FPL Gameweek 26 preview: News, injuries, suspensions, fixtures, picks and analysis

Premier League action comes thick and fast over the next few days with three gameweeks in the space of a week on the back of midweek drama.

Liverpool dropped points at Aston Villa and English champions Manchester City were sent crashing out of the Champions League at the hands of current European champions Real Madrid.

Mo Salah was yet again the top scorer in a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) gameweek, this time with 20 points in another double, but City's Omar Marmoush had the biggest single haul in a game with his hat-trick against Newcastle United bagging 17 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 26.

Manchester City's Omar Marmoush netted a hat-trick against Newcastle United which earned him 17 FPL points last time out / Carl Recine, Getty Images

FPL gameweek 26 picks - what to think about

After two double gameweeks, normality is restored with all teams playing one fixture over the course of the weekend.

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.

League leaders Liverpool have not been at their best of late and face a couple of tricky games at Manchester City before the visit of Newcastle United.

Arsenal have injury concerns in forward areas and have a green fixture up next before none in the next five after that.

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.

Nottingham Forest have a really tough run now a trip to Newcastle United before Arsenal and Manchester City visit The City Ground.

Manchester City can now focus all their efforts on the Premier League but host Liverpool next before travelling to Spurs and Nottingham Forest.

Bournemouth have soared into fifth and have a kind run of fixtures with no red fixture until the start of May.

Chelsea have just one red fixture in their next nine but have been pretty poor in the past couple of months or so and Newcastle United have been struggling too, with three losses in their last four league matches with Nottingham Forest and a trip to Anfield coming up in their next two.

Fulham have no red fixture in their next four, Aston Villa do not have a green gameweek until mid April (although Ollie Watkins has been in fine form), Brighton only have two red fixtures left all season and Brentford have two green and two neutral fixtures before a very tricky run.

Spurs have picked up a couple of much needed victories with key players starting to return from injury, they have a green gameweek next before two neutral and two red fixtures.

Crystal Palace's fairly kind run continues until mid April and the league's form team Everton have two neutral and two green gameweeks before a tough run.

Manchester United's poor season continues with injury problems now a big concern.

West Ham United face a tough trip to Arsenal but then have a good run with no red gameweek in their next five. Wolves were the better team in the second half at Liverpool and do not have a red gameweek in their next nine. Managers may be considering Matheus Cunha if they don't have him already with that run.

Looking at the bottom three, Leicester City have two green fixtures before none in the six after that, Ipswich Town have five neutral colour fixtures coming up and Southampton's tricky run continues.

Wolves' Matheus Cunha could be a good option for FPL managers over the coming weeks / Stu Forster, 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 - Ezri Konsa (75), Pau Torres, Amadou Onana (25), Ross Barkley (25), Boubacar Kamara (25), Ollie Watkins (75)
• Bournemouth - Adam Smith, Marcos Sensei, James Hill (50), Julian Araujo, Julio Soler (75), Evanilson, Enes Unal
• Brentford - Sepp van den Berg (75), Rico Henry, Aaron Hickey, Josh Dasilva, Gustavo Nunes, Igor Thiago
• Brighton - Jason Steele, Pervis Estupinan, Lewis Dunk (50), Ferdi Kadioglu, Igor Julio, James Milner, Solly March (25)
• Chelsea - Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Noni Madueke, Romeo Lavia, Omari Kellyman, Nicolas Jackson, Marc Guiu
• Crystal Palace - Chadi Riad, Joel Ward, Cheick Doucoure
• Everton - Nathan Patterson, Seamus Coleman, Dwight McNeil, Orel Mangala, Iliman Ndiaye, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Armando Broja, Youssef Chermiti
• Fulham - Kenny Tete, Harry Wilson, Sasa Lukic (75), Reiss Nelson
• Ipswich Town - Christian Walton, Leif Davis (75), Sam Szmodics (75), Sam Morsy (75), Conor Chaplin, Wes Burns, Julio Enciso (75), Chiedozie Ogbene
• Leicester City - James Justin (75), Ricardo Pereira, Abdul Fatawu, Jamie Vardy (75)
• Liverpool - Conor Bradley (25), Joe Gomez, Tyler Morton, Cody Gakpo (75)
• Manchester City - Manuel Akanji, Rodri, Oscar Bobb (25)
• Manchester United - Altay Bayindir (25), Lisandro Martinez, Jonny Evans, Luke Shaw, Amad Diallo, Robbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte (75), Mason Mount, Toby Collyer (75)
• Newcastle United - Sven Botman (25), Jamaal Lascelles, Joelinton
• Nottingham Forest - Carlos Miguel (25), Taiwo Awoniyi (25)
• Southampton - Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Jack Stephens (50), Juan Larios, Adam Lallana (50), Ryan Fraser (50), Ross Stewart
• Spurs - Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Radu Dragusin, Kevin Danso (75), Heung-min Son, Rodrigo Bentancur (75), Timo Werner (50), Dominic Solanke, Richarlison
• West Ham United - Crysencio Summerville, Michail Antonio, Niclas Fullkrug
• Wolves - Sam Johnstone (75), Emmanuel Agbadou (75), Yerson Mosquera, Hwang Hee-chan, Rodrigo Gomes (75), Enso Gonzalez, Jorgen Strand Larsen (25), 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.

• Aston Villa - Axel Disasi
• Chelsea - Mykhailo Mudryk
• Ipswich Town - Axel Tuanzebe

Ruben Amorim has confirmed Amad Diallo is out for the rest of the season / Michael Regan, Getty Images

FPL gameweek 26 fixtures

These fixtures kick-off on Saturday (February 15) at 3pm GMT unless stated otherwise.

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

When does the next FPL gameweek start?

The next FPL gameweek gets underway midweek on Tuesday, February 25 with three games kicking off at 7.30pm.

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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