FPL – When Was The Free Hit Chip Used By The Top 1000 Players Last Season?
Here at The Stats Zone, we are producing a series of articles looking at the chip strategies used by the top 1000 players from the 2018-19 FPL season.
This article focuses on the FREE HIT chip.
Just fewer than 800 of the top 1000 players chose to use their free hit chip in Double Gameweek 32. The first proper double gameweek of the season, DGW32 was surrounded by BGW31 and BGW33. The most common strategy amongst the top 1000 was to prepare their teams to tackle the blank gameweeks with transfers, before then using their second wildcard in GW34 to fix their team for the final stretch of the season.
FPL managers using their free hit chip in DGW32 had ten teams playing twice who they could choose from. Brighton, Cardiff, Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Fulham, Man City, Man Utd, Spurs, Watford and Wolves were the sides pulling double duty. Much like in DGW35 it was defenders that offered the most value for money as Ayemric Laporte (18), Cesar Azpilicueta (16) and Patrick van Aanholt (16) all scored big. Spurs’ Christian Eriksen was the top scorer of the week with 20 points, while Ruben Loftus-Cheek showed his potential as one to watch for the 2019-20 season with a 19-point haul.
The second most popular gameweek in which the free chip was used was BGW31 where over 100 FPL managers from the top 1000 activated the chip. During this gameweek only ten teams had a fixture due to club involvement in the FA Cup. Three players – Sadio Mane, Josh King and Karlan Grant – scored 13 points that week in what was generally a low scoring gameweek for FPL managers.
The final three gameweeks in the top five where the chip was used were BGW33, BGW27 and DGW35. This therefore meant that the free hit chip was the only chip where the top five gameweeks in which it was used were either double or blank gameweeks.
For more of our 2018-19 chip strategy analysis of the top 1000 players, see below:
