FPL Gameweek 28 preview: News, injuries, suspensions, fixtures, picks and analysis

Premier League action is back this weekend following the fifth round of the FA Cup and European football also returning midweek.

Liverpool are now 13 points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table, who have played one game fewer than the Reds, after Liverpool beat Newcastle United and Arsenal were held to a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest.

Manchester City moved back into fourth with a narrow win at Spurs, Chelsea returned to winning ways and Bournemouth lost ground at Brighton. Only six points separate third and 10th. The bottom four all lost their respective matches.

Crystal Palace head coach Oliver Glasner has been a great pick for those who have played their assistant manager chip and gone with him in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) as he netted 20 points for the second consecutive gameweek, this time with the 4-1 thumping of Aston Villa. Three players got 15 points.

Ahead of each FPL Gameweek, we'll be keeping you up-to-date with all the latest that's going on, including transfers while the windows are open, injury news, suspensions, who's playing who and our in-depth analysis of what you need to be thinking about.

Here's indy100's preview for FPL gameweek 28.

Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner netted 20 points for those who have him with their assistant manager in use for the second FPL gameweek running / Richard Pelham, Getty Images

FPL gameweek 28 picks - what to think about

A reminder the assistant manager chip is available now and managers have a monetary value between £0.5m and £1.5m which players need to budget for.

Bournemouth and Adnoni Iraola could be one to think about from FPL GW29 onwards depending on their form if the chip has not already been redeemed.

Planning ahead, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa are all not in Premier League action because of the Reds and the Magpies battling in the Carabao Cup final, so that's something to bear in mind for then too.

A free hit chip could be played, giving players the chance to completely change their team for one week.

Back to GW28, Liverpool have Southampton at home before a blank gameweek. After that, the league leaders have no red fixture until the start of May.

FPL has four difficulty rankings of fixtures - green (2) is the so-called 'easiest' with this then going through neutral (3), light red (4), and dark red (5), which is what is referred to through this analysis.

Arsenal have no green fixture in their next four but will go into them high on confidence having thumped PSV 7-1 in the Netherlands during the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 clash.

Nottingham Forest have Manchester City next with then no red fixture until the last game of the season. Manchester City's last red fixture this season is Forest.

Chelsea have Leicester City next before games against Arsenal and Spurs. Newcastle United have been hit with injuries and suspensions ahead of their trip to West Ham United and have a blank gameweek coming up.

Bournemouth have no red fixture until the start of May, Brighton have been hit with injuries with no green gameweek in their next four and Fulham have no green gameweek until the end of April but have done better against so-called 'bigger' teams this season.

Villa have four neutral fixtures in their next six, which also includes a blank gameweek, Brentford have four red and four neutral fixtures in their next eight and Crystal Palace are without in-form Jean-Philippe Mateta at least for the visit of Ipswich Town.

Spurs do not have a green fixture in their next three and Manchester United have four red fixtures in their next five.

West Ham United have no red fixtures in their next four, Everton have two green gameweeks before a run of five red fixtures and Wolves, without Matheus Cunha for at least three games, have four consecutive green fixtures.

Ipswich Town have three neutral fixtures in a row, Leicester City have no green in their next six in a run which includes three red fixtures and Southampton have Liverpool but then no red fixture in their next seven.

Wolves' Matheus Cunha is banned for at least the next three games and faces an extension to that ban for his red card at Bournemouth in the FA Cup / Ryan Pierse, Getty Images

FPL injuries

Each gameweek, this is a comprehensive guide to players who are out or are a doubt for each club in the order they appear for their club in FPL.

If they have a knock and a chance of playing, this will be reflected (if they have a 75 per cent chance of playing, the number will be by their name in brackets, the same for 50 per cent chance and so on), otherwise they are ruled out.

This is correct at the time of writing.

