FPL Double Gameweek 33 | Everything you need to know.

The Stuff You Should Know

🚨 Double Gameweek 33’s deadline is Saturday, 19th April, 13:30 BST.

📈 It’s a Double Gameweek. Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Man City and Arsenal will play twice.

👀 There’s speculation of a Double Gameweek 36, but we don’t know enough to plan for it yet.

🪑 Most engaged managers are playing their Bench Boosts this week.

Stick around for a throwback differential.

Alright?

Watching our Crystal Palace defenders concede 10 goals across two games last gameweek was an emphatic reminder that Double Gameweeks don’t always live up to the hype.

The jig is up. Santa isn’t real. There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And Double Gameweeks don’t always guarantee huge hauls from doubling players. Sometimes you just get this:

But alas. Humans have a remarkable ability to forget pain and suffering. It protects us from the memory of trauma. It protects us from the memory of childbirth. But most valuable of all, it protects us from the memory of shit gameweeks.

And so we bound into the Easter weekend much like the eponymous bunny himself, hunting not for chocolate eggs but for foil-wrapped FPL points. Hopeful and believing. Maybe Santa does exist. And maybe - just maybe - we’ll find some of those points hidden away in Double Gameweek 33 too.

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Double Gameweek 33’s Fixtures

Are all our doubling players about to be rested?

Summary for the Lazy: Some probably will be, yes.

It would be typical of this season to ready ourselves for Double Gameweek 33, only to find our carefully picked players consigned to the bench.

The harsh reality is that there’s likely to be more rotation this week. It’s the time of year for it. Jean-Philippe Mateta’s owners have already had a taste of double-induced rotation (or ‘DIR’ in medical contexts), and it’s particularly common when fixtures are bunched together like they happen to be in Double Gameweek 33.

There’s no advice in this section, other than to encourage you to emotionally prepare for the likelihood that at least one of your squad members this week will be rested for reasons you won’t have seen coming.

It’s particularly painful when you’re on your Bench Boost. Let’s talk about that…

What are the top managers doing this week?

Most top managers are playing their Bench Boost. There is mooted support for the Assistant Manager (for those who didn’t already use it), and the Triple Captain and Free Hit will pick up some suitors too.

The FA Cup means there’s still a likelihood of a Double Gameweek 36 and a Blank Gameweek 37. But none of this is guaranteed, and the rearranged fixtures could yet be squeezed into Gameweek 37.

Here are the fixture permutations:

As The Professor correctly advised in his latest newsletter, we should make decisions based on what we know to be a certainty. For now, that means Double Gameweek 33 is the best opportunity this season to play the Bench Boost if you still have it.

For maximum Bench Boost impact, we like to bench our very best doubling players (other than the ones we want to captain and vice-captain). This gives you a better chance of feeling like it wasn’t totally spaffed.

Penetrative Stats.

Kevin De Bruyne is leaving Man City at the end of the season. This, combined with a few lacklustre performances in recent games, has created a narrative that the Belgian is - rightly - handing in the proverbial badge and retiring from top-level football.

He has gone from footballing genius to washed-up pensioner in the space of a few months.

But a 12-point haul in his last outing is already challenging that narrative. Is the 6.5% owned De Bruyne dead and buried? Or is there still life in the old dog yet?

The stats

Part of the problem with analysing De Bruyne’s stats is that he hasn’t really played enough this season to derive anything meaningful from them. He averaged a very decent 0.69 (behave) expected goal involvements per 90 (xGI/90) across the first four gameweeks this season, but hasn’t had a longer run of 90-minute starts since.

But previous seasons give us a glimpse into his potential. This is a player who notched 39 goal involvements in the 19/20 season from just 2,790 minutes.

In short, the stats aren’t that compelling this season because we don’t have enough of them. So…where’s the appeal here?

Night and Day

After the Crystal Palace game, De Bruyne came out with an intriguing statement.

“The last month I've felt so much better. The pain went away. The difference for me to play pain-free is night and day.”

For us, this statement is perhaps the most compelling reason to seriously look at De Bruyne. Is it just pure coincidence that we saw the De Bruyne of old against Crystal Palace? Or was there more to his drop in form than we initially realised?

If it’s the latter, it means we’ve been judging De Bruyne’s FPL prospects based on incomplete information.

The fixtures

Not only does De Bruyne have a Double Gameweek in Double Gameweek 33, but City’s involvement in the FA Cup means he might well have one in Gameweek 36 too. As the permutations above clarify, that would be a Southampton and Bournemouth double, too.

But even if City don’t double in Gameweek 36, their fixtures are pretty good between now and the end of the season regardless:

Summary

There’s a romance to the Kevin De Bruyne pick. It’s smothered in FPL nostalgia, and it depends on the Man City talisman having the sort of end to the season befitting of his incredible output for the club over the years.

But behind the idealism is a simple question: Is Kevin De Bruyne ready to be put out to pasture? Or has this injury-plagued maestro finally rediscovered his fitness and form? If it’s the latter, we might yet see the De Bruyne of old one last time.

The best captain for Double Gameweek 33.

It’s Bukayo Saka.

Choosing a captain who has played a combined 96 minutes across the last three Premier League games is not our usual style.

But numbers have been ran, fixtures have been stared at and the outcome is clear: Saka away at Ipswich and at home to Crystal Palace is the pick.

Wait - isn't Saka a huge rotation risk?

Yes. Let’s not sugarcoat it: It’s unlikely Saka will play 180 minutes across Double Gameweek 33. But if he does start both games, he could be devastating. Arsenal’s fixtures:

Sunday 20th: Ipswich vs Arsenal
Wednesday 23rd: Arsenal vs Crystal Palace
Tuesday 29th: Arsenal vs PSG

So there’s a 6-day window between the last fixture in Double Gameweek 33 and the Champions League semi-final.

Arsenal have drawn their last two Premier League games. With Saka now fully fit, there’s an argument that playing him across Double Gameweek 33 maintains a match-sharpness that he’s only just regained following his stint out.

A frustrating week for The Professor (he owned Eberechi Eze, after all) still earned him the smallest of green arrows, putting him at 138k overall.

This week, he’s probably making three transfers and playing his Bench Boost. He’ll also be captaining Bukayo Saka.

He’s still not 100% set on his moves, but he explores his favourite options in the latest premium newsletter. To read it, and see his final Bench Boost squad, along with our other experts’ teams, join LazyFPL Premium.

The Key Stats for Double Gameweek 33

Felt kind and actually decided to include them this time. You’re welcome. 

Other stuff we found interesting.

1. Trent Alexander-Arnold is nearing a return, but might not be available this weekend.

2. Harvey Barnes acknowledged FPL managers after his DGW32 haul:

2. Crystal Palace’s whole team scored 1 point combined against Newcastle on Wednesday.

3. “I will play kids in the Premier League”, says Ruben Amorim as his focus shifts to the Europa League.

4. Phil Foden and Manuel Akanji are back in training.

Right then. You’ve prepared for this week. Your team is ready. Your mind is focused.

What could possibly go wrong?

See you next Friday, and remember,

Stay lazy.

The LazyFPL Team.