Welcome back to another edition of Forecasting Good Fixtures, in which we analyze which players you should invest in regards to their upcoming schedule.
The big news that hit this week is the announcement of the Double Gameweeks, which will greatly affect your transfer decisions moving forward.
Let’s take a look first at the clubs playing two games in Gameweek 34.
Arsenal [vs Crystal Palace (H) and West Brom (H)]
Crystal Palace [vs Arsenal (A) and Man United (A)]
Everton [vs Southampton (H) and Liverpool (A)]
Liverpool [vs Bournemouth (A) and Everton (H)]
Man City [vs Chelsea (A) and Newcastle (A)]
Man United [vs Aston Villa (H) and Crystal Palace (H)]
Newcastle [vs Swansea (H) and Man City (H)]
Watford [vs West Brom (A) and West Ham (A)]
West Brom [Watford (H) and Arsenal (A)]
West Ham [Leicester (A) and Watford (H)]
With these in mind, let’s look at which three teams should you definitely invest in heading up these enticing games.
Arsenal
Arsenal may be in somewhat of a crisis at the moment, but the Gunners have a rather favourable run of games remaining in the season, especially if the expected happens and they are knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona.
Arsene Wenger’s men start with tricky games against Everton (Away), Watford (Home), and West Ham (Away), but then play Crystal Palace (Home) and West Brom (Home) in a double gameweek before Sunderland (Away) and Norwich (Home).
If Arsenal want to have any chance at catching Leicester and Tottenham or even salvaging some pride, they’ll need to win these games and they won’t have a much better run of matches than this. Look at the normal suspects Mesut Ozil (9.8), Alexis Sanchez (10.8), and maybe Danny Welbeck (7.3) as a differential punt.
Manchester City
Manchester City, like Arsenal, have stumbled quite a bit despite starting the season off so well. With a squad full of talent, it’s a rather big disappointment to be so far behind in the race for the title.
But they have an awesome chance to cut that gap, starting with games against Man United (Home), Bournemouth (Away), West Brom (Home) before their double gameweek with Chelsea (Away) and Newcastle United (Away).
The main issue for City is their part in the Champions League, which may cause Manuel Pellegrini to rotate players during the weekend for the midweek clashes. Despite this, Sergio Aguero (13.6) is almost a must-have, while David Silva (9.9), Yaya Toure (8.5), and an uninjured defender maybe Bacary Sagna (5.7) should be considered.
Chelsea
Chelsea may not have a double in gameweek 34, but their next run of games considers investment especially if you still have a wildcard up your sleeves to use later on.
The Blues face West Ham (Home), Aston Villa (Away), and Swansea (Away), possibly giving investors a fair bit of points before being transferred for someone with a double gameweek.
Sadly, Chelsea will be without Diego Costa (10.7), who picked up his first red card (shocking!) in England after his dismissal during the weekend. Willian (7.1) looks the most reliable option in midfield, but it’s Bertrand Traore (5.4), who started when Costa was injured, that could be a real differential being a midfielder playing in a striker role.