FPL Gameweek 31 Preview – Wildcard Special

fpl gameweek 31 preview

Greetings all, and welcome to the most complicated time of the entire FPL season. 

We’ve got doubles. We’ve got blanks. We’ve got FA Cup knockout round connotations. We’ve got chips aplenty. On top of the usual injuries, rotation, and all that other stuff we just love dealing with. What joy!

Right, that’s more than enough moaning. Let’s get down to business, and crack on with the full Gameweek 31 preview. We’ll look at:

 

And more!

 

Upcoming Fixtures

Despite changes to FA Cup replays and whatnot, we’ve still ended up with doubles and blanks to deal with late in the season. 

On the one hand, keeping up with them all is a pain in the backside. On the other, they do offer loads of chances to boost your OR, especially if you’ve saved your chips. 

James laid out the upcoming blanks and doubles very nicely in his Gameweek 30 preview. I (Joe) am going to shamelessly copy/summarise his work:

 

 

As ever, you can get the most up to date information from our lord and saviour, Ben Crellin. Here’s his latest spreadsheet on Bluesky.

 

Strategy Recap

Again, I’m going to generally regurgitate what James said in his last piece. It’s nice having a James in your life. 

The boring, template strategy – which both of us are also following – is:

 

 

The only major debate is whether you bench boost in GW 32 or 33. If you’re doing 32, that means you’re:

  1. Going hard on Newcastle’s double, with some combination of Pope (depending on your GK strategy…more on that soon)/Defender (Trips or Livramento)/Gordon (injury depending) and Isak (definitely)
  2. Maybe loading up on Brighton against Leicester (who are horrendous) at home

 

If you’re targeting 33 instead… you’re just getting more fixtures to play with, so can have more doublers. Palace and Arsenal also have quite a few good assets, plus you can look at Marmoush and Gvardiol (who has very nice defensive fixtures the rest of the way) for City

I get the argument for 32, but I’ll likely be targeting 33. 

 

Wildcard Thoughts

Right, this is the big one. 

Quite a few people, including Ben Crellin, wildcarded in 30. James and I waited until this week.

Who will be proved right, in the end? Probably Crellin, because he’s just better at the game than us. 

Still, let’s go position by position, and try to sort this out together. 

 

Goalkeepers

A surprising amount of debate, this time around – normally, goalkeepers are just a pesky afterthought! 

In this case, it’s because of the aforementioned bench boost/double gameweek combination. You want two playing keepers for your bench boost; and, you can obviously get two fixtures from each of them if you get doubling players in a DGW.

The DGW keepers also left in the FA Cup (Henderson, Martinez, Ederson) can double in 37 too. 

Which combo should you choose? That’s the big question!

James recently sparked a heated debate on Reddit, by proposing a Henderson/Martinez combo. Here’s the thinking:

 

 

His detractors pointed out that Martinez, for example, probably won’t get any cleans. His overall point is that you just get loads of fixtures. So, even if you don’t get cleans, you still get plenty of points for them playing. 

—

If you’re just looking for the single safest keeper overall, it’s Raya. Arsenal are the best defense in the league yet again, he has quite a few nice fixtures the rest of the way, and Arsenal will likely double in 33. 

Ederson is another trendy, premium pick. City are top of our defensive fixture ticker for the rest of the season, he doesn’t have any super-tough games left, and he doubles in 33. There is a slight risk that he gets rotated for Ortega though, since they’ve got nothing to play for

Areola is the template budget option, only costing 4.2. If you don’t want to spend lots of money – like 10+ – on a goalkeeping double, he’s an option. The main point of this is if you’re bench boosting in 33 though, so you get his fixture against Southampton. You’ll also get him on a double in 37, if Forest beat City.

—

Personally, I’m currently thinking a Raya/Martinez double. It’s expensive, but I get the best actual keeper in the league, and maybe two doubles from Martinez. Not taking Henderson also gives me the option of an Eze/Sarr/Mateta Palace triple-up, or getting Munoz in defence.

 

Defenders

Per our very own Full 90 FPL Fixture Difficulty Rating, these are the five sides with the best run-ins for the rest of the season:

 

 

Spurs are rubbish, and don’t double, so we don’t care about them.

City can double twice, if they beat Forest in the FA Cup. Having one City defender is a wildcard lock. Dias is the cheaper reliable option, at 5.4. Gvardiol is significantly more of an attacking threat, but costs 6.1. 

Newcastle have Leicester, then double, and have Ipswich in GW 34. That definitely merits having one of their defenders. I’m taking Livramento over Trippier, at 1.1 cheaper. I don’t really understand why people are touting Trippier so highly – his underlyings have been rubbish, even when he’s played, and I just don’t think he’s worth the extra. 

Arsenal are having a defensive injury crisis, at the time of writing. Saliba is the only one you can trust. Between their quality, fixtures, and double, I generally want to triple up on Arsenal. Timber is an injury risk right now. Kiwior will likely replace Gabriel, now that he’s out, and is a nice budget option at 4.8. Saliba is the only safe pick, but is 6.3. I’m leaning towards gambling on Kiwior. I don’t think it’s actually that much of a gamble… Arsenal don’t really have any other centre-backs.

Forest are excellent defensively, and double if they beat City in the FA Cup. Even if they don’t double, I’m fine taking Milenkovic, because they’re just so solid. I don’t think Aina is worth the extra. 

