In his FPL Gameweek 29 review, Fantasy Premier League author David Wardale reports on yet another double set of fixtures.

Everton and Newcastle rounded out the gameweek with a match that was so bad, it was actually good.

Wednesday’s slate started with an easy win for Tottenham at Brighton before Liverpool overcame Arsenal without, as it turned out, the need for much help from FPL’s most owned player.

Monday night’s match ended goalless, but was packed with incident.

Sunday’s games included an entertaining game at The Emirates, an emotional victory for West Ham and a tight win for Chelsea, as well as three other fixtures.

On Saturday, a Man United legend burst back into our thoughts with three goals against Spurs, while a Brentford striker continued his fine form in a big win over Burnley.

And in the lunchtime kick-off, there was a relatively straightforward win for Liverpool which did, however, involve an injury scare for FPL’s most owned star.

You can catch all of our FPL Gameweek 29 tips right here.

FPL Gameweek 29 Review – Thursday

Everton 1 Newcastle United 0

An Alex Iwobi (£5.8m) goal in the deepest recesses of time added on won Everton a game of almost unremitting awfulness that was, somehow, also thoroughly entertaining.

The midfielder linked cleverly with substitute Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.7m) before steering the ball past Martin Dubravka (£4.4m) in the Newcastle goal.

To call the goal a rare moment of quality was inaccurate. It was, in truth, the only moment of quality.

But the match was never boring, just tremendously poor, involving plentiful errors, fouls, more fouls and yet more errors.

The main pre-Iwobi highlight was the nine minutes wasted when an environmental protestor cable-tied himself, by his neck, to an Everton goal post.

It took that long for the tie to be severed, thanks to a comically enormous bolt cutter and the gurning fella who brought great passion to its operation.

Once that was all sorted, Allan (£4.3m) got himself sent off in the 83rd minute for a cynical, and borderline reckless, challenge on Allan Saint-Maximin (£6.8m), who’d not long been on the field.

The decision, prompted by a lengthy VAR intervention, meant a chunky 14 minutes of time were added on at the end of the match.

In between all the shenanigans, football never really broke out, although there were a couple of faintly memorable attempts on goal from Anthony Gordon (£4.5m) and Joe Willock (£5.8m).

From a fantasy perspective, this was a very low-key affair, even though it involved two teams with a double gameweek.

The 2.3%-owned Gordon doubled his fan base but ended the two matches with just four points, while a similar increase in owners for Ryan Fraser (£5.3m and 1.6%) brought in the exact same return.

A first clean sheet in five fixtures should at least have benefited the owners of Everton’s most popular member of the back line, Jordan Pickford (£4.9 and 4.4%).

But he missed the match with illness.

His replacement, Asmir Begovic (£4.0m), was somehow owned by 2.4% heading into his second start of the season.

He made six saves in all, few of them more than routine, but hoovered up the maximum bonus for an 11-point haul.

The kicker?

Some 2,815 managers sold him for the gameweek.

FPL Gameweek 29 Review – Wednesday

Arsenal 0 Liverpool 2

Liverpool saw off a spirited Arsenal with eight minutes of clinical football at The Emirates – and they did it with Mo Salah (£13.2m) benched for most of the match.

The Reds were knocked well out of their stride in the first half, only to turn the game on its head after the break.

Diogo Jota (£8.3m) broke the deadlock after 54 minutes when he fired in from a Thiago (£5.3m) assist.

It was a decent enough strike, but Arsenal keeper Aaron Ramsdale (£5.1m) allowed it to get past him at the near post.

It proved to be a costly error.

Salah and Roberto Firmino (£8.7m) were brought on two minutes later and the latter scored six minutes after that when he sweetly guided home Andy Robertson’s (£7.2m) cross.

The scoreline was harsh on the Gunners, who stretched Liverpool for long periods of the first half, although rather less frequently after the break.

Martin Odergaard (£5.5m) had the hosts’ best chance, which was saved by Alisson (£6.0m), while Gabriel Martinelli (£5.3m) gave Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m) a torrid time down the Arsenal left and narrowly missed with a second-half shot.

But the gameweek’s most purchased player, Bukayo Saka (£6.6m), was kept rather quieter by Robertson and finished the double with a measly five points.

For such an entertaining game, there were only five shots on target.

