With Friday’s pre-Gameweek 29 press conferences came confirmation that Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.4m) would be absent from Sunday’s EFL Cup final thanks to the ankle injury he picked up in Liverpool’s midweek Champions League defeat to PSG.
What we unfortunately didn’t get was an exact timeline on the defender’s return, with Arne Slot only saying he was expected back “in the end of the season”.
Given his absence from Blank Gameweek 29 due to cup commitments has long been known, the Reds’ right-back may already have been earmarked for removal by many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
But for those who had previously planned on keeping him through the blank, this injury and the uncertainty surrounding it raises the question of whether to now move on from the game’s top-scoring and most expensive defender – and, if so, with whom to replace him.
That question is what we aim to answer here, for a range of different scenarios.
Blank Gameweek 29 targets
Firstly, given we’re already on the eve of Blank Gameweek 29, many Alexander-Arnold owners may have already transferred him out or nailed him to their bench as a problem to be tackled over the weeks prior to Gameweek 30.
But if you’re finalising your Free Hit squad and/or looking for a one-week punt ahead of a Gameweek 30 Wildcard, here are some of the top targets for Gameweek 29.
Nikola Milenković / Ola Aina / Neco Williams
No Premier League club has more clean sheets so far in 2024/25 than Nottingham Forest’s 12.
That statistic alone explains why the Tricky Trees’ defence is so popular in FPL, particularly heading into their Gameweek 29 match-up against relegation-threatened Ipswich.
Bonus point magnet Ola Aina (£5.4m), FPL’s second highest scoring defender, is the most popular of the bunch, while Nikola Milenković (£4.9m) and Neco Williams (£4.4m) have both scored in recent weeks.
Milenković in particular regularly provides a towering aerial threat from set pieces, and has netted three times so far this season from six big chances. But it’s actually Williams who comes out on top – and is indeed the fifth-highest performing defender – for total attempts (25), despite having less starts and gametime than his defensive colleagues.
Milos Kerkez
Switching our focus to creativity, Bournemouth’s attack-minded left-back Milos Kerkez (£5.2m) is among the league’s top chance-creating defenders this season.
The Hungarian has crafted 25 chances, six of them Opta-defined ‘big chances’, and registered five assists so far – two of them in his last two appearances – as well as scoring on two other occasions.
Bournemouth’s form has dipped a little lately, and this weekend’s opponents Brentford are no push-overs (especially away from home), but Kerkez’s multiple avenues to points and nailed-on role going forward in this Europe-chasing Cherries side make him a strong option to replace Alexander-Arnold.
If funds are tight, centre-back Dean Huijsen (£4.5m) offers a slightly cheaper route into Bournemouth’s backline. The Spaniard’s six-foot-five-inch frame is also a prime target in the box on set plays, helping him score twice from Gameweek 14 onward.
Rayan Aït-Nouri
If your aim is to target the worst teams in the division, look no further than Rayan Aït-Nouri (£4.8m).
Wolves’ wing-back faces Southampton in Gameweek 29, offering a decent chance of a shut-out given Saints have failed to score in two of their last four league matches and blanked in the reverse fixture back in Gameweek 11 as well. His team are also sixth in the league for non-penalty expected goals conceded (xGC) over the last six Gameweeks.
Aït-Nouri is lauded for his points potential at the other end of the pitch, too, and has eight attacking returns (three goals, five assists) this season despite registering none since Gameweek 19. However, the Algerian did take two of Wolves’ five corners in Gameweek 28 and now faces a Southampton side that are bottom for the concession of set-piece chances.
An even cheaper, differential alternative is the budget-friendly Emmanuel Agbadou (£4.0m).
Joško Gvardiol
No FPL defender has scored more goals than Joško Gvardiol’s (£6.0m) five, nor can any of the Manchester City left-back’s peers better his tally of 10 big chances.
The Croatian’s rate of attempts has admittedly tailed off over the last six Gameweeks or so, but the defending champions are favoured by the bookies to beat Brighton and a double-digit haul could be on the cards if he can pair another attacking return with City’s fourth clean sheet in eight league matches.
Manchester United / Everton
Proposed more due to the frailties of their Gameweek 29 opponents than their own merit.
Leicester’s run of form is awful, with losses in 12 of their last 13 league matches. The Foxes have failed to score in 10 of those, including their last five straight and their last six home matches.
Those numbers suggest Manchester United’s seventh clean sheet of the season should be there for the taking this weekend, barring any more calamitous errors.
The question then becomes which defender to go for.
Diogo Dalot (£5.0m) only has two assists to his name so far this season but did score during the week against Real Sociedad, is usually the underlying stats leader among the Red Devils backline, and is averaging 3.4 penalty box touches per 90 in 2025.
