Gameweek 6 looks set to be a popular time to Wildcard in Fantasy Premier League (FPL). The fact that Erling Haaland (£14.3m) is at home to Burnley might have something to do with it…

In fact, over a third of the responders in our on-site poll say they are playing the chip this week:

In this article, we’ll look at the pros and cons of a Gameweek 6 Wildcard and present a few draft ideas.

Remember, you have until the Gameweek 19 deadline to use the first Wildcard.

And don’t forget that you can get your Wildcard team rated via our Rate My Team tool or Plan FPL!

GAMEWEEK 6 WILDCARD: THE ARGUMENTS FOR

Get Haaland

Over 560,000 managers have already bought Haaland this week, with his ownership at 42% and rising.

The Norwegian will face Burnley in Gameweek 6, with a favourable set of fixtures to follow against Brentford, Everton, Aston Villa and Bournemouth.

If you’ve had enough of seeing him haul, a Wildcard is a chance to buy him through the redistribution of Mohamed Salah (£14.5m) funds or otherwise.

Reduce Liverpool representation?

It seems lunacy to be advocating offloading Liverpool assets, given that they’re sitting top of the league with a 100% record.

But the upcoming fixture run is a mixed bag, starting with a Crystal Palace side unbeaten in their last 17 matches.

It’s not ‘abandon ship’ completely but each individual case has to be addressed.

In how many of the next six Gameweeks is Salah the best captain, for instance? Gameweeks 8-10 are very decent fixtures, for sure, but you also have Manchester City v Everton (h), Chelsea v Sunderland (h) and Arsenal v Burnley (a) in those three Gameweeks. If you can only afford one big-money purchase, captaincy credentials are a big consideration – and Haaland definitely has the edge in the next two Gameweeks at least.

Elsewhere, you might have gone early on Alexander Isak (£10.5m) – and discovered it was too early. So far, it’s been one no-show and one sub appearance, with every chance that he’ll be on the bench at Selhurst Park, too.

Florian Wirtz (£8.3m) is another name to chew over. He’d actually had his best game in a Liverpool shirt last week, so maybe we shouldn’t overreact to the Gameweek 5 benching, given the Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday turnaround. Nevertheless, there’s another one of those busy weeks in Gameweeks 8-9, and there’s Messrs Isak, Ekitike, Gakpo, Szoboszlai and Mac Allister challenging with him for four spots. Not worth the hassle for the time being?

Hop on Spurs?

Spurs have had favourable fixtures against Burnley and West Ham United already but there’s more good stuff on the way.

The worst side in the league, Wolverhampton Wanderers, are next. And as impressive as Leeds have been since they came up, you’d still fancy Spurs assets against Daniel Farke’s side. Winless Aston Villa, meanwhile, were branded “lazy” by their own manager on Sunday.

A big clear-out

If you haven’t got off to a good start, and some players are stinking up your team, a Gameweek 6 Wildcard can help rejuvenate your squad.

Wirtz is an example above but there are myriad others. Ollie Watkins (£8.8m) and Morgan Rogers (£7.0m) have tanked badly for a woeful Aston Villa. Forest are clean-sheet-less and their good fixtures are nearly at an end. That also applies to Chris Wood (£7.6m), who has blanked in four straight games and is now under pressure from positional rivals.

A Wildcard offers a chance to resolve these issues in one fell swoop.

Increase team value

Again, another ‘pro’ that is not just restricted to Gameweek 6, although the market tends to be more volatile earlier in the season with more active managers.

This week will likely see lots of price rises and falls, so you can enhance your team value by ditching the droppers and jumping on bandwagons like David Raya (£5.5m), Marcos Senesi (£4.7m) and more.

You can monitor these changes using Live FPL’s price change predictions tool.

Reassessing the defender landscape

Clean sheets were on the up heading into Gameweek 5, although we only saw two at the weekend.

Shut-outs or otherwise, the impact of defensive contributions (DefCons) is starting to become very clear.

The usual suspects are having a field day. James Tarkowski (£5.5m) and Marcos Senesi (£4.7m) have 100% DefCon records, earning the equivalent of an extra goal and a clean sheet apiece. Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) is not far behind them.

If you’d pooh-poohed the impact of these extra points before the season started, or perhaps decades of instinct had made you plump for attack-minded defenders, now might be the time to reassess. This Wildcard will likely see you through to 2026, so a handful of set-and-forget defenders would be useful. And who better to set and forget than the DefCon magnets who are almost certainly going to provide a steady flow of points through the autumn and winter.

GAMEWEEK 6 WILDCARD: THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST

Are you playing a Wildcard *just* for Haaland?

It’s key not to have the blinkers on when it comes to Haaland. Yes, a Wildcard can help set you on the way to getting the Norwegian.

But could you acquire his services alone with, at worst, a points hit?

Here’s yours truly’s team as an example. Out go Jorgen Strand Larsen (£6.4m) and Salah, in come Haaland and Jack Grealish (£6.8m).

This can be achieved with free transfers but, even if that wasn’t possible, the same moves for a -4 wouldn’t be too reckless.

The rest of the squad isn’t perfect (the Forest triple-up needs dealing with in time) but does it necessitate a huge overhaul this week? Not really.

Can’t Triple Captain Haaland this week

It’s important to remember that you can’t use two chips in the same Gameweek, so figure out when you want to use the Triple Captain before Wildcarding.

If you can’t see a better opportunity than Haaland against Burnley (28% of our polled users can’t), it’s time to prioritise chip usage. Could you muddle by with the rest of your team this week in order to back Haaland with the ‘TC’?

A week too early for Arsenal?

Arsenal players will be features of most Wildcards played right about now – but is it a week too early to be jumping on the Gunners?

Newcastle have the best underlying defensive data in the Premier League, while the Magpies have beaten Arsenal to nil in each of their last three meetings on Tyneside.

You’d have to temper expectations in Gameweek 6, then, if you were lumping on the Gunners this week. Alternatively, saving the Wildcard until Gameweek 7 means fewer reservations.

Other windows might be more attractive

Better fixture swings are on the way, if it’s indeed fixture swings that you desire.

In fact, in our jump-on, jump-off article, there were no favourable runs ending ahead of Gameweek 6, and no good ones starting.

We’ve already covered Arsenal in the section above.

Additionally, Chelsea rise to second on our Season Ticker in Gameweek 9, while Gameweek 13 has been widely touted as a favourable time to Wildcard due to Liverpool, Manchester City and Newcastle United’s favourable swings.

Other Wildcard windows might be more attractive from a fixture perspective, then.

GAMEWEEK 6 WILDCARD TEAM DRAFTS

The rest of this article below is completely free to read but requires a Fantasy Football Scout user account for access – you can get yours at no cost here