Lee Bonfield reveals his line-up and explains his picks for the reduced round of matches
Managers face a problem in Blank Gameweek 34 of Fantasy Premier League, with six teams having no Premier League fixture, and their players scoring zero points – AFC Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion, Burnley, Chelsea, Leeds United and Manchester City.
A simple solution is to use the Free Hit chip, which enables you to pick a whole new team for this one troublesome Gameweek only. In Gameweek 35, your squad will revert back to what it was in Double Gameweek 33.
Lee Bonfield is among a number of FPL experts who are using the chip this week. Here, he reveals his line-up for Blank Gameweek 34 and explains his choices.
Lee Bonfield explains his Free Hit team
There are a couple of essential picks for my Free Hit team.
Bruno Fernandes (£10.3m) is now only two Premier League assists away from equalling the record of 20 in a season, jointly held by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry.
The Manchester United midfielder could achieve that this weekend, having registered at least one Fantasy assist in each of the last six Gameweeks. Gabriel (£7.1m) also feels essential as Arsenal look to win every game between now and the end of the season in the race to be champions.
I have paired Gabriel with goalkeeper David Raya (£6.0m) for the Arsenal defensive double-up, and Casemiro with Fernandes for the attacking double-up at Manchester United.
I have also chosen two players each from Aston Villa and West Ham United. Aston Villa are competing on two fronts, with a Europa League semi-final on the horizon, but they also need to secure Champions League football for next season via their league position.
Ollie Watkins (£8.6m) has scored six goals in his last five games in all competitions, with the forward rediscovering his form at the perfect time during the run-in. I have paired him with Morgan Rogers (£7.4m), who has produced an attacking return in each of the last three Gameweeks.
Liverpool are my final double-up, for their match against Crystal Palace. Mohamed Salah (£14.0m) has scored three goals in his last four starts in all competitions and is looking to end his career at Liverpool by securing Champions League football for the team next season.
Meanwhile, Virgil van Dijk‘s (£6.2) headed winner in Sunday’s Merseyside derby was his fourth league goal of the season. The Liverpool captain also has one assist, 10 clean sheets, 28 defensive contribution points and 10 bonus points this season.
Despite Spurs having the best fixture in BGW34, away against relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers, I have only opted for Pedro Porro (£5.1m). He is back on set-pieces under new head coach Roberto De Zerbi and, with more license to get forward, he has potential for points at both ends of the pitch.
I have also picked Jarrod Bowen (£7.7m) and Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.4m). Like Spurs, their respective teams West Ham and Nottingham Forest also need the points in the battle to stay up. Bowen has an FPL return in each of his last five home games, while Gibbs-White registered a hat-trick and his biggest ever FPL return in Gameweek 33.
The bench is made up of Liverpool goalkeeper Freddie Woodman (£3.9m), Sunderland defender Omar Alderete (£4.1m), West Ham defender El Hadji Malick Diouf (£4.1m) and Wolves forward Mateus Mane (£4.3m).