• Arsenal - Tomiyasu Takehiro, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus
• Aston Villa - Amadou Onana (50), Ross Barkley (50)
• Bournemouth - Adam Smith, Marcos Sensei, Ryan Christie (75), Enes Unal
• Brentford - Sepp van den Berg, Rico Henry, Aaron Hickey, Christian Norgaard (75), Mathias Jensen (50), Josh Dasilva, Gustavo Nunes, Igor Thiago
• Brighton - Jason Steele, Joel Veltman (50), Lewis Dunk, Ferdi Kadioglu, Igor Julio, Karou Mitoma (75), James Milner, Danny Welbeck
• Chelsea - Noni Madueke, Romeo Lavia, Omari Kellyman, Nicolas Jackson, Marc Guiu
• Crystal Palace - Chadi Riad, Joel Ward, Cheick Doucoure, Jean-Philippe Mateta (25)
• Everton - Seamus Coleman, Dwight McNeil, Orel Mangala, Iliman Ndiaye, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Armando Broja
• Fulham - Kenny Tete, Adama Traore (75), Harry Wilson, Reiss Nelson
• Ipswich Town - Christian Walton, Axel Tuanzebe (75), Cameron Burgess (75), Omari Hutchinson (25), Sam Szmodics (75), Conor Chaplin (75), Wes Burns, Kalvin Phillips (50), Julio Enciso, Chiedozie Ogbene
• Leicester City - Ricardo Pereira (25), Abdul Fatawu
• Liverpool - Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez, Tyler Morton, Cody Gakpo (75)
• Manchester City - Manuel Akanji, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Rodri, Oscar Bobb (25)
• Manchester United - Altay Bayindir, Tom Heaton, Lisandro Martinez, Harry Maguire (75), Jonny Evans, Luke Shaw, Amad Diallo, Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte (75), Mason Mount
• Newcastle United - Lewis Hall, Kieran Trippier (75), Sven Botman (75), Jamaal Lascelles
• Nottingham Forest - Carlos Miguel (25)
• Southampton - Jan Bednarek (50), Juan Larios (25), Adam Lallana, Ryan Fraser (50), Ross Stewart (25)
• Spurs - Radu Dragusin, Ben Davies (25), Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison (25)
• West Ham United - Vladimir Coufal (50), Lucas Paqueta, Crysencio Summerville, Michail Antonio, Niclas Fullkrug
• Wolves - Emmanuel Agbadou, Yerson Mosquera, Goncalo Guedes (25), Rodrigo Gomes, Enso Gonzalez, Leon Chiwome, Sasa Kalajdzic

FPL suspensions

Some players have picked up suspensions or are ineligible to face their parent club after joining a different team on loan.

Again, this is correct at the time of writing.

• Bournemouth - Illia Zabarnyi
• Brighton - Tariq Lamptey
• Chelsea - Mykhailo Mudryk
• Crystal Palace - Will Hughes
• Fulham - Sasa Lukic
• Manchester United - Patrick Dorgu
• Newcastle United - Anthony Gordon
• Wolves - Matheus Cunha

Newcastle United's Lewis Hall is out for the rest of the season with injury / Ryan Pierse, Getty Images

FPL gameweek 28 fixtures

These fixtures kick-off on Saturday (March 8) at 3pm GMT unless stated otherwise.

• Brentford v Aston Villa (Saturday, 5.30pm)
• Brighton v Fulham
• Chelsea v Leicester City (Sunday, 2pm)
• Crystal Palace v Ipswich Town
• Liverpool v Southampton
• Manchester United v Arsenal (Sunday, 4.30pm)
• Nottingham Forest v Manchester City (Saturday, 12.30pm)
• Spurs v Bournemouth (Sunday, 2pm)
• West Ham United v Newcastle United (Monday, 8pm)
• Wolves v Everton (Saturday, 8pm)

When does the next FPL gameweek start?

The next FPL gameweek gets underway on Saturday, March 15 with four games kicking off at 3pm.

Players can still join in and play and if you've missed it, indy100 has put together some tips and strategies to get you started:

• How to get started in Fantasy Premier League
• The best Fantasy Premier League names and how to change it
• Fantasy Premier League: When is the best time to use chips?

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