🚨 GW7: Everything you need to know 👀

⏰ Gameweek 7’s deadline is Friday, 3rd October, 18:30 BST ⏰

⛔️ West Ham sack Graham Potter. Nuno Espirito Santo joins. You probably already knew that.

🧤 Alisson is injured and is set to miss ~6 weeks [David Ornstein]. His replacement, Giorgi Mamardashvili, is just £4.3m.

🤕 Hugo Ekitike also forced off, though post-game comments have played down the severity.

🟥 Joao Pedro gets sent off in the UCL, but it won’t impact Gameweek 7. He might be slightly injured, but we’ll discuss it.

🛡️ Gabriel was forced off midweek, but Arteta confirmed he’s fine.

👀 Keep reading to learn whether you should sell Pedro.

Alright?

There’s no easy way to say this, so we’ll just say it: there’s another International Break after Gameweek 7. Don’t shoot the Melinda.

And, almost as though the FPL Gods are wrathful at yet another postponement to the domestic fixture schedule, the UK will be battered by Storm Amy this weekend too. Which probably won’t be nearly as fun, or sexy, as it sounds.

Gameweek 7 promises to be a rapturous swirl of ball-flight-altering winds, defender-blinding horizontal rain and angry FPL managers waving clenched fists at TV screens.

There’s only one way to prepare for such a thunderous weekend, and it isn’t to buy a truckload of beans and hunker down. Instead, find a quiet nook, interrogate your screen so it looks like you’re in the midst of serious work and read the remainder of this email.

Here’s how to survive the apocalypse that promises to be Gameweek 7.

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Lazy summary: Probably not.

The imminent arrival of Storm Amy means the weather in the UK this weekend is going to be - to borrow the meteorological terminology - really bloody windy.

Whilst there are some hushed murmurings of possible postponements, it feels like a stretch at the moment.

The last time a game was cancelled purely due to strong winds that we could find was in 2014, when two Premier League fixtures were postponed on the same day. But the conditions were far more severe, with winds up to 80mph (rather than this weekend’s pitiful 50mph) causing damage to transport lines and nearby buildings.

Shy of consulting with an actual meteorologist, our advice is to plan your team as normal.

Lazy summary: He probably deserves a few more games.

Joao Pedro is the second-most sold player this gameweek, behind Mohamed Salah.

We spoke about Salah’s drop in form (and ownership) last week, and it appears Pedro is the latest in the Class of Gameweek 1 to feel the cold steel of the FPL manager’s axe against his neck. He’s probably terrified.

Why are people getting rid of him?

The numbers aren’t great. Pedro has 0.00xG (expected goals) in his last two Premier League games, primarily because he’s failed to have a shot in either.

This, combined with flat performances outside of the Premier League and a measly creative output of 0.1xA (expected assists) over his last four Premier League games, has left his owners wondering what went wrong after such a good start.

The absence of Cole Palmer, their Gameweek 7 fixture vs Liverpool and existential threats to Chelsea’s management have all combined to mean one thing: lots of managers are now refusing to vote for Pedro.

Is he injured?

News has emerged that he hasn’t been called up to the Brazil team for their friendlies against South Korea and Japan because of a “small physical problem”.

Still, the general feeling is that he’ll play this weekend.

That’s partly because Chelsea are running out of options and partly because he’s had issues for a few weeks now and has played through them. Whilst he’s “not 100%”, it seems the international break, not one of Chelsea’s most important fixtures so far, is being used as an opportunity to give him the rest he apparently needs.

What went wrong for Pedro?

The numbers don’t tell the full story (and grass is green). As has been well-documented in publications far more respectable than this toilet rag, Chelsea have a bit of a discipline issue at the moment. Only 58 of Pedro’s last 180 minutes of Premier League action have been played with 11 men.

If we exclude those games (we shouldn’t, but if we did), Pedro has returned an average of 8.25 FPL points per match so far.

Should you sell Pedro?

Here are five reasons why you might keep hold of him:

Listen, we’re not saying Pedro has been lighting up the Premier League in recent gameweeks, but we’re not convinced he’s worthy of a valuable free transfer yet either. Yet. Surely you have bigger fires to put out first?

Lazy summary: Plenty of Bench Boosts this week. Trust your gut for the TC if you haven’t used it yet.

Welcome to Chip Watch, a regular section that aims to give you a rough idea of the chips that might be played in any given week. It’s a bit like Spring Watch, but without the near-constant footage of birds eating their young.

