Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 35 hints, transfer tips and who to captain for Chelsea and Spurs double

Welcome back to our regular Fantasy Premier League advice column, replete with all the transfer tips and planning advice you’ll need to pick up plenty of points in Gameweek 35 – all courtesy of our high-flying, Top 2,000 manager.

Before we hand you over to Matthew to hear his thoughts on this weekend’s fixtures, a quick reminder that the deadline for GW35 is 11:00 BST on Saturday 27 April, ahead of the early kick-off at the London Stadium between West Ham United and Liverpool. And with that admin out of the way, let’s pass the microphone to our manager…

Getting ready for the end game

We’re so nearly there – after months of transfers and chip strategies and wheeler-dealing and swearing after we left the wrong player on the bench, there are just four more gameweeks to go before we get to celebrate our wins or lick our mini-league wounds. So let’s make sure we get the last few weeks right!

Fresh off the back of GW34’s doubles, we get Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur doubling up this week – and they’re among the six teams playing twice in GW37 as well. That means we’re going to focusing our transfers on a fairly narrow band of teams, with the two London sides foremost among them.

Some players, myself included, have been saving up their last wildcard for this week, and the obvious place to start is triple Chelsea, triple Spurs, but it isn’t necessarily as straightforward as all that thanks to some distinctly iffy form and a limited number of quality assets. Sufficed to say that if you aren’t able to wildcard, it’s probably not worth worrying so much about this week as GW37, when Manchester City are among the sides playing two games.

For this week, Cole Palmer and Son Heung-Min are simply essential, and they’re players you should buy and keep for the rest of the season if you don’t already have them. They’re also your two sensible captaincy choices – I’d back Palmer on form, but as there’s no absolute guarantee that he’ll have recovered from the illness that kept him out of the Arsenal match, Son might be the safer choice for 180 minutes.

Past that, the options are a little thin. Malo Gusto is generally a decent asset and Đorđe Petrović an excellent cheap goalkeeper, but with their two games being against Aston Villa and Spurs, clean sheets seem relatively unlikely – although Chelsea do have a habit of playing a blinder against big teams every now and again, so don’t be shocked if they pull of a good win in at least one of the games.

Elsewhere, there are very few consistent points scorers. Noni Madueke has started the last three games and looks in good form, but isn’t a proven points scorer. Conor Gallagher chips in occasionally, and over two games might be better than the average midfielder, but not by all that much. The wildcard option (and try not to roll your eyes here) is Nicolas Jackson, who is coming off the back of a couple of very bad games but whose general performances had been steadily improving before that, with two assists and a goal against Everton. He’s lively, racks up xG and gets into lots of dangerous areas. If you need a differential, he’s an interesting gamble.

From the Spurs side of things, it doesn’t get much easier. Pedro Porro will be on a lot of lists but he’s taking fewer set pieces since James Maddison’s return and with Spurs’ defence proving rather leaky of late, he’s only managed three returns in 2024. Maddison himself, meanwhile, creates more shooting chances per game than any other player in the top flight but hasn’t got a single goal or assist in his last five, and hasn’t played a full 90 minutes this year.

For me, triple Spurs means Son, Maddison (a Jackson-ish gamble of sorts) and either Richarlison or Brennan Johnson, depending on what Ange Postecoglou says about the former’s recovery from a knee injury. If he’s back, Johnson will be back to the bench, so that’s probably a late call. But I’m fine with going double only despite the volume of games they play – their fixtures are pretty hard over the next few weeks, and if, say, Richarlison is back to form and fitness by GW37, I can buy back in then instead. Chelsea have the softer run – it’s just a matter of guessing who’ll get some points.

In both cases, having two players from either side is not ideal but isn’t disastrous, either. But there is at least one other team you should focus on heavily, and that’s Manchester City. They may play one game fewer than Chelsea and Spurs between now and the end of the season, but have undeniably easier fixtures and are on some searing form.

Injury aside, Erling Haaland remains a must down the home straight, as does Phil Foden. I’d probably want a defender to round out my three simply because Kevin de Bruyne is too expensive for most teams, but bringing him in for Mohamed Salah isn’t a terrible idea based on form. After a bit of lean spell, the Belgian seems to be ticking again.

Elsewhere, I like Bruno Fernandes as he’s really burst back into form lately and Manchester United have some decent fixtures ahead of an admittedly tricky double. I think I’m still happy drawing defenders from Newcastle United despite their recent form as they play Sheffield United and Burnley next, so Alexander Isak is a great inclusion in your squad now, too. Pascal Groß from Brighton & Hove Albion is an interesting differential option, too – their fixtures aren’t easy but they’re up for a double too. I still have Anthony Gordon higher in my personal pecking order, however.

I’m looking to move gently away from Liverpool players now – with their season going down in flames and big-ticket players out of form, the coming games against West Ham United and Spurs don’t look very appealing. Aston Villa have some tough games, too, so I don’t mind moving on from their assets as well, while Arsenal players won’t be in line for so many points down the home stretch with just the four games remaining.

3 Added Minutes FC

Normally, I’d share a screenshot of my team’s progress but as I’m wildcarding, I thought it would be more helpful to show you my current draft for next week’s team – you’ll just have to take my word for it that I’m on for 117 points from Gameweek 34, which should keep me in the Top 2,000.

As you can see, I’m maximising the number of players on doubles in preparation for a bench boost in GW37 – the two defenders I have in who won’t double up, Ben White and Jarrad Branthwaite, are both in because of good fixtures in GW36, with the plan being to transfer them out in a double ahead of then. There’s some refinement to be done, however, so this is just a first draft for now - I’ll be mapping out exactly what my team will look like each week from now until the end of the season to make sure I’m happy, and may make changes based on the pre-match press conferences.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got time for this week – best of luck, and may all the Chelsea and Spurs player your roll the dice on come good when you need them to.