When will the double gameweeks hit in 2026-27?
It's early days so we can't say for sure when the double gameweeks will hit. However, we can take an educated guess based on Domestic and European Cup dates and the Premier League calendar. Here's our analysis.
Photo: Fulham v Everton, Craven Cottage, 10 May 2025 — Timmy96 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
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FPL managers ask the same question every summer: when are the doubles? The honest answer in July is that nobody knows the exact gameweeks yet. What you can do is look at the cup and European dates that are already fixed, put them next to the Premier League calendar, and work out where the traffic jam has to form.
The best guess right now: blanks around GW30, GW31 and GW34, then doubles around GW33 and GW36–37. Those numbers will move a bit once the draws and TV picks come in and the schedule firms up but it's a good starting point.
Quick refresher if you need it. When a Premier League club reaches an FA Cup or Carabao Cup round on a league weekend, their league game gets postponed. That’s a blank for that club. The game still has to be played before the final day. Clubs in Europe can’t use European midweeks for catch-up fixtures, so the rearranged games get shoved into the few free midweeks left in April and May. Those weeks become doubles.
Nine English clubs in Europe
England has a fifth Champions League place this season, so nine Premier League clubs are in UEFA competition. That’s a lot of midweek football for the league to work around. The further those sides go, the fewer free midweeks are left for postponed league games.
The league phase runs from September to late January (Champions League done by 27 January; Europa and Conference the day after). Knockouts follow: play-offs in mid-to-late February, last 16 in March, quarter-finals in early April, semis from late April into early May. Any week an English club is still in Europe is a week the Premier League can’t give them a rearranged fixture.
Autumn is quiet. Spring isn’t.
The Premier League has five midweek rounds this season — roughly 2 December, 30 December, 6 January, 10 February and 3 March. All of them sit in gaps between European matchdays. That’s why the first half of the season usually feels fine for FPL. Midweek league games go into weeks when the European clubs are free, and the early FA Cup rounds get whole weekends to themselves.
FA Cup third round (9 January), fourth round (13 February) and fifth round (6 March) don’t create big blank gameweeks. They just push league fixtures later. By March those postponed games have to come back, and they’re competing with the FA Cup quarter-finals and semis, the Carabao Cup final, and European knockouts. That’s the messy part of the calendar.
The key dates
Use the table below as a map, not a fixture list. Orange rows are the weeks most likely to contain blanks. Blue rows are the weeks most likely to contain double fixtures. Everything else is context — the dates that create the backlog before spring hits.
Gameweek numbers are our projection off the confirmed calendar (GW19 is the 2 January round; the season ends GW38 on 30 May). They can shift once broadcasters and cup draws lock the exact days.
| Date | Proj. GW | Cup / European event | Likely FPL impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed 6 Jan → w/e 9 Jan | GW20 | PL midweek round, then FA Cup 3rd round | League moved midweek to clear the Cup weekend |
| 19–28 Jan | GW21–23 | Final UCL / UEL / UECL league-phase midweeks | All nine English clubs in Europe — no catch-up slots |
| w/e 13 Feb | — | FA Cup 4th round | Weekend cleared; league games pushed later |
| 16–25 Feb | — | UCL / UEL / UECL knockout play-offs | Up to eight English clubs still busy midweek |
| w/e 6 Mar | — | FA Cup 5th round | Another weekend of postponed league games |
| 9–18 Mar | — | Champions League last 16 | Five CL clubs unavailable for midweek catch-ups |
| Sun 21 Mar | GW30 | Carabao Cup final (Wembley) | Blank for both finalists |
| w/e 3 Apr | GW31 | FA Cup quarter-finals | Biggest blank — up to eight clubs out of the league |
| midweek ~14 Apr | GW33 | First batch of rearranged games | Double for clubs coming back from the cups |
| w/e 24 Apr | GW34 | FA Cup semi-finals | Blank for the four semi-finalists |
| 27 Apr – 6 May | — | Champions & Europa League semi-finals | English semi-finalists still busy midweek |
| early–mid May | GW36–37 | Second batch of rearranged games | Main run-in doubles, especially for deep European sides |
| Sat 22 May | — | FA Cup final (Wembley) | Finalists’ last league game moved toward final day |
| Sun 30 May | GW38 | Final day | All ten fixtures kick off together |
Orange = likely blank gameweek. Blue = likely double gameweek. Dates are confirmed; gameweek numbers are projected and can move with cup draws and TV selections.
The blank weeks
Three orange rows matter most. The Carabao Cup final on 21 March takes both finalists out of what we expect to be GW30. FA Cup quarter-finals on 3–4 April are the big one. If up to eight EPL clubs reach that round and their league games get moved, expect GW31 to be a major blank and a good time to use a chip. Semi-finals on 24–25 April then take four more out in GW34.
The double weeks
The blue rows are where those postponed games come back. Mid-April, after the quarter-final blank and before the European semis, is the first free slot — that’s why GW33 is the first likely double, mainly for clubs knocked out of the cups. The bigger window is early-to-mid May. Once European runs start ending, GW36 and GW37 are where a lot of the leftover fixtures get played. Clubs that went deep in Europe are the ones most likely to end up with two games in a week.
What to do with your chips
No need to decide chip weeks in July. Just don’t paint yourself into a corner — and remember you’re getting a second set of chips before this part of the calendar hits.
- Second Wildcard and Free Hit belong on the blank weeks. GW31 (FA Cup quarters) is the likeliest Free Hit — field clubs still playing — with GW30 and GW34 the other blanks to plan around; use the Wildcard to rebuild into or out of that stretch.
- Second Bench Boost and Triple Captain want a double. GW36–37 is the likeliest home for both, if your bench gets through the blanks.
- Watch the nine European clubs. Their players are the ones most likely to pick up extras when the rearranged fixtures land.
- Check again after the FA Cup third-round draw in December, and especially after the quarter-final draw in March. That’s when this gets real.
Based on the confirmed 2026-27 Premier League calendar (21 August 2026 to 30 May 2027), FA Cup and Carabao Cup round dates, and the UEFA Champions, Europa and Conference League schedules. Nine English clubs in Europe is settled. Gameweek numbers are projected from those dates (including the September–October break between GW5 and GW6, and GW19 on 2 January) and will change with cup draws and TV picks.
Updates as the schedule firms up.