🧠 GW23 - how to master the fixture chaos 🤯

Summary for the lazy

⏰ Double Gameweek 23's deadline is 11:00 GMT, Saturday 11th February

😍 Man City and Arsenal will Double in Gameweek 23

🤦‍♂️ Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool and Wolves will double in Gameweek 25

⛔️ Jesse Marsch sacked by Leeds

🤕 Hugo Lloris out for 6-8 weeks

Stick around to find out why this will be the last FPLTips.com email you ever get.

Hello.

Our website is down. Alert the authorities. Has the Prime Minister been informed? The doomsday clock ticks another minute closer to midnight.

The reason for the website's poor performance is that we're doing a rebrand. The dreaded rebrand.

Henceforth, this newsletter will be called LazyFPL - which we reckon is a better reflection of what we actually do. This decision wasn't taken lightly, and we don't expect everyone to love it, but mostly, we fully expect that most of you won't really give a toss.

Importantly, nothing will change other than the name and the logo. If you have any strong feelings about this, feel free to hit "reply" and share them.

Double Gameweek 23 is, as the name subtly hints at, a double gameweek. But its limelight has been stolen by the news that Gameweek 25 - previously famous for its blank fixtures (Brighton, Newcastle, Brentford, Man United) - will also play host to four doubling teams (Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Wolves). It exists simultaneously as both a double and a blank gameweek.

Schrodinger's dank.

What to do? This email will explain it all.

How to navigate the carnage

Ben Crellin (who else?) tweeted a likely schedule of doubles and blanks that you should take a look at if you haven't already:

Double and blank navigation isn't usually this hard, but there isn't usually a World Cup in the middle of the season either. These are the cards we've been dealt but, unlike a game of poker, everyone has the same hand. By simply being subscribed to this newsletter, you're already playing yours better than most.

So what should you do?

Well, there are two substantial blank gameweeks before the end of the season, plus Dank Gameweek 25, which means we should probably reconcile ourselves with the idea of fielding at least one sub-optimal team this season. That's okay: it happens. 

Zero blank fixtures have actually been confirmed for Gameweek 28 yet, but here are the permutations:

Six fixtures have a 40%+ chance of being called off, with four of those highly likely. United, City, Spurs...it's probably going to be brutal. It also means that Man United and Brighton - already blanking in Dank Gameweek 25, are probably going to have two blanks within a three-Gameweek stretch.

We could discuss permutations all day, but we figure this is probably the easier way to do it: a list of every team, in order of how appealing their players are from a Blank/Double perspective using the irrefutable sliding scale of emoji faces.

Don't say we don't treat you.

😁 Arsenal - Double in GW23 and in GW25. Play in GW28, won't double in GW29😄 Everton - Double in GW25 and play in GW28, won't double in GW29😀 Liverpool/Wolves - ~40-57% likely to blank in GW28 but double in GW25, both could double in GW29😊 Bournemouth/Palace - Play in Gameweek 28 and could have a double in either GW26/27 and GW29 (it's unlikely though)🙂 Man City - Double in GW23 but highly likely to blank in GW28. Unlikely double in GW29.😌 Villa/Forest/Chelsea - no blanks, no doubles, all three have unlikely doubles in GW29.😏 Leeds - possible blank in GW28, but likely double in GW29.😛 Newcastle - plays in GW28, blanks in GW25, unlikely double in GW26, likely double in GW29.😜 Fulham - possible blank in GW28, unlikely double in GW29.😝 Leicester/Southampton/West Ham - highly likely blanks in GW28, likely doubles in GW29.😕 Spurs - likely blank in GW28, unlikely double in GW29.🙁 Brighton - blank in GW25, highly likely blank in GW28, unlikely doubles in GW26/27 and a likely double in GW29.😭 Brentford/Man United - blank in GW25 and highly likely blanks in GW28. Likely doubles in GW29.

Don't panic. We'll hold your hand throughout this process. 

Bit harsh on Marsch?

Jesse Marsch has been sacked by Leeds. At the time of writing, a replacement hasn't been named, but Feyenoord's manager looks to be the primary target. His name is Arne Slot, and there's absolutely no comedy potential with that name.

In terms of what it means for the FPL assets you may or may not own from Leeds: nothing really, not least until a successor has been named. 

With that said, we should point you to this article written by the Premier League themselves: it confirms what we already know - the "new manager bounce" is real (see Everton last gameweek).

Hugo blow for Spurs

Ugh, these puns...we're contractually obliged to include a minimum of three shit puns in every newsletter I'm afraid.

Hugo Lloris is injured for 6-8 weeks. You probably don't own him, but the FPL significance of this injury comes via his replacement: the £3.9m Fraser Forster.

Seldom do we get such an affordable route into the Spurs defence, and their fixture run over the next ~8 weeks isn't bad either:

Are you investing?

The key stats

Here are this week's important numbers.

The best captain for Double Gameweek 23

It's Haaland. Credit to RoryPaints for this gem.

Should you Triple Captain Haaland?

The Professor said it better than I can in midweek:"Not sure how much to write in regard to this.

Either you triple capained Haaland in GW20, you triple captained Rashford in GW22, or maybe you’re waiting for FPL 2024 to use the chip.

It’s quite simple.

If you have the Triple Captain on hand then use it on Haaland this gameweek."

⬆️ yup, what he said.

The Professor's Team

Speaking of the Prof, here's his team.

You're not drunk, it's just blurry. I don't know why. OR: 54k

The Professor has informed me that, unless we get some wild news in today's press conferences, he'll be:

Removing Fernandes and buying Kevin De BruyneRemoving Shaw and buying GabrielTriple Captaining Haaland.

The Prof uses the BetterFPL chrome extension to add that dash of extra spicy sauce to his FPL planning.

We'll be back in your inbox the same time next week. You'll see it'll be sent from "LazyFPL", rather than "FPLTips", but rest assured it'll include the same old shite.

The LazyFPL team.