GW8 Chip Strategy: The Triple Captain Paid, Now Hold the Rest

Last week this column told readers to play the Triple Captain on Erling Haaland at home to Ipswich. About 724,000 managers did, more than played any other chip in Gameweek 7, and Haaland scored twice for 13 points, 39 with the chip. The Wildcard was played by around 335,000, the Bench Boost by 179,000 and the Free Hit by 93,000. For Gameweek 8 the chip question is mostly a question of patience. There is no blank, no double and no fixture that makes any chip urgent, and the most useful thing a chip can do this week is stay where it is.

A chip played in an ordinary week is a chip that cannot be played in a good one.

Triple Captain: Not at Villa Park

Haaland is the captain this week, as the Captain Recommendations column explains, but Aston Villa away is not a Triple Captain fixture. Villa have not won at home, which helps the armband. They have also conceded only 11 in seven and kept two clean sheets, which is the wrong profile for a chip that needs a haul rather than a goal. The 12:30 BST kick-off adds nothing either way.

For anyone who still holds the chip, City’s calendar to the new year offers three better targets, each rated a 2 by the official game: Fulham at home in Gameweek 11, Hull City at home in Gameweek 16, and Tottenham at home in Gameweek 19. Fulham sit 18th with ten goals conceded. Hull have conceded seven and kept three clean sheets, so the promoted side is not obviously the softer of the two. Gameweek 11 is the nearest, and it falls straight after the November international break, which is the one real risk to plan around.

Wildcard: The Injury List Has Grown

Last week’s Wildcard test still applies, and this week more squads will fail it. Antoine Semenyo is out for around eight weeks with a knee injury and is owned by more than 11 percent of managers. Bukayo Saka lasted ten minutes at Bayern Munich on Wednesday and is rated 50 percent with a thigh problem. Dominik Szoboszlai’s hamstring has gone again. Chelsea have lost Emiliano Martinez to a fractured jaw and Reece James to a knee injury. A squad carrying three of those names has real work to do, and a Wildcard does it without the hits.

The case against is the same as before. Most squads hold one or two of them, and free transfers cover that. The first-half Wildcard is available until Gameweek 19, and a later window, around the November break, lets you see whether Brighton’s run of Liverpool and Manchester City away has cost their defenders their places and whether Saka is back.

Bench Boost: This Is the Week, If You Wildcarded

Last week this column named Gameweek 8 as the Bench Boost target for anyone who Wildcarded in Gameweek 7, because all three promoted sides play at home. That still holds. Ipswich host Nottingham Forest on Friday night, and Coventry host Fulham and Hull host Brentford over the weekend, with the official game rating all three away sides’ fixtures a 2. A bench built from those away teams has a fair chance of four returns. Everyone else should keep waiting: a squad that has not been rebuilt rarely has four starters on the bench, and the Friday kick-off means one bench player’s fixture is over before most of the round begins.

Free Hit: Still Nothing to Rescue

Ten fixtures again, no blanks, and no blank or double scheduled before Gameweek 19. The Free Hit’s only first-half uses remain a week when injuries wreck an otherwise sound squad, or a one-week fixture swing worth chasing. This injury list is the closest it has come to the first case, but for most managers it is a Wildcard problem rather than a Free Hit one, because Semenyo and Martinez are out for months, not a week.

Deadline is 18:30 BST on Friday, 23 October, ninety minutes before Ipswich host Nottingham Forest. That is earlier than usual, so make the chip decision on Friday afternoon at the latest. Chips can be cancelled any time before the deadline, and the Bench Boost and Triple Captain are set on the Pick Team page.