GW3 Fixture Analysis: Palace, Liverpool and Newcastle Have the Kindest Run
Ten matches make up Gameweek 3: Arsenal host Chelsea, Man City host Coventry, Everton host Man United, Liverpool travel to Ipswich, and Newcastle host Bournemouth among them. But the more useful exercise this week is looking past Saturday to the six-gameweek window through Gameweek 8, where the fixture swings that actually decide transfers start to show up.
A single green fixture is a captaincy option. A run of them is a transfer target.
GAMEWEEK 3 FIXTURES
Arsenal vs Chelsea
Man City vs Coventry City
Everton vs Man United
Liverpool: away at Ipswich Town
Newcastle vs Bournemouth
Brentford vs Sunderland, Brighton vs Leeds, Fulham vs Crystal Palace, Hull vs Aston Villa
Kindest fixtures on the 1 to 5 scale this week: Liverpool, Brentford, Brighton
The Best Six-Gameweek Runs (GW3-8)
Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Newcastle share the softest average fixture difficulty over the next six gameweeks, all sitting around 2.67 on the standard 1-to-5 scale. Palace’s run is the one worth flagging early: away at Fulham this week, then home to Ipswich in Gameweek 4 and away at Leeds in Gameweek 5, a stretch that never touches a genuine top-six defence. None of these three sides is expensive to build around, which is exactly why the run matters more than any single fixture inside it.
The Worst Six-Gameweek Runs (GW3-8)
Leeds, Ipswich and Bournemouth carry the heaviest average difficulty over the same window, all around 3.33. All three are also newly promoted or mid-table sides without the squad depth to rotate through a difficult run, which compounds the fixture problem with a genuine minutes and form problem. None of the three are must-avoids as squad players, but none are transfer targets either until the schedule turns.
Fixture Swing to Watch: Sunderland
Sunderland’s opening two matches looked manageable, Ipswich away and Fulham at home, but the schedule turns hard fast. Arsenal visit the Stadium of Light in Gameweek 4, then Sunderland travel to Manchester City in Gameweek 5, both landing around their Europa League commitments. That combination makes them the single toughest side on the six-gameweek tracker. Any Sunderland asset bought for the soft opening carries real rotation risk from here.
What This Means for Transfers
Crystal Palace and Newcastle defenders are the clearest budget clean-sheet targets heading into Gameweek 4 and beyond, without needing to pay Arsenal or Man City prices for the privilege. Liverpool’s run supports holding their attacking assets rather than chasing a one-week swap. On the other side, this is not the week to bring in a Leeds, Ipswich or Bournemouth player expecting the fixtures to bail out the decision. Let the schedule do the filtering before the eye test does.
