👀 DGW7 - the moves to make 🎯

The stuff you should know 🚨

⏰ Gameweek 7’s deadline is 11:00 BST on Saturday 30th September.

🔥 It’s a Double Gameweek. Burnley and Luton play twice.

😍 Man City and Brentford are out of the EFL Cup, and could now double in Gameweek 20.

🤕 Plenty of high-profile injury doubts, including Saka, Botman and Maddison.

Keep reading to find out which City player “needs to rest”, according to Pep. ^{Ffs we’re crap at clickbait - it’s Kyle Walker - but please just read on anyway yeah?}

Btw, this week we found out that our shitty newsletter has been shortlisted for a Football Content Award, which means we get to go to Anfield and pretend that we belong there.

If you get some value from LazyFPL, you can vote for us to win the damn thing by clicking here.

Just scroll to the “Best in Fantasy Football - Editorial” section. You’ll find us at the bottom of the drop-down list. You don’t need to enter any details to vote, so it should only take a few seconds.

On with the show.

Alright?

You know when you’re getting your haircut and there’s a solid 10-15 minute phase in the middle where you just look utterly ridiculous?

The 23/24 season has been a bit like that so far. Many of us have had to withstand looking like idiots whilst we figure out how to style our squads.

But just like a haircut, the key to FPL success is to trust in the process. You’ll almost always emerge looking half-decent if you can suffer the indignity of a rubbish gameweek with a calm and collected head. If you start panicking, it’s only going to get worse.

In a week of injuries, fixture turbulence and over-indulgent chip usage, the razor’s edge is sharper than ever. Here’s how to get those clean lines.

Are you a Burnton supporter?

Burnley and Luton play twice in Gameweek 7. We’ll call them Burnton for brevity. Up the Burnton.

Burnley play Newcastle away (Saturday) and Luton away (Tuesday).

Luton play Everton away (Saturday) and Burnley at home (Tuesday).

What are the top managers doing?

The sentiment around this double amongst top managers has shifted somewhat.

At first it was met with mockery, but now Burnton players - in particular those hailing from Luton - have started to gather steam. Double Gameweek fever can unsettle even the strongest of FPL immune systems.

It means plenty of decent managers will have one or two Burnton players, either because they’ve transferred them in or because they’ve been stuck on the arse-end of their benches since Gameweek 1.

Luton’s Carlton Morris is the most transferred in forward this week, owing mostly to the fact that he’s one of the few Burnton players to have actually notched some returns this season. His stats aren’t bad either.

But as I write, Morris is not the most-owned Burnton player. That title falls to Luton defenders Amari’i Bell (6.1%) and Issa Kaboure (5.9%).

Unless Lionel Messi signs for Burnton in the next 24 hours (hey, you never know), it means owning a Burnton player this week probably puts you in a small minority of managers overall, and a larger minority of active overall managers (i.e. managers who haven’t thrown in the towel yet).

For the first time in a long time, owning a doubling player in a Double Gameweek is not a given. In fact, it’s probably a differential move.

Do you still have your Wildcard?

Oddly, much of this decision could boil down to your Wildcard.

If you’re still planning to Wildcard after Gameweek 8, a punt feels far more justified. It’s an easy eject button for when it inevitably all goes Pete Tong. Without a Wildcard, serious consideration should be given to the ease of ousting these players once you inevitably lose interest in them after Gameweek 7.

In any case, the Burnton massive would probably have more suitors this week if not for the inordinate amount of injuries that have emerged. Let’s talk about those.

Lazy summary: Luton players are your best bet, but any ownership in the two doubling sides is likely to put you in the minority. Don’t fear losing too much ground by not owning them, and ensure you have a plan to get rid.

The injury room.

You might be looking at your FPL team and thinking “why are there suddenly more flags than the opening ceremony of the Olympics?”. It’s almost as if the normal injury-ridden misery of the international break was on a hot date, and arrived a week late to dispense its torment.

Let’s see who’s in the injury room today.

The bloke wincing through a workout in the corner is Bukayo Saka, who limped off in the North London Derby last weekend. Right on cue, Arteta has just given us an update in his pre-match presser:

“He (Rice) hasn’t trained yet. We have another session in an hour or two. More news today. Martinelli hasn’t trained, Trossard – same situation. Saka – same situation."

This is not ideal. Whether he plays or not, it appears his injury is not enough to keep him out for long. If you want Saka in your team eventually, he’s probably not worth using a transfer on.

James Maddison is also in the clinic, but his knee injury isn’t thought to be serious. He was moving normally after it happened. All eyes on Ange’s presser.

Ben Chilwell will have a scan on another hamstring injury - his third this year. Given his uncertainty of starts, it’ll be the final nail in the coffin for plenty of his owners.