Elsewhere, Palace double at least twice, and the obvious pick is Munoz, who is ridiculously attacking. Their defensive fixtures are terrible though, so I’m really not sure if I’m interested. 

Villa double at least once, and maybe twice. They never keep cleans, but do at least have Southampton away coming up. Digne is definitely tempting, at only 4.5, and could at least get an assist or two. Konsa is also being floated… but I prefer Digne’s upside, even if he’s more of a minutes risk. 

—

Overall then, my five favourite defenders are:

Milenkovic is the most boring pick, and the one I’m least enthusiastic about. Munoz would be a more fun alternative.

 

Midfielders

You have to have Salah. Obviously.

That clarified, here are the six teams with the best attacking fixtures, the rest of the way:

 

 

Wolves don’t have any relevant midfielders. And we can’t trust any of the Man City lot. 

Elanga is a reasonable, mid-priced option for Forest, at only 5.4. He’s in great form, and could have up to two doubles. 

For Newcastle it’s mostly Gordon or bust, although Murphy is definitely a respectable budget option, at 5.0. Gordon didn’t play the last game, but is apparently back in training. 

Saka isn’t a wildcard lock, for me. I’m just not sure he starts this week. He’s been out for ages, the league is gone for Arsenal, and they have Madrid on Tuesday. I’ll wait to see how the next couple of games go for him, then look to move before Arsenal’s double in 33. I don’t like any of the other mids, including Odegaard.

Brighton leave me a bit cold too. Mitoma is the only one I’d be interested in, purely for that Leicester game in GW 32, but he’s blanked four games in a row now. Meh. 

Morgan Rogers is something of an injury question mark, at the time of writing. If he’s fit, he’s very likely to be in my team, between the double/s and the Southampton fixture. I trust Rashford more to get actual returns though, and will take him over Rogers if I have the money to spare. He’s definitely the more fun pick. 

For Palace, the Eze/Sarr double isn’t quite as tempting, after the disappointing 1-1 against Southampton. Overall though, they’ve got a least two more doubles, and perhaps three, so you need to have at least one of them. At 1.1 cheaper, it really has to be Sarr, in that case. 

I guess we need to mention Palmer. Crellin has him. He has all the underlying stats you can ask for. But… he’s just not actually doing anything? If I end up with loads of money spare, I might have him anyway. After keeping the faith for months now, and getting absolutely nothing in return, I’m just a bit fed up. 

—

Right! So, to summarise, my top midfielders are:

 

I’m happy to save a bit of money here – both to get better defenders/keepers, and because I just think there’s plenty of very good mid-priced midfielders. 

 

Forwards

Isak is a lock. He might be the easiest pick in the whole wildcard. 

After that, we’ve got a handful of very tasty options, each of which should get us plenty of points. 

For the doublers: Mateta is obvious, with all his fixtures. Marmoush is in form, and Haaland is injured. Watkins is too pricey for his minutes-risk-potential, for me. Wood is injured, at the time of writing. 

Of that quartet, the first two are the more tempting by far. 

Of the non-doublers, Evanilson remains excellent value at 5.7. Pedro is another cheap option, but I much prefer Evanilson. 

—

I’m happy to go big here, especially since I’m saving on my midfield. So, pretty obviously, I’m looking (in order) at:

If you want to save money, I still do love Evanilson. 

If you’re happy to spend more money, Watkins is still a fine option, between the doubles and the Southampton fixture. 

 

My Draft

This is definitely subject to change, for the record (if anyone actually cares that much). But, here is my current draft:

fpl wildcard draft

The only major move I’ll definitely need to make, in the near future, is getting Saka for GW 33. That’s a straight move from Palmer, though, which is easy enough.

My main question marks are:

Apart from that, I’m pretty happy with this lot!

 

Captaincy Matrix

We’re obviously trying to look long-term here (as long-term as we can get, with fewer than 10 games to go). 

With that in mind, here are your main captaincy choices through to the end of the season. Note that I might be missing a couple of future candidates here, depending on how the doubles play out. 

 

GW 31GW 32GW 33
Isak @ Leicester

Salah @ Fulham

Palmer @ Brentford

Isak v.s. Man United and Crystal Palace

Salah v.s West Ham

Palmer v.s Ipswich

Watkins @ Southampton

Salah @ Leicester

Saka v.s. Ipswich and Palace

Marmoush v.s. Everton and  Villa

GW 34GW 35GW 36
Salah v.s. Spurs

Isak v.s. Ipswich

Salah @ Chelsea

Marmoush v.s. Wolves (assuming no Haaland)

Isak v.s. Chelsea

Marmoush @ Southampton

Wood v.s. Leicester 

(+ FA Cup Finalist Doublers)

GW 37GW 38
Palmer v.s. Man U

Salah @ Brighton

Salah v.s. Palace

Saka @ Southampton

 

So, what can we gather here?

 

Final Thoughts

Phew! That was quite the article!

(I mean that purely in terms of length and density – not in terms of quality). 

Hopefully, this was at least mildly helpful. In reality, it was a thinly-disguised exercise in getting my own thoughts in order. If it helped you too, though, that’s even better!

If you enjoyed the piece, please give us a quick follow on on Reddit, and/or chuck us a few quid below. 

Even if you didn’t… I still wish you the very best of luck in Gameweek 31, and beyond!

 

 

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