And what’s this emerging from the bushel? Ah, yes, it’s a fledgling Bench Boost.

Gameweek 7 doesn’t promise to be a big week for chips, but we reckon the Bench Boost will be used more than any other. That’s because a lot of the managers who Wildcarded last week baked it into their squad selection.

As we’ve said a few times already, Wildcards and Bench Boosts pair together like Packham and Strachan (if you know, you know).

If you didn’t Triple Captain last week, when should you?

The Triple Captain is unique because it doesn’t really require any planning. There’s nothing wrong with waking up on a Saturday morning, flicking through your phone whilst sat on the loo and deciding, like divine inspiration has struck you mid-turd, to pull the trigger there and then.

Assuming we don’t get a Double Gameweek this side of Christmas (it’s unlikely), the best thing you can do is pick an in-form player against an out-of-form team. That was Erling Haaland last week against Burnley, but it could be a different player against a different opponent. Stay flexible, don’t rush it.

Lazy summary: Arsenal, Wolves, Brighton, Chelsea and Leeds have some decent fixtures coming up.

Nope, take your keys back from the bowl - it’s not that kind of swinging.

We’re talking about fixture swings, obviously. This is when teams that have endured a tough run of fixtures suddenly find themselves with a nice stretch of easy games ahead.

Gameweek 7 marks a turning point for several teams, namely:

Arsenal: WHU, ful, CRY, bur, sun, TOT

Wolves: BHA, sun, BUR, ful, che, CRY

Brighton: wol, NEW, mun, LEE, cry, BRE 

Chelsea: LIV, nfo, SUN, tot, WOL, bur

Leeds: TOT, bur, WHU, bha, nfo, AVL

We’re not suggesting you drop everything and populate your squad with players from these teams. We just want you to be aware that these fixture swings are happening. And now you are.

(Oh, and we’ve written a whole article about it if you want some further reading.)

Yup, more midweek games. Eventful ones, actually. Maybe too eventful for some. Here’s a quick recap:

Tuesday

Took her for a drink - oh wait, this isn’t our Craig David newsletter.

🔴 Liverpool lost 0-1 to Galatasaray. Quite an eventful one, this. Mohamed Salah was rotated, as was Alexander Isak. Both came on. Hugo Ekitike went off injured, but should be alright. The bigger concern is Alisson, who is likely to be out for 6 weeks according to David Orstein.

🔵 Chelsea beat Benfica 1-0. Joao Pedro was sent off.

🐓 Spurs drew 2-2 away at Bodo/Glimt. Micky van de Ven scored. Cristian Romero didn't travel with the squad, but Frank said it was precautionary.

Wednesday

🔫 Arsenal won 2-0 against Olympiacos. Gabriel Martinelli scored from a Viktor Gyokeres assist, before a subbed-on Bukayo Saka finished the job in added time. Gabriel went off after David Raya fell on him, but he should be alright.

🏰 Newcastle beat Union St.Gilloise 0-4. Nick Woltemade scored, Anthony Gordon bagged two penalties, and Harvey Barnes scored a fourth.

💙 Man City drew 2-2 at Monaco. Erling Haaland scored both goals.

Thursday

Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest are in action, but we can’t report on the outcome of those games because Cystic Greg is on annual leave. Blame the Friday night kick-off.

We do know that Jean-Philippe Mateta starts, and Ismaila Sarr is on the bench for Crystal Palace.

Lazy Summary: It’s Erling Haaland.

Brentford are the third-worst defence in the league for expected goals conceded. They’re the joint-fourth worst for actual goals conceded.

Captain Erling Haaland if you want to live.

The Prof Wildcarded last gameweek and set out a plan for the following two gameweeks.

A plan he is sticking to.

So with that in mind, it’s a bit of a boring week for him. He’ll be rolling his transfer, bringing his hoard of saved free transfers up to four.

Erling Haaland gets the armband.

One of our resident experts, hall-of-famer James Cooper, is Bench Boosting this week. Subscribe to LazyFPL Premium and you’ll get his final team (along with the final teams of our other four experts) posted in the WhatsApp chat before the deadline.

Right then.

As with last time, if it’s an interesting International Break, you’ll hear from us before Gameweek 8. Otherwise, we’ll be back on Friday, 17th October, ahead of Gameweek 8’s Saturday morning deadline (for those in or near BST).

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.