FPL Gameweek 22: Tips, Transfers, Captain & Team

Winter break is a test of patience for FPL managers. There are 18 days between GW21 and Gameweek 22 deadline of Fantasy Premier League, so there is a lot of room to think about strategies, but also a lot of room for potential mistakes.

Let’s jump to our FPL GW22 Tips with the best picks, fixtures, transfer targets, odds, captain picks, and team selection.

1. Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 22 Tips

• Start preparing for GW25 which is going to be a double gameweek (Manchester City and Brentford will play twice). Read more: When is next double gameweek in FPL?
• Gameweek 26 will be a blank gameweek: Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Luton have postponed game
• There are Carabao Cup and FA Cup games before GW22 (see more in our FPL calendar), so anything could happen before GW22 deadline
• The FA Cup 4th Round will give us some clue on which teams could possibly blank in GW29, although it will be fully determined after GW26 where FA Cup 5th round is scheduled to.
• If you have one free transfer, try to not make an early transfer – it doesn’t make sense, save your free transfer close to the deadline as there are almost 3 weeks between GW21 – GW22 deadline. You will have to suffer a few price drops, but it is far better than transferring in a player who might get injured during long break.
• If you have two free transfers, you can potentially use one free transfer early, and save the other for the deadline, however, we would still advise saving both free transfers to Tuesday 30 January.
• Kevin De Bruyne was superb on GW21, but just wait for more information from Pep on whether he will be available from the start in next couple of games.
• Ederson injury should not be serious, he could be back soon, so we do not consider Ortega as an option

Haaland plan for GW22

• Haaland was not ready to play in the FA Cup against Tottenham and Pep said that Haaland could play his first minutes against Burnley. That sound more like he could play his first minutes off the bench. Read more about it in our article: Our Haaland plan for GW22

This is what Pep Guardiola said before the FA Cup fixture against Spurs:

PEP 💬 Tomorrow he [Erling Haaland] is still not ready but he is close. Some training sessions last two days. pic.twitter.com/D1IrLWSbKJ

— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 25, 2024

It looks that Haaland might play some part in the GW22 fixture against Burnley, but that could be off the bench:

Erling Haaland has not felt any pain in his foot during training over the past 10 days, confirms Pep Guardiola.

Pep: “Now he feels good and now we give him three or four more days and hopefully against Burnley he can play some minutes, his first minutes, we will see.

— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) January 25, 2024

What to do with Trent Alexander Arnold?

• Kept him, it looks he is fit as he played few minutes off the bench in FA Cup fixture on weekend.

Asian Cup and AFCON players

Some players could return from AFCON and Asian Cup for GW22 – players whose nations will be eliminated in the group stage. But those who make it to the final will return in GW25.

• Cameroon and Ghana were eliminated from AFCON, so Kudus and Onana should be available soon for their clubs, perhaps even in Gameweek 22

Read more: When will players return from AFCON & Asian Cup to Premier League?

Salah injury news

• Salah got injured in AFCON, and is out for 3-4 weeks (from the injury)
• He is rehabilitating in Liverpool, but if Egypt reaches the AFCON final, Salah will travel and play for Egypt (he should be fit by the time the final takes place).
• Nevertheless, it looks like Salah could be potentially back around Gameweek 25
• It’s worth noticing, that Liverpool has postponed game in GW26

Our early thoughts on chip strategies

• FPL Chip Strategies for 2023/24
• When to use second wildcard in FPL?
• When to use triple captain?
• When to use free hit?
• When to use bench boost?

2. FPL Gameweek 22 Transfer Tips and Key Players to pick

Key players to pick

• Saka, Odegaard – aim to have at least one Arsenal midfielder – you could even double up on their midfield as you will be looking for Son and Salah replacement
• Gabriel/Saliba/Raya –  have at least one Arsenal defensive player
• Palmer – good stats, fixtures, on penalties
• Watkins
• Pedro Porro – attacking threat

Transfer targets

• De Bruyne
• Maddison – back from injury
• Kudus
• Jota (but we think the time to buy him was before GW21, and now the transfer would feel like chasing past points)
• Gross
• Gordon
• Doughty
• Estupinan
• Joao Pedro
• VVD
• Walker
• Richarlison
• Crystal Palace or Aston Villa defender

5. Best captain pick in Gameweek 22

According to our captaincy index, De Bruyne is the best captain in FPL Gameweek 22 with a captaincy index score of 1.76.

Jota (captaincy index score 1.58) is the number 2 captaincy pick and Bowen (1.39) is number 3.

If you are looking for a differential captain, consider giving the armband to Alvarez or Foden. Saka is also a decent captain for GW22 despite he poorer recent form.

6. What bookies odds say about Gameweek 22

As usual, we converted bookies odds into probabilities using our Odds to probability calculator, to assess the potential of gameweek 22.

Clean sheet odds for GW22

Manchester City (57 %) is the most likely team to keep a clean sheet in GW22. Bookies also favor Crystal Palace (48 %) and Arsenal (43 %) to potentially keep a clean sheet in GW22.

Bookies expect 4.83 clean sheets in gameweek 22 in the last season, we were used to a rate of 5.45 per clean sheets gameweek. This season we have seen clean sheets at the rate of 4.38 clean sheets per gameweek.

You can see the expected clean sheets table and clean sheet odds for all Premier League teams here.

Expected clean sheets

Due to correction in the number of clean sheets: Everton, Bournemouth

Everton overperformed their defensive expectations the most of all teams. They should have kept 4.79 clean sheets instead of 7 according to our expected clean sheets table.

Due to an improvement in the number of clean sheets: Brighton, Man. City

Brighton underperformed their defensive expectations the most from all teams. They should have kept 5.39 clean sheets instead of 2 according to our expected clean sheets table.

You can see the expected clean sheets table and clean sheet odds for all Premier League teams here.

Goalscoring odds for GW22

Check who leads any time goalscoring odds for GW22 here: Premier League Goalsocring Odds.

7. FPL GW22 Team selection: Scout Picks

Now let’s look at our FPL team selection for Gameweek 22. De Bruyne is our captain.

8. Fantasy Premier League Tips

Find more tips, strategies and picks for Fantasy Premier League in these articles:

• Beginner? Read our guide: How to play Fantasy Premier League
• Confused about the rules? Read the Official rules of the game or check our FAQs
• Want to beat your mini-league rivals? This article is for you: 7 Key Tips for Fantasy Premier League Success
• Interested in improving your decision-making process when picking players to your fantasy team? Check out Books that will help you to improve your FPL skills

We hope our FPL GW22 tips with the best picks, fixtures, transfer targets, odds, captain picks, and team selection helped you to gather some useful information before the Gameweek 22 deadline.

Feel free to JOIN our Fantasy Football Reports mini-league by clicking this link or using our league code ti56kl.

Good luck in FPL GW22!

Matej Šuľan

Fantasy Football enthusiast with two top 1k finishes in FPL. Best FPL overall rank: 119th in 2019/20 season. Five top 500 finishes in UCL Fantasy, best overall rank: 23rd in 2018/19 season. Founder of Fantasy Football Reports.