Menu
Should you use your free hit in FPL Gameweek 15?
It’s the question which is on everyone’s mind… by which, I mean it’s been on my mind, and I wanted to work out the answer, so I decided to write this article.
Yep – this entire website is basically just an excuse for James and I (Joe) to decide what to do with our own teams. Helping the FPL playing public? Pah! Not a bit of it!
If you do just happen to be in the same boat as me, however, let’s find out together whether this is – or, indeed, is not – the right time to drop our free hit!
Free hit procrastinators – like myself – are fast running out of time.
As a reminder, you must use all your first-half chips before the Gameweek 19 deadline.
If not, it will simply disappear into the ether, like Mohamed Salah’s ability to score goals.
If you haven’t bookmarked our big, beautiful, completely free FPL fixture ticker by now, I don’t know what to tell you.
If – perish the thought – you haven’t even seen it yet, you can do so right here:
(Just use the Google Sheets link on that page).
Per said brilliant fixture ticker, these are the remaining attacking fixture FDR’s before the first-half deadline:
And the remaining defensive fixtures:
To be honest, you could play your free hit in any of the remaining five gameweeks.
Great analysis, I know – just bear with me.
We’ll obviously be using it to target the worst teams, and the likes of Burnley, Leeds, and Wolves all have tough matchups coming up.
You can’t really go wrong, in that sense. Whichever week you pick, you’ll find good fixtures to exploit.
So, I’m leaning more towards when my current players have a tough matchup instead, which I’d rather avoid.
—
The likelihood is that we all have at least a couple of players from Arsenal and Palace right now.
I’d tentatively guess that Chelsea (Sanchez, Cucurella, and JP are all highly-owned) and Man City (various defenders, Foden now, Haaland obviously) are next on that list.
By that logic, Gameweek 15 is actually a good time to use it.
Arsenal have Villa away, which feels like a tough attacking matchup, and Villa’s attack has been better recently (though I’d still back the Arsenal defence against them).
Palace have Fulham away, who are 8th in the league overall, and sixth for xGA, at the Cottage. Not an easy matchup.
Palace’s actual worst upcoming fixture is City at home in GW 16. Arsenal have Wolves at home that week though – yummy yummy.
Likewise, in GW 17 Arsenal have Everton away – which isn’t great – but Palace have Leeds away.
In Gameweeks 18 and 19, their fixtures are all at home and all fine.
So, overall, Gameweek 15 is probably the worst fixture combo for Arsenal + Palace. Again though, it’s actually fine for Arsenal’s defence, and Palace’s GW16 fixture is far worse.
Chelsea have Bournemouth away in GW 15, which… I would have said isn’t great, but Bournemouth are all over the place. Then again, Chelsea just lost to Leeds away. Overall, it feels like they cancel each other out in their mediocrity, and it’s something like a 1-1.
Their hardest first-half fixture is definitely Newcastle away, in GW 17.
Man City’s aforementioned GW 16 away game at Palace isn’t a great matchup for them either. Palace’s style matches up against them perfectly, as we saw in the FA Cup final last season.
The Sunderland away game in GW 19 is also nasty. Sunderland are just a very difficult team to play right now.
So! What does all that actually mean for us?
Somewhat using my own analysis, but also the fixture ticker, here are the highly-owned teams which have tough(er) matchups each week:
If you’ve got quite a few players from those teams, that’s probably a good time to free hit them out.
Frankly, Gameweek 15 looks like a pretty good time to free hit, by this logic, with four highly-owned teams all having tougher matchups.
Other relevant players – like anyone from Villa, Thiago, anyone from Sunderland, Bowen – also have pretty/very hard games.
Not only that, but there are a few fixtures we can double or triple up on, with players we might not normally have:
Per weeks/matchups we want to avoid, Gameweek 17 looks like another tricky one. Arsenal, Chelsea, and Man U all have fairly highly-owned players. Newcastle players will also be more highly-owned by then, after they smash Burnley at home this week.
Here are the matchups we can exploit that week:
I wouldn’t say there’s much to choose, between those and the Gameweek 15 matchups.
I’d definitely feel more confident in a City triple-up against West Ham than Sunderland, obviously. I don’t trust the likes of Brentford’s non-Thiago players though, or Fulham to necessarily clean against an improved Forest side.
Overall then, I slightly prefer the Gameweek 15 matchups.
But, if you’ve already got players from Chelsea or Man U, GW 17 is a bad week for them.
Again, I don’t love Everton away for Arsenal, either.
To summarise, very briefly, I do actually think Gameweek 15 is the best time to use your free hit.
Again – boring caveat alert – it somewhat depends on your team.
You’ll find good matchups to target in all the remaining gameweeks. It’s more about avoiding the bad gameweeks for your players. And, If you’ve somehow ended up with plenty of Man U and Newcastle players, Gameweek 17 might be a better option.
Personally, I’m suffering from neither Man U nor Newcastle-itis.
That being said, 7 of my current starting 11 play for Arsenal, Palace, Bournemouth, or Villa. I don’t love Thiago’s matchup away to Spurs either, nor Anderson away to Everton.
So… big breath… yes, I’m doing it!
It’s a Gameweek 15 free hit for this guy. Join me, on this adventure… but also, don’t blame me if all goes wrong!
The best free website for FPL tips to beat your friends and win your mini-leagues
Follow us on Twitter for our latest analysis @Full90FPL
© 2025 Full 90 FPL
