🚨 GW3: Your FPL cheat sheet 🤫

⏰ Gameweek 3’s deadline is 11:00 BST on Saturday, 30th August ⏰

🤝 Eberechi Eze joins Arsenal.

🤦 Cole Palmer’s status remains ambiguous. All eyes on the presser.

🤕 Bukayo Saka expected to be out for “up to 4 weeks” - BBC.

👍 Rayan Ait-Nouri expected to be fit for Gameweek 3.

🌍 Next week is the first international break.

🏆 It’s not too late to join our £750 mini-league if you haven’t already. The code is ygvli7 if you’re old school. Prizes and eligibility here.

Keep reading to find out if it’s time to Free Hit.

Alright?

We were trying to build a team and then we built a team,
And heaven knows we’re miserable now.

Gameweek 2 was FPL boiled down to its purest form. It had it all: missed penalties, injuries, red cards and captaincy blanks.

Unfortunately, this is what you signed up for. If you thought FPL would be all banter with your mates, enjoying the football and scoring some fantasy points, you were probably misled by someone who wanted an extra tenner contributed to the mini-league prize fund.

FPL is disappointment. It is having your hopes dashed. It is a sad line written by Morrissey.

But if you’re reading this, it means you’re back for more anyway. That sort of gluttony for punishment might just win you your mini-leagues.

Gameweek 3 is a 10-tonne truck, threatening to kill the both of us. Here’s how to ensure it doesn’t.

Here’s some behind-the-scenes insight for you: We’ve never had so much positive feedback from an ad as our Fotmob ad received last week.

There were also some questions about how to see the live FPL points and if DEFCON was going to be added.

We have good news for you.

To view live FPL points, you just go to the “Lineup” page during a game, and then find the “Fantasy” toggle along the top. Here’s a screenshot from the Liverpool game:

And for DEFCON, that will also be available on the app this gameweek.

It’s simple: If you’re an FPL manager, Fotmob is the best in-game companion you can find (certainly better than your smug mini-league rival).

(Btw, we always try to work with partners we genuinely like and use, and Fotmob is definitely one of those. It’s getting harder and harder to find these sorts of partners, so if you’re in the market for a live football app, show Fotmob some support, and you’ll also be supporting us in the process.)

Summary for the Lazy: He might miss Gameweek 3, but then there’s an international break. If you still rate him, keep him.

Cole Palmer’s disconsolate stare from the confines of his oversized puffer jacket perfectly captured the mood of his owners, who must’ve felt aggrieved that 10% of their FPL budget had just been sidelined during the pre-game warmup.

So far, Palmer could’ve picked any one of four Burnley midfielders instead and gained more points.

The question, then, is what to do with him.

What we know

Our advice

Clearly, Palmer is still a good player, and his owners should wait for Maresca’s press conference in the vague hope of getting some clarity.

If he’s cleared fit for Gameweek 3 (an outcome looking increasingly unlikely), he’s worth keeping against Fulham (and would be a primary candidate for captaincy).

If he’s ruled out of Gameweek 3, everything points to this being a short-term injury. The Lazy playbook would encourage you to keep him on your bench and use his short absence as an opportunity to give one of your substitutes a chance to impress their new gaffer.

But you’re a (presumably) human FPL manager. You have needs. Selling gives you plenty of options. The most common move is to combine it with another transfer, downgrading Palmer to a cheaper alternative in order to upgrade elsewhere.

The most popular Palmer replacements:

Ultimately, you had your reasons for picking Palmer ahead of Gameweek 1, and one game isn’t enough to invalidate those reasons. Keep your eye on the press conference but, unless the news is dramatic, our advice is to give him more time.

There is a rogue option that’s becoming increasingly popular amongst the LazyFPL boffins, too…

Summary for the lazy: Depending on the state of your team, it might well be time to use your first Free Hit.

The LazyFPL boffins have been scheming. What started as conspiratorial whispers in wood-panelled corridors has now blossomed into a fully-fledged movement: Free Hit in Gameweek 3 is on the cards for some.