And it was telling that the top five players in the bonus points standings, on both sides, were either goalkeepers, defenders or defensive midfielders.

Maximum bonus went to Robertson, who finished the double with 18 and has scored a club-leading 61 points since Gameweek 22.

The next four players in that list are his defensive colleagues.

Few managers will sell Liverpool assets now – even with a blank to come this weekend.

Quite a few more will buy into Arsenal players, you suspect.

They have form, despite this loss, a fixture in Gameweek 30 and two more doubles to come.

Brighton 0 Spurs 2

Tottenham’s double gameweek concluded with an easy enough win at Brighton that suited some fantasy managers more than others.

The 22.3% who own Harry Kane (£12.4m) enjoyed a fourth straight haul from their man when the striker finished from a Rodrigo Bentancur (£4.9m) through ball to make it 2-0.

And the 0.4% on Cristian Romero (£4.8m) were even better served, the centre-half opening the scoring on the way to a 14-point return.

That goal was not without fantasy controversy.

The defender deflected in a Dejan Kulusevski (£6.2m) shot. So, a fourth assist in three matches for the midfielder.

Or not.

He was awarded the assist and then had it taken away. For no apparent reason.

More to come on that, you’d think. And, sure enough, the assist was given back Kulusevski about 20 minutes after the final whistle.

Spurs’ most popular player, Heung-Min Son (£10.9m and 24.5%), had a double to forget, coming off after 79 minutes at the Amex to finish Gameweek 29 with five points.

The midfielder managed just three shots over the two matches, none of which were on target.

Spurs have a good schedule through to the end of the season and a fixture in Blank Gameweek 30, so it would be unwise to ditch Son any time soon.

But he’s looked well out of sorts over the last two matches.

Brighton, as a team, have looked out of sorts for three times that figure, losing their last six and scoring just the once while they’ve been about it.

And if that doesn’t persuade you to leave well alone, no match in Gameweek 30 and an awful set of fixtures after that should do the trick.

FPL Gameweek 29 Review – Monday

Crystal Palace 0 Manchester City 0

Unlikely clean sheet points came the way of those managers brave enough to stick with Crystal Palace defenders courtesy of a thunderously entertaining 0-0 draw with Man City.

To be fair, the entire Eagles back line, including keeper Vicente Guaita (£4.6m), were owned by a total of 8.8% in FPL, which roughly equates to one Aymeric Laporte (£5.8m) and not even a quarter of a Joao Cancelo (£7.0m).

So the main fantasy winners on the night were the owners of those City defenders, and especially Cancelo’s 36% fan club as he brought in maximum bonus for a second nine-point haul in three gameweeks.

He was also unlucky not to score when his shot crashed off the post, with Guaita well beaten.

That turned out to be a bit of a theme on the night as Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8m) was another to hit the woodwork.

He could also have had an assist when Guaita spilled his shot, only for Bernardo Silva (£7.2m) to mis-control the rebound with the goal at his mercy.

City outshot their hosts 18-7 and had four attempts on target to Palace’s one.

But Patrick Vieira’s side carried a real threat on the break all night and could have even pinched a last-gasp victory had Conor Gallagher (£6.1m) shown more composure when free in the area.

But the fact that Guaita ended up with two bonus points was a clear indicator as to how the match played out.

On any other day, City would have won and the likes of De Bruyne or Riyad Mahrez (£8.7m) would have hauled.

Then again, on any other day, Pep Guardiola would have brought on a few subs to try and break the deadlock.

At least a Gameweek 30 blank means no fantasy manager will be too worried about their City assets being over-tired after their Selhurst Park exertions.

If, of course, they haven’t sold them already anyway.

FPL Gameweek 29 Review – Sunday

Arsenal 2 Leicester City 0

Arsenal started their double with an entertaining win over Leicester which didn’t go entirely to fantasy plans.

Gameweek 29’s most purchased player, Bukayo Saka (£6.6m), welcomed another three quarters of a million managers into his 29.7% ownership club and handed them an introductory gift of three measly points.

At least another popular buy, Alexandre Lacazette (£8.4m), had the good grace to haul, slotting home a penalty after VAR took an age to (correctly) call out a Caglar Soyuncu (£4.9m) handball.

Thomas Partey (£5.0m) earned an assist for that decision, which meant a monster haul for his 24,189 owners, seeing as he’d opened the scoring as well.

