Fantasy Premier League: Motivation over fixtures – how to make end-of-season transfers

Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes is chasing individual glory between now and the end of the season Naomi Baker/Getty Images Share articleWith just four gameweeks left, we are reaching the business end of the 2025-26 Fantasy Premier League season. Normally, when deciding whether to make a transfer, we try to balance recent form and upcoming fixtures — short-term gains allied to long-term planning. But at this late stage, the set of criteria changes. So what should we be looking for? Although we have four rounds of fixtures remaining, confirmation arrived this week of a final planned double gameweek of the season, landing in Gameweek 36. Manchester City and Crystal Palace will play twice, taking each other on at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, May 13. Earlier in the same gameweek, Manchester City host Brentford and Crystal Palace entertain Everton. Tripling up on Manchester City for the run-in is an obvious strategy as they look to hunt down Arsenal to clinch the Premier League title. They also have a looming FA Cup final to contend with. I’m playing my wildcard this week and looking to select form picks: defender Nico O’Reilly (£5.1m) has amassed a goal and an assist across his last four games, with City on 14 clean sheets for the season. Rayan Cherki (£6.5m) is outperforming the other City midfielders, with one goal and two assists in the last four gameweeks, plus strong underlying numbers. Striker Erling Haaland (£14.5m) also feels essential again after scoring in consecutive games. He leads the way for shots in the last four gameweeks, and sits on 24 goals for the campaign. Selecting Crystal Palace players is also tempting, given their extra fixture, but they sit 13th in the Premier League, so their focus is more likely to be on the Conference League. The second leg of their semi-final clash with Shakhtar Donetsk takes place on May 7, just before Gameweek 36. They will almost certainly rotate heavily if they progress to the final, which will be on May 27, a few days after the Premier League’s last round of fixtures. If you did want to take a punt, Daniel Munoz (£5.8m) has the highest ceiling of the defensive picks, with seven goal involvements in this campaign. Of the attackers, Ismaila Sarr (£6.3m) is perhaps the most appealing, with nine goal involvements, including an assist in the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool last time out. Both are short-term picks though, especially with Palace hosting title-challengers Arsenal on the final day of the season. You’ll likely need to use transfers to move them on. I’ll be backing triple Palace on a Wildcard but for those using free transfers, one or two of their players is absolutely fine. Before looking any further at the players to select from based on fixtures, motivation trumps fixture ease over the final four gameweeks of the season. There are several layers to look at, with players chasing individual accomplishments or narratives. Brentford’s Igor Thiago (£7.4m) sits just three goals behind Haaland in the Golden Boot race, with a home game against West Ham United in Gameweek 35 key to that fight going down to the wire. The fixtures do stiffen for Thiago’s side after this one, with Brentford facing Manchester City, Crystal Palace and Liverpool over the final three gameweeks, where you could look to move him on. While Manchester United look to have secured Champions League football for next season after taking three points against Brentford on Monday night, there’s still individual motivation among their ranks. Bruno Fernandes (£10.4m) is on 19 assists for the season, with four games remaining, one off the Premier League record of 20. Expect him to do everything in his power to add at least one more to his tally over the final four games, starting with Liverpool’s visit to Old Trafford on Sunday. United then close the season against Sunderland, Nottingham Forest and Brighton. It’s also an important few weeks for Casemiro (£5.8m) who is departing the club this summer, after four seasons. He is finishing his Old Trafford career on a high and has a remarkable 13 goal involvements for the campaign from defensive midfield, including six in the 13 league games since Michael Carrick took charge. He could be worth a punt. Mohamed Salah (£14.0m) picked up a hamstring injury against Crystal Palace last time out, but a Liverpool statement yesterday said that the problem is “minor”, so they expect him to play again this season. Arsenal have the chance to go six points clear of Manchester City once again when they host Fulham on Saturday, before facing West Ham, Burnley and Crystal Palace. It feels essential to be tripled-up on their assets: the biggest challenge will be owning the correct three for the run-in. Defensive options are more limited aside from goalkeeper David Raya (£6.0m) and defender Gabriel (£7.2m),who has an impressive offensive record against Fulham. I expect Mikel Arteta’s side to grind out results, building on the 16 clean sheets they have already kept in this campaign, making a defensive double-up appealing. Jurrien Timber (£6.1m) remains out, which makes the defensive options more obvious, with an injury to Kai Havertz (£7.3m) and the return of Bukayo Saka (£9.8m) from injury complicating their attacking picks. I’d still lean towards going with the consistency of midfielder Declan Rice (£7.2m), especially since Arsenal are also still involved in the Champions League. Saka feels risky, given his recent injury record, but carries a high ceiling, with Viktor Gyokeres (£8.8m) another option. Leeds United hit the 40-point mark last time out but safety is not guaranteed. They have appealing fixtures in the next two gameweeks against Burnley and Tottenham Hotspur. There’s plenty of transfer traffic moving in the direction of their assets before Gameweek 35, especially for managers planning a Bench Boost, given their budget-friendly price tags. Noah Okafor (£5.6m) has four goal involvements in the last four gameweeks, including two double-digit hauls in this period. Team-mate Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.7m) has one goal from the same period, but takes penalties and leads the way for big chances (six) over this spell. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms