FPL towers have refreshed our chips for the second half of the season. While it may be tempting to use them immediately, it is also helpful to look ahead to understand when they might be best used.
This gameweek, we take an early look at blank/double gameweeks, general chip strategy, and some potential wildcard windows.
Quick Beginners Chip Guide
There are a few schools of thought for each chip during the second half of the season, and how you use them will depend on your team, but also your style of play.
Wildcard: This chip can be used in an injury crisis or when the opportunity is there to make some positive changes for the long term. It can also be used in preparation for blank or double gameweeks, allowing you to capitalise on extra fixtures or avoid teams that are not playing.
Bench Boost: If you have a few bench headaches and want to start them all, this chip is useful. It can also be used in conjunction with the wildcard around a double gameweek. You could wildcard one week before a double gameweek, then bench boost the following week with a squad full of doubling players.
Free Hit: Can be used any given week to target good fixtures or avoid bad ones. It is useful to navigate a blank gameweek or optimise the team for a double gameweek.
Triple Captain: In a double gameweek, this chip lets you captain a player who plays twice. Alternatively, it could be used any time you believe your captain has a standout fixture.
Potential Blank and Double Gameweeks
Those who prefer to save their chips to target blanks and doubles later in the season will be interested in the results from the League Cup semi-final fixtures.
Currently, we know that gameweek 31 will be a blank gameweek for four teams. Whichever teams reach the final of the League Cup will determine which fixtures need to be rescheduled.
Newcastle, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal are the four sides still involved in the cup.
As it stands, the favourites to have a blank fixture would be Arsenal and City, meaning that Wolves and Palace could also have a blank gameweek. If you have a lot of players who blank in gameweek 31, it could be a good time for a free hit.
These fixtures would then need to be rescheduled, creating a mini double gameweek. We do not yet know when these doubles could be played, but we should find out by roughly gameweek 25 or 26.
There may yet be further blanks due to the FA Cup semi-finals in gameweek 34 and the final in gameweek 37. This would then create further double gameweeks. These may present opportunities to bench boost or use the triple captain chip.
Wildcard Windows
As we can only speculate currently on who may get a blank or double gameweek in future, a more useful exercise is to look ahead at potential wildcard windows.
The best gameweek is always entirely team-dependent, but these are some of the options with greater upside as things stand.
Gameweek 20: With the number of injuries to key FPL assets, it is tempting to use the wildcard straight away. On top of these injuries, Gabriel returned in gameweek 19 with a 15-pointer, and many are considering hits to get him back in. An option could be to save the hits and free transfers, and instead wildcard to restructure.
Of course, the downside to this is that you then have a further 18 gameweeks to navigate without the wildcard to fall back on.
Another issue is that Chelsea, City and Arsenal all have tougher runs in the short term. As these are teams with valuable FPL assets, it could be worth holding on until their fixtures improve.
Gameweek 22: If you can afford to wait a few more weeks, gameweek 22 could be a sensible early window to wildcard in. Arsenal and Chelsea fixtures ease, while Manchester City are not far from a good run again. Manchester United, on the other hand, have a tricky set of fixtures, so it may be a time to hop off their assets and reassess on the other side.
Similarly to the gameweek 20 wildcard, you then leave yourself with little cover for the long run to the finish line.
Gameweek 26: As discussed, we should know by gameweek 26 when the rescheduled fixtures will be for the teams that reach the League Cup final. The new information could make gameweek 26 a popular wildcard window.
There is even the small chance that Arsenal could have their double gameweek in 26. If this is the case, a wildcard here would enable someone to load up on the three best Arsenal picks at the time.
Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester City also have nice fixture runs from this gameweek onwards, so can all be considered on the wildcard.
Gameweek 32: For anyone who can hold onto the wildcard this long, gameweek 32 could provide a window to set up for any remaining double gameweeks.
If we get additional double gameweeks late in the season, a wildcard in 32 could help with an optimal bench boost or triple captaincy.
On the downside, players from popular teams such as Chelsea, Newcastle and Manchester City do not have the best fixtures to take advantage of. However, if some of them get good-looking double gameweeks, then this can be overlooked slightly.
FPL Gameweek 20 Early Chip Planning: Final Thoughts
One of the joys of FPL is that every manager is different. With the chips resetting and the chaos that will be caused by blanks and doubles, many alternate strategies will emerge.
An aggressive manager might choose to use the wildcard and other chips early, while others will hold onto the chips and plan carefully for the optimal blank/double path.
The main thing to consider is what is best for your team and your style of play.