Then there’s Noussair Mazraoui (£4.3m), who created three chances last weekend and also had a big chance against Arsenal that he perhaps should have buried.
Centre-backs Matthijs de Ligt (£4.8m) and Harry Maguire (£4.9m) each carry an aerial threat in the opposition box and both scored as recently as Gameweek 27. However, the latter might be touch and go to be ready for Sunday after dealing with a knock for the last week or so.
That lot aside, Evertonians like James Tarkowski (£4.9m) or Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.4m) could be worth considering for their home fixture against West Ham, who have scored fewer goals since Gameweek 22 than any team except Leicester.
FOR GAMEWEEK 31 WILDCARDERS
If you’re selling Alexander-Arnold outright, without using your Free Hit in Gameweek 29, there’s a good chance you’d like to get at least one more decent fixture out of his replacement.
By examining the Season Ticker, we can see that Bournemouth, City and Wolves all rank near the top of the ticker when filtered by Gameweek 30 difficulty.
That means the likes of Gvardiol, Kerkez and Aït-Nouri are all viable options for non-Free Hit Gameweek 29 teams, given that they can be played in the following round of fixtures as well.
For example, Gvardiol has goal-shy Leicester in Gameweek 30, Kerkez hosts similarly struggling Ipswich, and Aït-Nouri faces both of them (and therefore the entirety of the current bottom three) between now and Gameweek 34.
We can probably safely lump Forest’s defensive troops into the category of good non-Free Hit options as well. They conceded twice despite winning at Old Trafford earlier this season, but have kept an impressive seven clean sheets in their 13 league matches since then, including four at home. United also sit in 16th for non-penalty xG.
The other team ranked highly in the Gameweek 30 ticker that also plays in Blank Gameweek 29 is West Ham, from whom Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.5m) is probably the stand-out option.
Wan-Bissaka has become more and more of an attacking force this season compared to the majority of years gone by, racking up two goals and three assists in the league so far. The Hammers have also kept two clean sheets in their last three matches, and conceded just twice in their last four.
Long-term picks
Several of the aforementioned players could also be reliable assets for the run-in or until whenever you decide to deploy a Wildcard, if you haven’t done so already.
But here are a few more long-term options that you might not consider until post-Gameweek 29.
Daniel Muñoz
If you’re set up well enough to simply bench Alexander-Arnold and still have a full playing squad for this weekend’s Blank Gameweek, sans Free Hit, then Daniel Muñoz (£5.0m) could be your best bet for the following few Gameweeks.
Crystal Palace’s marauding wing-back has the pick of the fixtures in Gameweek 30, followed by a home match against Brighton and then a pair of (admittedly difficult looking) fixtures in Double Gameweek 32.
The Colombian international has excelled so far in this second half of the season, registering nine returns (five clean sheets, a goal and three assists) across his last eight league appearances. Throughout the entire campaign he has nine clean sheets, three goals and five assists to his name, and has repeatedly come close to delivering even more attacking returns than that thanks to his frequently advanced positioning and willingness to fire off shots.
Kieran Trippier
Feeling punty? Kieran Trippier (£5.6m) found his way back into Newcastle’s starting XI in Gameweek 28 and could remain there for much of the run-in given Lewis Hall’s (£4.9m) season-ending foot injury.
He was back on set pieces in that match, too, creating two chances with one ‘big chance’.
The main appeal with Trippier is that he could also play twice in Double Gameweek 32. There’s always a threat of rotation with the tight turnaround between the Magpies’ matches in that round, which are – on paper at least – much kinder than Muñoz’s.
Things aren’t too shabby before then either, with Brentford coming to visit St James’ Park before a trip to struggling Leicester. However, like Muñoz, Trippier does of course blank this weekend so won’t fill any Trent-shaped hole in your XI until Gameweek 30.
If you don’t fancy risking possible Trippier benchings in the future but do want to cash in on Double Gameweek 32, then Dan Burn (£4.4m), Tino Livramento (£4.5m) or Fabian Schär (£5.4m) are relatively safer, if less exciting, pairs of hands from the Toon.
Arsenal defence
Chelsea could well cause Arsenal’s defence problems, no matter what the bookies predict. That doesn’t mean that someone like Gabriel Magalhães (£6.4m) is a bad pick to replace Alexander-Arnold from Gameweek 29 by any means, but the assets listed previously are perhaps more promising short-term selections.
For the rest of the season, though, you could do worse than picking up a defender from one of the league’s more resolute backlines, especially given they all come with some level of attacking threat.