More than 511,000 Fantasy Premier League managers are revelling in their decision to buy Jean-Philippe Mateta (£5.1m) after he produced the biggest Gameweek score of the season.
The third-most bought player for Double Gameweek 34 (DGW34), Mateta has totalled 29 points across his two matches, the largest haul since Kevin De Bruyne's 30-point score in Double Gameweek 36 of 2021/22.
Mateta scored two goals and supplied an assist in Crystal Palace's 5-2 win over West Ham United on Saturday and followed that up with two more goals on Wednesday evening as the Eagles beat Newcastle United 2-0. He secured the maximum three bonus points on both occasions.
Mateta has taken on a prominent role under new head coach Oliver Glasner, with a team-leading eight goals and 12 big chances since the Austrian took charge in Gameweek 26. This compares to just three goals and three big chances before Glasner arrived.
Indeed, Mateta's total of 63 points since Gameweek 26 is the most of any forward in Fantasy.
DGW34 most-bought players
| Player | Transferred in by | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| Eze | 821,859 | 14 |
| Solanke | 549,733 | 8 |
| Mateta | 511,294 | 29 |
| Saka | 509,581 | 9 |
| Luis Diaz | 504,144 | 3 |
Crystal Palace proved a reliable source for points in general in DGW34, with the most-bought player Eberechi Eze (£6.1m) also producing a double-figure return.
Eze scored and laid on an assist for an 11-point haul in the weekend's victory over West Ham and, although he added just three points in the midweek win over Newcastle, it wasn't for a lack of trying as he had a match-high five shots.
Like Mateta, Eze is another player to impress under Glasner. His 24 shots and 16 chances created both place top among his team-mates since the arrival of the new head coach.
Dominic Solanke (£7.3m) and Bukayo Saka (£9.0m) also rewarded their combined 1million+ new owners with returns in DGW34.
Solanke moved onto 18 goals for the campaign thanks to a converted penalty in AFC Bournemouth's 3-1 defeat at Aston Villa at the weekend, and he added a further two points for an eight-point Gameweek tally as the Cherries beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 on Wednesday.
Having blanked in Arsenal's 2-0 win at Wolves on the weekend, Saka supplied an assist in the Gunners' 5-0 triumph over Chelsea on Tuesday, helping him to nine points over his two appearances.
Liverpool's Luis Diaz (£7.8m) was the odd one out among the five most-recruited players, the only member of the quintet to blank in both of his DWG34 matches.
DGW34 chips played
| Chip | Played by |
|---|---|
| Triple Captain | 410,042 |
| Bench Boost | 386,531 |
| Free Hit | 283,002 |
| Wildcard | 186,283 |
More than 1.2m managers used one of their chips to maximise points in DGW34.
There are 13 fixtures in this round of matches, with seven teams playing twice, while Tottenham Hotspur are without a match.
The Triple Captain proved the most popular chip, played by over 410,000 managers, the second-highest total this season.
A further 386,000+ decided to Bench-Boost, the largest number in the current campaign, while a combined 469,000 reshaped their squads using either the Free Hit or Wildcard.
DGW34 most-Triple Captained players
| Player | Triple Captained by | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| Salah | 279,941 | 3 |
| Saka | 60,809 | 9 |
| Luis Diaz | 11,946 | 3 |
| Nunez | 9,859 | 2 |
| Solanke | 9,765 | 8 |
The No 1 pick with the Triple Captain chip, Mohamed Salah (£13.6m), was backed by more than 279,000 for his two games.
He was joined among the top five by team-mates Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez (£7.8m), but all three players disappointed their backers, blanking in both of their matches across the Double Gameweek.
In terms of the overall captaincy, the Double Gameweek trio of Salah, Saka and Solanke were joined by Erling Haaland (£14.2m) and Ollie Watkins (£8.9m) in the top five.
Haaland was backed by more than 3.4m managers, but missed Thursday's 4-0 win at Brighton & Hove Albion through injury.
DGW34 most-captained players
| Player | Captained by | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| Haaland | 3,417,893 | 0 |
| Salah | 2,336,438 | 3 |
| Saka | 894,175 | 9 |
| Watkins | 413,196 | 9 |
| Solanke | 282,267 | 8 |
Watkins continued his good home form with two assists in the win over Bournemouth.
He has amassed 22 points in his last two appearances at Villa Park, with Chelsea the visitors in Gameweek 35.
Top 100 managers' DGW34 captains
| Player | Captained by | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| Salah | 92 | 3 |
| Saka | 5 | 9 |
| Solanke | 2 | 8 |
| Eze | 1 | 14 |
| Nunez | 1 | 2 |
Salah was the overwhelming captain favourite among the leading 100 managers, selected by 92 of this elite group.
Of the four differential picks, Eze proved the most successful, rewarding his sole backer Lewis Chen with a 28-point captain haul.
