The Ultimate GW16 Survival Guide Is Here 🧭🔥

📅 Gameweek 16 Deadline:
Saturday, 13 December — 13:30 GMT
Set your alarms, use sticky notes, do whatever you must.

🟨 Suspensions & Yellow Card Chaos:
Calafiori & Schade: Both suspended for GW16 after picking up their fifth yellows.
Apparently Christmas came early and they gifted themselves a week off. 🎁😅

🛡️ Senesi: The DefCon Merchant:
Senesi grabbed his 11th DefCon of the season vs Chelsea. He’s now on 171 DefCons total, officially challenging the UN for defensive work. 🏰🛡️

👀 Szoboszlai On Pens?
Salah was not in the squad for Liverpool's UCL clash vs Inter after his now-iconic outburst following his third benching in a row.
In his absence, Szoboszlai took (and scored) a penalty. 🤔

😕 Spurs Penalty Saga:
Kudus took + scored a penalty against Slavia Prague. After he was subbed, Xavi Simons took + scored another. 🤷‍♂️

🚑 Fresh Injuries & Return Timelines:

🤕 Cody Gakpo: Arne Slot: “He’ll be out for a few weeks.”
Translation: Forget him till 2025. 😭

🎙️ Mikel Arteta on Declan Rice & Saliba: “Declan Rice was ill & he has not travelled with us. William Saliba is still NOT available.”
On Timber & Calafiori: "They both had issues from the weekend, both really bad kicks. For Timber it was too early (to play against Club Brugge) and for Calafiori we have to manage to see if he can do some minutes tonight."

🎤 Iraola on Senesi: “He was feeling cramps. I have my hopes… but we have to make sure that there is no small injury.”
We hope too, boss. We hope too. 🤲

🩼 Liam Delap: Shoulder injury. Maresca expects 6–8 weeks out.
Basically: See you after the winter holidays. ⛄

👁️ Maresca after Chelsea’s match against Atalanta: “Wes Fofana had a problem with his eye. It's quite bad. He struggled to see a little bit but hopefully he can be available for Saturday.”

🦵 Daniel Muñoz: Will need surgery and will be out for a “few” weeks, said Glasner. The ‘minor’ injury wasn’t so ‘minor’ aapparantly. 🤦

⚠️ Attention Marc Guiu Owners Or Admirers:
Despite Delap’s long-term injury, he didn’t feature AT ALL in the UCL loss to Atalanta.
Instead, João Pedro played the full match..

How Did Your FPL Assets Do? 👇

ATALANTA 3-0 CHELSEA (UCL) ➡️ Joao Pedro - 1 x ⚽, James - 1 x 🅰️

INTER 0-1 LIVERPOOL (UCL) ➡️ Szoboszlai - 1 x ⚽

TOTTENHAM 3-0 SLAVIA PRAGUE (UCL) ➡️ Kudus - 1 x ⚽, Simons - 1 x ⚽

LEVERKUSEN 2-2 NEWCASTLE (UCL)➡️ Gordon - 1 x ⚽, Miley - 1 x ⚽

CLUB BRUGGE 0-3 ARSENAL (UCL) ➡️ Madueke - 2 x ⚽, Martinelli - 1 x ⚽, Zubimendi - 2 x 🅰️, Lewis-Skelly - 1 x 🅰️

REAL MADRID 1-2 MAN CITY (UCL) ➡️ O’Reilly - 1 x ⚽, Haaland - 1 x ⚽

BASEL 1-2 ASTON VILLA (UEL)) ➡️ Guessand - 1 x ⚽, Tielemans - 1 x ⚽, Buendia - 1 x 🅰️

FC UTRECHT 1-2 NOTTINGHAM ➡️ Kalimuendo-Muinga - 1 x ⚽, Igor Jesus - 1 x ⚽

SHELBOURNE 0-3 CRYSTAL PALACE ➡️ Uche - 1 x ⚽, Nketiah - 1 x ⚽ & 1 x 🅰️, Pino - 1 x ⚽, Kamada - 1 x 🅰️

