Bye Week Blues

Six teams have a missing gameweek 2 due to the European fixtures being played by Arsenal, Villa and Everton. It was advisable to not load up on these players in your team, but of course it would be crazy to totally ignore players from top teams simply for this one off week. However, if you find yourself with more than 3 players away, who should you transfer out to hurt you least?

By looking at the fixtures following the bye week it gives an indication as who is the best player to move. Of the six teams with a bye, Arsenal have the worst fixtures in the weeks 3, 4 and 5 facing Portsmouth at home (1.68 GPG) and then tricky trips to Man Utd (0.58 GPG) and Man City (0.95 GPG). Equally, Villa face trips to Liverpool (0.63 GPG) and Birmingham as well as a home game against Fulham (1.05).
City on the other hand face Wolves and Arsenal (0.95 GPG) at home, as well as a trip to Portsmouth (1.63 GPG) which should allow Hughes' men to have some success immediately after their bye (although they don't actually have a week off as they face Barcelona in a friendly).

In short, with Villa's tough fixtures and shaky opening day form I would advise moving your Villains on rather than hold them on your bench if it means not fielding a full strength side. I would even go so far as to say suggest selling one of your Arsenal boys for the next four weeks as three of these look like being low scoring weeks, with only the Portsmouth game likely to bear fruit.

City players however will cost you two transfers as you will want them immediately back before the promising games against Wolves and Portsmouth come around. Everton, West Ham and Bolton have mixed bags of fixtures so ideally you would save your transfers for a more pressing need, though losing Everton defenders at this point would be a good idea regardless of the fixture list.

Do not panic over the gameweek, but also be cautious to not pay too high a price to hold your Arsenal stars as however well they play against Portsmouth (even scoring 6 again) they are unlikely to generate enough points as someone who plays 4 easy teams in the coming weeks. I wouldn't pay four points to move these players on, but you don't want to be sat with the same look as Arsene above as your multi million pound players sit idly on the bench.