Welcome back to the Hive FPL head to head blog.

It's a very quick turnaround between game weeks as we hit the halfway mark of the season. With a 2nd wildcard just around the corner are you starting to plan for making wholesale changes or are you happy with the squad that you've got?

Of course the other major event just on the horizon is the re-opening of the transfer window and you'd imagine that this will be quite a busy one. That being the case, it might well be worth waiting until the dust settles on the comings and goings before making too many radical changes to your 15.

Shorter term, the thing to watch for this week will be squad rotation not only because of the schedule but also because the various nasty viruses that are doing the rounds at the moment. I've been ill for the past 3 days as have a number of my family and friends so it stands to reason that a few Premier League stars will succumb at some point too.

Game week 19 is a bit of an odd one in as far as the schedule is concerned. We kick things off with 6 matches on Sunday, 29 December with Leicester v Man City starting at 2:30 and then 4 more matches starting at 3:00. Don't ask me why but it means that the cut-off time for GW19 changes is 1pm (GMT). There are a further 3 games on Monday before we then have to wait until Wednesday evening for the final fixture which is Brentford v Arsenal.

The games to focus on for GW19 look to include that initial match on Sunday with both Leicester and City leaking goals all over the place. Haaland's (FWD) barren run continued as he missed from the spot against Everton but it's difficult to see who else could replace him in the City squad unless Pep reverts back to the false 9 tactics he used previously. Given that Leicester have lost their last 3 and in doing so conceded 10 goals then a few of the City players might fancy getting back in form.

If defensive points are more your thing then Everton versus Forest is probably the way to go. The Toffees comfortably held Man City at arms length for most of their last match and but for a bit more quality upfront could probably have won it. Meanwhile, Forest did something similar to Spurs but did deliver the killer blow on break. I'd be surprised if both sides scored in this fixture...

As for Spurs, they host a rejuvenated Wolves side who have had no problem scoring goals all season and have suddenly found that it's a lot easier to win matches when you're not letting them in at the other end, a mantra that Ange Postecoglou's team could do with adopting themselves.

At the top of the table, Liverpool visit West Ham who are unbeaten in 4 and making their way up through the melee that is mid-table. Salah (MID) has started all 17 of Liverpool's Premier League games this season and completed the full 90min in all but 4 of them. The earliest he's come off is 72nd minute which incidentally was the last time he blanked in the FPL (GW7 vs Palace). The other 3 occasions saw him come off well into the final 10 minutes of a match when he'd already had a chance to do his damage.

In fact, late on is when the Egyptian is at his most lethal. He hasn't scored a first half goal in the league since a penalty against Chelsea on 20 October. Since then he's scored 11 goals and added a further 5 goal involvements in the 2nd half of matches. He is some machine!

Arsenal travel to Brentford for the first game of 2025. The Bees have been very good at home this season but it's notable that the fixtures have fallen quite nicely for them with most of those games at the Gtech coming against sides currently in the bottom half of the league. They host Arsenal, City and Liverpool during a tough January and like many other teams at the moment they seem to have a lot of injuries in defence!

Looking to take advantage of any slip up by the top 2 will be Chelsea who will be very keen to make amends after relinquishing their lead to rivals Fulham. Enzo Maresca has said he'll make changes for this game and the Blues certainly have the squad depth to do so. FPL managers might want to be wary of selecting too many Chelsea players over the next couple of rounds even if their fixtures do look appealing.

There are also a smattering of 'tough to call' type fixtures in Palace v Southampton, Fulham v Brentford and Villa v Brighton. The festive season has a habit of throwing in a few surprises, will any of these games produce one that FPL managers can take advantage of?

Division 1

GW18 Results

GW19 Fixtures

Division 2

GW18 Results

GW19 Fixtures