Among Other Things…. 👇

🛡️ Arsenal Defence: Injury FC Returns
Calafiori suspended. Saliba still missing. Gabriel long-term gone. Mosquera hobbling. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, Arteta announces a fresh Timber concern — right before facing the bluntest attack in the league. Timing? Immaculate. 😭
But here’s the thing: Timber was spotted in training before the UCL match. My hunch (aka informed optimism) is he makes GW16.
All this chaos makes Hincapié practically nailed, with Lewis-Skelly and even Ben White becoming solid alternatives.

🔵 Man City Defence: Vibes FC
City are scoring like it’s a goal drought clearance sale… but they’re also conceding for fun. Don’t expect a clean sheet at Palace.
Still, O’Reilly offers attacking and Gvardiol is a set-piece threat.
Bonus: O’Reilly’s minutes look safer once Aït-Nouri packs his bags for AFCON. ✈️

🔵 Chelsea Defence: Punt Season
Chalobah and Cucurella are solid one-week punts or Free Hit specials. Long-term? Nope. Fixtures fall off a cliff. 😮‍💨

🐝 Brentford Defence
Van den Berg is your simple, no-drama short-term pickup.
Collins works if you’re on Free Hit and want a differential with a side of stress (on 4 yellows).

🌟 Foden: The New Definition of Essential
Forget “maybe next week.” Foden is essential NOW.
Ownership rising, price skyrocketing, and form hotter than a January wildcard meltdown. 🔥

🔥 Thiago: Buy Before The Ship Sails
Great short-term fixtures (Leeds at Home, Wolves Away), strong long-term viability, increasing price…
This is one of those transfers where if you wait, you’ll regret it.
Prime long-term keeper. Lock him in. ✍️

🇵🇹 Bruno Fernandes: The Faith Rewarder
18 beautiful points in GW15. Penalties, DefCons, goals, assists — Bruno is basically the FPL Swiss Army knife.
Easy buy. No thinking required. ✔️

🔴 Szoboszlai: Penalty Hunter?
He took the pen vs Inter while Isak was off the pitch. If he’s the main penalty taker, 6.6m is robbery.
He’s also on set pieces and has a 20/21 career pen record.
Only issue: sitting on 4 yellows. One more and you’re discussing life choices.

💙 Palmer: Great Punt, Risky Long-Term
Maresca basically said “minutes managed.”
Long-term? Avoid (until further notice).
Free Hit or one-week punt? Absolutely. 🎯

⚡ Dango & Mbeumo: Free Hit Favourites
Yes, they’re available for GW16.
And yes, if you own them, hold for one more week. Free Hitters? Go wild.

🦅 Andersen: Set-and-Forget Short Term
Lovely fixtures. DefCons merchant.
One of the best defensive short-term buys this week.

📈 Declan Rice
Consistent returns. Long-term pick.
Missed UCL through illness but should be back for GW16.

🚑 Gakpo: Sell
Out until the end of the year.
No emotion. Just move on. 👋

🛑 Mateta: It’s Time…
5 blanks in 7. Maybe a slight fitness concern.
There are cheaper, better forwards.
Sell before he hurts you again. 😭

🚫 Muñoz: Injury & Uncertain Timeline
Glasner said “a few weeks.”
That’s enough to get him out of your team. Sell.

🇧🇷 Bruno Guimarães
Can do everything… but rarely does all at once.
A “maybe later” pick. After GW18? Sure.
Before that? Meh.

🟡 KDH & Harry Wilson: Enabler Kings
KDH: Long-term minutes, reliable, no nonsense.
Wilson: Great immediate fixtures.
Pick based on your patience level.

🐺 Raúl Jiménez: Sneaky Good
If you’ve got Haaland + Thiago and want a proper 3rd forward, Jiménez is a legit option for the next 3 gameweeks.
Joao Pedro gets an honourable mention too.

