Gameweek 34 Free Hit Special

Greetings all, and welcome to your Gameweek 34 Free Hit Special. 

I’m well aware that not every player in all of FPL is playing their free hit this week. If you’re looking to enjoy a nice, normal gameweek yourself, I refer you to James’s excellent general preview of Gameweek 34, which really does tell you all you need to know:

full90fpl.com/fpl-gameweek-34-preview-2026

If you’d like instead to know exactly who all of the best picks are for your Gameweek 34 free hit team – 100% guaranteed, no-doubt-about-it, these guys are absolutely the correct options out of all the many options out there – then friend, you came to the right place.  

Position by position, here are my musings and recommendations for your free hitting enjoyment. 

Goalkeepers and Defenders

I have to lead this off with Arsenal. 

Yes, everyone (apart from Arsenal fans) is having a great time crowing over how rubbish they are now. They’re also the best defence in the league. When you take City out of the equation for this week, the next best defence is Palace, who have conceded 10 more than them. They’ve also got the best xGA by miles in the last 10 games (1.6 ahead of Brighton, in 2nd place), and the 2nd-best over the last 5 games with Brighton, City, and Leeds removed (since they’re not options for us this week). 

They also play Newcastle, who are pretty crap at the moment. And they’re at home. Obviously there are no guarantees with clean sheets, but they’re our best bet this week. 

As such, I’d have at least two GK/Defenders from Arsenal, with Raya+Gabriel being the best combo. 

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After that, there’s a fair old drop-off in who I’d actually trust. The next two teams I’d be most interested in, however, are Forest and Liverpool.

Again with Brighton, City, and Leeds removed, they’re our 1st and 3rd-best teams for xGA respectively over the last 5 games, and – when you also remove Chelsea (who are also not playing in 34) – the 2nd and 3rd best over the last 10 games. 

They also both have favourable matchups. Forest get Sunderland away, and Liverpool face Palace at home. Between it being at home, and Palace having a European semi to worry about on Thursday, I’d rank Liverpool slightly ahead of Forest, with VVD being the obvious standout pick. 

If you want a Forest player instead/as well, get Neco Williams. He’s nailed, has got a goal and 2 assists in his last 3 games, and got a solid 0.26 xGI in his blank against Burnley. 

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I wouldn’t be confident in any other teams at all getting a clean sheet. If you want a fun attacking option though, Porro is your best bet. Wolves have got the worst xGA in the league over the last 10 games, Porro has hit 0.24, 0.26, and 0.24 xGI in his last 3 games, and he just got a goal against Brighton.

James has half an eye on starting five at the back this week, but I wouldn’t bother unless you’re double-doubling on the more trustworthy defences. Again, I just have no confidence in anyone except Arsenal, Forest, or Liverpool keeping a clean. I’d much rather gamble on forwards to score this week than defenders to clean. 

Midfielders

Bruno F picks himself, so that’s one spot taken immediately. 

After that, the going gets a little tougher!

I’ll happily back Rogers, myself. Much like his partner up top (more on him shortly), he’s very much a form player. He’s returned in three PL games in a row, and scored and assisted against Bologna last week. Fulham away isn’t a great matchup, but it’s not bad enough to put me off either. 

James and I are also both taking Salah out for one last ride. A tiny bit for nostalgia, but also because he’s suddenly started returning again, and it’s backed up by some strong underlying numbers. The matchup home to Palace is fine too, and we’ve got plenty of money sloshing around, with Haaland not playing. 

I’d be pretty confident in all three of those picks. After that, you’ve got a few other decent (if not quite as good) options to round out your midfield. You want at least four mids this week, and I don’t mind running with five. 

Wilson tends to play up or down to his opponent, and Villa’s defence isn’t good. Their xGA is mediocre over the last 5 and 10 games, and they just shipped three at home to Sunderland, for God’s sake. 

Tougher matchup, but I like Cunha at home to Brentford too. He’s been ticking along quite nicely, with returns in four of his last six games. The underlying stats aren’t amazing, but he’s also massively outperformed those numbers since arriving in the Prem, so I don’t really care about that. 

