Greetings everyone, and welcome to an emergency mid-week edition of the Fantasy Premier League guide!

I’m busy at my new job, and Joe’s flying out of the country today. So, it’ll be a shorter, scrappier column than usual. There might even be bullet points. Things should get back to normal for the next gameweek, though.

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I scored 66 points after taking a 4 point hit, which made me almost bang on the top 10k average.

Salah got me 30 points after I captained him. Sterling also got 10 points, thanks to a goal. Bennett rewarded my terrible decision to bring him in with another goal, and Robertson also got me an assist.

Nice!

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So, last week I was talking about how Dele Alli was a good choice going forward as he always scores when Kane is out. The poor guy now has a hamstring issue and is going to be out for a fair few weeks now…

Shows what I know, eh?

My own transfers for this week (yes I made two) were way too early, but I had to avoid price rises or I couldn’t pull them off.

Most importantly, I finally got Rashford in for Success (thank God).

In order to do that I had to downgrade sterling to Sane or KDB. I agonised about this. Sterling is probably the second best FPL player, but Sterling and Success vs Sane/KDB and Rashford was a no-brainer. It was also difficult to pick one of Sane and KDB, but in the end I went with my favourite player – that’s part of the fun of FPL. Owning a player you love.

So, KDB is in. It’s a dangerous decision given his lack of game time, but that performance against Burnley made me feel good about it.

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We’ve got to talk about double gameweeks.

City and Everton will have double gameweeks in GW 25 (that’s only two gameweeks away). They will blank in 27. Chelsea and Brighton will also blank in 27, but we’re not sure when their double will be yet.

I wouldn’t go crazy for planning this. It’s only one week. If you’re deciding not to bring in Sane or Sterling for the sake of this blank, then I’d think that was silly. Even if you brought in Dunk, I wouldn’t think it was that bad.

If you have ten players playing that’s not awful. But, it would obviously be preferable to get 11 out.

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Right, let’s get on with the show! Here are my Fantasy Premier League tips for Gameweek 24.

Goalkeepers & Defenders

There’s really not much new stuff to report here.

Liverpool are still great, obviously, and basically nobody else is at the moment. Alisson and Robertson remain your two best options for goalkeeper and defender respectively.

In terms of defenders, Digne and Doherty also look good given their fixtures. I’d be looking to get out on Doherty pretty soon afterwards, though.

Looking a little further down the line, Leicester look good defensively from GW27 onwards. Newcastle’s defence has gotten much better, and they’ve got a nice run of games starting on GW26. Dubravka is a reasonable pick in goal anyway, regardless of the fixture.

Otherwise, it’s a case of the cheaper the better. Bednarek is certainly an option, because he’s mega-cheap. Wan-Bissaka is another value pick, particularly in a solid Palace team.

Midfielders

There are so many midfielders to pick from, that we’re just going to whip through them on a speed round.

• Son has returned! I might wait until I see him play to start considering him, but he’s straight back onto my radar.
• Mane is not great value when compared to his top level peers. But, he is still much better than a 6-7m midfielder. He could be a big differential.
• Hazard has not been good recently. With a new striker, will he get better? Maybe. I wouldn’t bring him in, but I also wouldn’t sell him right now.
• I’ve got to talk about KDB after I bought him in. Like I said, I love him and I want to own him, but also City look better with him. I think he makes all City attacking assets better. That performance against Burnley was great, and (I’m pretty sure I’m right) that’s the first time since November that City have scored four or more. That’s strange, for City.
• Sane and sterling are still great. I will probably regret letting Sterling go, and might even move one of the two in ahead of the double game week.
• I’m really happy I went Pogba over Martial. Anthony is good, but he’s just not getting FPL points. I could see why you would move off. Avoid buying, but you can hold if you’ve got other problems elsewhere.
• Jota looks much better than he did at the start of the season, right? I could see you wanting to bring him in, especially if you have…
• Richarlison is a bit crap, isn’t he? Yeah… well. He’s not going anywhere for me until after the double game weeks. I would be looking to move him out, but the double has saved him.

Forwards

Time for another speed round!

• Aubameyang is still great, and probably still your best elite option… even though I know it feels bad because Arsenal are in strange form.
• Aguero is becoming a possibility, but at the moment the rotation feels too unpredictable for me to get him in. Jesus, for his part, is just a terrible fantasy option.
• If you move for Firmino, you lose a lot of flexibility. You can only straight swap him to Vardy, Lacazette, etc. You don’t want to do that!
• You could also move him to Higuain in the future or now… but we have absolutely no idea how good he’ll be for Chelsea. Similarly to Hazard, I would hold your position and wait and see if he is any good.
• Llorente could actually have scored (lol, I mean at the other end!). Spurs’ fixtures are tasty, but Son is back now so they might start him up top.
• Jimenez is still a better option than Llorente in that price bracket. He’s got great fixtures, too.
• Wilson has bad fixtures, and he is flagged (as always). Wait until gameweek 30 before considering him.
• Arnautovic got his nice new contract. Maybe if he stops being injured, I might get him.

Captain

Salah, obviously!

Aubameyang would be my second choice, and the usual suspects from City are all viable picks too.

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That just about does it for this week. We’ll be back to normal for Gameweek 25, hopefully!