Always Cheating: A Fantasy Premier League Podcast

There are still four games to play in the major GW26 double, but FPL have since announced even more doubles coming in March. So what does this mean? And how can it help us? With Josh on vacation, Brandon is joined by guest Shiv Morjaria to run through the fixture changes and discuss how we can best use the new schedule to boost our fantasy rank. We look closely at GW27 to GW30, the teams that doub...

Potentially one of the biggest gameweeks of the FPL season, eight teams will double in GW26. Josh and Brandon look at each club's squad and debate the assets to either target or avoid. The asset clearly at the front of every fantasy manager's mind is Mo Salah—but did his performance against Burnley shake our confidence in giving him the Triple Captaincy next week? The Cheaters also hunt around for...

This week's FA Cup results and subsequent Round 5 draw provided fresh clarity on what double and blank gameweeks are to come for FPL managers. And, of course, with double and blank gameweeks comes chip talk and strategies on how to optimize our fantasy returns. Given what we now know about the remaining Premier League schedule, Josh and Brandon use this episode to zero in on the state of this seas...

As we muddle through this extended winter break, the Cheaters review gameweeks 12–23 of this FPL season through the lens of each week's dream team. That's right—it's once again time for the Kings of the Gameweek. What lessons can we learn and what patterns can we discern from the teams, players, and positions that appear in the FPL site's often overlooked feature? We also discuss the latest manage...

We're joined this week by operations research specialist Sertalp B. Çay to discuss and demystify FPL's current data revolution. The sheer amount of data now available for fantasy managers can be intimidating. So, if you're inexperienced with analytics, where should you begin? What stats and tools will be most helpful is gaining a competitive edge on the millions of FPL players, or simply your clos...

While superstars like Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes owned this weekend's Premier League action, the FPL narrative belongs to new January transfers like Aston Villa's Philippe Coutinho and Lucas Digne. Yeah, Chris Wood, too . . . sure. So, what do we actually make of the upcoming fantasy prospects for these new signings? Is one performance enough to cement our faith? We also pick the bones of...

With the magic of the FA Cup subsiding, we must now turn our attention to the impending doubles of GW22. Preparing our fantasy squads won't be easy, though, as injuries, COVID cases, and fixture postponements continue to complicate matters. Join Josh and Brandon as they discuss the teams and players who'll benefit most from a double gameweek, and then assess the pros and cons of certain chip strat...

As we emerge from the hectic festive period, it's a good time to assess exactly where we are and where we're headed in this FPL season. Fixture postponements, COVID-positive players, and the upcoming African Cup of Nations all present obstacles and uncertainty, but there is still opportunity to be had in the New Year. This week we're previewing the teams and players poised to benefit from double g...

Boxing Day delivered on exciting football and high-flying Free Hit squads, but also presented more of the same challenges for FPL managers with match postponements and unpredictable lineups. Alas, there's not much time to dwell as the festive fixtures continue on with the midweek round of GW20. Arsenal-Wolves and Aston Villa-Leeds are already off the menu, so in this episode Josh and Brandon are z...

With nearly half the season now behind us, Always Cheating proudly presents our annual mid-season review of all twenty Premier League clubs. Yep, that's Arsenal to Wolves, and everyone in between. We discuss both FPL and real-life player and team performances—best and worst—and how those assessments might influence our fantasy decisions down the home stretch. We also rate clubs on the all-importan...

GW17 kicks off this Tuesday, so we have precious little time to preview the matches and sharpen our FPL strategy. On this episode we discuss our biggest dilemmas including: COVID-19 infections and rumors surging through the Premier League, an underperforming Chelsea defense, the allure of Ollie Watkins, the price tag of Cristiano Ronaldo, and the quickly developing pool of emerging midfielders. Ha...

As midfielders like Bernardo Silva, Mason Mount, and Son Heung-min emerge from GW15 with incredible fantasy returns, it's the perfect moment for us to wipe the slate clean and reconsider some assets who we've unjustly pushed aside. And is this refresh of midfield options going to push FPL managers from "big at the back" to five across the middle? The Cheaters also preview GW16 and the impact of in...

