In his FPL Gameweek 32 review, Fantasy Premier League author David Wardale reports on all the action of a gameweek involving ten, yes just ten, fixtures.

First up was a clash between Newcastle and Wolves, an encounter that was, as they say, one for the purists.

Not that the Saturday early kick-off was much better, Everton scraping past an unimpressive Man United.

Things warmed up, however, when Chelsea thrashed Southampton before a Spurs attacker continued his red-hot form.

In the other two Saturday matches, Brighton shocked Arsenal and Leeds brushed woeful Watford aside.

Sunday’s big match ended level and was preceded by three other fixtures, with Leicester pipping Crystal Palace, Brentford beating West Ham and Norwich overcoming Burnley.

You can catch all of our FPL Gameweek 32 tips right here.

FPL Gameweek 32 Review – Sunday

Manchester City 2 Liverpool 2

An epic encounter between the league’s top two teams ended even and with generally modest fantasy returns spread across several key players.

Man City started briskly and went ahead five minutes in when the in-form Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8m) scored his fourth goal in as many starts.

The assist came from Bernardo Silva (£7.0m).

Diogo Jota (£8.3m) levelled just eight minutes later when he turned in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s (£8.4m) cushioned knock-back.

That set the tone for the match – back and forth, attack and counter-attack.

It made for excellent viewing, but no fantasy favourite truly dominated proceedings and the maximum bonus award went to a man making his first start since Gameweek 21.

That man was the 4.6%-owned Gabriel Jesus (£8.4m), who made it 2-1 to City when he skilfully steered home Joao Cancelo’s (£7.0m) ball.

The assist meant a fourth return in five matches for the full-back.

The second half was around 40 seconds old when Liverpool equalised again, Sadio Mane (£11.7m) finishing clinically from Mohamed Salah’s (£13.2m) astute pass.

While the five points was (obviously) welcome for the Egyptian’s 59.1% ownership, the goal kept the pair’s recent FPL returns remarkably similar.

Since Gameweek 26, Salah has 49 points and Mane 48, the difference being the latter is £1.5m cheaper and owned by just 3.3%.

Both sides had chances to win it, with Raheem Sterling (£10.5m) denied by a decidedly tight VAR call for offside.

But the result keeps the league bubbling away very nicely for the time being which, in turn, should keep rotation in the two squads to a minimum – as far as that is ever the case with Pep Guardiola, it should be said.

City have the easier run-in. Both sides have one more double to come.

Few fantasy managers will be selling on their assets from either team any time soon, you suspect.

Leicester City 2 Crystal Palace 1

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£4.4m) was the star of the show as Leicester held off a spirited Crystal Palace.

The midfielder, owned by just 0.3%, set up one goal and scored the other for a 13-point haul – almost double his previous best FPL total.

Ademola Lookman (£5.9m) opened the scoring before Dewsbury-Hall’s fine curler from the edge of the area doubled the Foxes’ advantage.

The assist for that strike went to James Maddison (£6.9m) for the faintest of touches in the build-up.

The midfielder was one of the most purchased players for the gameweek, so his 12.6% ownership were not complaining.

Leicester’s other major transfer target for the match was Kelechi Iheanacho (£7.1m), but he was benched as manager Brendan Rodgers rotated his squad with European duties still very much an issue.

Palace tested Kasper Schmeichel (£4.8m) throughout and the in-form duo of Jean-Philippe Mateta (£5.3m) and Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) both went close before a penalty award gave the visitors the biggest of chances to find a way back into the match.

Wilfried Zaha (£6.8m) took that chance.

Eventually.

Schmeichel saved his first attempt before VAR demanded a re-take for encroachment.

The Dane saved his second attempt as well, only for Zaha to score from the rebound – his fifth goal in six matches.

The keeper’s heroics took him to second spot in the bonus points system, albeit well behind Dewsbury-Hall.

Leicester held on after that and a good-looking Double Gameweek 33, involving trips to Newcastle and Everton, now awaits.

Maddison, who has returns from his last three starts, will no doubt attract more transfer interest.

But managers will need to be wary of further rotation as the Foxes are back in Europe in the midweek before that double.

Brentford 2 West Ham United 0

Brentford’s impressive recent run continued as Ivan Toney (£6.8m) brought in yet another double-digit haul.

The striker set up Bryan Mbeumo’s (£5.2m) opener before the roles were reversed to make it 2-0.