A spookily prescient 1,366 managers had bought the midfielder for the Gunners’ double and took home 14 points from the Leicester match alone – impressive indeed when it had taken him six matches to amass his previous 15.

Partey’s goal was set up by a Gabriel Martinelli (£5.3m) corner, his second consecutive return and, once again, a set-piece failure for the Leicester defence.

The Foxes had their moments at The Emirates and Aaron Ramsdale (£5.1m) had to make three saves on the way to a first clean sheet since Gameweek 24.

But Arsenal were good value for their win and have form, fixtures and two more doubles (to be arranged) to suggest further investment in their stars is well worth considering.

A truer test of that form will come at home to Liverpool on Wednesday.

Some 2.6 million Saka owners will be hoping it’s a test he passes as well.

Both Arsenal and Leicester have Gameweek 30 fixtures and the Foxes’ schedule after that, which includes three games still to be rearranged, is as good as the Gunners’.

Finding players as attractive as Arsenal’s assets isn’t that easy, however.

Jamie Vardy (£10.3m) is injured (again), while James Maddison (£6.7m) was kept relatively quiet in north London and has now hauled only twice across his last six games.

But two clean sheets in three matches might tempt some into defensive moves and Luke Thomas (£4.3m) represents a bargain bucket route into that.

Everton 0 Wolves 1

A Conor Coady (£4.8m) goal meant it was another good week to be an owner of a Wolves defender and yet another bad week to be an Everton fan.

Bruno Lage’s team made it back-to-back clean sheets, although that in itself wasn’t so surprising seeing as the Toffees have now not scored for four matches.

Still, a game has to be won, and the Wolves skipper did just that when he headed home from a Ruben Neves (£5.3m) assist.

A double involving this match and a visit from Newcastle prompted a modest uptick in Richarlison’s (£7.5m) ownership.

But he struggled as the home side mustered a mere two shots on target, one of which did at least come from the Brazilian.

Times are hardening for the Merseysiders and even with a massive four matches still to be rescheduled, it’s going to take a brave manager to jump on board for the fantasy ride.

Wolves have a fixture in Gameweek 30 to recommend them, although their run-in is a mixed bag and doesn’t contain as many matches as plenty of other sides.

But if they are truly back to their defensive best, the likes of Coady will surely be sticking around FPL sides for a few weeks yet.

Leeds 2 Norwich 1

A breathless end to a frantic match delivered a first win for new Leeds coach Jesse Marsch as Norwich’s descent into the Championship made it to the ‘b’ of ‘inevitable’.

Rodrigo (£6.2m), who had been awful in Thursday’s loss to Aston Villa, opened the scoring from a Dan James (£6.0m) assist.

The goal stood despite featuring a very offside Patrick Bamford (£7.7m), who started and managed a 45-minute run-out.

Norwich rode their luck after that as Raphinha (£6.5m) hit the bar twice.

But they rallied and VAR denied them a penalty, initially awarded for a foul by Luke Ayling (£4.3m), before a 91^st minute equaliser from Kenny McLean (£4.9m), set up by Teemu Pukki (£5.8m), looked to have rescued them a point.

Nope.

Back came Leeds, Raphinha rounding Tim Krul (£4.5m) and handing substitute Joe Gelhardt (£4.6m) an open goal to secure the winner just two minutes after he’d joined the action.

It was a massive win for Marsch’s men, but even with a fixture next time out,there’s little fantasy joy to be gained from their ranks as it’s against stingy-again Wolves.

Southampton 1 Watford 2

Southampton continued to make an early bid to be the season’s first beach team as they slumped to a third straight defeat.

The Saints have shipped eight goals and scored only twice during that spell as thoughts of summer holidays might just be taking hold.

Relegation-threatened Watford can only dream of such luxury and they won for the first time since Gameweek 26 thanks to two strikes from Cucho Hernandez (£5.0m).

That’s three goals, an own goal and an assist in a busy three matches for the midfielder.

Juraj Kucka (£5.5m) provided an assist at St Mary’s – his first of the season.

To be fair to Southampton, it might be an FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday, rather than a beach in early summer, that’s distracting them.

They did at least show some fight after going two down and Mohamed Elyounoussi (£5.4m) halved the deficit, from a Che Adams (£7.0m) assist, just before half-time.

