✍️ Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout Bulletin - everything you need to know the day before the BGW34 FPL deadline!

🚨 Gameweek 34 is a blank for 4 teams: Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Man City

🎯 With the blank in GW34 the Free Hit chip is going to be very popular. Gameweek 34 Free Hit dilemmas: Palmer or no Palmer?

➡️ Chip season continues during Blank Gameweek 34, as FPL’s average top 100k squad contains 8.963 players from absent sides Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Man City. That means the Free Hit is taking centre stage…

🚑 FPL Gameweek 34 team news: Friday’s live injury updates

🧢 Who are the best Triple Captain picks for the rest of 2024/25? In this article, we look at the possible options for those Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers with the Triple Captain chip still intact.

✍️ Read the rest of the ‘Scout Report’ further down this email…

🚨 If you’re tinkering with your GW34 team, check out FPL Gameweek 34 tips: Best players, predicted line-ups, team news + more

🚌 Check out the Scout ‘But Team’ below

Chip season continues during Blank Gameweek 34, as FPL’s average top 100k squad contains 8.963 players from absent sides Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Man City. That means the Free Hit is taking centre stage.

Unanimous Scout Squad picks like Mohamed Salah, Alexander Isak, Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri are all core Free Hit players mentioned by Zophar, as his Q&A debates Newcastle midfielders and whether to react to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cameo goal. His own draft doesn’t feature Ryan Sessegnon but Lateriser is happy to take a risk on the Fulham man’s minutes. 

Like many, his final attacking spot is up for debate. Evanilson could be a great differential and Chris Wood’s goal drought is over, though Cole Palmer’s has extended to 11 matches. Then again, the explosive Chelsea midfielder did score four goals in last year’s hosting of Everton. To assist with these late dilemmas, we’ve looked at the bottom three teams’ weak areas, as they go against Newcastle, Wolves and Fulham. 

For those not using a Free Hit, decisions need making on who to sell. João Pedro is banned for three matches, Omar Marmoush was a captaincy flop but nearly assisted, while Bukayo Saka’s minutes keep being managed. He, Ismaila Sarr and Jean-Philippe Mateta were all benched on Wednesday night, though the latter still scored and grabbed three bonus points.

Alongside regular weekly coverage of the Fantasy EFL game, we’ve checked out round three of the FFS Members Cup, where the highest-ranked CasaBanter was a very unlucky loser.

There’s still time for Captain Sensible and The Great and The Good to come before Saturday morning’s deadline, plus the latest opinions of FPL General.

As always, check out the FPL Gameweek 34 page to quickly access all recent articles and the standard press conference updates from managers. Visit our Members Area for comparison tools and an in-depth collection of Opta and StatsBomb data.

Over on our YouTube channel, alongside the regular Scoutcast and Burning Questions episodes are Free Hit team reveals from FPL General and Tom Freeman.