Morgan Gibbs-White is a very fun option. He obviously got a hat trick last week, but even before that he’d scored in three of his previous five games. Sunderland away sounds a bit worrying, but they’ve actually been a middling defence for a while now. 

If you just want a safe, steady pick to round out the riskier ones like Wilson or MGW, Szoboslai is probably your go-to. He’s got 4+pts in 5 of his last 6 games, his underlying numbers are fine, and he’s got multiple routes to points home to Palace, between his potential for a clean sheet and attacking returns. 

Finally, if you really do want to have some fun this week, Xavi Simons has to be mentioned. He was great against Brighton, so I’d assume he starts again this week, even though he hadn’t before that game since GW 28. And, Spurs do play one of the few teams in the league who are just as bad, if not worse than they are. 

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Forwards

Overall I prefer the midfield options to the forwards this week. 

You’re definitely looking at starting two forwards at most, and that’s if you only want three defenders. But I can definitely see the argument for a 4-5-1, and backing an extra defender over these slightly uninspiring forwards. 

If you don’t want to overthink it, just get Thiago. He’s the second-highest scorer in the league, plays every minute… is also pretty inconsistent, but we’re taking what we can get this week. Man U away isn’t a great matchup on paper, but they’ve also got various injury/suspension problems at the back, and Chelsea did rack up 21 shots and a 2.04 xG against them last week. 

After that you’re looking at Bowen and Watkins, in some order. 

I’d back Watkins, out of the two, and might have him ranked over Thiago for my own team. He’s the absolute definition of a streaky, form-based striker, and he’s 100% in form – 6 goals in his last 5 games, including the Europa League. 

Regular readers will know that I do adore Bowen, and he might be the safest pick to actually get you some points out of the whole lot. He… doesn’t actually score goals any more, though. He hasn’t scored in 9 gameweeks, in fact, even though he’s got 7 assists in that span (along with hitting on DefCons 3 times… ooh I love Bowen). So, his ceiling is definitely capped, and West Ham’s attack remains pretty rubbish against everyone not named Wolverhampton Wanderers. 

If we knew who was going to start up top for Arsenal, I’d back them to score against Newcastle. Unfortunately, we don’t! Similarly for Spurs against Wolves, although their strikers basically never score against anybody.    

Current Free Hit Draft

Right! Add all that together, and what do you get?

Well, thanks for asking – let’s look at some drafts!

Here’s a 4-5-1, to kick things off:

Obviously the bench is poor, but everyone I’ve picked here is nailed. This only leaves 0.1 in the bank, so if you did want to upgrade the bench at least a little bit, you could drop MGW to Szoboslai to free up 0.4, or all the way to Wilson to get 1.5. I’d prefer to have every penny on the pitch though, if I can help it. Alternatively, Watkins to Thiago gets you a whopping 1.3 to spend on… something. 

Overall, these are basically my favourite picks in every position, and I think this side has a huge amount of upside. 

… That being said, I’d also be very tempted by an even more attacking option – the old 3-5-2:

This leaves absolutely nothing in the bank. You can free up 1.0 by taking Bowen over Watkins though – 0.3 of which you could use on Porro over Williams, if you wanted, with another 0.7 to spend on the bench, or taking Cunha over MGW. 

Frankly, I really like both of these lineups, and I think they’d score pretty similarly. 

I’d slightly lean towards the 4-5-1 right now, though, because I’m not sure having Thiago over Porro is quite worth the drop from Cunha to Wilson. I reserve the right to change my mind before the Friday deadline, however!    

Final Thoughts

Well, that’ll just about put a bow on your Gameweek 34 Free Hit Special. That was pretty fun, actually!

Obviously, I’m sure I’ve forgotten loads and loads of the best players, and you’re sitting there right now thinking I’m a complete idiot. If you’d like to actually call me an idiot, please pop on over to Reddit to do so.

In the meantime, thanks for reading, everybody, and best of luck with all your free hitting in Gameweek 34!