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A gameweek 7 wildcard in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) is a popular choice this season.
In this piece I will explore the reasons why people are targeting gameweek 7 wildcard; three key questions to consider when structuring your wildcard team and then I will narrow down the 588 eligible players in FPL to just 38 names for you to consider for your wildcard team.
Let’s do it!
A gameweek 7 wildcard is not an inevitability in gameweek 7 but there are three pretty good reasons why you might wildcard.
Firstly, your team is shit. If that’s the case then this is quite an easy decision. Maybe you don’t have Haaland and your Notts Forest triple up now looks awful and you can’t stand the sight of Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers anymore.
Secondly, we have a tonne more information now than in gameweek 1. That means you pretty much know who is starting and who is not. Plus, who the good teams and good players are and who are not. The latter is a bit more debatable but I personally had several arguments on Reddit with you all about why I thought Semenyo was better than Rogers, why Petrovic was a great pick and why Joao Pedro was a bit overrated – 2 out of 3 ain’t bad guys…
And finally, you may look at the fixtures in gameweek 7 and think – I want a piece of that.
In case you missed it, and how could you have if you have been reading our pieces, this year we launched a beautiful fixture ticker.
As you can see on there, several teams benefit from positive fixture swings:
Arsenal’s fixtures are excellent from now until about halfway through the season and they don’t ever look particularl bad to the end of the season.
Brighton’s fixtures are good from now until at least halfway through the season.
Newcastle’s fixtures look good for at least the next five
West have about five decent games after Arsenal and may get their shit together under Nuno.
And this all comes as Forest’s good run comes to an end and European football starts in earnest for those clubs who have qualified.
Before we look at the players we might want on gameweek 7 wildcard, we have to consider three key questions.
What Three Arsenal to Buy?
Which Premiums Should You Own?
Should You Go Big At The Back?
Let’s start with the most important question: What three Arsenal?
A lot of content creators are pretty set on Raya in goal. I set out why I didn’t think it was that cut-and-dry last week but the long and the short of it is that I don’t like spending that much money on a goalkeeper.
And Joe has done an in-depth dive on what three Arsenal which you can read here. It is well worth a read as it’s an excellent piece but the TL;DR is Gabriel, Saka and another.
As we cover above, you know that Saka is an option but what about Haaland, Salah and Palmer? Do you squeeze them all in? Who can you live without?
Haaland is a no-brainer. He is performing so well in underlying and actual stats that I cannot imagine a wildcard team without him.
Saka similarly seems like an obvious pick. But, if you wanted to save money and get double Arsenal defence and Gyokeres on the attack instead then I would understand that decision.
Palmer is coming nowhere near my team until I see he is fit.
Salah is the most difficult. I still think he might be amazing at some point this season. If you were to have him in your team (with Haaland) for this reason I would not fault you. However, I currently would ignore him because he is just so expensive and I want a bunch of other players instead.
That depends upon how you define “big.”
If you mean lots of defenders then probably yes. If you mean 3 premium defenders then probably no.
I would be looking to play four defenders every week and aim to cover a range of prices.
Defenders are scoring big this year. There are 3 goalkeepers, 14 defenders, 8 midfielders and 5 forwards with 30 or more points so far this season. The guys at the top are scoring defcons consistently so that tells me to get them.
But you don’t need to have three premiums back there to get value. The top three scoring defenders cost 4.9, 4.8 and 4.0 respectively.
The reason why I don’t think you should aim for five starting defenders is because defences are currently overperforming in terms of clean sheets.
If things continue as they are, we will see 222 clean sheets. We haven’t seen a total that high in five years. The last two years we saw 178 and 157 clean sheets. I believe we are seeing a bit of an overperformance because all the players are fit and there has been minimal fixture congestion. I think we will see defences perform worse from here on out
AND, this is a spot where you can have a 4.0 player. Only in goal and in defence to 4.0 nailed starters exist. Save that 1mn and buy yourself something nice.
With all that said, let’s look at the cheat sheet of players to consider on wildcard.
Cheat Sheet – 38 Players To Consider On Wildcard
There are 588 players in FPL. Okay, its insane to think you would consider all of them but it can be overwhelming to consider all of the players. So don’t. Look at this list as cheat sheet for your gameweek 7 wildcard and build the best FPL team with it.
A nice and simple one to start – 4 keepers, 4 price points:
Raya
Pope
Petrovic
Dubravka
Arsenal are the best defence in the league which makes Raya probably the best keeper if you ignore price and the number of Arsenal assets you want. Personally, I don’t want to spend 5.6 on a keeper but if you do then knock yourself out.
