Blank and double gameweeks
A blank gameweek (BGW) is a gameweek in which one or more clubs have no fixture at all, so their players score nothing. A double gameweek (DGW) is the opposite: a club plays twice in the same gameweek, its players score in both matches, and both matches are added together.
Why they happen
The Premier League fixture list has to make room for the FA Cup, the League Cup and postponements caused by weather, European commitments or pitch problems. When a league fixture is moved out of a gameweek, that gameweek blanks for the clubs involved. When the rearranged match is later slotted into a gameweek that already has one, that gameweek doubles.
Blanks and doubles cluster in the second half of the season, once cup rounds and rearranged fixtures have piled up. Fixture dates are confirmed only a few weeks ahead, so plans built on rumoured doubles are worth holding loosely.
How managers plan around them
A blank gameweek is a squad problem: you may be short of eleven players with a fixture, which is where the Free Hit chip earns its keep. A double gameweek is an opportunity: more matches means more points from the same fifteen players, which is why the Bench Boost and the Triple Captain are usually saved for one.
Example
Two clubs are drawn against each other in an FA Cup quarter-final, so their league match is postponed and their players blank. Six weeks later that match is scheduled into a gameweek where both clubs already play, and every one of their players has a double.
Related terms
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