Doubles, blanks, wildcards and free hits – how to use your FPL chips at the end of the 2025/26 season

After months of transfers, tweaks and (in most cases) immense frustration, the Fantasy Premier League season is heading towards the home straight. There are only a dozen matches left, and that means the usual slew of double and blank gameweeks – and with them, difficult decisions about how and when to use your remaining chips to maximum effect.

To help FPL players with their forward planning as they battle for mini-league glory and maybe even the grand prize, our expert has taken a look and when the double and blank gameweeks will fall, and how that should impact players’ chip strategy between now and Gameweek 38 in May.

When will FPL double and blank gameweeks happen this season?

While adjustments to the calendar mean that there are far fewer blank and double gameweeks taking place in the FPL than used to be the case, there are still going to be several weekends’ worth of football which are affected by various teams’ progress through cup competitions.

We’re already starting to see that happening, with the current gameweek turning into a double for both Arsenal and Wolves after their fixture from Gameweek 31 was moved due to the Gunners reaching the EFL Cup final.

It’s also likely that GW31’s match between Manchester City and Crystal Palace will be moved because City made it to Wembley as well, although there is some chance that their match is only moved a few days – and stays within the current gameweek – should both sides fail to make the quarter-finals of their respective European competitions. The likelihood, however, is that players need to plan to have no Arsenal, City, Palace or Wolves players in their starting side for GW31.

We’ll get into what that might mean for chip strategy below, but the big double and blank week is coming a little later – it’s GW33 and GW34 which really get churned up by the fixture list. That’s when you’ll really want to think through your chips.

GW34 coincides with the FA Cup semi-finals, meaning that the four teams who make it will almost certainly have their fixtures shuffled out, most likely to GW33 – which also happens to be the probable destination for Manchester City v Crystal Palace. It’s not clear what will happen if Manchester City also make the semi-finals of the FA Cup just yet.

It’s not absolutely guaranteed because of the vagaries of the calendar (and there’s always a chance that weather postponements mess things up) but the chances are that GW33 will be a big double with as many as five extra fixtures, while GW34 could be down to as few as six matches depending on how the next two rounds of the FA Cup pan out.

The impact of the cup games is likely to be especially large because there’s only one GW34 fixture set to be contested by two teams who are still in the competition now – Arsenal v Newcastle United – meaning that there will be at least three matches moved and very likely four. There’s always a chance that an EFL side makes it to the final four and reduces that number, of course.

The final potential blank gameweek will be GW37, which is when the FA Cup final takes place, but it’s possible that the affected matches stay in the same week depending on when the games are moved to. At that point in the season, there’s obviously not much room for flexibility. They’re likely to move a week either side at most, with European fixtures making the exact date they’re played uncertain.

So, to summarise: A blank gameweek in GW31 which includes Arsenal and Manchester City, another in GW34 which will likely involve several sides, and a big double in GW33 as a result – with a couple of possible extra mini-blanks and doubles floating about depending on who makes the last four of the FA Cup. But how does all that dictate how you should use your chips?

How you should use your wildcard, free hit and other chips in the FPL

With the FPL giving players two sets of chips this year, most players will have something close to a full set heading into the final dozen games of the season – and although there will be plenty of players reading this who decided to use their triple captain on an Arsenal player this week (the author included) and no doubt many who have had to burn their wildcard out of desperation, we’ll look at the optimal strategy assuming you have a full complement.

The best way to maximise chip value is fairly straightforward: With GW33 set to be such a big double and GW34 set to be a hefty blank, the ideal set-up is to wildcard ahead of GW33 to maximise your returns from it, bench boosting in GW33 itself, and then using a free hit to help you get through GW34.

If you have all three of those chips, that’s almost certainly going to be the best way to use them. It’s worth noting that the FA Cup quarter-finals take place between GW31 and GW32, meaning that you won’t know which games are being moved until after the first blank, so there’s no way to navigate through that group of games with perfect information. You just have to wildcard in GW32 and use regular transfers to remove Arsenal and Manchester City players prior to GW31.

Players who have already burned their wildcard are going to be in a tricky spot, and may be forced to save up as many transfers as possible to prepare for either the double or the blank in advance, and then use the free hit on the other. It’s not necessarily a disaster, however, given that players can save five free transfers now. Just make sure to save them if you have wildcarded, as you will really need them.

The odd chip out in a strategy of wildcard 32, bench boost 33 and free hit 34 is, of course, triple captain. There is every chance that the FA Cup final and Manchester City’s progress through various competitions will create a double outside of those weeks to exploit, and it may well be that you can use it on Erling Haaland. It’s not guaranteed by any means, but it’s hardly a stretch of the imagination.

It may be that the ‘wrong’ teams get those mini-doubles, of course, in which case you may have to settle for a second-tier player getting the triple armband, or to gamble on a player like Haaland going big in a single fixture. The thing to remember is not to prioritise your triple captain above the other chips – on average, it’s comfortably the least valuable of the four. If you have to compromise anywhere, compromise on triple captain.

To wrap up, then: The best way to maximise your chips is to wildcard in GW32 into a team with lots of players about to play doubles, bench boost in GW33, and then free hit your way into a competitive team in GW34. Stick with that, and you’ll be giving yourself the best possible chance to go big this year.