The Scout explains what each chip in Fantasy Premier League does and how they can be used effectively in Blank or Double Gameweeks.
Bench Boost
The Bench Boost chip allows you to earn points from all 15 players in your squad in a given Gameweek, including those on your bench.
If you have a week where most or all of your substitutes have good fixtures and you wish you could play them all, then you can!
But the most powerful way to harness the Bench Boost chip's potential is to use it in conjunction with a Wildcard around a Double Gameweek.
A clever strategy is to use the Wildcard just BEFORE a Double Gameweek, before then using the Bench Boost chip in the Double Gameweek itself. Using this tactic, you could use your Wildcard to fill your squad with players who will have TWO fixtures in the Double Gameweek.
If all 15 members of your squad were to play twice in the Double Gameweek, using the Bench Boost means you would get points from 30 matches – THREE TIMES as many as you get in a normal Gameweek, when there are 10 fixtures.
Double Gameweek 33 (DGW33) looks like the optimum time to play the chip, with four clubs - Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Manchester City - all playing twice.
Cheap players such as Morgan Rogers (£5.6m), Ismaila Sarr (£5.8m) and Daniel Munoz (£5.3m) all offer outstanding value.
Triple Captain
The Triple Captain chip allows you to earn THREE TIMES the total points of your captain in any given Gameweek.
It is generally most effective when used in a Double Gameweek, when a player has TWO matches in which to score points.
The benefits of such a tactic were underlined in Double Gameweek 24 (DGW24), when Mohamed Salah (£13.8m) scored 29 points across his two matches, thanks to three goals, an assist and six bonus points, giving him a MASSIVE 87 points with the Triple Captain chip.
In DGW33, Bukayo Saka (£10.5m) faces both Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace. Omar Marmoush (£7.6m), who has stepped up in the absence of Erling Haaland (£14.8m), also plays twice, against Everton and Aston Villa.
Assistant Manager
The Assistant Manager chip gives you the chance to earn points from your chosen Premier League manager over a three-Gameweek spell.
Managers could choose to play the chip on Mikel Arteta, Pep Guardiola (both £1.5m), Unai Emery or Oliver Glasner (both £0.8m) in DGW33, before switching to a manager who has a fixture in Blank Gameweek 34 (BGW34).
Glasner is the only one of the four who can earn table bonus over his two matches, when Palace face Arsenal in the final match of DGW33.
Just remember that you can't two use chips in the same Gameweek, so if your Assistant Manager chip is activated in DGW33, you wouldn't be able to use the Free Hit chip in Blank Gameweek 34, as suggested below.
Another strategy for the Assistant Manager chip could be using it from Gameweek 36-38, allowing you to profit from your chosen Assistant Manager at a point of the season when player rotation is at its worst.
Wildcard
If you don’t like the look of your squad and you want to change a host of players, the Wildcard allows you to make sweeping changes at any time without any points deductions.
Experienced Fantasy managers tend to use their second Wildcard as part of their planning for Double Gameweeks.
Playing the Wildcard in DGW33 gives managers the opportunity to bring in Arsenal, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace players, although doing so would make navigating BGW34 tricky to navigate without a Free Hit chip.
Free Hit
The Free Hit chip provides managers with the opportunity to select a brand new squad for ONE Gameweek only.
Although the Free Hit chip offers a further option in a Double Gameweek, managers tend to use this in a Blank Gameweek, when a number of clubs and key Fantasy picks are without a fixture.
The biggest Blank Gameweek of the season is set to be BGW34.
Four sides will be without a Premier League fixture that Gameweek - Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Crystal Palace - and their players will score ZERO points in Fantasy.
Fixtures that will NOT take place in Gameweek 34
Arsenal v Crystal Palace
Man City v Aston Villa
Fixtures going ahead in Gameweek 34
Chelsea v Everton
Brighton v West Ham
Newcastle v Ipswich
Southampton v Fulham
Wolves v Leicester
AFC Bournemouth v Man Utd
Liverpool v Spurs
Nottingham Forest v Brentford
