As if this festive period wasn’t hectic enough in FPL, the exceptional circumstances that caused Bournemouth v Luton to be abandoned means that Gameweek 17 still hasn’t officially been closed by Wednesday afternoon. That’s why the usual Great and the Good and FFS Cup pieces haven’t yet been posted to Scout.

Owners of Dominic Solanke will be hoping that luck improves when the Cherries travel to Nottingham Forest and he’s part of our Scout Picks bus team. There’s also an Aston Villa triple-up. On 15 successive home wins, Unai Emery’s side hosts last-placed Sheffield United, which is why Ollie Watkins is backed as the leading armband contender by both Captain Sensible and our ‘Rate My Team’ tool.

This is made easier by the absence of Erling Haaland, as Man City’s Blank Gameweek 18 sees them featured in our frisk of bad upcoming fixtures. Brighton and Chelsea have good-looking runs – something also pointed out by Milanista when identifying transfer targets. He’s one of many Cole Palmer fans, although the Blues’ brutally quick turnaround of matches could possibly bring some rotation to the youngster.

Meanwhile, fellow cheap midfielder Anthony Gordon is an injury doubt for the weekend. Zophar uses his Q&A to discuss shifting him to a certain Spurs attacker, as well as comparing Trent Alexander-Arnold to Kieran Trippier.

Managers need to be alert with Christmas deadlines – Gameweek 18’s is on Thursday evening. We’ve looked at the suspension tightrope and exciting differentials, with the Watchlist and more Pro Pundit pieces still to come.

As always, check out the Gameweek 18 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, alongside the usual Scoutcast and Burning Questions episodes is FPL General’s 59^th Minute podcast.