Over at Newcastle, Callum Wilson, Alexander Isak, Sven Botman and Dan Burn are all flagged.

Sean Casey, a prominent Newcastle Twitter account, has reported that Wilson, Isak and Botman are all fit for the weekend. We can’t verify the accuracy of his claim, but it adds further credence to the growing consensus that none of these Newcastle absences are serious.

So what should you do?

It’s important to note that, at the time of writing, none of these players have been ruled out. So cool your jets. Some managers are using their Free Hits to circumnavigate Dan Burn’s man flu: don’t be like them.

Situations like these are why your bench is half decent.

Keep an eye on the press conferences. Holly Shand runs a great weekly stream where you can do just that.

What happened in the EFL Cup?

If the Champions League is a Waitrose, the EFL Cup is somewhere between a Budgens and the now-defunct Somerfields.

Still, it poses a very real threat to our FPL teams, particularly as the season wears on.

17 Premier League teams featured in Tuesday and Wednesday’s EFL Cup games. Do you think we’re going to list ‘em all here? Think again. If it’s not already clear, we’re lazy bastards.

Instead, we defer you to Reddit user u/qwerty1519, who compiled a list of every team and their key players’ EFL Cup involvement.

Spoiler: most of the players that you own or are thinking of owning either didn’t play or played less than a full match. The most notable exceptions are Pervis Estupinan and Moussa Diaby, who both played 90.

The big news

Something very unusual happened on Wednesday evening: Man City lost.

Ben Crellin, the fixture sage, had already hinted prior to Wednesday evening that a double in Gameweek 20 could happen in the unlikely event that both Brentford and Man City lose their EFL games. Well, Brentford had the decency to fulfil their end of the bargain too.

Ben isn’t normally wrong about this sort of stuff. If it happens, it means Man City will entertain Sheffield United and Brentford at home in Gameweek 20. Meaty.

We’ll cover this properly when we get to it, because - in case you need reminding - Man City and Brentford will also blank in Gameweek 18.

Christmas is going to be fun this year.

If we were Wildcarding.

One of you wrote to us a few weeks back to ask if we could include a hypothetical Wildcard in every email.

Every email feels like overkill, but we’ll endeavour to include one in gameweeks where they’re particularly popular. Double Gameweek 7 is one such gameweek.

To reiterate, we aren’t Wildcarding yet, and it’s impossible for us to know whether now is the right time for you.

This is a purely hypothetical squad put together by The Professor as part of his premium-only Double Gameweek 7 preview, where he also explains the logic behind his picks.

The best captain for Double Gameweek 7.

Our oldest readers will know from last season’s Double Gameweeks that we like to captain a doubling player where possible.

This is for two key reasons:

1) it’s usually the best decision from a statistical standpoint.
2) it’s almost always a lot more fun when your captain plays twice (we call this metric xFun).

This week, only one of the above is true.

Erling Haaland will rightly be the most popular captain this week. His ludicrously high ownership makes this a near-certainty, but he’s also a very good pick.

Wolves have conceded seven goals in their two home games this season and notched the third-worst xGA overall. Haaland is the bookies’ favourite to score in Double Gameweek 7 and for very good reason.

But that doesn’t make Carlton Morris a bad pick. He’ll have 180 minutes against two bottom-ten defences, and he’s on penalties.

The sensible move is Haaland. It’s the move most top managers - including The Professor - will be making.

But on a weekend where the Norse God travels to traditionally stubborn territory, there are sillier punts than the doubling Carlton Morris.

At the very least, he doubles Haaland’s xFun.

The key stats.

The numbers you need this week.

The Professor’s team.

The Professor has already made a transfer this week, the impatient shrew. It was for good reason though: with Carlton Morris rising in price, he got rid of Nicolas Jackson to lock-in the doubling Luton forward.

His other transfer will likely be Ben Chilwell OUT, Kieran Trippier IN.

Captain = Erling Haaland.

Btw, the Professor is using Fantasy Football Hub’s MyTeam this season. It’s a Swiss army knife of functionality, from predicted points to AI-powered team ratings. They’re offering a free 7-day trial if you want to try it for yourself.

Other stuff we found interesting.

• Kyle Walker “needs to rest” according to Pep.

• Reece James has been charged by the FA for being abusive towards a match official during the Villa game…a game he didn’t play in.

• Mohamed Salah has now returned in 12 straight Premier League games.

• Here’s that link to the Football Content Awards voting again.

Sound. You’re ready.

If you have a moment, reply to this email with your boldest prediction for Double Gameweek 7. If it’s crazy enough and it comes in, we’ll share it.

See you at the same time next week.

Until then, stay lazy.

The LazyFPL team