If you’re in a rush and need some last-minute Fantasy Premier League (FPL) advice, here’s a quick round-up of what you need to know about Gameweek 3.
WHEN’S THE FPL GAMEWEEK 3 DEADLINE?
All transfers and team selections need to be done by 11:00 BST on Saturday 30 August.
PALMER, SAKA + AIT-NOURI UPDATES
Last weekend saw several high-profile, well-owned FPL players get hurt. Cole Palmer (£10.4m) pulled out of Chelsea’s warm-up, Rayan Ait-Nouri (£6.0m) only lasted 22 minutes, and Bukayo Saka (£9.9m) couldn’t reach the hour mark.
“I spoke with Thomas [Tuchel] a few times but then at the end, it is Thomas’s decision [to leave Palmer out of the England squad]. So, he decided for that, but again, he’s not available tomorrow so it’s quite normal. It shows that he has some problems.” – Enzo Maresca on Cole Palmer
“Bukayo is doing better but he will be out for a few weeks, unfortunately.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka
“He’s fine, yep.” – Pep Guardiola on Rayan Ait-Nouri
The quotes coming from our press conference update are a mixed bag. Neither Palmer nor Saka will play this weekend, but Ait-Nouri is fine despite already being sold by over 530,000 owners.
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Jorgen Strand Larsen (£6.5m) also looks set to miss out.
TIME TO PANIC?
Combining these injuries with underperformers like Ollie Watkins (£8.9m), Florian Wirtz (£8.4m) and Jarrod Bowen (£7.8m) is causing some chaos amongst managers. For example, none of our 18 elite ‘The Great and the Good’ bosses currently sit inside the top 3.8 million.
Some are already Wildcarding, to maximise price changes and catch the good upcoming Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Wolves fixtures.
FPL General is one of these. Sticking to his ‘No Salah, no Haaland’ policy, our Pro Pundit now owns two of this week’s three unanimous Scout Squad picks, Joao Pedro (£7.6m) and Chris Wood (£7.7m).
A Free Hit may be a good temporary band aid – and you can see two potential Gameweek 3 drafts here.
MAN UTD MIDFIELDERS
FPL General is also investing in the Manchester United midfield that’s about to host Burnley. It remains a popular strategy, despite their humiliating Carabao Cup elimination to Grimsby Town.
But which one is best? We saw last week that Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m) takes – albeit misses – penalties and is capable of securing defensive contribution (DefCon) points.
Yet Zophar and Lateriser prefer Matheus Cunha‘s (£8.1m) goal-scoring threat, while Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m) has more box touches than his teammates. Furthermore, his corner would’ve registered an assist at Fulham, had it not gone down as an own goal.
BEST FPL GAMEWEEK 3 CAPTAIN
Bruno Fernandes and Erling Haaland (£14.1m) are the two leading armband options, according to Captain Sensible and our Rate My Team (RMT) algorithm. In a different order, though.
As for the third-best recipient, there is love for Chris Wood and Mohamed Salah (£14.5m).
TEAM REVEALSSCOUT PICKS + DIFFERENTIALS
Our weekly selection – which is essentially a Free Hit in all but name – piles in on the appealing home fixtures of Man United and Nottingham Forest.
Sticking with the Red Devils, defender Matthijs de Ligt (£5.0m) makes the trio of differential picks. He’s one of eight players to have gained DefCon points in both games so far.
PREDICTED LINE-UPS
We’ve predicted the starting XIs of all 20 Premier League teams.
Match previews for every game can also be found in the team news section.
Whatever you decide to do, good luck with FPL Gameweek 3!