🎯 Why You Should Captain Saka

🧊 Why You Shouldn’t Captain Saka

🦾 Haaland: The Monster

Palace away isn’t typically the fixture where sane people hand out armbands…
Unless the player is Erling “gravity doesn’t apply to me” Haaland. 🤖⚽
He can blank.
He can also casually score a brace while you’re still analyzing heat maps.
He nearly scored against Madrid at the Bernabéu from open play — only denied by Courtois doing Courtois things. 😤
A monster is a monster. Anywhere. Anytime.

✨ Honorable Mention: Bruno Fernandes
No, this is not my GW15 PTSD talking. 😭
He faces Bournemouth at home, a team that’s conceded 10 goals in their last 5.
If you want a true differential, Bruno is that guy this week. 💼🔥

🔔 REMINDER:
Before we dive in… a friendly reminder from your future self:
Use your chips in the next four GWs or watch them evaporate into the FPL abyss.

🎭 FREE HIT — THE WEEK OF TEMPTATION

If you’ve still got your Free Hit, congratulations — you’ve officially made better life decisions than I have. 👏
GW16 is shaping up to be the perfect week to unleash it.
Here’s how my team would look if I still had mine 👇

🚀 TRIPLE CAPTAIN — PICK YOUR POISON

If you’re thinking of nuking a chip for maximum dopamine, here are the top candidates:

🗺️ CHIP ROADMAP: THE “ALL CHIPS LEFT” DREAM RUN

If you—yes you—somehow still have all your chips intact, here’s a clean, satisfying route to use them before GW19 👇

GW16 — FREE HIT 🆓
That’s this week.
Target Arsenal, Brentford, Villa, Fulham, and Chelsea assets. In that order.

GW17 — TRIPLE CAPTAIN (Haaland) 🤖📈
Fire the nuke.
Use at least one free transfer.

GW18 — BENCH BOOST 💥
Burnley and Sunderland have favorable fixtures.
Good time to turn your bench into a small army.

GW19 — WILDCARD 🌀
Hit the reset button.
Start the second half of the season with a fresh squad and, hopefully, less emotional damage.

Here’s what the squad looked like before I activated my inner Pep and started making “bold decisions” 👇

I should’ve been cooked in GW15, but Bruno Fernandes dropped 18 points like ‘Don’t worry fam, I got you.’ Absolute hero. 😮‍💨🧡
But with 5 free transfers burning and no Foden in my team, something had to give.
And by “something,” I mean… basically half my squad.

The Chaos Explained ⚔️

1. Foden & Thiago HAD to come in.
The man is essential, exploding in price almost everyday, and bullying anyone who doesn’t own him.
But Semenyo ➝ Foden wasn’t possible anymore. Why?
Because Foden’s price rose like it’s crypto in 2021. 📈😩
So Mateta had to go too — which honestly felt like deleting a spam email. No regrets.
Thiago incoming made it even easier.

2. Wilson entered the chat.
Cheap ✔️
Differential ✔️
Great fixtures ✔️
Welcome aboard. ⚽

3. Double Arsenal defense? Yes please.
I wanted triple Arsenal and a defensive double-up — and with all the injuries, Hincapié basically picked himself.
I could’ve sold VVD instead of Senesi…
BUT I’ve held VVD since GW12 and I refuse to sell him right before Wolves & Leeds at home.
So Senesi ➝ Hincapié it is.

4. The transfer I might regret… already 😭
I moved Guehi ➝ Van den Berg.
NOT because I don’t like VDB — he’s a great pick.
But because now I can’t get Muñoz even if I want to.
Was this smart?
Was this dumb?
Ask me again in a few days. 😫🤦‍♂️

Yes.
I used all 5 free transfers.
Every. Single. One.

And honestly? I’m pretty happy with it.
The plan is to roll in GW17, maybe even GW18 too…
(Yes, I can hear you laughing.)

The Captaincy armband is Saka’s… For now.. ⌛