GW5 is the last deadline for three weeks
GW5 locks on Friday 18 September at 18:30 UK. The next deadline after it is GW6 on Saturday 10 October at 11:00 UK — twenty-two days later, with the October international break in between. That gap is the whole argument on this page, in both directions.
Fire in GW5 and the squad you build lives through GW5 and then sits for a fortnight before GW6. You get six known fixtures per club to build around (GW5 to GW10, every club plays exactly six), and the market's mispricings from the transfer window are still there to be bought. Hold, and you keep the chip for GW6 with two more weeks of information — but two weeks in which nothing happens in the Premier League and everything can happen on international duty.
The model's historical per-season gain for firing Wildcard 1 by window is +47 points at GW4, +44 at GW5 and +41 at GW6, against never firing it. The difference between GW5 and GW6 is three points a season. What decides it is your squad, not the calendar.
The six-fixture runs the board is built on
A wildcard buys a run, not a Saturday, so the board on this page ranks players on the model's six-gameweek projection. The fixture runs behind it, from FPL's own difficulty ratings for GW5–10 (lower is easier):
Easiest six: Coventry (15 — NFO away, NEW home, TOT away, FUL home, SUN home, EVE away), Fulham (16 — MUN home, IPS away, HUL home, COV away, AVL away, NEW home), Newcastle (16 — HUL home, COV away, AVL home, CRY away, EVE home, FUL away), then Arsenal and Manchester City on 17.
Hardest six: Brighton (22 — ARS home, SUN away, CRY home, LIV away, MCI away, BRE home), Leeds (21), Brentford (20), Tottenham and Manchester United (19).
Read that against the board: the engine's top six-week names — Bruno Fernandes, Saka, Haaland, João Pedro, Raya, Gabriel — are premium picks it rates through their runs, not because of them; the value the runs open is further down the list, in the Newcastle and Fulham defence and the budget forwards from the clubs with the green runs. Every name, price, ownership and run is on the board above, generated from the live projection on 13 September.
GW5 itself: the slate you are firing into
Friday 18 September, 20:00 UK: Brentford v Chelsea (the deadline is 18:30, ninety minutes before kick-off — an early flag on Friday afternoon is the one thing that can wreck a GW5 wildcard).
Saturday 19 September: Tottenham v Aston Villa 12:30, Brighton v Arsenal 15:00, Everton v Ipswich 15:00, Newcastle v Hull 15:00, Nottingham Forest v Coventry 17:30.
Sunday 20 September: Bournemouth v Liverpool 14:00, Leeds v Crystal Palace 14:00, Manchester City v Sunderland 14:00, Fulham v Manchester United 16:30.
By FPL's ratings the softest GW5 fixtures belong to City (Sunderland at home, rated 2), Newcastle (Hull at home, 2), Everton (Ipswich at home, 2) and Forest (Coventry at home, 2). The hardest is Sunderland's trip to City (5). Then come the four hosts rated 4 — Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth and Fulham — who take Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United respectively; it is the home sides carrying the difficulty there, not the visitors. The engine's GW5 captain ladder is on the captain page — that is a one-week decision and this page is about six.
Fire or hold — the honest gate
Fire in GW5 if two or more of these are true: you still carry a player who left English football in the window (he scores zero forever); your bench is where your points are; your premiums are not on the board's top line; you want the squad settled before a fortnight of not looking at it.
Hold for GW6 if: you have one dead player or none and a rank you are happy with; your premiums already match the board (Haaland, Bruno, Saka, João Pedro); or you would rather see who comes back from international duty fit. The case against firing before a break is real and the model does not pretend otherwise: a fresh fifteen carries fifteen international-break injury risks, and you have no free transfers to fix them until 10 October.
If you fire: two keepers from the board's top four (take the cheaper pair), three board defenders plus two enablers from the green-run clubs, Bruno and Saka as the midfield core with one bet, Haaland plus João Pedro plus a budget third. Or hand the board to the squad builder and let it solve the £100m.