The Professor is considering it, James Cooper (20th in the all-time FPL manager league table) is almost certainly doing it. And when you look at the logic, it’s easy to see why:

1) Palmer owners get to keep him, but swerve this gameweek.

With the ambiguity around Palmer’s Gameweek 3 status (see above), the Free Hit gives his owners an easy escape route.

2) Mohamed Salah’s tricky fixture.

Arsenal is as bad as it gets for attackers. The Free Hit this week means you can swerve the Salah vs Arsenal fixture and pick a more fixture-optimised team.

3) Everyone else’s bad fixtures.

Are you looking at your team this week and thinking, “shit, every game is hard”? If so, you might be eligible for some no-win, some-fee Free Hit compensation. Terms and conditions definitely apply, points not a guarantee.

4) It’s not like there’s an obvious alternative week to play it.

Barring something unexpected, there are no blank gameweeks to navigate this side of Christmas. Your first Free Hit will need to be used eventually, so why not now?

We have a two-week break coming up. Injured players have a chance to recover, fixtures shift, narratives change. If your team already feels irreparable, remember that time is the best healer. The Free Hit buys you that time.

Summary for the lazy: Your FAQs answered by our resident psychic.

Cystic Greg is back. For new readers, Cystic Greg is our resident fairground psychic. He operates from a dingy caravan in a layby off the A312, and charges us a fortune for his wisdom.

But sometimes he’s right, and that’s a rare thing in FPL.

Q: What should we do with Florian Wirtz? He’s got Arsenal this week, and he’s been poor so far.

CYSTIC GREG: Wirtz has been frustrating to own [Greg farts here, which we’ve omitted from the transcript], but he had a higher xGI (expected goal involvement) than Mohamed Salah last game. Salah was lucky, Wirtz wasn’t. If it had been the other way around, I wouldn’t be wasting my psychic energy on this question.

Keep him.

Q: I hate my team. Should I Wildcard?

CG: Fun fact: Your Wildcard is probably your most valuable chip. The top managers avoid playing it before an international break, where injuries can disrupt even the most thorough of plans. Do you wanna be like them? Well then. Save it. Your team probably isn’t that bad.

Q: I hear Strand Larsen has requested a move from Wolves. Will he play?

CG: He has indeed asked to move to Newcastle, who are interested in him (as they are everyone, apparently). But for now, he’s expected to play as normal for Wolves until something changes. Keep him unless you hear news that he’s not starting.

Q: Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty. Will he still be on penalties?

CG: [Stares into his Crystal Ball, and then falls asleep for 42 minutes]. Yes. He’ll get another chance. His penalty record is good enough.

Summary for the Lazy: It’s Mohamed Salah.

Another tough one this week, and your captaincy decision will likely be determined by who you own.

Erling Haaland owners will fancy Brighton away, and those unfortunate enough to own Bruno Fernandes will be captaining him at home to Burnley.

There’s also Cole Palmer, who, in the unlikely scenario that Maresca gives us some clear news in the press conference, could be a contender away at Fulham.

Once again, though, it’s Mohamed Salah that’s likely to attract the most suitors. Whilst he’ll play Arsenal, he’ll also play at Anfield. Arsenal are yet to concede a goal this season, but that’s a little flattering. They’ve conceded 1.76 xGC (expected goals conceded) across their first two games. It’s decent, but it’s not bulletproof.

Salah gets our nod. He’s the easy, lazy choice. Your team might well have more appetising options, and it’s a week where differential captaincy picks won’t be as severely punished.

The Professor is in a pickle, and will probably Free Hit this week.

In key weeks like this, we only make his team available to LazyFPL Premium members. You’ll get access to our WhatsApp Broadcast group, where he’ll post his final team, and the ability to read his Gameweek 3 preview newsletter, in which he explores Free Hit options.

It’s an international break next week, which means we’ll see you in a fortnight. Calm down: we still love you, we just need some time apart*.

Enjoy the brief respite, and see you on Friday, 12th September.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.

*The transfer window also closes during the break, so if it’s particularly eventful, we’ll drop in your inbox with a brief roundup of the stuff that’s happened.