Gameweek 12

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Summary for the lazy.

- Gameweek 12's deadline is 18:00 BST, Tuesday 18th October ⏰- Man City and Arsenal will blank 🚫- Reece James is out for eight weeks 🤕- James Maddison gets himself suspended for GW12 🤦‍♂️- Kieran Trippier was a bit ill, but now he's fine 👍Should you play your Free Hit? Stay to find out.

Whilst both of those things undoubtedly have their merits, the key benefit is that, if you've had a bad gameweek, you only have to marinade in your misery for around 48 hours until the next one.To put it another way: if Gameweek 11 didn't go your way, you chose probably the best time in the footballing calendar to have a shocker. You have absolutely nailed your fail.Give yourself a pat on the back.Gameweek 12 is fast-approaching and not without its challenges, so let's get it in the crosshairs 🎯

He drives me Maddison.

It's a well-documented fact that one of the reasons

James Maddison

chose to become a footballer instead of pursuing his real passion in catering and hospitality was to ensure he never missed an episode of Emmerdale.

It came as no surprise, then, that with the full-time whistle looming and the Englishman still eligible to play on Thursday night, he took matters into his own hands and threw himself onto the floor, earning himself a cosy Thursday night in with the Dingles.It means he, along with Arsenal and City players, will miss Gameweek 12. He'll return this weekend for Leicester's Gameweek 13 fixture at Wolves.Trossard, Mount and Zaha are your best replacements.

Should you Free Hit?

A few of your mini-league rivals will be playing their Free Hits this week. Probably the ones that spaffed their Bench Boost in Gameweek 2.Should you play yours? Almost certainly not.Unlike the heady, postponement-riddled days of the 21/22 season, we only get one Free Hit this campaign. Whilst there's nothing particularly disruptive scheduled in the fixture calendar yet, fixture disruption doesn't tend to be that forecastable. That's why it's called disruption.But with distilled domestic cups, condensed continental commitments and a World Cup to squeeze in, disruption does feel inevitable.And even in the unlikely event that we don't get a massive Blank Gameweek this season, there's a strong argument that playing it in a Double Gameweek is the better move anyway. We'll discuss that at the time.

If you've invested heavily in Arsenal and City players, and also have the likes of Reece James and James Maddison to deal with, nobody is going to blame you for pulling the trigger.

Just don't come crying to us when it's Gameweek 27 and you're taking a -16 because otherwise you've only got Danny Ward and Cordova-Reid playing.If you can field 8 players after a transfer, save your Free Hit for an even rainier day.Despite all of that, we'd be remiss not to share a hypothetical Free Hit team. This is probably what we'd do if we were using ours:

(Pereira, Andersen, Chilwell and Ward on the bench.)If you're still unsure whether or not to use it, hit "reply" and send us a pic of your team.Assuming we're still awake, we'll reply with a "yes" or "no" within an hour.

No games for James.

Reece James will be out for 8 weeks.Quite why Reece's cease was so significantly increased is still yet to be released, but in an effort to keep the peace we'd suggest you cease his lease until he's injury-free. Capiche?In other words: get rid. We explored some replacements in our last email (spoiler: look at Palace and Wolves defenders).

I still can't help but wonder whether that EasyJet flight was to blame...

Sports goss in your box.

We (James and Ross) subscribe to a newsletter which we think you'll also like.It's called the Upshot. Every week you get an email filled with drunken antics, dressing room squabbles, and everything else BBC Sport won't touch with a ten foot bargepole.Last week they revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson's first girlfriend was Trent Alexander-Arnold's nan. You just don't find that kind of content anywhere else.If you want to subscribe (it's free, obviously), do so in one click by clicking here. You can thank us later.

The Premier League tweeted out this belter of a stat on Monday morning:

Yeah, it turns out the cherries are actually pretty sweet.Since Liverpool they've played Wolves, Forest, Newcastle, Brentford, Leicester and Fulham, which somewhat takes the gloss off, but still: Bournemouth are not the pushovers we thought (read: hoped) they might be.Naturally we took a look under the hood to find out what the hell is going on.It seems the newly-promoted side have been quite fortunate. They've registered the lowest number of shots in that time, and the third-lowest xG of all teams. In fact, they're one of the biggest over-performers in the league at the moment.

