🚨 DGW33: The FPL cheat sheet 🧠

⏰ Double Gameweek 33’s deadline is Saturday 18th April, 11:00 BST.

🚨 Man City, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Brighton, Burnley and Leeds will play twice in Double Gameweek 33. The same teams will blank in Blank Gameweek 34.

🎤 Complete our 2-min survey and help improve this newsletter. You can also win a £100 Classic Shirts voucher.

👀 Most managers will be Bench Boosting or playing their Free Hit this week. We’ll discuss both.

🤕 Hugo Ekitike is set for a 9-month spell on the sidelines after rupturing his Achilles (the tendon, not the one played by Brad Pitt in Troy).

🤦 Speaking of Achilles, Bukayo Saka has been carrying an Achilles issue that Arteta hopes will be “days and not weeks”.

🤞 Nico O’Reilly has been pictured in training this week, but his availability remains a doubt at the time of sending.

🏆 Liverpool are out of the UCL; Arsenal progress, as do Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace in their respective European tournaments.

💔 Elliot Anderson’s mother has passed away. He didn’t play against Porto and is obviously a doubt for the weekend.

👀 Keep reading to see the Professor’s Bench Boost.

Alright?

It may not be the chunky, 8-team double gameweek that looked on the cards a few weeks ago, but Double Gameweek 33 is here, and whether you’re Bench Boosting, Free Hitting or none of the above, this is about as fun as FPL gets.

Yup - that’s right. This is the apex of the fun axis. Try not to lose yourself in the headiness of it all.

Much like a children’s parable or those rehabilitation videos shown in prisons, we want every LazyFPL newsletter to include a moral. This week’s moral is to enjoy Double Gameweek 33, no matter how your season has gone so far.

Play a chip. Go with your gut (provided you’ve had a healthy amount of probiotics). Maybe even take a points hit if you’re feeling particularly fruity. The big bastard double is here. It’d be a shame not to approach it with some carefully measured reckless abandon.

We’ve partnered with CrowdFPL before, whose free FPL game somehow manages to be both fun and useful for making better FPL decisions.

The premise is simple: Two players get pitched against one another. The game is to guess which one will score more FPL points. Since we last worked with them, they’ve added leaderboards, making it even more competitive.

Of course, the result of playing the game is learning which players the wisdom of the crowd actually fancies. Players are assigned a “Crowd Power” score, which tells you the players who have the most backing from other users.

We’ve gone in and picked 10 player duels that are particularly pertinent if you’re on a Free Hit this week. Here’s a screenshot of some of them:

CrowdFPL is fun and easy to play, but it’s also a handy resource. It might just be the thing that makes your mind up if you’re caught between two players.

Click the button to cast your votes, and see which players the Lazy readers (definitely the most intelligent demographic of managers) are backing ⬇️

Lazy summary: Execute your plan, try to enjoy it.

You already know the answer to this, don’t you? We can see it in your eyes, like Lasgo (if you know, you know).

You’ve planned for this. The prep has already happened. This week ought to be the execution of a well-thought-out plan, with very little actual decision-making required.

Still, here’s a reminder of the doubles:

Man City - Arsenal (H), Burnley (A)
Burnley - Nottingham Forest (A), Man City (H)
Chelsea - Man United (H), Brighton (A)
Brighton - Spurs (H), Chelsea (H)
Leeds - Wolves (H), Bournemouth (A)
Bournemouth - Newcastle (A), Leeds (H)

If you’re playing your Bench Boost.

Your team ought to be primed and ready. You probably have 12-14 doublers from last week’s Wildcard, and a head full of dreams.

With the exception of Nico O’Reilly, who remains a doubt at the time of sending, your doubling players are likely intact.

The Bench Boost is an intriguing chip in that, unlike the others, it actually removes the burden of decision-making. You get to play all 15 of your players, which means, for only the second time this season, you don’t have to worry about which players to bench and play. Your only real predicament is the captaincy, which we’ll get to in due course.

For now, activate the Bench Boost, put your best players on the bench to make you feel better about the decision, then sit back and watch your well-made plans crumble as soon as the line-ups are announced.

If you’re playing your Free Hit.

You lot do have decisions to make. 15 of ‘em, in fact. With that said, you likely have a very clear idea of who you want (and just as importantly, who you don’t).

If you’re really torn between two players, CrowdFPL might be able to help.

We’re going to give you a sample Free Hit team later in the newsletter, too. It might provide some inspiration.

If Nico O’Reilly is injured.

If we get confirmation that O’Reilly is out this weekend (it’s Pep, so don’t hold your breath), the simple move is to swap him for Marc Guéhi.

If you’re on a Free Hit, it frees up a slot for another Man City attacker, but Antoine Semenyo and Erling Haaland aside, that’s a differential move. Take it at your own risk.

Lazy summary: Just look at the dang team.

Disclaimer: This is clearly not going to be the best Free Hit team for Double Gameweek 33. What a preposterous claim.

But it is a healthy stab at a team full of 90-minute men who have a good chance of scoring a decent amount of FPL points. That we can promise.

We’re 33 gameweeks into the season now. You should already have a fairly cultivated idea of who is good and who isn’t. Really, the nuance of the Free Hit is in who you start vs who you bench and minimising clashes.