He is currently being outscored by his holiness Nick Pope at Newcastle. They are an elite defence and Howe loves shoving ten men behind the ball to defend a lead. They kept a clean against Bournemouth away and have only not kept cleans against Arsenal and Liverpool so far this year – a great pick.
Petrovic at Bournemouth would be my go to 4.5. I know Roefs has outscored him significantly so far but its been a favourable run for Sunderland. Bournemouth are the kind of team that could sneak into Europe this year, they are that good and I like taking the option on them.
Finally, Dubravka is probably the most nailed keeper in any wildcard team. He is not great but he is 4.0 and he can sit on your bench for the rest of his life.
Gabriel
Saliba
Virgil
Tarko
Munoz
Senesi
Burn
Andersen
Diouf
Mavropanos
Alderete
Esteve
Three premiums to pick from. Virgil is a defcon beast. I know Pool have looked a little shaky but that means that I basically don’t care about his fixtures and will play him every game.
Neither Saliba nor Gabriel have that ability to get defcons quite so consistently but the fixtures are immense. I would probably pay the extra 0.2 to get Gabriel’s attacking threat but it’s not a big difference in my head.
Senesi will probably be 5.1 by the time you read this so I am putting him in here. He has been amazing, Bournemouth are great and they don’t have fixture congestion with European football. I could see you also holding this guy for the season.
Tarkowski has been incredible. He went straight in my team in pre-season when I read he consistently led on defcon for three years and I was super surprised about his low ownership to start the season. The fixtures continue to be okay so buy him and hold him until the end of time.
Munoz is more of a guy that I would hop on and hop off based on fixtures. He is so attacking that you can catch lightning in a bottle and race up the ranks.
Burn I like as a guy you can play basically every week (apart from against City in 12). I am slightly concerned that he loses his place but there is always someone else injured at Newcastle and I think Howe loves him. Maybe you could convince met to get Hall instead. He has scary good underlying stats when fit, its just I am not sure if he is fit or nailed.
It is all the defconners all the time down here. Fulham’s fixtures are either awful or fantastic. Defcons then make Andersen a viable option. He could get them in the bad weeks to make up for a lack of clean sheets and he could spike big hauls in the good weeks too.
It’s probably one week too early to get a West Ham defender but I am interested. Their fixtures turn after Arsenal away and they have about 4 or 5 good weeks you can play one of them in. Diouf has shown himself to be the attacking returns guy but mainly I am interested to see if Nuno can turn Mavropanos into the next Murillo.
Alderete and Esteve are the guys that you buy to make everything else work. 4.0 is mega cheap and they are good for defcons and not as bad for cleans as promoted sides usually are. Alderete has more routes to points but Esteve has better fixtures.
Salah
Saka
Fernandes
Semenyo
Gordon
Mitoma
Minteh
Sarr
Enzo Fernandez
Caicedo
Paqueta
Reijnders
Anthony
Xhaka
King
As I said up top, Mo Salah is just so damn good as a player that I couldn’t criticise you if you picked him on wildcard in gameweek 7. Personally, for me, I would go without him. I haven’t been particularly impressed with him this year and I think he is probably too expensive for my tastes at the moment. Having said that, if he scored two hat-tricks in the next five weeks I wouldn’t be super surprised – he is just that good.
Saka is the guy I would choose to have over Salah. I think he has probably lost pens to Gyokeres which would be the only reason I wouldn’t get him. But the fixtures are too good, he is talismanic and also just absolutely fantastic.
Fernandes sneaks into the discussion here. I really don’t know what to make of him. Three pens in six weeks makes me think he could be amazing. Man United are super attacking and shit at scoring goals so they will need to keep getting in the box and getting fouled. After 6 weeks he is on 0.77xGI per 90 and 2nd overall in the league – that’s wild considering his positioning.
On the other hand, he missed two of those three pens so is he even on them anymore? And, his xA of 1.0 for the season is expected but never appears to actually arrive because they’re so shit. If you pick him, I won’t tell you it’s wrong but I don’t think he would make it into my team right noe.
The guy who is next on the list behind Bruno on xGI per 90 is Ismalia Sarr. He has carried his ludicrous underlying numbers on from last year and he has real potential to be a bargain. The fixtures remain okay and it is just the threat of rotation from European games that causes concern.
