After we made it back-to-back London derby victories with a 2-1 win over Chelsea on Sunday, the league schedule returns in midweek with Fantasy Premier League back for Gameweek 29.
Our next Premier League clash takes us down to the south coast to face Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday, March 4, at 7:30pm.
DEFENDERS DO THE BUSINESS
Sunday saw a titanic showdown with Chelsea go our way once again, as we ground out a 2-1 win at Emirates Stadium. William Saliba (£6.1m) grabbed his maiden goal of the season to open the scoring in the first half, handing his 13.5% of owners a double-figure haul of 10 points - leaving him just nine short of a century this term.
It was an enriching Gameweek for our backline even without any clean sheet points, as Jurrien Timber (£6.3m) delivered the pivotal winner, helping the Dutchman to an eight-point total, while Gabriel (£7.1m) was a rock in defence, claiming the maximum three bonus points, along with two extra for his 11 DefCons throughout the 90 minutes to contribute to a nine-point Gameweek.
Bonus points are calculated by an algorithm. Every shot, pass, defensive action or influential decision during a game contributes towards the BPS total for each player throughout a match, and the highest-ranking players on the database are awarded up to three extra points. Big Gabi claimed all of them against Chelsea, and alongside Declan Rice, have each scooped 21 points this season purely via this method.
Players who make a habit of earning extra points through the BPS could be attractive assets for your team, and our two Gunners are in esteemed company - joined in the top six BPS earners in 2025/26 by Erling Haaland (£14.8m), Bruno Fernandes (£9.9m), Joao Pedro (£7.6m) and Hugo Ekitike (£9.0m).
Wednesday’s opponents Brighton have now won successive league matches, moving them up to 11th in the table. Fabian Hurzeler’s side have numerous strong FPL performers this term - none more so than 100-club member Jan Paul van Hecke, a defensive option fantastically priced at just £4.4m while boasting 105 points to his name.
We need little introduction to Brighton’s next-highest marksman, the experienced former Gunner, Danny Welbeck (£6.1m). An appealing price tag for a forward player with plenty of minutes, Welbeck has earned 91 points so far this season and is currently included in fewer than 4% of squads, while returning January signing Pascal Gross (£5.5m), owned by a minuscule 0.1% of managers, has averaged 4.8 points across his last five - which included a 12-point haul against Everton in GW24.
TRADING TACTICS
When plotting your next move, it is key to monitor the market rate of your targets - especially if a marginal rise could price you out of a planned transfer. A vital statistic to help you keep track is that of the most transferred-in stars of the current Gameweek.
Since the GW28 transfer deadline, Liverpool’s Ekitike is the most in-demand signing, with over 235,000 teams bringing him into their frontline. So should you be sitting on £9.0m while shifting players around, waiting just one more day for Ekitike could see a quickfire price rise force you into a different option.
The same risk applies to Fulham’s creative spark Harry Wilson (£6.0m), whose price has already risen by a whopping £0.8m since GW15, and popularly-owned pair Virgil van Dijk (£6.1m) and Antoine Semenyo (£8.2m).
By the same token, you could grab a bargain by surveying the players each Gameweek with the most sales, making their prices increasingly likely to drop to a more favourable price. Of course, this often occurs when players pick up injuries - Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz (£8.3m) and Sunderland’s Nordi Mukiele (£4.5m) both part of mass trading movements this week due to their respective blows - but when form is the reason behind the sales, they could be worth a punt.
The most-sold player ahead of Gameweek 29 right now is Aston Villa star Morgan Rogers (£7.6m), having been dispensed with by almost 200,000 teams and counting. Man City talisman Haaland - the highest-scoring player in the entire game this season with 193 points - is even a close second, after he missed their GW28 trip to Leeds United.
Chelsea trio Enzo Fernandez (£6.7m), Trevoh Chalobah (£5.7m) and the aforementioned Pedro have each also been sold by over 50,000 competitors amid a tough run of fixtures - but all these players have hauled well above 100 points this term and their form could turn.
KEEP THE CHIPS HANDY
We’ve previously discussed the importance of keeping a chip for some of this season’s final Gameweeks - GW31 in particular, when we, along with Man City, Crystal Palace and Wolves, will all be without a league match, so don't panic if you feel as if you’re running out of time to use them.
They can often be used back-to-back in certain effective combinations: a classic concept is to use a Bench Boost during a Double Gameweek, immediately after a Wildcard in the previous GW to ensure a team packed with two-game assets.
The Free Hit chip will be hugely popular in GW31, due to the high percentage of FPL squads stacked with Arsenal and Man City stars, while any Premier League fixtures thwarted by the domestic cup and European calendar will be squeezed into the latter weeks of the campaign, potentially even in the midweek of Gameweek 37 before the final day, as has been apparent in previous seasons.
The Gameweeks are coming thick and fast, so be sure not to miss the midweek cut-off for GW29, this Tuesday night at 6pm UK time!
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