📈 GW27: the 4-min cheat sheet 🤫

🚨 The stuff you should know 🚨

⏰ Gameweek 27’s deadline is Saturday 2nd March, 13:30 GMT.

😴 It’s a regular, 10-fixture gameweek.

❌ Blank Gameweek 29 fixtures confirmed. There are only 4 of ‘em.

🤕 Solanke and Hwang doubts for the weekend. Salah, Richarlison and Porro ruled out.

🚑 Mitoma likely out for the season.

✅ Darwin and Udogie in contention for Gameweek 27.

👀 Next gameweek is a double for Bournemouth and Luton.

Keep reading for arguably the most incredible vice-captaincy call you’ve ever seen.

Alright?

Some of you might be feeling a bit hard done by that Erling Haaland went and scored five goals against Luton in last Tuesday night’s FA Cup tie. Why couldn’t he have done that when we Triple Captained him?

But you need to get some perspective.

In the FA Cup game, Haaland registered a whole 0.17xG more than he did across Double Gameweek 25. He clearly deserved those four extra goals.

Ffs.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of Gameweek 27.

Gameweek 27’s fixtures.

Blank Gameweek 29.

The midweek FA Cup games weren’t just an opportunity for the FPL Gods to empty a salt shaker upon our festering Double Gameweek 25 wounds.

They had implications for Blank Gameweek 29 too. We don’t need to talk about what might’ve happened: only what did happen.

Look at this sorry excuse for a gameweek:

Only eight teams will play in Blank Gameweek 29, and four of those are in the bottom five.

It makes the Free Hit more alluring. Had Chelsea lost against Leeds, for example, both they and Arsenal would’ve featured. Other scenarios might’ve seen Man City playing too. Perhaps, in those circumstances, navigating the turmoil with free transfers alone would’ve been more feasible.

But for most FPL squads, it would be strenuous at best and detrimental at worst to use free transfers to prepare for Blank Gameweek 29.

As The Professor puts it in his latest premium email, “any outside chance of me potentially navigating Blank Gameweek 29 [with free transfers] has officially kicked the bucket. Shuffled off its mortal coil. Run down the curtain and joined the choir. It has ceased to be.”

Ben Crellin’s latest spreadsheet.

@BenCrellin’s latest spreadsheet factors in the massacre of Blank Gameweek 29, as well as the doubling (and blanking) prospects between Gameweek 34 and Gameweek 37. It’s always worth sharing.

So what are the top managers doing this week?

Most managers aren’t really thinking about Gameweek 27 this week. We’ll explain:

Let’s imagine you’re at a party. We know that’s a stretch, but bear with us.

This party is full of your favourite footballers. Erling Haaland, wearing a bucket hat and a tie-dye vest, is 32 shots deep and still going strong. Darwin Nunez is inexplicably shirtless and trying to fight a bouncer. It’s all good fun.

You can see all of this happening in the background, but you’re stuck with a miserly accountant who can’t stop talking about his disappointing premium bond returns.

Gameweek 27 is sort of like that accountant. It’s right in front of us, yet it’s hard not to have one eye on the more exciting stuff going on in the distance.

With Double Gameweek 28, Blank Gameweek 29 and a run in that will include at least one more Double Gameweek on the horizon, most of this week’s moves will be made with future gameweeks in sight.

It’s why Dominic Solanke, an injury doubt, is the most-transferred in player this week, and why plenty of good managers - including the Professor - are probably rolling a transfer if they can.

The injury room.

The injury room is never a pleasant place to visit.

It sits underneath the green turf of your FPL team; dark, dingy and forgotten. I asked AI to visualise it and the ensuing image has haunted my nightmares since. Viewer discretion advised:

Let’s start with Dominic Solanke. Iraola said “we did an MRI today [Tuesday] so we have to see what he has, assess him, how he wakes up tomorrow.”

The good news is that he has indeed woken, and a rumour has since circulated that his injury is not as bad as first feared (though it was shared by a Sun journalist, so take that how you will). Regardless, his starting berth away at Burnley is not guaranteed.

Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez were absent from both of Liverpool’s cup squads last week. Salah has been ruled out, though Klopp was sure to clarify that he isn’t far off. Darwin, meanwhile, has trained this week and should be in contention.

Hwang Hee-chan, the most transferred in player last week, picked up an ominous pre-match injury before Sheffield United, soldiered on to score 2 points, then got properly-injured in the FA Cup.

Gary O’Neil has said he’ll be “amazed” if he plays this weekend.

Richarlison has been ruled out for 2-3 weeks, with Porro also set to miss Gameweek 27.

The Richarlison news started as a spurious rumour, which stemmed from a rather ridiculous find by @FPL_Brandon, who spotted that the gym rosters in the background of a training video published by Spurs’ social media team didn’t include his name:

Postecoglou confirmed the rumour early on Friday afternooon. Pedro Porro was already known to be recovering from an injury and Destiny Udogie is back in full training and could feature.

Let’s hope we don’t have to revisit this place for a while.

The Blank Gameweek 26 TWAT.

The results from last week’s poll were overwhelmingly positive, but we respect the fact that a few of you didn’t enjoy it. Like everything in this newsletter, it’s intended to be light-hearted. Still, we also get that it doesn’t provide a huge amount of tangible value.

As such, feel free to skip to the next section if it’s not for you.

Falling from 10.3k to 56.4k, The Worst Active Team this week is a Welsh team called Kep.

Let’s take a look:

Taking a -8 and scoring just 27 points, Kep has managed to blend the perfect cocktail of rogue decision making and terrible luck.

With Reguilon and Botman combining for -3 points, and an ill-fated decision to captain Hwang, Kep’s only point scorers were popular captaincy picks Haaland and Saka.

Once 975th in the world, all is not lost for Kep. Whilst he’s used his second Wildcard and Triple Captain, he still has a Free Hit and a Bench Boost to work his way back into the rarified air of the top 10k.

Remember, you may have had a terrible Blank Gameweek 26, but at least you’re not a TWAT.

The best captain for Gameweek 27.

The Professor described this week’s captaincy predicament as the toughest so far this season. As with last week, it boils down to Erling Haaland vs Bukayo Saka.

Haaland will play Man United at home. Most Man United fans believe they’ll be pumped, and with Kevin De Bruyne seemingly back to full fitness, it’s not hard to see why.

But Saka visits a struggling Sheffield United. Last week we argued that Saka’s recent form, underlying stats and team performance are actually better than Haaland’s, and, just like last week, he has a great fixture. No team has a leakier home defence than Sheffield United.

In real terms, Sheffield United have 13 more expected goals allowed at home (37) than Manchester United away (24).

That makes Saka the best captain for us on paper, but as if often the case, Haaland is the safer pick this week if you’re trying to protect your rank. After all, either player is a dubious penalty decision away from making the other look like an ill-informed punt.

The key stats for Gameweek 27.

The Professor’s team.

Sound the alarm: the Professor got a red arrow last week. It was a 5,000 red arrow, from 245k to 250k, but still. Record: tarnished.

Current rank: 250k

Current transfer plans: Roll a transfer, but Richarlison’s injury (just announced) might provoke him into a last-minute move.

Captain: Erling Haaland

The Prof is using Fantasy Football Hub this season. It’s full of tools (like MyTeam which you can see above), exclusive articles, team reveals and loads more. Sign up for a 7-day free trial here and you’ll be helping us out too.

Other stuff we found interesting.

• Jarrod Bowen is loads better with Lucas Paqueta. Here are his last four fixtures when Paqueta has started:

  

  Credit: u/jabilation

• Ollie Watkins has the joint-highest attacking contributions in the league (24, level with Mohamed Salah).

• Last gameweek’s highest scoring team scored 128 points. They triple-captained the blanking Mo Salah, with Bowen as their vice. Unreal.

Keep an eye on today’s press conferences, which are already underway.

We’ll be back next Friday morning ahead of Double Gameweek 28. I’m away (don’t know where yet, it’s a secret holiday), but we’ll adapt and overcome as always.

Until then, stay lazy.

The LazyFPL Team.