It doesn't appear that their attacking form (8 goals in the last 5 games) is particularly sustainable.Defensively they've been better, but they've still out-performed their stats at the back too.That doesn't mean you shouldn't invest in the likes of Solanke and Billing, but perhaps some expectation management is needed. They probably won't keep this form up when their fixtures turn sour.

The best captain.

It's a good one this week. Before we start naming names, there's some strategy you should know about when it comes to picking your captain.In recent seasons, there has usually been a standout player who gets captained by the majority of managers each week. Last season it was Mo Salah, this season it's Erling Haaland. Textbook FPL strategy dictates that you choose this player as your captain - particularly for the first ~75% of the season.On rare occasions, however, there's no standout captaincy option. There will obviously still be a most-captained player, but he won't have a significant majority.It's in these unusual circumstances that we can be a little more creative with our captaincy choices, because if the most popular captain does score a few goals and you've gone for someone else, you'll only lose ground to the minority of managers who picked him. The risk of choosing a differential is lessened.Haaland isn't playing in Gameweek 12, so welcome to the free-for-all captaincy debate.Who you captain this week should depend on two things:1) who you own2) how well you're doing this seasonBut will probably also depend on:3) what sort of manager you areAnd maybe:4) how much booze you've drank prior to the deadlineAnyone who owns Salah will be likely be backing the Egyptian at home to West Ham, particularly after his performance against Man City. He'll almost certainly be this week's most popular captaincy pick.Harry Kane will be considered by his owners despite a tough visit to Old Trafford. He hasn't blanked since Gameweek 1.Leandro Trossard at home to Nottingham Forest is also a popular pick for the thrill-seekers, despite De Zerbi's assertion that Adam Lallana will start on Tuesday (fan groups think Gross is the most likely to make way). Aleksandar Mitrovic against Villa will doubtless lure some of his owners too.If you want to go really differential, Kieran Trippier against Everton is gaining some traction as well as basically any other Liverpool attacker.If we had a pick of the bunch, we'd go for Salah. He's scored nine goals and notched three assists in 10 games against the Hammers. But don't rip your team apart to buy him just for this week either.

The key stats.

Here are all the important stats ahead of Gameweek 12, apart from the bookies' odds, because the site we steal them from (the excellent checkthechance.com) hasn't updated them yet.

Expert analysis.

This week's FPL expert is the legendary Karwan, AKA the co-host of @FantasyPoddenPL who finished 18th in the world last season.If you've been a subscriber since Gameweek 1 you'll have fond memories of him. He's started the season solidly and currently finds himself at around 700k. Go and give him a follow.

With the World Cup in sight, I am amongst the many managers without a Wildcard who are now wondering how to set up for the last five gameweeks.We all want to fill our teams up with Arsenal and Man City players but we also want to field a full XI in Gameweek 12. So, what do we do? Here are three points to take into consideration:1. If you can't field 11 players, a -4 is technically only a -2 (assuming the player you bring in gets 2 appearance points). Having said that, I'd avoid taking hits for players I’m planning to sub out ahead of the World Cup. So, take hits only if you plan to keep the player.

2. Looking at trends this season; For me it’s clear that fixtures are king, so target the talismans in teams that have a good run (like Salah, Mount, Saka and Zaha).3. Plan ahead: personally, I will have many benching headaches these coming gameweeks. Use a transfer planner like Fantasy Football Hub's MyTeam to help you navigate the coming gameweeks successfully.

Karwan has decided to roll a transfer for the newsletter team this week, which feels like a massive flex given the fact it's a blank.As for the captain? Well, we thought you'd let you decide. Check out the poll on our Twitter page and cast your vote. Here's how we currently sit.

Looking ahead.

We found a really good video about Potter's impact on Chelsea. Well, Karwan found it actually. If you have a spare 9 minutes 34 seconds, you can watch it here.If you don't, it makes a really compelling case for the tactical importance of Mason Mount, and explains why Chelsea's xG per game has increased so significantly since Potter's arrival.Mount, incidentally, is the only outfield player who has started every game since Potter took over.

Right, that's your lot. If you've enjoyed this, do let us know. It's always nice to hear from you.Cheers,The FPL Tips team.