The peril of moving early with those Fantasy Premier League transfers

Some Fantasy Premier League managers just cannot wait and in bygone days would be more than happy to have pulled the trigger on transfers before the ink had dried on the Pink Final!

This is not something we can recommend since so much can happen between gameweeks, so it makes more sense to avail yourself to all of the latest information before pressing the button even though the fear of losing out on squad value is often cited as a good enough reason to move early in the market.

However, what about going to extremes and bringing a player in that still has an outstanding fixture to play in the current gameweek?

Well, this is what Wanderers did ahead of GW4 when they drafted in Eden Hazard to replace Richarlison who had seen ‘red’.

They just had the right amount of funds to enact the transfer but the threat of a price drop for the Brazilian youngster meant that the same transfer might not have been feasible later in the week due to insufficient funds.

The problem was that Hazard still had his GW3 fixture at Newcastle to negotiate and so this particular manager was certainly going to be put through the ringer.

Hazard came in for some fierce attention throughout the contest, finding himself crumpled in a heap on a number of occasions and the official line of 5 fouls drawn didn’t seem to do his performance justice.

He somehow managed to complete the full 90 minutes in spite of all this, despatching a penalty kick with aplomb and the mercurial Belgian would again line-up for the Blues in GW4 where he found the back of the net in a 2-0 victory.

A home game against Cardiff City in GW5 looks like a great opportunity for him to build on his recent form but Wanderers do have some other pressing concerns.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan was given the dreaded 1 minute cameo for Arsenal in their 3-2 win at Cardiff, while Álvaro Morata continues to frustrate and Tom Cairney is a major injury doubt ahead of the upcoming round.

Arsenal have some great fixtures between now and November, so Mkhitaryan gets a stay of execution even though FPL managers have been falling over themselves to ship him out. The free transfer is preserved and it might just come in useful with European action set to get under way next Tuesday.

An away game with Spurs is never easy so Liverpool’s dynamic defensive duo, Andrew Robertson and Virgil van Dijk, are handed a well earned breather after starting the season in splendid form.

Let’s see what GW5 brings…can Hazard weave his magic again or will it be time to hit that transfer panic button!