FPL GW20

Gabriel is back

If you followed my advice going Hincapie to Gabriel last week, you are now a happy owner and your team value will be sent to space - it's already half way there!

To make good things even better, Calafiori is still out, which probably pushes Hincapie to LB making Gabriel more likely to start the upcoming game than I initially believed. If you own, you should start him in my opinion.

Congratulations, but for the rest of us, now is the question whether you bring him in or not right away.

First of all, I'm not going to do it now, and I am not going to force it at all cost. The repercussions down the line can be fatal, and while he is probably the best defender in the game (hi, Timber), the 1:1 transfer from Saliba is not worth it for me when I only have 2 FTs and I would like to soon get Bruno back, Palmer could become essential, and we may even need transfers for a double gameweek in GW26/27.

A few circumstances for you could be:

• Owning 2 or fewer Arsenal players: Gabriel is high priority

• Owning Rice: If FTs allow, a double move with Gabriel in is good

• Owning 3 Arsenal players from: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Saka: Gabriel can wait, Saliba to Gabriel is good if your team is perfect and you have 3+ FTs

• Owning different Arsenal players: Gabriel is a good transfer in if it doesn't damage elsewhere.

If you already own Gabriel, I would suggest you keep him and try not to brag around your friends too much.

Team selection

This week is actually extremely hard, it is a perfect week to roll, but uncertainty around different players make me think twice.

First if all, I want to start Van den Berg, who I expect to swap back into the Brentford team, but you never know.

Then Minteh is a very hard read. He had a scan with no issues and has trained, but there has been noise around him and it's never good with a short turnaround after being subbed due to injury. That could end up being an advantage, as he has only played 45 and 58 mins in the last two games, and Burnley at home is the best fixture of the season. I expect him to start, and the best Brighton predictor does the same. But it's a 50/50, he could even not be in the squad.

That's also why my alternative is to buy a player instead of Minteh, but I don't really like the alternatives. Kudus and Paqueta don't really appeal to me, mostly due to them not being good long term options and free transfers should be handled with caution right now.

Lastly, I doubt Thiago will start after playing 90 minutes again for Brentford. He is being monitored with an ongoing issue and their turnaround is extremely short. Schade was subbed after 80 minutes indicating he needs to play the mid-week game from the start. It is a bit risky benching him, and I'll see how I feel tomorrow. He may end up first bench, but I doubt I put him in the starting XI unless we get negative news about Minteh or Van den Berg.

I'll likely end up rolling my 2 free transfers and have 3 available next week, where I will reassess. Tavernier has been on the cards, but we will see.

Haaland captains the side.

Good luck everyone!