We are in a busy schedule of Fantasy Premier League, full of double and blank gameweeks, which are great opportunities to use chips and gain extra fantasy points. What are potentially the best chip strategies for the second half of FPL 2022/23 season?
Your strategy 100 % depends on how many chips you have left… Without further ado, let’s jump into some of our thoughts.
Upcoming blank and double gameweeks
We can expect biggest points potential for using chip in:
- Double gameweek 27
- blank gameweek GW28 (fixtures not yet confirmed)
- big double in Gameweek 29
- small blank in GW32
- large double gameweek in GW34 and GW37
Read more: When is the next double gameweek in FPL?
To help you with visualization of the upcoming schedule, we attached Mikkel’s Tokvam excellent worksheet of expected fixtures until the end of the season.
After the most probable doubles for GW 29 announced, here are the updated projected no. of fixtures per GW until the end of the season. pic.twitter.com/uWiNB8o8N4
— the Transfer Algorithm (@MikkelTokvam) February 23, 2023
Triple captain
Most of us have already used our triple captain chip. If you still have him, you have a few options for where to use it. The disadvantage is that you can have active only one chip in one gameweek, so you cannot combine it with other chips.
That’s why you should aim to use triple captain on a double gameweek, where you do not aim to use other powerful chips – Wildcard, Free Hit or Bench Boost.
- Double Gameweek 27 – using triple captain on Toney. This could be a great strategy for FPL managers who have all their chips still available. You would use triple captain early, and could easily use other chips in other blank/double gameweeks.
- Double Gameweek 29 – using triple captain on Salah, Maddison, Rashford or Trippier – for managers that will not use free hit in GW29, or do not use a wildcard in gameweek 29 to set up their FPL teams for the rest of the season
Bench Boost
Ideally, you should aim to use Bench Boost in a double gameweek soon after the Wildcard – where you still have playing players on your bench and not many injuries and non playing players.
Gameweeks to use bench boost:
- Double Gameweek 29 – combination with wildcard GW27
- Double Gameweek 34 – combination with wildcard GW33
- Double Gameweek 37 (but this could be too late)
Free Hit
When you use a free hit chip, consider this:
- If you use it in a blank gameweek where big teams have blank, the points potential is low, as bottom-half teams do not tend to score many fantasy points
- If you use it in a double gameweek (where big teams have double), the points potential is huge
However!
You should always assess the potential o a free hit in terms of difference against your original team and then decide, whether to use it in a blank gameweek or in a double gameweek.
So always consider:
- How many points can I gain against my non-free hit team, if I use free hit in this blank gameweek (GW28, GW32)?
- How many points can I gain against my non-free hit team, if I use it in this double gameweek (GW29, GW34, GW37)?
Of course, it also depends on the overall chip strategy and when you will use your other chips, and how they influence the shape of your FPL squad. Always have a big picture in mind, when considering using free hit chip.
Potential gameweeks for free hit:
- Blank gameweeks: GW28 (big blank) or potentially in GW32 (depends on fixtures, but potentially only small blank for using free hit)
- Double gameweeks: Great potential for big blanks in GW29, GW33 and GW37 (GW34 and 37 could be opportunities for managers who use wildcard earlier)
Wildcard
There are two main opportunities to using a wildcard:
- Early Wildcard in Gameweek 26 or 27: set up your team mainly for double in GW27 and GW29.
- Disadvantages: But then it will be a little harder to navigate late doubles in GW34 and GW37. It might force you to use free hit in GW28.
- Advantage: you use wildcard early, so if done well, it should benefit you for the rest of the season – for the last 12 gameweeks
- Late Wildcard in Gameweek 33:
- Disadvantages: You would have to navigate doubles and blanks in GW27, 28, 29 mainly with free transfers. You would benefit from wildcard only for the last 6 gameweeks of the season.
- Advantage: Great for setting up your FPL team for late double gameweeks in GW34 and GW37
Potential chip strategies
Our chip strategies will hugely depend on FA Cup 5th round matches, which will determine which teams will blank in GW28. So until FA Cup 5th round is finished, is hard to make clear conclusions about FPL chip strategies for 2022/23.
However, here are our early thoughts…
WC26 + TC27 + FH 28 + BB29
- main focus on teams with double in GW27 and GW29 (Brighton, Brentford..)
- Wildcard in GW26 to get rid of dead-weight players from blank GW25 and to load up GW27 & GW29 doublers (especially Toney)
- Triple Captain in GW27: Toney. Alternatively, if you do not have a triple captain left, you could use wildcard in GW27
- Free Hit in Gameweek 28 to deal with blanks
- Bench Boost in big double in Gameweek 29
- Use only free transfers to deal with blank GW32, double 34 and double 37
WC26/27 + FH 28 + BB29
- for managers that used their triple captain
WC29 + FH32 + BB34/37
- postpone using wildcards a little bit
- main focus on teams with double in GW29, GW34, GW37
- allow to dead end team to blank gameweek 28
FH28 + (TC29 if available) + WC33 + BB34
- big focus on teams with double gameweeks in GW34 and GW37
- dead end team into blank GW32
FH29 + WC33 + BB34 + (TC27/37 if available)
- big load up on double gameweek players in GW29 – you can load up on players you do not want long term (Bournemouth, Leicester, West Ham, Aston Villa, Nottingham…) and then for other gameweeks have your “regular” team
Conclusion
Do not forget that it is hard to determine the best FPL chip strategy until the FA Cup 5th round (which is scheduled between GW25 and GW26) has finished and we know which teams will blank in GW28.
Also, every manager has a different team, so a chip strategy that might be the best solution for one manager does not have to be best for another manager with a completely different FPL team.