The Bees have now won four of their last five matches and Toney has produced a return in each of those victories, with six goals and two assists across a red-hot streak of form.

He’s now owned by 16.5% – close to his early-season peak – and has delivered returns of 17 and 12 (twice) to justify that popularity.

Brentford have even started remembering how to defend, keeping a second clean sheet in four matches as West Ham’s Euro exertions seemed to catch up with them.

That remains a factor fantasy managers will need to consider across the Hammers’ final six domestic matches as boss David Moyes has worked his relatively small squad hard this season.

There are no such worries when it comes to Brentford.

And although they only have a single fixture in Double Gameweek 33, it’s at Watford.

For more on the Hornets’ home woes, please see below. If you can’t be bothered to scroll down, let’s just say that Toney in particular looks a good bet for further returns.

Norwich City 2 Burnley 0

Gameweek 32’s Match Of Least Fantasy Interest was an entertaining affair that included another return from the late-blossoming Teemu Pukki (£5.9m).

The Finn now has three goals and an assist from his last five starts.

With 6.8% ownership, Pukki was easily the most popular Norwich player on display.

His Burnley counterpart, the 7.2%-owned Wout Weghorst (£6.4m), had another day to forget and blanked for an eighth consecutive match.

Just to add insult to injury, he was hooked before the 60-minute mark and earned his long-suffering managers one point.

He did, at least, have a shot though, so every cloud…

Yet another double looms for Weghorst next week, so he still might not suffer the significant sales his wretched form warrants.

A better bet of recent returns has involved Maxwel Cornet (£5.9m), but he missed an open goal at Carrow Road as the Clarets handed their hosts a second straight clean sheet.

Norwich’s opener was scored by Pierre Lees-Melou (£4.8m) – his first goal for the club. Mathias Normann (£4.5m) assisted for Pukki’s strike.

FPL Gameweek 32 Review – Saturday

Arsenal 1 Brighton 2

A 14-point performance from Enock Mwepu (£5.9m) was the cornerstone of Brighton’s surprise, if deserved, victory over Arsenal.

The midfielder set up Leandro Trossard’s (£5.8m) opener before the break and doubled the Seagulls’ advantage after it when he scored from the edge of the area.

The assist came from Moises Caicedo (£4.5m).

That second goal was surely one of the least celebrated, fantasy-wise, this season as Mwepu is owned by 5,539 and Caicedo by 385.

And before we move on to Arsenal’s woes, one last Mwepu moment.

The Zambia international has now produced a goal and three assists from his last three starts. It’s eye-catching form until you realise those starts were in Gameweeks 19, 21 and now 32.

The Gunners lost for the third time in four matches just as fantasy managers need them to perform, what with two doubles over the next four gameweeks.

They clearly miss Kieran Tierney (£5.0m), who will sit out the rest of the season following a knee operation.

The side has managed an impressive 13 clean sheets this campaign and the left-back has been involved in ten of them. In fact, he’s actually kept 11 – he was subbed off before Everton scored twice in Gameweek 15.

Without him, and Thomas Partey (£5.0m) covering in front of the back four, Arsenal are far more vulnerable.

Granit Xhaka (£4.8m) filled in for Tierney and provided the assist for Martin Odegaard’s (£5.5m) 89th-minute strike, which almost sparked a late comeback.

But even though Gabriel Martinelli (£5.3m) was denied an earlier goal by a lengthy VAR offside decision and the Gunners out-shot their visitors 20-8, Brighton were good for their win.

They offered a consistent threat and, finally, remembered how to turn that threat into goals.

A beastly double involving Spurs and Man City won’t be tempting too many suitors, however.

Arsenal’s Gameweek 33 involves trips to Southampton and Chelsea.

Fantasy managers heavily invested in the likes of Bukayo Saka (£6.8m) can only hope the Saints repeat the beach-ready display they put on against the Blues.

But on current form, the Stamford Bridge encounter that follows looks well beyond Mikel Arteta’s men.

Watford 0 Leeds United 3

Leeds took a major stride away from their relegation worries thanks to goals from a trio of in-form fantasy assets.

Rodrigo (£6.2m), Raphinha (£6.5m) and Jack Harrison (£5.5m) all found the net to compound Watford’s home woes.

That’s nine straight Vicarage Road defeats for the Hornets as Roy Hodgson’s men continue to deliver precious little for FPL managers.

