When it comes to FPL, when it gets to the time of the season when teams are playing in Europe, its important to keep an eye on fixtures. For example, if Manchester City were to play Barcelona in the Champions League, if they are playing e.g. Fulham, before Barcelona, this could mean that some key players could be rested v Fulham.
With the 2020/21 season being a bit different to a normal season, the Champions League matches come very close to each other. So its important to keep an eye on your FPL team/squad and probably wise to make sure you have at least one decent player on the bench.
Here are the dates for the Champions League Group stages and which FPL Gameweek they occur before.
Group Stages
20/10/2020–21/10/2020 Matchday 1 (Before GW6)
27/10/2020–28/10/2020 Matchday 2 (Before GW7)
03/11/2020–04/11/2020 Matchday 3 (Before GW8)
24/11/2020–25/11/2020 Matchday 4 (Before GW10)
01/12/2020–02/12/2020 Matchday 5 (Before GW11)
08/12/2020–09/12/2020 Matchday 6 (Before GW12)
Lets look at some of the fixtures in the Gameweeks after a Champions League group stage – obviously we don’t know the Champions League fixtures yet – and focus on matches involving United, City, Liverpool and Chelsea. (The fixtures could well change so recommend checking the fixtures yourself. Who knows – COVID who delay some matches. Hopefully not though!).
Now with the games coming so close together, I will talk about a few matchdays at once.
Matchday 1, 2, 3
Matchday 1 is after gameweek 5 and then there are 2 other matchdays a week apart from each other.
Liverpool
Liverpool’s fixtures, around matchday 1 to 3 are –
GW5 – Everton (A)
Champions League – MD1
GW6 – Sheffield United (H)
Champions League – MD2
GW7 – West Ham (H)
Champions League – MD3
GW8 – Manchester City (A)
Of course a lot could depend on who Liverpool play in the Champions League but assuming its a good opponent and Klopp won’t want to rest players, I think there is a chance some players could be rested in Gameweek 6 and Gameweek 7. Maybe Gameweek 7 more likely since they play West Ham at home – and also considering they play City in gameweek 8. At the moment when I right this, Liverpool have not bought anyone but before transfer window ends, they could buy someone who can play in the front 3 instead of Salah, Mane or Firmino. Or someone who can replace TAA. They have bought the left back Kostas Tsimikas who could step in for Robertson for some matches.
Manchester City
City’s fixtures around matchday 1 to 3 are –
GW5 – Arsenal (H)
Champions League – MD1
GW6 – West Ham (A)
Champions League – MD2
GW7 – Sheffield United (A)
Champions League – MD3
GW8 – Liverpool (H)
Similar to Liverpool, their “easiest” fixtures appear to be in gameweek 6 and 7. It is Pep/City so are likely to see rotation. Trying to second guess Pep though and who will be rested is nearly impossible. And even for which game but you would have thought if he was to rest someone, it would be v West Ham and Sheffield United. Last season KDB pretty much played every game and City were not the same without him. Sterling played most too but keep an eye on likes of Mahrez, Bernardo Silva and Foden. With Sane leaving City (although he was injured basically all last season), that means less worry of a space “being taken” but City could easily buy someone. (Although I don’t believe the rumours about Messi maybe joining City but imagine if he did!)
Manchester United
United’s fixtures around matchday 1 to 3 are –
GW5 – Newcastle (A)
Champions League – MD1
GW6 – Chelsea (H)
Champions League – MD2
GW7 – Arsenal (H)
Champions League – MD3
GW8 – Everton (A)
For United, its sort of the opposite for Liverpool and City, and the easiest games seem to be in gameweek 5 and 8. This is tougher and means potentially 5 games in a row of really tough matches. So potentially Ole will rest players v Newcastle and then v Everton before it all starts again. United clearly need better squad depth so lets see what happens. If its like last season, it will be the same players and you can pick 9-10 players pretty much for certain in the team. I am a United fan so I hope we buy at least a few quality players – some first XI players, some improved quality for the bench/squad.
Chelsea
Chelsea’s fixtures are –
GW5 – Southampton (H)
Champions League – MD1
GW6 – Manchester United (A)
Champions League – MD2
GW7 – Burnley (A)
Champions League – MD3
GW8 – Sheffield United (H)
On paper it looks like Chelsea have the easiest fixtures with just the game v United potentially being a “tough” match. Thats not to say other matches will be easy wins. Burnley are well organised, Southampton did OK last season after that humiliating defeat and Ings couldn’t stop scoring and Sheffield United are well organised but seems to run out of gas a bit in Project Restart. Depending on who Chelsea play in Champions League, the game v Burnley could be when Lampard rests players, maybe also v Southampton?
Matchday 4, 5, 6
Matchday 4 is after gameweek 9, matchday 6 is before gameweek 12.
Liverpool
Liverpool’s fixtures, around matchday 4 to 6 are –
GW9 – Leicester (H)
Champions League – MD4
GW10 – Brighton (A)
Champions League – MD5
GW11 – Wolves (H)
Champions League – MD6
GW12 – Fulham (A)
The difficulty of fixtures seems to be spaced out – and it could depend on which Leicester is playing this season. Is it the pre lockdown Leicester who were really good, or post lockdown when they were pretty rubbish mostly. If Liverpool were to rest players, could well be that game v Brighton
Manchester City
City’s fixtures around matchday 4 to 6 are –
GW9 – Spurs (A)
Champions League – MD4
GW10 – Burnley (H)
Champions League – MD5
GW11 – Fulham (H)
Champions League – MD6
GW12 – Manchester United (A)
As mentioned earlier, who knows with Pep and who will be rested/rotated, but you could think v Burnley is when players most likely to be rotated. And also v Fulham too (which may not be good news as you could easily see people tripling up on Fulham and maybe even triple captaining someone) especially if its a tough matchday 6 Champions League game and then in gameweek 12, its the Manchester derby.
Manchester United
United’s fixtures around matchday 4 to 6 are –
GW9 – West Brom (H)
Champions League – MD4
GW10 – Southampton (A)
Champions League – MD5
GW11 – West Ham (A)
Champions League – MD6
GW12 – Manchester City (H)
On paper, this looks like a nice run of fixtures in the league for United so if there are options, could see players rested v West Brom and West Ham in particular. Although West Ham ended the season well – this will be far enough into the season to know who is in form or not. Maybe West Ham more likely that players rested since Champions League and then Manchester derby after it??
Chelsea
Chelsea’s fixtures are –
GW9 – Newcastle (A)
Champions League – MD4
GW10 – Spurs (A)
Champions League – MD5
GW11 – Leeds (H)
Champions League – MD6
GW12 – Everton (A)
Once again, on paper, Chelsea seem to have a decent run of fixtures in the league. Newcastle and Everton you would have thought they should win. Leeds at the moment are an unknown on how they will handle being in the Premier League. As a club of course they have experience but not some of their players. So on paper, only Spurs is the “tough” match so maybe rest players v Newcastle and Leeds??
So that concludes looking at the Premier League teams who will be playing in Champions League. We don’t know who teams will be some that is likely to effect your thoughts on what will happen. And the transfer window is still open so there still could be plenty of big signings. If its anything like last season, its like that City will be the toughest team to work out how will play. But good luck!
I have not looked at the knockout stages – since we don’t know who will get through group stage. I may look into Europa League and Spurs and Leicester if I have time??