Fantasy Football: The ramifications of Chelsea facing Spurs

With 15 players in our Fantasy Football squads, nobody likes the prospect of having to line up without a full starting XI. But this is a real possibility for many squads, as Chelsea and Tottenham are not in action in gameweek 27 because of their participation in the League Cup final.

Especially given that Chelsea would have been widely expected to run riot against Burnley at Stamford Bridge last time, numerous squads will have three of Jose Mourinho’s men included.

Meanwhile, the form of Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen at Tottenham make the pair popular picks.

Here is the ownership of some of the stars from the two London clubs.

Harry Kane – 46.4%
Diego Costa – 40.7%
Eden Hazard – 39.0%
Cesc Fabregas – 32.7%
Branislav Ivanovic – 26.2%
Christian Eriksen – 23.8%
John Terry 19.5%

Throw in that Andre Wisdom seems to have fallen out of favour at West Brom since Tony Pulis’ appointment as manager and some Fantasy Football bosses may be facing the prospect of lining up for gameweek 27 with nine or even eight players.

So, what is the best strategy for overcoming this issue? Spend points on transfers or simply accept that this week will be a poorer one and settle for a red arrow?

Tottenham’s pair are especially tough to transfer out, especially for those that acquired Kane for far less than his current price of £6.3m.

They also have a promising double fixture deal in gameweek 28 with Swansea and QPR, although with this concluding a run of six fixtures in 17 days, rotation is likely.

Therefore, Eriksen owners may want to consider a switch to one of Liverpool duo Raheem Sterling or Philippe Coutinho instead, who are both cheaper.

Coutinho’s absence against Besiktas perhaps wins him the nod and he has contributed double-figure points hauls in two of the last four gameweeks.

Fabregas hasn’t contributed more than six points in a single game since before Christmas and is worth ditching for Chelsea, while the ban for Nemanja Matic reduces the likelihood for clean sheets.

Owners of both Ivanovic and Terry may wish to consider transferring out the latter, especially as any recent price hike hasn’t been especially taxing.

Shrewder players would have saved their free transfer from gameweek 26 and are best advised to change two of the above.

For those that haven’t, taking a four-point hit to bring in a player just to gain two appearance points is obviously bad business.

There are no glaring must-have transfers for gameweek 27 either, although Arsenal may be worth siding with to provide a reaction against Everton after their Monaco disaster.

Starting without a full XI looks a better bet than spending wildly on transfers. Take a four-point hit at most.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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