Festive Fixture Schedule

Rotation is a big problem for Fantasy Premier League managers during the festive season. How should you set up for FPL team for these fixtures?

UPDATE (04/12/2017): 

Spurs v West Ham has moved from Gameweek 21 to Gameweek 22. These two teams will face a blank Gameweek 21 and then a double Gameweek 22. We’ll be providing tips for how to navigate this in the next few weeks. They’ll have a week off between Boxing Day and Tuesday 2nd January, but then have 48 hours before their next match.

Fixture Chart

The International Break is the last pause in fixtures for Premier League clubs for some time, as the festive fixture schedule looks busier than ever before. All of the game times have finally been confirmed this week with TV scheduling. The graphic shows the date and time of each game and the number of hours between each game. Click the image to enlarge. Teams with the best and worst schedules are highlighted appropriately.

Within the space of 25 days, there are 7 Premier League game weeks and EFL Cup Quarter Finals. Luckily, the English sides are having success in the Champions League, so will be able to rest some key players in the final match week before this run. The FA Cup returns immediately after this schedule giving clubs their next opportunity to effectively rotate their squads. So how do we cope in the middle?

League Cup Fixtures 

The 7 sides who are still involved in the League Cup face the worst schedules. Manchester United face Bristol City so look most likely to rotate the squad and rest key assets. The other fixtures are Arsenal v West Ham, Leicester City v Manchester City and Chelsea v Bournemouth. Whether they choose to make drastic changes at this late stage of the tournament remains to be seen. All of these fixtures have the potential to go to extra time and penalties. Remember what happened last time Manchester City were in this scenario?

Gameweek 21-22 Fixture

The tightest schedule of games is around New Year, where most teams have one rest day between fixtures. The tightest turnaround is for Bournemouth and Brighton who play on Saturday at 15:00 and then Monday at 12:30. Chelsea are the big winners here, who have over 4 days between games. Arsenal, Southampton, Swansea and Watford have also gained an extra rest day here.

Pep Fixture Rotation

If you thought Pep rotation was bad already, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Both Manchester teams, along with Bournemouth and Leicester, face 8 games in 24 days. That’s the worst in the whole Premier League! There’s going to be a lot of rotation during this period from these teams, with a game every 3 days throughout this period. Compounded with League Cup involvement too, it’s going to be a tough time owning players from these teams over this time.

Best Bets 

Crystal Palace, Spurs, Watford and West Brom face the kindest scheduling over the festive season. On the whole, there’s some kind fixtures in there too so it’s certainly worth considering moving to players from these teams who are coming in to form over the next few weeks. During this time, it’s going to be so important to have a playing bench. If you are on a wildcard, make sure that you have 15 starters in your sides. If you’ve got spare transfers over the next few weeks, look to strengthen your bench. And most importantly, look at patterns of rotation to help with choosing a playing captain each game week! Good Luck!