The same cannot be said for Leeds players, however.

The 15.5% who stuck by Raphinha have now been treated to three straight attacking returns, the latest a season’s-best ten-pointer.

Rodrigo is flourishing under Jesse Marsch and has now scored in three of his last four starts, while Harrison has posted hauls of 8, 9 and 9 points from Gameweek 30 onwards.

Assists came from Dan James (£6.0m) and Sam Greenwood (£4.5m).

The visitors even managed to keep a first clean sheet since Gameweek 14, which spoke volumes for how wretched Watford were.

Going anywhere near their players, apart from (at a push) the bargain bucket starting keeper Ben Foster (£4.1m), is the stuff of madness.

Taking a punt on a Leeds asset would seem to be well worth considering. Until you factor in their run-in, that is.

Marsch’s side have a blank next week, a trip to in-form Crystal Palace after that and then a hellish three-game schedule involving Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea.

The latter pair form a particularly nasty little Double Gameweek 36.

All of that should keep interest in Leeds players to a bare minimum, except maybe those who favour form over fixtures.

Aston Villa 0 Tottenham Hotspur 4

Heung-Min Son (£11.0m) continued his absurd recent form with a hat-trick for a Spurs side that ruthlessly punished Aston Villa for the chances they missed.

The South Korea star had three shots at Villa Park and scored from all of them.

That perfectly summed up a game in which Tottenham keeper Hugo Lloris (£5.4m) made seven more saves than his Villa counterpart.

Plenty of those stops were far from regulation. Throw in big chances squandered by the likes of Danny Ings (£7.7m) and substitute Leon Bailey (£6.3m) and you could easily argue Villa were hard-done by.

But that would be to diminish the fluency and bite of Tottenham’s front three, who all stepped up at Villa Park.

Son, obviously, stole the show.

He’s now produced three straight double-digit hauls, with Saturday’s being a season’s best 21-pointer. He’s scored six goals and has an assist, eight bonus and a whopping 48 points.

That’s just the 16 points a game average, then.

Harry Kane (£12.6m) set up two of Son’s goals and one for Dejan Kulusevski (£6.3m) as well.

As a result, the England captain made it seven straight games with a return, with five goals, eight assists, nine bonus and 65 points from that run.

It would have been more, including bonus, if not for a late yellow card.

Kulusevski, meanwhile, has now blanked only once in seven matches, scoring twice, providing six assists and earning three bonus and 49 points overall.

As mentioned in last week’s reports, a Tottenham triple-up on those attackers now looks perfectly acceptable, although ignoring a defence with four clean sheets in seven matches seems risky.

But those on Matt Doherty (£4.9m) were handed just the one point as he went off after 20 minutes following a hefty Matty Cash (£5.3m) tackle.

It was an injury that looked more impact than muscle, so he could be okay for Gameweek 33’s visit from Brighton, but he’ll definitely need monitoring.

Villa full-back Lucas Digne (£5.0m) also went off, with a shoulder injury.

Spurs have both form and fixtures on their side right now.

Finding room and/or money for all their attractive assets will be a challenge, however.

Villa were unlucky to lose so heavily, but bad things can happen when you dominate a half and not take any of your chances. FPL managers will not care. They’ll look only at their blank to come next week.

Philippe Coutinho (£7.2m) was the second most sold player of Gameweek 32.

Expect more of the same this week.

Southampton 0 Chelsea 6

Southampton produced a heroic rearguard action to stop Chelsea scoring for 51 whole minutes, avoiding The Scoreline That Shall Not Be Named while they were about it.

The embarrassingly one-sided match produced an interesting stat – the visitors had nine shots on target to Southampton’s zero in the first half.

Nine shots to nil.

9-0.

But the Blues only managed to score five times during that dominant period and added just the one extra after the interval.

Pity the 40,000 or so managers who decided that now was the time to ditch Mason Mount (£6.5m), the midfielder scoring two, setting up another and ending the match with a 19-point return.

There were, at least, 114 geniuses who plumped for Timo Werner (£8.6m).

He matched Mount’s output, albeit as a striker, and was awarded two bonus for 15 points all-in.

He could, in truth, have been well into the 20s seeing as he hit the woodwork three times as Chelsea roared back from their Champions League disappointment and Southampton, well, let them.

