Crystal Palace might be the biggest trap in FPL history. Here's why you should consider rolling transfers instead

Crystal Palace's star assets, like Ismaila Sarr, may be worth ignoring in Gameweek 36 and beyond Eddie Keogh/Getty Images Share articleThe final planned double gameweek of the season has arrived, with Manchester City and Crystal Palace each playing twice in Gameweek 36. Ordinarily, the advice would be to rip up your team to triple-up on the clubs with two fixtures, but this time around, things maybe aren’t as clear-cut. So, should we be spending transfers on the doublers or is the actual smart play to roll heading into the final two gameweeks of the season? Gameweek 35 may end up proving pivotal in the battle for the Premier League title. Arsenal took the opportunity to move six points clear of Manchester City courtesy of their emphatic 3-0 home win against Fulham on Saturday. Crucially, City then slipped up in a 3-3 draw at Everton on Monday night, reducing the gap to five points, with Pep Guardiola’s game having a game in hand: their midweek fixture against visitors Crystal Palace in Gameweek 36. While it previously looked like this race could go down to the wire, we could now be in a situation where the title is all but sewn up after this round of Premier League fixtures. That wouldn’t be good news for fantasy managers who loaded up on Arsenal and City assets with the run-in in mind. If City were to drop more points in their home games against Brentford and then Palace, a win for Arsenal at West Ham on Sunday could be the, ahem, hammer blow to their hopes. Notably, Arsenal play their Gameweek 37 fixture before City do, hosting Burnley on Monday, May 18, before Pep Guardiola and company go to Bournemouth the following evening. That could mean rotation for both sides in the final two gameweeks of the season, especially with City having the FA Cup final to come next weekend, plus a Champions League final for Arsenal at the end of the month. While it’s important to have a triple-up on City assets due to the quality of their fixtures in Gameweek 36, it might not be worth using additional transfers to move from one of their players to another. Erling Haaland (£14.6million) remains a season keeper, especially since he is in the hunt for yet another Golden Boot, having scored in three successive Premier League games to take his tally to 25. The FPL ownership of Antoine Semenyo (£8.1m) is currently just under 50 per cent and he’s gone five straight games without a goal involvement. Expect to see fire-sales of managers disposing of him following this double if he continues to blank and City fail to keep pace with Arsenal. Meanwhile, Marc Guehi (£5.1m) and Nico O’Reilly (£5.2m) are among the five most-owned defenders in the game but seeing their back line undone by Everton on the counter-attack on Monday has raised some concerns. Fourteen clean sheets in the 34 matches so far this campaign cannot be ignored, especially with City recording shutouts in the reverse fixtures against both opponents in this double, Brentford and Palace. However, a trip to Bournemouth plus a home game against Aston Villa on the final day are likely to provide stiffer tests defensively, meaning a natural exit point for City defenders. This will be exacerbated by their motivation for Premier League points come Gameweek 37, with their FA Cup final being played next Saturday, May 16, ahead of that midweek trip to Bournemouth and the week’s FPL deadline coming on the Friday evening as a result of Aston Villa’s game against Liverpool being switched to that day to help them prepare for the Europa League final on Wednesday, May 20. Palace’s double gameweek could be the biggest banana skin in Fantasy Premier League history if their performance in Gameweek 35 is anything to go by. Against Bournemouth on Sunday, Oliver Glasner made five changes from their UEFA Conference League semi-final first-leg win over Shakhtar Donetsk three days earlier, including leaving star player Ismaila Sarr (£6.4m) and striker Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.6m) on the bench. Expect similar circumstances across their Double Gameweek 36 fixtures, which come immediately after their 2-1 second-leg victory. Palace have Premier League fixtures on Sunday, Wednesday and next Sunday. Picking their attacking players is a very high-risk strategy. I wouldn’t expect any of their top forwards to play close to the 180 minutes against Everton this weekend and City on May 13. Therefore, I’d avoid using a transfer on them. We might see more consistent minutes among their defence, with Maxence Lacroix (£5.2m) a reliable bet for minutes over recent gameweeks. However, they have conceded three goals in each of their past two Premier League games, which isn’t exactly a confidence boost for potential defensive investment. The south Londoners have a tough end to the Premier League season, with fixtures against Brentford and Arsenal seeing out Glasner’s tenure. A European final three days after the latter match muddies the waters further. Fantasy managers must weigh up the value of using a transfer this week to buy a Palace asset against having that free transfer for the final two gameweeks. This is a phase of the season where we tend to see high rotation, some teams mentally on the beach already, varying motivations and players retiring or going for individual accolades. All that will be further exacerbated this time by the looming World Cup and individuals chasing places in their respective international squads or perhaps easing off to ensure they are fit for the tournament. Therefore, I believe the best move is to ignore Palace assets this week and save that transfer for a differential punt over the final two gameweeks. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms