The best FPL players to sign for Double Gameweeks 24 and 25

Fantasy Premier League has presented managers with a fantastic opportunity to make up ground with the announcement of Double Gameweeks 24 and 25.

Everybody’s squad is different but, right now, I am looking to invest heavily to maximise my coverage of players with a total of three fixtures across those two rounds.

In this article, I will pick out some of the key assets I am considering signing now so they are sat in my team ready for another period of bumper Gameweeks.

HOW I DID IN GAMEWEEK 22

WHAT ARE THE DOUBLE GAMEWEEK FIXTURES?

Double Gameweek 24

• Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur (home) and Everton (away)
• Everton v Fulham (home) and Manchester City (home)
• Burnley v Crystal Palace (away) and Fulham (home)
• Fulham v Everton (away) and Burnley (away)

Double Gameweek 25

• Leeds United v Wolves (away) and Southampton (home)
• Southampton v Chelsea (home) and Leeds United (away)

Already, these fixtures present a great opportunity to climb up the ranks since I already have a total of seven Double Gameweekers in my squad and three free transfers available before Double Gameweek 24, which will allow me to add a couple more players from those teams.

So let’s take a look at the best possible transfer targets from each of the sides with an extra fixture in the near future.

Manchester City

By now, most Fantasy managers already have three Manchester City players and I’m no exception. I’m pretty happy with Ruben Dias (£6.1m), João Cancelo (£6.0m) and Ilkay Gundogan (£5.9m) as my trio but several managers have different combos that include the likes of John Stones (£5.2m) or Sterling.

I still think Sterling is a bit too expensive for someone who was benched twice in the last six matches but given the lack of decent heavy-hitters available in midfield right now and the possibility of giving him the armband in the Double Gameweek, I would definitely stick with him if I had him, even if there is a decent chance he will get rotated with the likes of Phil Foden (£6.1m), Ferran Torres (£6.9m) or Riyad Mahrez (£8.1m).

The same can be said for any City player (except maybe for Dias) but after Kevin De Bruyne’s (£11.8m) injury, Gundogan has less competition to worry about and seems to be in the form of his life so I’m hoping he will play both matches. The fact that he could be on penalties and is ridiculously priced at £5.9 million makes him a much better pick than Sterling in my opinion.

That said, all we can do is stick with the three players we already have and hope that we hit the jackpot in another round of the infamous Pep roulette. If I didn’t already have Dias and Gundogan in my squad, they would definitely be my main transfer targets from Guardiola’s team.

EVERTON

Despite having two home matches in Double Gameweek 24, one of them is against Manchester City and the Toffees also have tough matches in Gameweek 23 (at Old Trafford) and in Gameweek 25 (at Anfield). 

For this reason, I am not super excited about their potential for the near future and the only assets I will consider from them are the usual suspects Lucas Digne (£6.1m) and Calvert-Lewin.

It is hard to see clean sheets for Everton in the next four matches with the exception of their home match against Fulham so, despite Digne’s incredible record as one of the most attacking full-backs in the Premier League, I think there are better options to pick from other teams. 

However, if they also get an extra fixture in Gameweek 26, I might change my mind and get the French defender in ahead of Double Gameweek 24.

Calvert-Lewin, on the other hand, seems like a much better pick given the lack of decent forwards with two matches in Double Gameweek 24. It is very likely I will get him in for Ollie Watkins (£6.3m) and I think there is the possibility he will be my captain since he will probably play 180 minutes, unlike most Manchester City assets.

BURNLEY

Burnley has by far the best schedule of all teams between Gameweek 23 and Gameweek 25 and investment in their defence seems like a smart decision. Even though Nick Pope (£5.5m) should be the default option for almost everyone, I already have Alphonse Areola (£4.5m) who also plays twice in Gameweek 24 so I’m looking at buying one of their defenders instead.