That was the striker’s first haul in three matches or, put more kindly, his fifth return in seven.

The recent struggles of strike partner Armando Broja (£5.5m) – five straight blanks – led to a benching, although he did come on for the second 45 minutes to produce one point for his long-suffering 15.1% ownership.

At least he featured – the 12%-owned Tino Livramento (£4.4m) didn’t even make the squad, as boss Ralph Hasenhuttl explained post-match.

“Tino is okay but after his long injury break, he needs a little bit of a break.”

West Ham 2 Aston Villa 1

Goals from Andriy Yarmolenko (£5.1m) and Pablo Fornals (£6.0m) saw off Aston Villa and marred many a manager’s moves for the latest round of fixtures.

Two the gameweek’s most popular buys playing just the one match were Philippe Coutinho (£7.4m) and Matty Cash (£5.2m).

The midfielder followed up two consecutive double-digit returns with two points. The full-back, who was on three straight big hauls, managed only a one-pointer.

Not that Steven Gerrard’s side were rolled over.

They had seven shots on target to the Hammers’ three and were painfully close to opening the scoring when Danny Ings (£7.7m) had a shot tipped onto the post by Lukasz Fabianski (£5.0m).

Instead, Yarmolenko had that honour when he converted Said Benrahma’s (£5.9m) pass.

It was, understandably, an emotional moment for the Ukraine international and it inspired the home side to greater heights, with Benrahma collecting another assist when Fornals blasted in his cut-back.

Jacob Ramsey (£4.8m) grabbed a consolation goal in the 90th minute, from an Emiliano Buendia (£6.2m) assist, but it was too little, too late.

Both sides have fixtures in Gameweek 30, but both are tricky.

West Ham travel to Spurs, while Villa host Arsenal.

Chelsea 1 Newcastle 0

A late goal from Kai Havertz (£7.8m) gave Chelsea a barely-deserved win over the increasingly impressive Newcastle.

The Blues struggled for fluency against a well-organised Magpies unit and it took a brilliant finish from the in-form German to finally break their resistance.

Havertz scored his fourth goal in three matches when he controlled and then deftly finished Jorginho’s (£5.8m) floated pass in one sweet movement.

It was harsh on Newcastle, especially as the goalscorer was lucky not to be sent off when he elbowed Dan Burn (£4.4m) in the face as they went up for a header.

It certainly wasn’t meant to be for the visitors as they were also denied a penalty when Trevoh Chalobah (£4.7m) was all over Jacob Murphy (£4.7m) like a cheap suit.

Newcastle worked Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy (£6.1m) as much as their own keeper, Martin Dubravka (£4.4m), was kept busy by the home side.

But Havertz’s touch of class was the difference and his 5.4% ownership could well be on the rise, just as soon as his side’s blank on Gameweek 30 is done, that is.

Newcastle don’t feature in 30 either, although they have a second bite of this week’s cherry still to come when they travel to Everton on Thursday.

FPL Gameweek 29 Review – Saturday

Man United 3 Spurs 2

A Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.3m) hat-trick settled a thrilling encounter between Manchester United and Spurs.

It was a match of mixed messages, fantasy-wise.

More than 380,000 handed Bruno Fernandes (£11.6m) the armband. He missed the match through illness, although manager Ralf Rangnick’s pre-match comments suggest it wasn’t Covid.

“Bruno got ill yesterday, he couldn’t train and he cannot play, hopefully he’ll be back for Tuesday but today he is out.”

There’s been a consistent 700,000-ish captainers of Ronaldo for a few weeks now, presumably because they don’t even log into their FPL account, let alone read articles like this.

So it seems likely that few active managers will have celebrated the legend’s 17-point haul – he’s now owned by 18.3% and has lost owners every match since Gameweek 22.

Nobody inside the top 10,000 appears to have backed the striker for double bubble.

Instead, 4.5% gave that honour to Harry Kane (£12.4m) and he scored for the third match running to start his double gameweek very nicely indeed.

The same couldn’t be said for all Spurs assets, however.

Four of them were in the top five for transfers-in.

But only Kane and Dejan Kulusevksi (£6.2m), with an assist, delivered at Old Trafford.

Heung-Min Son (£10.9m) looked slightly off his usual game on the way to a first blank in three starts, while Matt Doherty (£4.8m) followed up scores of 18 and 14 with a one-pointer.

