How FPL fixture difficulty works
FPL gives every fixture a difficulty rating from 1 to 5 for each side: 1 and 2 are the kindest games, 4 and 5 the hardest. The rating reflects the strength of the opponent, so the same match can be a 2 for one club and a 4 for the other, and FPL revises the ratings as the season shows which sides are stronger than expected.
The grid below shows every club's fixtures for the next six gameweeks with FPL's own rating on each, ordered by the average across the window, easiest first.
| Club | Avg | GW9 | GW10 | GW11 | GW12 | GW13 | GW14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVL | 2.7 | FUL (H) | MUN (A) | SUN (H) | IPS (A) | EVE (H) | CRY (H) |
| BOU | 2.7 | LEE (H) | IPS (A) | NFO (H) | FUL (A) | BHA (H) | HUL (H) |
| IPS | 2.7 | HUL (A) | BOU (H) | TOT (A) | AVL (H) | COV (A) | LEE (A) |
| TOT | 2.7 | CRY (H) | LEE (A) | IPS (H) | SUN (A) | FUL (H) | ARS (H) |
| COV | 2.8 | SUN (H) | EVE (A) | CRY (H) | LEE (A) | IPS (H) | MUN (A) |
| EVE | 2.8 | NEW (A) | COV (H) | BRE (A) | LIV (H) | AVL (A) | FUL (H) |
| CRY | 3.0 | TOT (A) | LIV (H) | COV (A) | HUL (H) | CHE (A) | AVL (A) |
| LEE | 3.0 | BOU (A) | TOT (H) | CHE (A) | COV (H) | MCI (A) | IPS (H) |
| SUN | 3.0 | COV (A) | CHE (H) | AVL (A) | TOT (H) | LIV (A) | NEW (A) |
| ARS | 3.2 | LIV (A) | HUL (H) | NEW (A) | MCI (H) | BRE (A) | TOT (A) |
| BHA | 3.2 | MCI (A) | BRE (H) | HUL (A) | NEW (H) | BOU (A) | NFO (A) |
| CHE | 3.2 | MUN (H) | SUN (A) | LEE (H) | NFO (A) | CRY (H) | LIV (H) |
| HUL | 3.2 | IPS (H) | ARS (A) | BHA (H) | CRY (A) | NFO (H) | BOU (A) |
| MCI | 3.2 | BHA (H) | NFO (A) | FUL (H) | ARS (A) | LEE (H) | BRE (A) |
| MUN | 3.2 | CHE (A) | AVL (H) | LIV (A) | BRE (H) | NEW (A) | COV (H) |
| NFO | 3.2 | BRE (A) | MCI (H) | BOU (A) | CHE (H) | HUL (A) | BHA (H) |
| FUL | 3.3 | AVL (A) | NEW (H) | MCI (A) | BOU (H) | TOT (A) | EVE (A) |
| LIV | 3.5 | ARS (H) | CRY (A) | MUN (H) | EVE (A) | SUN (H) | CHE (A) |
| NEW | 3.5 | EVE (H) | FUL (A) | ARS (H) | BHA (A) | MUN (H) | SUN (H) |
| BRE | 3.7 | NFO (H) | BHA (A) | EVE (H) | MUN (A) | ARS (H) | MCI (H) |
Each cell is that club’s fixture in the gameweek; a dash is a blank, two chips are a double. Clubs are ordered by average difficulty across the 6 gameweeks, easiest first. Fixtures are coloured by FPL’s own difficulty rating, green easiest to red hardest.
Where the rating misleads
The rating is a single number for a whole team, and a team is not one thing. A side can be dangerous in attack and poor in defence, which makes the same fixture good for your defenders against them and bad for your attackers, or the reverse. The rating cannot see that split.
It also knows nothing about the week around the match: injuries to key players, a midweek European tie, a manager under pressure. Treat a 3 as a range rather than a verdict, and use the rating to shortlist, not to decide.
Plan for the run, not the next game
A single easy fixture is rarely worth a transfer. A run of three or four is. Read each row across the six gameweeks and look for clubs whose colours stay green for several weeks in a row, and for clubs whose run is about to turn.
Blank and double gameweeks show up in the grid too: a dash is a gameweek with no fixture, two chips in one cell is a double. Those weeks change the value of a whole club's players at once, so plan around them early.
Fixture difficulty and your wildcard
The best time to play a wildcard is just before several clubs' runs turn at once, so that you can rebuild around the sides entering easy spells and away from those entering hard ones. The grid shows those turns: look for rows whose colours change from red to green over the window.
Playing a wildcard into a swing rather than after it means you own the right players for the whole run instead of chasing it. The wildcard board carries the model's squad for the next deadline.
Attack or defence?
An easy run helps defenders and goalkeepers most when the club itself defends well, because clean sheets depend on both sides of the ball. It helps attackers most when the club scores freely. The power rankings pair each club's run with its goals for and against, which is the quickest way to decide which end of a club to buy.