Priced at £4.4m, Matthew Lowton looks like a real bargain but he has not scored in the Premier League since 2012/13 and he’s only delivered one assist in the last three seasons. With plenty of money in the bank, I definitely prefer the idea of investing in one of their centre-backs instead.

So I will almost certainly buy one of Ben Mee (£4.9m) or James Tarkowski (£5.3m) either this week or ahead of Gameweek 24. Let’s look at their attacking returns and bonus points in the past three seasons to try to figure out which one is the best option.

Tarkowski clearly has the edge in every department but he is almost £0.4m more expensive than his team-mate and Mee has already scored twice this season. 

I think it is really close between the two of them but right now i’m leaning towards Mee, since that extra £0.4m could become handy very soon. After all, goals from set-pieces are a real lottery and it would be sickening to pay extra for Tarkowski just to watch Mee scoring from a corner.

Regarding their attackers, I think Chris Wood (£6.2m) is a decent shout. He has only scored four goals so far but he reached the 10-goal mark in each of the last three seasons while playing limited minutes in every single one of them. 

I expect Wood to do well in their nice run of fixtures and I think there is a decent chance he will also be in my team for the Double Gameweek, provided he is fit in time.

FULHAM

I will happily play Areola in Double Gameweek 24 since I already have him in my team but I strongly suggest non-owners to look to Pope instead. Areola is averaging 3.5 points per game while the Burnley goalkeeper is on five points per game so far. To put that in perspective, that’s the same tally as Ben Chilwell (£6.0m) or James Maddison (£7.3m).

Other than that, I also have André-Franck Zambo Anguissa (£4.5m) as my bench fodder and I will have to decide if I want to play him in the Double Gameweek or upgrade him to his colleague Ademola Lookman (£5.0m), who offers much more attacking potential. 

However, I already have too much money on the bench and I’m not sure I want to invest an extra £0.5m just to bench Lookman in most of the upcoming Gameweeks.

Right now, I’m leaning towards playing Anguissa in Double Gameweek 24 and hope for another assist from him just like in my Gameweek 19 bench boost. I think Fulham assets are a clear case of “Hold but don’t buy” regardless of an extra fixture.

LEEDS UNITED

As an owner of Stuart Dallas (£4.8m) and Patrick Bamford (£6.6m), I was really pleased to know Leeds would play an extra match in Double Gameweek 25. In light of this development, I think both these players are borderline essential going forward.

Dallas has been playing out of position lately and, despite poor defensive performances from Bielsa’s men, he is operating almost like a forward right now. I expect him to be in most active teams when the Whites’ Double Gameweek arrives. 

The same can be said about the already highly-owned Bamford. I even expect him to lead the captaincy poll in Double Gameweek 25 and his effective ownership will be massive. It will take a brave man to go without the Leeds striker then.

Raphinha (£5.3m) and Jack Harrison (£5.4m) also seem like great budget options and I will try to add one of them to my squad very soon. The only downside of tripling up on Leeds is the fact that they will only play once in Gameweek 26 but I’m planning to bench at least two of them by then or even use my Wildcard so I’m not too worried about it right now.

SOUTHAMPTON

After a shocking defeat at Old Trafford this week, most managers will be scared to invest in the Saints. However, I think it was just a freak result and, hopefully, the possible return of the injured Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.7m), Jannik Vestergaard (£4.7m) and Oriol Romeu (£4.5m) will certainly boost their appeal.

With a confirmed Double Gameweek 25 and the possibility of also playing twice in Gameweeks 26 and 27, I will keep a close eye on their next two matches. I will certainly get Alex McCarthy (£4.6m) and it’s possible I will decide to double-up in their defence if they look solid against Newcastle and Wolves.

Danny Ings (£8.4m), Che Adams (£5.8m) or even the new recruit Takumi Minamino (£6.0m) can become interesting targets by Gameweek 25 but, for now, I think the right move is to wait and watch closely how they recover from such a brutal loss. If their last 9-0 defeat against Leicester tells us anything about their ability to recoup from adversity, I think it’s safe to say they will be just fine.