{"id":234060,"date":"2025-10-30T13:28:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/234060\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:28:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:28:11","slug":"why-fpl-blank-gameweek-17-now-looks-unlikely-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/234060\/","title":{"rendered":"Why FPL Blank Gameweek 17 now looks unlikely: reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crystal Palace\u2019s progress to the EFL Cup quarter-finals creates a scheduling headache in mid-December.<\/p>\n<p>The last eight of that competition is due to be contested in the week beginning December 15. Palace have been drawn to play Arsenal in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p>*This article has been updated at 11:55 BST following <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dalejohnsonbbc\/status\/1983855052792955040?s=46\" rel=\"nofollow\">a BBC Sport story<\/a><\/p>\n<p>LACK OF FREE MIDWEEKS<\/p>\n<p>But Palace\u2019s schedule is already pretty packed, thanks to their UEFA Conference League involvement (below image from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/crystal-palace\/scores-fixtures\/2025-12\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BBC Sport<\/a>):<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"451\" height=\"749\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-385.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-150103 webpexpress-processed\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">*fixtures from Dec 27 onwards have yet to be finalised<\/p>\n<p>The problem is the lack of other free midweeks between now and January.<\/p>\n<p>There is only one for Palace \u2013 and that\u2019s on December 23\/24.<\/p>\n<p>COULD TWO GAMEWEEK 17 MATCHES BE POSTPONED?<\/p>\n<p>One suggestion is that Leeds v Crystal Palace and Arsenal v Everton in Gameweek 17 are instead postponed.<\/p>\n<p>That would help accommodate the EFL Cup quarter-final between Arsenal and Palace on Sunday 21 December.<\/p>\n<p>LATEST REPORTS: BLANK GAMEWEEK 17 LOOKING UNLIKELY<\/p>\n<p>However, BBC Sport are now reporting that Blank Gameweek 17 doesn\u2019t look likely. Instead, the Eagles would contest two cup ties in the space of 48 hours.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Crystal Palace are set to play four matches in eight days because of a fixture pile-up caused by reaching the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LcazJWAsMz\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/LcazJWAsMz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonBBC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DaleJohnsonBBC\/status\/1983855052792955040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">October 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If the BBC are correct, Palace\u2019s schedule would now read as follows:<\/p>\n<p>Sunday 14 December: Gameweek 16 \u2013 Man City (h)Tuesday 16 December: EFL Cup quarter-final \u2013 Arsenal (a)Thursday 18 December: Conference League \u2013 KuPS (h)Sunday 21 December: Gameweek 17 \u2013 Leeds (a)ONLY SPECULATION AT THIS STAGE<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s still not confirmed at this early stage, then, but something just to be aware of regarding future FPL planning and (especially) chip usage. If you\u2019ve got a Free Hit intact, for instance, this might come in useful if we do get a \u2018blank\u2019 \u2013 not that now looks likely.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll hopefully not have to speculate much longer and get a definitive answer from the Premier League and the Football League soon.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/FFScoutEditorial\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250820-WA0000-1-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"price change predictions\" class=\"wp-image-144736 webpexpress-processed\" style=\"width:600px\"  \/><\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crystal Palace\u2019s progress to the EFL Cup quarter-finals creates a scheduling headache in mid-December. The last eight of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[99306,99307,218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-234060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-blank-gameweek-17","tag-double-gameweek-16","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}