Give Saka the captain’s armband – FPL tips & team of the week

The Fantasy Premier League season heads straight into a second straight double gameweek.

You’ll likely see a lot of similar teams among your rivals and FPL experts at the moment, but there are still advantages to be made if you play it smart. There are only four teams playing twice in week 33: Manchester City, Aston Villa, Arsenal, and Crystal Palace.

Saka is the most exciting pick given that Ipswich will play twice, and Palace will host them.

Does Mikel Arteta rest him? Newcastle are struggling to maintain their lead in second place, so the Gunners manager can’t afford too much rotation.

Between the Palace game and their Champions League clash with Paris St-Germain, they also have a six-day break.

Even if we get another double in 36, Gameweek 33 has the best chance to Bench Boost before the season’s conclusion.

If you have 15 playing assets and you like the match-ups for most of them, then pull the trigger.

There aren’t many nailed-on assets among Arsenal, City, or Villa, so the main issue is game time. Although the pace is less predictable, cup competitions might be in the cards for all four teams.

Don’t be afraid to send out good single gameweek players to bolster your team with another double option.

Liverpool – face woeful Leicester so Mohamed Salah is a must and Virgil van Dijk has as good a clean sheet chance as any double gameweek defender.

West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen makes a jump-out performance against relegated Southampton. You should also have confidence when establishing a defensive weapon for West Ham.

Manchester United – Wolves at home could be productive for Bruno Fernandes. His five double-digit wins this year came against teams that were (at the time) in the bottom five.

Daniel Munoz, a defensive player, finished with -1 point in Gameweek 32, which is difficult to come back to. He’s still super attacking – with eight entries into the box in 32 – and was close to an assist, but Bournemouth and Arsenal are both likely to score against Palace.

Even if Eberechi Eze, Ismaila Sarr, and Jean-Philippe Mateta are already on your team, I still believe in them.

With four players scoring in total, defense was nearly a failure, but Kieran Trippier’s 12-pointer saved the day.

Jacob Murphy (19 points) was the star man but 70 points is still disappointing for a double gameweek.

David Raya, Arsenal, keeper, £5.5m

Arsenal’s William Saliba, $6. 5 million

Ipswich (a) and Crystal Palace (h) square off.

The two most reliable Arsenal defensive assets in a week where they could easily get two clean sheets. I am aware of it, but very consistent.

Liverpool Virgil van Dijk, £6. 6 million – Leicester (a)

Leicester scored last week but lost their previous eight games without scoring. This week’s most blatant clean sheet scream.

He would be a better choice than Palace’s (see above), and Villa, who have kept three clean sheets in their last four games but are unlikely to do so this week.

Josko Gvardiol, Manchester City, £6.2m – Everton (a), Villa (h)

Arsenal, £10.5 million – Ipswich (a), and Palace (h): Bukayo Saka (captain).

For the reasons stated above, I’d be confident about Saka’s minutes this week. He is recovering from an injury, but he also needs some game time.

He gets the armband because of his previous experience, which allowed him to easily score double digits in both of these games.

Mohamed Salah (vice-captain), Liverpool, £13.8m – Leicester (a)

Salah’s net transfers were negative for the first time since week eight of last gameweek. Don’t be one of the sellers for him, though.

And if you are risk averse, or worried about game time for your doublers, Salah would make a very safe captain choice.

Morgan Rogers, Aston Villa, £5.6 million (h), Man City (a), and Newcastle (h)

It turns out Rogers was foolish to speculate about his last-week rest. He’s become a player who starts every game for Villa. You do not expect them to score in either of these matches, but Rogers is the only Villa forward you can really expect to start both.

West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen, £7.5 million- Southampton (h)

This match-up is too juicy to pass up for West Ham’s talisman. Despite having a 7/ 10 season so far, Bowen still has four double-digit seasons.

He has 17 shots, 12 of which have been in the box, in his previous six games. Bowen usually overperforms his expected goals (xG) yet he has just one goal in that time from 1.4 xG, suggesting he might be due.

Eberechi Eze, Crystal Palace, £6.9 million (H), Arsenal (A), and Bournemouth (H).

With little league play to play for and an FA Cup semi-final four days later, I’m becoming more and more convinced Palace boss Oliver Glasner rests some key players in the Arsenal game.

But Eze is still worth a punt. He could have hauled in week 32, as previously mentioned, and things would have changed a lot about him.

Everton (a), Villa (h), Omar Marmoush, Manchester City, £7.3 million.

If you don’t own Saka, you can hear him shouting “Triple Captain” in his previous four games.

If you’ve owned and watched Marmoush play in those four games, you’ll be feeling like he could have scored more and his underlying statistics back that up.

The Egyptian has had four big chances, including four on target and four on target, and he is a haul waiting to happen.

Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, £5.8 million (a)

Since the Brazilian made his first start on his return from injury five games ago, he has led the way among strikers in almost every category.

Jorgen Strand Larsen, a Wolves striker, has the most goals in the box (16), the most chances in the box (7), and the highest xG (4.44), making him the only forward with five goals behind Evanilson’s four.

West Ham defender Max Kilman, £4.3 million (h)

Iliman Ndiaye, Everton, striker, £5.2m – Manchester City (h)

Southampton defender Jan Bednarek, £4 million (a) West Ham

Total cost for Teal: £99.9 million.

Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood for £6.9 million.

The 18-goal striker is fit again and Forest face leaky Spurs this week, before a home game against Brentford.

West Ham – Southampton (h), Brighton (a), Spurs (h)

If your budget is tight, the Hammers have cheap defenders to choose from, as well as midfielders Bowen and Mohammed Kudus ($6.2 million), who are frequently playing forwards while they are not particularly wealthy.