Here are are Fantasy Premier League tips ahead of gameweek 8 on who to transfer in and when is the best time to use your wildcard. 

FPL Deadline: Saturday, October 7, 11am BST.

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Fantasy Premier League: Three essential FPL tips for GW8

Is it time to wildcard?

There are always many factors which feed into an FPL manager’s decision to wildcard, whether it be a slew of injuries, a run of bad scores, or it’s the only way to get a particular player without taking hits.

The wildcard will be activated a lot over the next couple of weeks as there will be big fixture swings for a number of clubs, which will dictate your fantasy plans. But is now the right time to use it, or perhaps over the international break, or even wait until GW10?

If you don’t have any Spurs or Liverpool players, now is a good time to wildcard so you can jump on the likes of Mo Salah and Son Heung-min. The former have Luton and Fulham over the next two gameweeks, while the latter travel to Brighton, which is a great attacking fixture, before hosting Everton and Nottingham Forest, followed by Luton away.

Aston Villa, Man United, and Newcastle also have a nice run of upcoming fixtures that make their assets look very attractive.

It’s also a good time to offload some of your Man City assets if you have loaded up on them, as this writer has, given they have a tough slate of fixtures this month. Obviously, transfer Erling Haaland out at your peril.

If you feel your team is covered in those areas and you can make do with free transfers for now, then it may be worth holding the wildcard for another week or two. The likes of Arsenal, Brighton and West Ham all have really good fixture swings from GW10 onwards, while Crystal Palace have great fixtures between GW11 and GW15.

Ultimately, the decision to wildcard may come down to whether or not you have Mo Salah, because everyone is going to want him for the forthcoming run of games and the wildcard will be the only way to get transfer him in.

Five Premier League favourites underrated elsewhere

Jarrod Bow-in

One of the most overlooked players before the season began, Jarrod Bowen (£7.3m) is somehow still only owned by less than 17 percent of FPL managers. That’s despite the fact he has scored in five of the opening seven games.

In fairness, there is an abundance of high-performing yet underpriced midfielders in Fantasy Premier League this year, so it’s difficult to pick out the right ones. But the West Ham attacker should be considered among the must-haves.

Over the last five gameweeks only four players have more expected goal involvements (xGI) than Bowen, according to Opta. Only Bukayo Saka has more expected goals among midfielders over the same period.

This season the 26-year-old has developed into the Hammers’ biggest attacking threat. Although they have Newcastle at home and Aston Villa away up next, the London outfit have a really nice fixture schedule after then all the way up to GW17.

Bowen will also be on a high after getting recalled into the England squad and providing a wonderful assist for Lucas Paqueta in the Europa League on Thursday.

Jarrod Bowen the orchestrator
Lucas Paqueta the poacher

West Ham take an early lead in Germany! #UEL pic.twitter.com/1Yi7dKyOcn

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 5, 2023

West Ham and Villa stars earn England recall from Southgate

Villa man is perfect Estupinan replacement

News of Pervis Estupinan’s muscle injury, which will keep him out of action for a month, was a hammer blow to FPL managers this week. The Ecuadorian left-back saw his ownership rise to over 55 percent after a stellar start to the season, but now there is a huge gap in our squads that needs to be filled.

That’s where Matty Cash (£4.9m) comes in. The Aston Villa defender has been in outstanding form this season, registering two goals and an assist in seven games.

Estupinan has been heralded as the best attacking full-back in the Premier League right now, but perhaps that mantle belongs to Cash. After all, the Poland international has racked up more shots, shots in the box, xG and xGI than any other defender – and by a distance, too. No defender has more than his three big chances either.

Villa are not the most defensively resolute side in the Premier League, as evidenced by big defeats to Newcastle and Liverpool. They have also conceded 25 big chances so far, the second most in the division, so don’t expect many clean sheets.

But they do have a superb run of fixtures, starting this weekend with Wolves away, before facing West Ham and Luton at Villa Park, Forest on the road, and Fulham at home.

Read – 12 FPL tips to help you master Fantasy Premier League

See Also – Fantasy Premier League: 60 FPL team names for 2023/24

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The post Fantasy Premier League: Three essential FPL tips ahead of Gameweek 8 first appeared on The Football Faithful.