Of course we also have the bargain from the start of the season of Semenyo. I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t have the best attacking asset (possibly on pens) from an attacking team, capable of scoring against anyone and without European congestion. I don’t really care about this guy’s fixtures.
Outside of these two I like the look of Gordon. He won’t be hitting the same stupid number of shots he was getting when he was playing OOP striker but he is the best attacking asset at Newcastle thanks to a combination of nailedness and likelihood to get minutes.
I could see a world in which you take Enzo as well. Chelsea fixtures are good after this week and he is capable of a 7 goal, 7 assist season. If he pads that with a few defcons here and there then he should be worth his price. I guess Caicedo should also be considered but that’s more of a defcon play. Not exciting but not bad picks.
In the cheap seats we have Reijnders, Paqueta, Anthony and Xhaka.
After everyone went insane in GW over Reijnders he is currently sitting on a respectable, if not mind-blowing, 28 points. I told you then to calm down and I stick by it. He is fine as a pick but he isn’t this year’s Cole Palmer/Riyad Mahrez/Harry Kane. I actually think I would rather have the others on this list because I will forever be worried about Pep rotating if I had him.
Paqueta is a guy that is capable of a 5 goal and 5 assist season with a sprinkling of defcons. I like him for that reason and I like the West Ham fixtures for a little while.
Jaidon Anthony has almost doubled his expected output so far this season and we probably can’t expect that to continue. However, he makes this list because he is currently 13th in the PL for the number of shots taken and 4th in the PL for shots on target. Volume might win out.
And finally, Granit Xhaka has 3 assists and has hit defcon 3 times this season. Yes, Sunderland have probably overperformed but if this guy finishes the season on 3 goals, 7 assists and a tonne of defcons I won’t be surprised and he is only 5.0.
If you still can’t afford any of these guys then Josh King at Fulham is your guy for 4.5 but he is only a bench option. He doesn’t play 90 and his utility will be in being your bench player and nothing more.
Haaland
Isak
Gyokeres
Bowen
Joao Pedro
Mateta
Thiago
Haaland is good isn’t he? He is on 62 points for the season which is close to double the next best forward. City have basically no other consistent way of scoring so they will have to keep feeding him. Just get him.
Isak is a guy I could take a punt on on wildcard in FPL gameweek 7 because he is just so good. But I am still nervous about minutes so I wouldn’t say he has to be in your team.
Gyokeres is flavour du jour thanks to Arsenal’s fixtures and probably taking pens off Saka. I like the guy but I don’t love him. Arsenal weren’t enamoured with him either which is why he wasn’t their first choice to buy. They were right. But, that doesn’t mean he won’t get three or four goals in the next five – the fixtures are just that good.
Bowen isn’t getting much love this year because of his position change and starting price of 8.0. At 7.7 now he is a much more viable option. I am still annoyed that he isn’t a mid anymore but he is sufficiently talismanic, nailed and without European games to keep me interested. Plus, he is third in the league for shots on target.
Joao Pedro is probably the best of the bunch in this price bracket. It’s not by much and his actual biggest appeal is his ownership. He is 66% owned which is just ludicrous for any player not called Erling. If you don’t have him and he scores then that’s a bit of a problem – if you are looking at holding rank that makes him a good pick.
I actually just sold Mateta for Pedro but I still think the former is a good pick. He has underperformed his xGI of 4.0 by only scoring two goals but he gets lots of shots and is second in the league for shots on target.
I can’t bring myself to contemplate Calvert-Lewin as an option. He has had great underlying numbers for two or three years now, he is just incapable of finishing them and so I have no interest.
I think I am only really interested in Thiago at Brentford at this price bracket. I would only make that decision if I was really stuck for money though.
A Wildcard Draft
In this draft, I have done the traditional thing and tried to put as much money as possible into the starting eleven. Haaland is the permanent captain and I just have a great bunch of picks. Triple Arsenal and triple Bournemouth hold this team together. I have defcons coming out of my arse at the back and underlying numbers galore in midfield and attack.
It even works pretty well for a bench boost in gameweek 8 with Burnley playing Leeds at home, Sunderland playing Wolves at home and, not so happily, Fulham playing Arsenal at home.
And you can triple captain Haaland in gameweek 13 at home to Leeds or gameweek 15 at home to Sunderland.
And, and you can free hit in 13 to triple Liverpool and Brentford or whenever you just need it.
I can’t wait to hear from you all about why Kudus should be in the draft or why I should have Cucurella on the bench. This may come across as sarcastic but I genuinely can’t wait. I love the debate guys! Come and argue with me on Reddit.
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