The other goals came from Marcos Alonso (£5.5m) and Kai Havertz (£7.9m), while N’Golo Kante (£4.9m) produced an assist.

But it was a decidedly frustrating day for Reece James’ (£6.3m) 14.3% ownership, which included around 80,000 new bosses for this clash.

The wing-back was benched by manager Thomas Tuchel and, even worse, was given a 27-minute cameo for a one-point game to forget.

Still, one point was a luxury only afforded to one member of the Saints’ backline – keeper Fraser Forster (£4.4m), who made eight saves and kept the scoreline the right side of, you know, that one everybody mentions, but not in this report.

Aside from Tino Livramento (£4.3m and 10.8%), Southampton defenders are not well-owned, which is just as well.

They’ve got a double next, but that’s unlikely to stir interest in a team now making a convincing case for being the first with eyes only for the beach.

Chelsea are far from such thoughts and should they exit Europe (as expected) next week, the likes of James might not be rested so readily by Tuchel when a top-four spot isn’t yet guaranteed.

Everton 1 Manchester United 0

A deflected strike from Anthony Gordon (£4.6m) gave Everton a crucial, if ugly, win over a laboured Manchester United.

The young midfielder followed up a midweek assist in the loss at Burnley with his first goal since Gameweek 25 when his shot from the edge of the area hit Harry Maguire (£5.4m) and left David de Gea (£5.1m) stranded.

It was tough on the visitors, who had just begun to quieten the crowd.

But Ralf Rangnick’s side were unimpressive when chasing the game, although Jordan Pickford (£4.9m) did have to make a smart stop to deny Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.2m) in the second half.

The keeper ‘s work was set to earn him a share of maximum bonus points with Gordon and left-back Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.9m).

Precious few players from either side attracted significant new owners for the gameweek.

Of United’s big hitters, Bruno Fernandes (£11.6m) was purchased by a relatively chunky 58,000+, while Ronaldo actually lost managers.

Even the in-form Richarlison (£7.5m), who brought in 17 points from Double Gameweek 31, suffered net sales.

Slightly surprising was that only 14,000+ bosses binned off Michael Keane (£4.7m).

His last three matches (-2, 7, -2) had been the epitome of boom and bust. Or, more accurately, bust and boom.

It was back to the boom times for the centre-half as Everton kept a second clean sheet four matches, both of which have come at home.

In fact, the team’s Goodison Park form has been relatively good of late – a fact worth remembering when the Toffees double up on home matches in Gameweek 37.

United’s double comes much sooner – in Gameweek 33.

A home match with Norwich is always a good way to start yet another recovery from a disappointing defeat, but that inconsistency and a trip to Liverpool will surely temper enthusiasm in their players once again.

FPL Gameweek 32 Review – Friday

Newcastle 1 Wolves 0

A Chris Wood (£6.7m) second-half penalty was enough to secure Newcastle a deserved win over a listless Wolves.

The striker earned the spot-kick by rounding visiting keeper Jose Sa (£5.3m) and then not so much inviting contact as insisting it took place.

It was probably deserved anyway as the striker had been denied an opener in the first half by the most marginal of offside decisions brought to us by the good folk of VAR.

And it certainly delighted the 2,227 who ate their psychic beans and brought him in for the gameweek.

That bumped his FPL ownership to 2.2%.

Relatively major fantasy interest in the Magpies remains rooted in Allan Saint-Maximin (£6.8m) who, with 11.7% ownership, is easily the most popular asset in the side.

Why? Great question.

It can’t be for the points, because his last six outings have produced: 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 and now 2.

At least he managed 90 minutes.

Ryan Fraser (£5.3m) went off after just 12, with what looked like a muscle issue, to cap a dismal recent run of nine points from his last five matches.

He’d produced 38 points from the previous five.

It’s a double up next for Newcastle, involving home matches against Leicester and Crystal Palace.

Having recently completed a four-game run of away fixtures, a win and clean sheet was a great way to start a home trilogy.

Wolves had won three of their previous four games heading into the Friday night encounter, but were second best for nearly all of it.

They mustered just two shots on target, which both came well into the second half, and clearly missed striker Raul Jimenez (£7.5m), who is now two thirds of the way through a three-match suspension.

Transfer interest has stalled, and in many cases selected reverse, regarding Wolves assets.

And on this showing, it’s not hard to see why.

Throw in the fact they don’t have a match at all in Gameweek 33 and more sales look highly likely.

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