Double Gameweek 25 brought some healthy rises to notable FPL accounts but, for many, there was still disappointment from Liverpool injuries and Erling Haaland’s triple captaincy. 

All of the Great and the Good managers used this chip and it was even worse for current champion FPL Gunz, who gave his to Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian missed midweek, so will he be risked on Saturday? Of course, Haaland did eventually score and Captain Sensible backs him for Gameweek 26 too – a time when four teams aren’t participating.

Therefore, with fewer players to pick from, we’re seeing more unanimous Scout Squad picks and lots of Wolves love. Highly-owned Diogo Jota, Cole Palmer and Richarlison are all unavailable, meaning midfield replacements form the basis of this week’s thoughts. A comparison piece focuses specifically on Hwang Hee-chan and Pedro Neto, whilst team-mate Pablo Sarabia is an uber-differential. The Rate My Team algorithm prefers Hwang and, of the non-Wolves options, Zophar likes Alejandro Garnacho.

Perhaps managers with all three absentees will opt to Free Hit this week. It’ll allow a full XI to be fielded and is boosted by the later-than-usual deadline possibly allowing team leaks from up to four matches, including Oliver Glasner’s debut as Crystal Palace boss. With a study showing that FPL goalkeepers perform best against Everton, another allows managers to see who gets Brighton’s gloves.

However, all logic of free hitting during a blank applies even more to the bigger upcoming one of Gameweek 29. We wonder whether it’s instead better to dead-end your team into it, saving the chip for a later date. It’s a risky strategy, knowing that Bournemouth’s Watchlist assets precede this possible blank with a nice-looking Double Gameweek 28.

Still to come before Saturday’s deadline are the opinions of Pro Pundits FPL General, Lateriser and FPL Gunz.

As always, check out the Gameweek 26 page to quickly access all recent articles, plus the standard press conference updates from managers. Visit our Members Area for comparison tools and an in-depth collection of Opta data.

Over on our YouTube channel are the usual Burning Questions and Deadline Dilemmas episodes.