating in that regard because all we are talking about is adding the scores of 4 picks you don’t want in your first eleven most weeks.

The best thing to do with a bench boost is to play it early. That means you can fill your bench with reasonably good picks when you are free to make as many transfers as possible. And then wildcard out of it reasonably early because you will probably have left a million or two in cash on your bench that you could use in your starting eleven instead.

James’ Aggressive Chip Strategy

Okay, I have set out the general view on chip strategy coming into the season. But here is my current plan:

Bench Boost Gameweek 2

I want to triple up on Coventry at home against Hull. This helps me keep the bench cheap AND gives a great opportunity for points.

Triple Captain Gameweek 3 – Haaland (H) v.s Coventry

As explained above, he’s at home and fit and it’s early season.

Free Hit Gameweek 4 Remove United and City, triple up on Chelsea v.s Hull

I plan to go into the season with no Chelsea players. I don’t really think any of them are that great in the first couple of weeks so I want to bet against that opposition but bet big on them for the game against Hull. I can also have triple Palace against Ipswich, double Brighton against Coventry and Double Arsenal away to Sunderland as well as drop my double Man United defence against Man City.

Wildcard gameweek 6

To take advantage of fixture swings and increased information.

One of the important things about this plan is that the free hit and wildcard are not set in stone. If I think that the teams with fixture swings in 4 look much better than I expect then I will be able to simply wildcard then and free hit later (or in 3 to triple up on Liverpool). I’d rather give myself two more weeks of information before committing to a wildcard though.

This strategy allows me to aggressively target fixtures against bottom opposition – principally Ipswich, Hull and Coventry.

Assuming this goes well, and that is what I expect, then I will start the season with a good rank in the top 500k and not feel any need to chase success which I also really like.