All four should feature at Brighton on Wednesday, so all is not lost just yet.

Spurs probably should have got something from the match, although United set up to counter and still had six shots on target to Tottenham’s three.

Ronaldo was the difference. Five of those shots (and a gameweek-leading eight attempts) came from him and he scored with a shot from outside the area, a close-range finish and a header from a corner.

Assists came from Fred (£4.9m), Alex Telles (£5.0m) and Jadon Sancho (£8.9m), who has now produced returns in four of his last five starts.

Tottenham’s other assist came from Sergio Reguilon (£5.2m), whose cross was turned into his own net by Harry Maguire (£5.4m).

The beleaguered skipper must have been decidedly thankful when Ronaldo rose to head home the winner and take the heat off him…for now.

Brentford 2 Burnley 0

Brentford striker Ivan Toney (£6.5m) continued his late campaign for fantasy redemption to see off relegation rivals Burnley.

The forward left it late to hit his fourth and fifth goals of a remarkably productive two-game streak, scoring in the 85^th and 94^th minutes of a tight and frantic match.

He started this campaign with two million backers and picked up 25 points from a decent four-match streak from Gameweek 5.

But he’d lost owners for every round of fixures since Gameweek 21 and it needed a hat-trick last time out to reverse that trend.

Some 157,000+ took a punt on him for the Burnley clash and they finally reaped a reward when the forward headed home a Christian Eriksen (£5.5m) cross as time ticked down.

Toney was then brought down by Nathan Collins (£4.3m) in the penalty area and dispatched the spot-kick as the defender made his way back to the dressing room after seeing red for the challenge.

That put the tin lid on a monumentally awful three matches for Collins involving scores of 0, 0 and -2 – a feat enjoyed by 7,674 FPL bosses, including an especially delighted 93 who brought him in for this gameweek.

The match wasn’t exactly a popularity contest with or without him.

Toney’s 10.1% ownership was the largest on display and almost double Burnley’s Wout Weghorst (£6.5m and 5.1%), who blanked for a fifth straight game.

The Clarets still have three fixtures to be rearranged, although their form – three consecutive defeats, no goals – will keep interest in their assets on the luke side of warm.

Brentford are in a far better place, and in Toney they have an in-form star.

But no doubles and an immediate schedule involving trips to Leicester and Chelsea is unlikely to induce much more than a shrug of indifference from most.

Brighton 0 Liverpool 2

Liverpool started the latest double gameweek with a regulation victory over Brighton marred only by an injury scare for Mohamed Salah (£13.3m).

FPL’s most popular player (and Gameweek 29’s most captained) scored for the fourth time in as many starts before coming off with a knock.

Reds boss Jurgen Klopp was understandably non-committal about the extent of the issue when interviewed post-match, although he stressed that it didn’t seem to be serious at first glance.

Some 62.8% of us – and especially those who’ve triple captained him – will be keen for rather more concrete news ahead of Liverpool’s second game of the double at Arsenal on Wednesday.

Klopp opted for Luis Diaz (£8.0m) instead of Diogo Jota (£8.3m) in the front three and the new signing opened the scoring, bravely heading home from a Joel Matip (£4.9m) assist.

Brighton keeper Robert Sanchez (£4.6m) was arguably lucky to stay on the pitch as he took Diaz out with a late attempt at a save/reckless challenge that left the winger needing treatment.

The Seagulls had their moments as they sought an equaliser, but a team with just one goal in five matches was never likely to trouble Liverpool unduly.

Sure enough, a third consecutive clean sheet (and a fifth in six matches) duly arrived, with the big winners the 3.6% who own Matip.

The centre-half has become an unlikely attacking force in recent weeks, with all his offensive returns for the season – two assists and a goal – coming from his last five starts.

Maximum bonus against Brighton also meant a second straight 12-pointer for the man nobody will ever dub ‘The New Alexander-Arnold’.

Salah, meanwhile, hit the bar with a deflected effort and fluffed a couple of good chances before scoring from the penalty spot after Naby Keita’s (£5.0m) shot hit Yves Bissouma’s (£4.4m) hand.

That meant decent returns for the 4.1 million who handed him the armband.

More of the same at Arsenal in midweek?

We’ll have to wait and see.

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