Welcome back for another article. 📖
Four gameweeks to go - pressure's on to make the right transfers. So we're gonna break it all down nice and simple by position, who are the best players to buy for GW35 and the run in? 🏃♂️
Double Gameweek 36 is confirmed and now it's a question of who doubles there. There's two ways the Premier League will go about it. The reason it's confirmed is because Man City have reached the FA Cup final, which clashes with GW37, so Man City's game vs Bournemouth has to move and there's only two available midweeks left at sufficient notice, midweek in GW36 or midweek in GW37. 🗓️
So that's the Bournemouth vs Man City game that needs moving, but there's also the Man City vs Crystal Palace postponement from ages ago that needs moving. So those two games will go in those two midweeks.
The likeliest outcome, and this might even be announced by the time you watch this is Crystal Palace and Man City double in GW36, and the Premier League just move the Bournemouth game back a few days so it remains in GW37.
The other combination is a little more complicated where their bring that Bournemouth vs City game back into GW36, and the Palace game goes in to GW37. That would create a DGW36 for Bournemouth and Man City, and DGW37 for Palace, and a blank gameweek 37 for Bournemouth.
Announcement to come this week. It's a worth a mention off the back of the article because naturally it could affect your transfer plans later. Oh and the last thing to mention is currently Chelsea and Spurs have a postponement given Chelsea play in the final too, that is slightly different because Spurs play on Monday in GW36, which means we expect their game to remain in GW37 and move midweek. 🏟️
🧤 Goalkeepers
Goalkeepers first quickly, there's a few strong fixtures with clean sheet potential this week, Arsenal have Fulham home, Leeds have Burnley home, Man City have Everton away, Sunderland have Wolves away. So the top 4 is Raya, Darlow, Donnarumma and Roefs. 🧤
Each passing week the final column on the table will reduce, it's been next 5, now we're down to next 4 and so on. You'll notice Donnarumma's next 4 is miles ahead of the rest and that's because of Man City's DGW to come, they've got an extra game in there.
Though lots of us are tripled up on City already of course, if you're wildcarding this week we'll do in depth analysis on a GW35 wildcard team on the experts article later this week, it's probably preferable to have 3 outfield City players for their upside rather than Donnarumma. Henderson not on the table here but would be included in my wildcard, for the bench this week with a view to using him in Palace's upcoming double gameweek.
If you wildcarded back in GW32 and have Darlow then he's perfect to play this week, no need to make a swap like Raya in this week, Gabriel is worth a look however so let's move on to defenders.
🛡️ Defenders
Gabriel is top of all defenders for GW35 with 5.1 projected points, then it's Gudmundsson, Senesi, Struijk, Bogle, O'Reilly, Saliba and Alderete. 🛡️
So O'Reilly is top in the league among defenders for the final 4 gameweeks due to the impending DGW, but if you're on triple City you're probably not on triple Arsenal and Gabriel is the only player I'm considering a transfer on this week, having gone without on the wildcard a few weeks ago.
However, the fixtures line up nicely that it's not a pressing move if you've got a couple Leeds defender, and Senesi or Hill, plus O'Reilly. It can be delayed for a week to bank yourself an extra transfer and ensure that you're flexible heading in to DGW36, which is definitely happening and it's just which two between Man City, Bournemouth and Palace.
If Palace double in GW36 for example Munoz will be on about 6.3 points, O'Reilly would be on 9.6 so there's some big upside to come.
Sunderland face already relegated Wolves away, so Alderete, Mukiele, Ballard etc are perfectly good for a start this gameweek. We are at a point in the season however where it's worth factoring in team motivations, who has something left to play for? Who is firmly midtable with Europe out of reach and relegation out of reach with lower motivation levels? 📉
Forest are fighting for their lives and just last match we saw Sunderland suffer their joint worst home defeat ever in their history. We know how good Sunderland have been home this season so that's a perfect example in the context of the record worst result in history.
So looking a the table the Champions League spots look relatively safe for Villa, Liverpool and Man Utd given they're all 8 points clear. Then below them the teams still fighting for Europe are Brighton, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Brentford, Fulham, Everton. I mean technically Sunderland are in that fight too so it's obviously more nuanced than just a team is totally on the beach or not but something didn't quite add up when relegation battling Forest go on to batter Sunderland in such a way.
And yeah at the opposite end it's all to play for for Spurs, West Ham, Forest. I'm looking at Bowen for GW38, Leeds home to finish the season for him. And obviously at the very top the battle for the title is still in the balance for Arsenal and Man City. 🏆