FPL Double Gameweek 33 Preview: Just Buy Doublers

For FPL Double Gameweek 33 the basic advice is to buy doublers. Okay? That’s it. See ya later.

If you want to read on and see why you should focus on City and then maybe Villa or Palace over Arsenal; or want to see who our favourite picks are; or look at our favoured free hit team; or look at the usual fixtures and captaincy matrix then please read on.

Upcoming Doubles and Blanks

Putting the fixtures into context, as a quick reminder, in the next few weeks we are looking at:

• GW 33 – Confirmed double for Palace, Man City, Aston Villa, Arsenal

• GW 34 – Confirmed blank for Palace, Man City, Aston Villa, Arsenal

• GW 36 – Likely double for FA Cup Finalists + Their PL Opponents
• GW 37 – Blank for the FA Cup Finalists + Their PL Opponents

As always, Ben Crellin has the download on the likely blanks and doubles in 36/37:

Graphic showing the confirmed and potential Blank & Double GW fixDGW36 %s calculated using the FA Cup SF odds and my assumption that GW37 postponements would have a 90% chance of moving to GW36 m/w and a 10% chance of moving to GW37 m/wThe DGW %s for GW36 are the same as the Blank %s for GW37

— Ben Crellin (@bencrellin.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T22:43:37.440Z

How The FA Cup Semi-Final Affects FPL

The first thing to say is that a blank is not guaranteed – Ben reckons it is about a 10% chance that the blank doesn’t happen. 

For the sake of this next part, we are assuming the blank, and therefore the double, does happen:

The bookies have the Palace-Villa game as basically too close to call, though they marginally favour Villa. However, they heavily favour Man City to win against Forest. 

You might think/want/hope City lose but the bookies make money by being right more often than they are wrong and I think they are probably right.

How Does This Affect Transfers This Week?

Palace, Villa and City all double this week and have the potential to double in 36 (and blank in 37). City is clearly the favourite so if you don’t have three City going into this week this makes them the logical choice to pick up.

Or, if you are chasing rank or mini league victories and you don’t have all the Palace or Villa doubles then pick your favourite and back them to win. It is a bit risky as it can blow up in your face but it’s a bit like playing fantasy Euros/World Cup in the knockout rounds – you back the teams you think will win and not just the players.

But Don’t Forget The Blanks – Save Enough Transfers

Assuming you have a free hit available for 34, then obviously the problem is that you could end up with 6 blankers in gameweek 36. That could be an issue that will take 2-3 transfers to get a starting eleven out.

On the other hand, we will know next week who will be in the FA Cup Final and very likely blanking in 37 (there is a 10% chance that there is no blank according to Ben). So, if I hold my transfers I should be able to deal with any fallout.

In any worst case scenario, one person will have six blankers but you only need to get 11 players out so that is, at worst, four transfers but more likely only three needed unless both your keeps blank.

AND, there will probably be a fair amount of hits this week so taking a -4 will be fine.

Best Double Gameweek 33 Transfers In

Okay, so I told you to focus on City and then Palace/Villa already and we will look at them in a minute.

What I didn’t tell you was that you should be very careful with Arsenal.

Arsenal And The Champions League

I am writing this on Monday night before Arsenal play Real Madrid on Wednesday night. 

The Champions League is the only thing Arsenal can actually win this year so it is a big priority for them – hence we have seen a lot of rotation recently.

I think Arsenal will win the tie so I don’t think they will have any motivation to overplay any of their key players. In other words, Saka probably won’t play 180 mins – he is too important. Neither will Timber or White – they are too injury prone. You can probably buy any of them and be happy with 120 mins from any of them.

I think Saliba and Raya are nailed though. Of course, you don’t really want to be using transfers on goalkeepers though.

Man City

I think Gvardiol and Marmoush are no-brainers. They both seem to be nailed. I think Ruben is also nailed but that’s mainly because of the injury crisis over there. Pep used to rotate these guys all the time. 

The third pick is hard though. Foden is possibly injured, De Bruyne is resurgent and Savinho is the best over the season – though of course he just got benched twice in a row.

Crystal Palace

There are four obvious picks that depend upon what you are looking for in your team.

• Want a defender? Get Munoz – great value attacking defender.
• Want a cheap mid? Get Sarr – great underlyings.
• Want a mid priced mid? Get Eze – on set pieces.
• Want a striker? Get Mateta.

Aston Villa

There is nobody really obvious here. I think it is very likely that they get knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday night.

If that is the case then I reckon they go back to a more normal eleven and we will see more mins for Digne, Konsa, Watkins and others. But it is not a given.

I think probably Rogers is the most nailed and safest (besides Martinez). Rashford is probably the most fun though – particularly as we know he is the first choice pen taker and has been playing OOP forward.

Wait Until After Wednesday Evening To Make Transfers

It is probably obvious but as I said above, Arsenal and Villa have Champions League games this week. Wait until they are done before you make moves so you have the maximum amount of information.

What If You Don’t Have Your Free Hit?

Then aim to get around 5 double gameweek players out. If you get any more then you are going to screw yourself for blank 34.

I would probably prioritise in this order:

1. Marmoush
2. Saka
3. Sarr
4. Eze
5. Mateta
6. Gvardiol
7. Saliba

Double Gameweek 33 Free Hit Team

It isn’t the most common strategy but there are a lot of people fee hitting this week so we thought it would be fun to cover our free hit team of choice. And here is mine:

GK: Raya (Areola)

DEF: Gvardiol, Saliba, Munoz (Digne, Wan Bissaka)

MID: Salah, Saka, Savinho, Rogers, Sarr

FWD: Mateta, Marmoush (Watkins)

This is quite a safe and boring Free Hit with only Savinho being risky… De Bruyne would be waaay more fun but obviously costs more. And you don’t need to bench Watkins. Another more fun option would be to pick Rashford over Rogers for reasons covered above.

Fixture Tickers

The short-term tickers are effectively broken at the moment – if you look two weeks ahead v.s. three weeks ahead, then you get a completely different result. 

Instead, I will just look at the best attacking and defensive fixture runs until the end of the season and trust that you can work out that, in the short-term, the doubling teams are better.

Best Attacking Fixtures

1. Forest
2. Wolves
3. Man United
4. West Ham
5. Fulham

Best Defensive Fixtures

1. Man City
2. Brentford
3. West Ham
4. Newcastle
5. Forest

Captaincy Matrix

James’ Moves

I am most likely going to use one of my two free transfers to switch Jacob Murphy to Rogers or Rashford and then I will have the maximum (12) double gameweekers for my bench boost,

Of course, I fully expect at least 3 of these ‘doublers’ to not play 180 mins. So, that makes me favour Rogers because he is the most nailed and, as Joe says, it fits my theme of buying and selling Rogers all year.

That’s It

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