The pain of an FPL clash.

Inevitably, in a gameweek like this, you’ll have a clash - when your FPL players are on opposing teams, thus effectively trying to minimise the FPL points of one another.

If you’re picking a large number of doubling players, there isn’t really anything you can do about this. Your Brighton midfielder might ruin your Chelsea clean sheet. Ready yourself for this possibility. The hope, of course, is that when your defenders do lose a clean sheet, it’s your forwards who are doing the scoring.

We mention this because tactical benching can help to reduce the number of clashes your team contains. If you’re 50/50 on who to bench and play, a potentially damaging clash might be the deciding factor.

Lazy summary: There’s a blank next week. Six teams will miss out.

Whisper it, but rumour has it there are gameweeks after Double Gameweek 33. We know - we were shocked too.

In fact, the gameweek that immediately follows Double Gameweek 33 is Blank Gameweek 34 - which is like DGW33’s evil twin. Every team that doubles this week will blank next week.

Again, we’re going to assume you’ve planned for this.

If you Wildcarded last week ahead of a Bench Boost this week, you’ll have your Free Hit ready to guide you through Blank Gameweek 34’s turmoil.

If you’re Free Hitting this week, it’s because the team you’ll return to next week has enough players who will feature in Blank Gameweek 34 (like those from Man United, Arsenal and Brentford).

It’s fine. You’re fine. We’re just readying you anyway.

Lazy summary: Cherki, Hinshelwood, Tavernier.

Fine. If we had arms (LazyFPL is more of a bodiless, ethereal concept than a physical form), you’d have twisted them. We’ll give you some differentials.

There are three good reasons to play a differential this week:

1) It’s nearing the end of the season. If you’re chasing a mini-league rival, differentials are a legitimate strategy.

2) You might be on a Free Hit, in which case you won’t have to burn a valuable free transfer to bring one in.

3) It’s fun. And that’s the moral of this newsletter.

Here are three differentials we like. They’re all midfielders, because midfield definitely presents the most opportunity for outsized returns this week.

1) Rayan Cherki - 8.8% owned.

Cherki is fifth this season for expected goal involvements (xGI) per 90 minutes. He’s so impactful that the very notion of benching him appears nonsensical. And yet he hasn’t played 90 minutes since Gameweek 20.

His minutes are very inconsistent, which is the only reason he’s still a differential. But if, like us, you’ve just got this hunch that Pep will give him a few starts after his performance against Chelsea last weekend, he could be a gamble that pays off.

2) Jack Hinshelwood - 0.5% owned.

Over the last six gameweeks, only two midfielders (Bruno Fernandes and Anthony Gordon) have a better xGI than Brighton’s Jack Hinshelwood.

More reliable for minutes than Cherki and coming in at just £5.1m, Hinshelwood might well be the answer if you know you ought to have a Brighton midfielder, but can’t decide on which one. He plays as a 10 and regularly gets into attacking positions.

3) Marcus Tavernier - 5.2% owned.

Right below Hinshelwood in that xGI table is Bournemouth’s Tavernier, who is on their set-pieces and penalties.

There’s an argument that Bournemouth, who face an out-of-form Newcastle away and Leeds at home, have the best of the double gameweek fixtures, and Tavernier is statistically their most likely midfielder to benefit from positive results.

Lazy summary: It’s Erling Haaland.

The Norse God’s scoring boots haven’t fit quite as snugly in the second-half of the season, but his hat-trick against Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-finals reminded us that, despite some claims to the contrary, he’s still an alright footballer.

His game against Arsenal - obviously a tough game for any striker - has a different hue given the title race context. Whilst we’re dubious at LazyFPL HQ that players perform better in crucial games, we’d be remiss not to acknowledge the narrative-laden context of that particular match.

The second fixture - away at Burnley - is far more palatable. Burnley’s already-concluded season isn’t exactly conducive to a “plucky underdog” spirit, as evidenced by conceding five goals in their last two games - to Brighton and Fulham.

Nico O’Reilly (assuming we get clarity on his fitness) and Antoine Semenyo are interesting differential captains for those of you who are chasing the pack, but come with the usual differential health warnings.

We’d resist any temptation to look beyond Man City.

Lazy summary: Bench Boost active.

Nothing complicated from The Professor this week.

He set up with his Wildcard in Gameweek 32, and now the Bench Boost is active for Double Gameweek 33.

Just look at all those doublers.

Erling Haaland gets the armband, and the only issue he has right now is Nico O’Reilly’s fitness.

The Prof has confided in us that if O’Reilly isn’t available, it’s a simple swap to Marc Guéhi.

👌 Your planning for this gameweek has given you the licence to enjoy it. Try your best to do so.

✅ If you’re playing your Free Hit, prioritise players who are likely to play 180 minutes across their two games.

😅 And for those Bench Boosting, remember to press the actual button.

For some final motivation, check out the highest-scoring FPL team of all time. It was a Bench Boost during a Double Gameweek.

Can you guess the season?

Blank Gameweek 34 starts next Friday, so we’ll be in your inbox on Thursday evening. It will not be joyful.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.