Gameweek 8

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Summary for the lazy.

- Gameweek 8's deadline is 18:30, Friday 16th September ⏰- Three games postponed this weekend 🤦‍♂️- Gameweek 12's Man City vs Arsenal also postponed 😒- Graham Potter in charge at Chelsea 🔵- Blank Gameweek forces plenty of Wildcards 🙃Stay for whether you should play your Wildcard or save it for an even rainier day ☔️

Seven games will be played this weekend. Three games are postponed. They are:Brighton vs Crystal PalaceChelsea vs LiverpoolManchester United vs LeedsAs a result, we're betting you've got around 8-10 viable players for Gameweek 8. Should you play your Wildcard? Let's discuss.

Teams gone wild.

It's trendy to play your Wildcard this week. There are two key reasons for that:1) it's hard to field a decent team ahead of Gameweek 82) there's a "fixture swing" this week tooWhat is a fixture swing?A fixture swing is a point in the season where teams who previously had "easy" fixtures start to have "harder" fixtures, and vice-versa. For example, teams like Arsenal, Wolves, Brighton and Liverpool - who mostly had a sympathetic start to the season, all have much harder fixtures from now.They usually happen every 6-8 gameweeks.Here's how Fantasy Football Hub's fixture ticker (the most reliable, in our opinion) interprets the next six gameweeks:

So far, so clear-cut. Surely the Wildcard is a no-brainer?Well, perhaps not. Here's what the current Wildcard template currently looks like, give or take:

Whilst this team is, admittedly, pretty mouth-watering, it totally excludes Liverpool and Man United players, and only makes room for one Chelsea player (Reece James).Which might not be ideal. Liverpool host a Potter-less Brighton in Gameweek 9 and Chelsea will travel to Palace, who are currently 5th-worst for expected goals conceded at the moment. Man United are also enjoying a rich vein of form.

Neither Liverpool nor Chelsea have been electrifying in recent weeks, but the prospect of the likes of Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Cucurella, Sterling and Diaz being differentials in the near future is, at the very least, intriguing.

The other consideration is the small matter of the International Break.

Injuries

will

happen in the fortnight between Gameweek 8 and 9, and your thoughtfully assembled Wildcard team might not look so pretty when it's splattered, Jackson Pollock style, with red, amber and yellow injury warnings.

So...should you Wildcard?

Luckily for you, we've created a handy guide to help you decide:

1)

If you've already played your Wildcard, don't Wildcard (you can't, you big ejit).

2)

If you can field a decent team with free transfers and/or a -4 hit, you probably shouldn't Wildcard.

3)

If you have to take more than a -4 hit to field a good team, consider Wildcarding.

Oh, and definitely don't play your

Free Hit

.

Potter to Chelsea.

What followed was a speed-dating-esque recruitment round that concluded a day later, when the London club's new owners announced the appointment of Brighton's Graham Potter.

A tale of two tweets and two headshots, one day apart.

Selfishly, Chelsea failed to consider the implications on FPL managers during this brazen exchange of 40-something men.That's where we come in.ChelseaThe new manager bounce is real. Here's an intriguing clippit from the Premier League's website itself."History shows the fabled "new manager bounce" is real.In the four complete campaigns since the start of 2017/18, there were 26 managerial changes in the Premier League.In 20 of those cases, more than three-quarters, the new man averaged more points per match (ppm) in his first five matches in charge than the team’s average that season before his appointment.In nine cases, or 35 per cent, the incoming manager instantly doubled the previous points average or did even better than that."In terms of tactics, Twitter user @SayedZeesh put together an excellent thread on how Potter might approach the Chelsea job.It's thorough, bold and worth the read, but if you don't have time: Chelsea's fullbacks, Mount, Sterling and, surprisingly, Kepa could all be big beneficiaries.Here's how they lined up on Wednesday night against Salzberg:

Potter is famously malleable depending on his opponents, so how they'll lineup in Gameweek 9 remains to be seen. Nonetheless, this Reddit post provides some detailed analysis on how they faired in his first game in charge.It's much harder to discern how Brighton will cope until a new permanent manager is appointed, but the overarching view is the one you probably thought to yourself when you saw the news: that the Seagulls will be worse off.

Like newsletters?

We found an excellent newsletter called The Upshot which we thought you might like.It's a weekly email filled with drunken antics, dressing room squabbles, and everything else BBC Sport won't touch with a ten foot bargepole.We read it and it's genuinely funny. In last week's issue they shared Ray Parlour's completely bonkers tribute to the Queen, which involved doing something called a "Cobrabomb".Click here to sign up instantly and get a 3 minute mood enhancer every Friday morning.

The best captain.

Yup, it's Erling Haaland away at Wolves. We might just replace this section with this picture if he continues his form:

It's not his best fixture of the season, but last time City went to Molineux they scored five goals. Kevin De Bruyne scored four of 'em, incidentally.Harry Kane at home to Leicester is an interesting differential, but at nearly 80% owned, it's a brave manager who bets against the league's top scorer and possible Norse God.

An expert's view.

Our resident expert this week is @FlapjackFPL.Whilst his name might not instil confidence, Flapjack is about as expert as it gets. He has two top 5k finishes, four top 10k finishes and seven (yes, seven) top 30k finishes.For a man who has a headshot of Elmo as his profile pic, he's remarkably consistent. Give him a follow.

"Despite having nine starters and two free transfers I decided to activate the Wildcard chip on Monday evening.

Cobbling together a weakened XI which would then undoubtedly force me to Wildcard in Gameweek 9 felt like a poor choice, particularly when we will be gifted with unlimited free transfers once again in a few gameweeks time for the World Cup. I don’t want to lose Alexander-Arnold or Salah and ideally I’d maximise my Man City assets as well. However the Gameweek 8 blank followed by the news of Man City v Arsenal being off in Gameweek 12 means this season is going to be as kind as we had initially anticipated and compromises will have to be made on the Wildcard.The compromise for me is losing Salah, but holding onto Trent."

But what did Flapjack want to do to our FPL team?Practicing what he preaches, he's gone and activated our Wildcard too. That means that for the first time in the season, we finally own Haaland. My cardiovascular health already feels a little more stable.This is how we line up for Gameweek 8.

Here's your weekly dose of stats. As always, make sure you consume within at least one hour of a big meal.(The xStats are taken from the last 4 games).

Because 13 cancellations just weren't enough, the Premier League has also postponed Gameweek 12's clash between Arsenal and Man City.That's because Arsenal had their Europa League tie against PSV called off. It's been rearranged for Thursday October 20th - one day after they were due to face City in a midweek Premier League fixture.Quite when the FA expects to fulfil all of these postponed games remains to be seen. At this rate, we're expecting a last day hell-in-a-cell style cage match where all 20 Premier League teams compete with each other at the same time.

Right, we're out. Btw, did you see that Diego Costa is back in the Premier League? He's joined Wolves and will set you back £5.5m. Anyone tempted? Let us know if you are.Good luck for Gameweek 8. The FPL Tips team.