The GW14 deadline is just hours away, so there's precious little time to dwell on the ups and downs of this weekend's blizzard-filled events. Spurs assets? What Spurs assets? We're now looking ahead to the midweek fixtures and debating which budget-priced forwards between Teemu Pukki, Allan Saint-Maximin, and Emmanuel Dennis are most appealing. As it turns out, some of these players have better ru...

As we now hurtle toward the festive period, Premier League fixtures are about to start piling up. Rotation and fatigue are worries and its time to look seriously at the quality of our FPL benches. This week, we're attempting a commonsense approach in tackling some major fantasy dilemmas: We estimate the shelf-life of the current preferred "big at the back" defense—how long can fullbacks like Reece...

Who are the key FPL assets heading into GW12? And which players should we be avoiding? Josh and Brandon check in on all of the international break news—from Sadio Mané's possible injury with Senegal to Harry Kane's hat trick for England—and then make some bold predictions on how the matches will unfold this coming weekend. We also discuss the managerial changes at Aston Villa (Steven Gerrard), New...

On the eve of another international break, we review the first eleven gameweeks of this FPL season through the lens of each week's dream team. That's right—it's time for the Kings of the Gameweek. What lessons can we learn and what patterns can we discern from the teams, players, and positions that appear in the FPL site's often overlooked feature? We also discuss the ongoing points draught for fa...

We're joined by special guest Eric Freeman to review the action from GW10 and give a pep talk to some FPL managers who have had a rough time of it. After cracking the world's top 10,000 rankings for the first time in his fantasy career, Eric also discusses how he thinks he has succeeded so far this season. What can others do to "make the leap" to that next level? Plus, we debate player differentia...

After a GW9 full of hat tricks—from Mason Mount, Mohamed Salah, and Josh King (huh?)—the Always Cheating podcast is celebrating its own hat trick of centuries with our 300th episode. Join Josh and Brandon as they review the weekend's highs and lows, including a hugely disappointing Kai Havertz performance. How can FPL managers who put their faith in the German forward now shake off the Norwich bla...

After a turbulent return from the international break in GW8, we found that premium FPL forwards are still blanking, premium defenders are still being rotated, and points from mid-price midfielders are harder than ever to predict. In this week's episode, we seek to answer these key questions with a fun game of "Fill in the Blank." We talk Ronaldo and Lukaku, Chelsea fullbacks, and Mbeumo's prolifi...

This international break has given us some time to think ahead and in this episode we're planning not just for the upcoming GW8, but for the next four week through GW11. Whether you're on a wildcard or not, we help listeners identify both teams and players who look primed to benefit from the upcoming month's fixtures—and some who you might want to avoid. We also discuss news from around the Premie...

After seven weeks of Fantasy Premier League madness, we try to construct a cohesive narrative that accounts for what we've seen so far. We take a closer look at this season's top fantasy scores in all positions, from goalkeeper to defender, midfielder to forward. What are the trends that appear? Are certain patterns real, imagined, or simply the product of kind fixtures? As we head into another in...

Players like Jamie Vardy and Abdoulaye Doucouré have started this Premier League season in great form, yet they still haven't emerged as popular fantasy picks. Should they emerge, though? In this week's episode, we debate the merits of these rogue selections and predict whether their form might continue. We also consider the likes of Ederson, Neal Maupay, Emile Smith Rowe, and . . . Gabriel Jesus....

A wild GW5 taught many FPL managers about the importance of bench depth. But, hey, didn't we all know Tino Livramento would save the day? This weekend was also a useful mile-marker in assessing popular fantasy assets—players who we can now say with confidence that we should either buy, sell, or hold. We debate the pros and cons of playing hokey cokey with Ronaldo and Lukaku, assess the urgency of...

Ronaldo's explosive GW4 debut was matched by a brace from Lukaku, making the choice of premium forwards that much more challenging for FPL managers. Josh enters this week's episode with an active wildcard and this question of Ronaldo vs Lukaku is key to his strategy as he and Brandon debate the merits of fitting both into one fantasy squad. Will it work? Or does it strain the budget too much? We a...

This international break has offered drama and intrigue of all sorts, but we at Always Cheating won't allow ourselves to be too distracted from the GW4 deadline that's quickly approaching. So, has any of the news from World Cup qualifying changed our views on what to do with our FPL teams? We dig into the listener mailbag to answer major concerns over Ronaldo hype, Bruno doubt, Lukaku thigh scans,...