Fantasy Premier League: Why this will be the most normal FPL season in years

The past few years have been pretty significant from a historical point of view, starting with the Covid-19 pandemic causing all sorts of havoc across the globe.

As with all aspects of life this — of course — impacted football. The 2019-20 Premier League season was put on hold for 100 days from March until June before concluding in crowdless silence on scattered matchdays.

The following season didn’t begin until mid-September because the previous one extended into August. Further pandemic-related postponements led to more fixture chaos, plus it had to be finished by late May – as normal – because of the European Championship, which had already been delayed a year from summer 2020 and started in early June.

Then, in 2022-23, we had the death of Queen Elizabeth II in the September and an unprecedented six-week World Cup break halfway through the season, both of which brought further issues with fixture rearrangements and resulted in many double gameweeks.

So after back-to-back-to-back disrupted seasons, we now finally seem to be coming out on the other side of this tough period. It looks like 2023-24 will be the first ‘normal’ (or close to it) one we have had in three years.

So, let’s refresh you with some proven strategies and useful information.

Need to knows

First, we have already had our first anomaly of the season — and hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come.

Luton Town vs Burnley has been postponed for Gameweek 2. Post-promotion construction work at the play-off final winners’ Kenilworth Road stadium, means it won’t be ready for the originally-scheduled date. Therefore we already know both those clubs will have a blank in Gameweek 2 and a double gameweek later in the season.

Manchester City and scheduled visitors Brentford will also blank in Gameweek 18 (the weekend before Christmas), thanks to City’s participation in the Club World Cup.

So off the bat, we already have two blank gameweeks confirmed. We will find out when these fixtures will be rearranged later in the season.

Apart from this, the season looks to be back to normal —assuming we don’t get any other surprises.

There were 10 double gameweeks last season. Barring any unanticipated major issues, there won’t be anywhere near that many this time.

We should, however, have at least three double gameweeks this season, with the biggest one being in Gameweek 37 and a smaller one in Gameweek 34 as clubs slot in their previously-postponed fixtures. This is how it usually plays out under normal circumstances.

Blank gameweeks are caused by fixtures in the Carabao Cup, FA Cup or any other competition clashing with Premier League games. By extension, this is what creates double gameweeks — those ‘blank’ fixtures need to be rearranged for later dates.

The main blank gameweeks this season, according to fixture guru Ben Crellin, are forecast to be in Gameweek 26 and Gameweek 29.

We will also have the usual four international breaks, with the majority of them in the first half of the season. These come after Gameweek 4, Gameweek 8, Gameweek 12 and Gameweek 29.

There will also be a short winter break over Gameweeks 21 and 22, when 10 matches will be split over the weekends of 13-20 January. The teams that play in the first week will get the second week off, and vice-versa. So, everyone gets a rest but there will still be matches each week.

Finally, we need to be wary of the two mid-season international competitions in which some Premier League players will be involved, with both the Asian Cup (January 12-February 10) and Africa Cup of Nations (January 13-February 11) taking place. There won’t be any break in in club football for these tournaments so players participating are going to miss some matches, depending on how far their countries go in Qatar and Ivory Coast.

Strategies

The best time to use your Bench Boost, Free Hit and Triple Captain chips is going to be at the end of the season, when the doubles and blanks come around. This, of course, isn’t the only way to play the chips. But over the years this has proven to be a successful strategy.

With so many double gameweeks last season, it was easier for FPL managers to use double gameweek players, and more opportunities to play your chips. This season will be different. Planning will reap more rewards.

The first of your two wildcards should also be planned for later in the first half of the season — we will cover more on this in a later article before the season starts. Last year it was optimal to use it earlier because we were given unlimited transfers when the season resumed after the World Cup break that came in December, after Gameweek 16.

Templates and pricing

The pricing is even more lenient in FPL this season, which means a good team is much easier to achieve. This actually creates a good opportunity for a more diverse template at the start of the season.

There are plenty of midfield options in the £8.0-£9.0million range. The likes of Gabriel Martinelli (£8.0m), Martin Odegaard (£8.5m),Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m) andBukayo Saka (£8.5m), to name only a few, are all coming in underpriced.

The same can be said for the budget midfielders and defenders across the board. Gabriel Magalhaes (£5.0million), for example, is an absolute steal. Across the whole game, only Erling Haaland (£14.0m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.0m) seem to have been priced fairly.

With so many options, I can see the starting template being more varied this season than in previous years.

I do think the typical template will emerge over the first 10 gameweeks, but there is an opportunity there to take advantage. A good start to the season will be more important than ever.

What does this all mean?

This season should be a lot less chaotic, and good planning will be much more fruitful.

With the number of double gameweeks we had last season, we were all forced into having the same players. It was obvious who to transfer in. You couldn’t really go against the herd because the odds would have been stacked against you if you did not pick the players who had a double.

With fewer doubles and blanks, the playing field in 2023-24 will be fairer and the importance of the skill factor will increase.