Welcome back to the Hive FPL blog.

It's a rapid turn around in game weeks between GW34 and GW35 to such an extent that as I write this blog, the FPL system hasn't fully updated after the Forest v Brentford match!

GW35 kicks off tonight with Man City hosting Wolves!

With the title and relegation spots settled in the EPL it does make it harder to predict how motivated some of the teams will be for the remainder of the season, let alone whether we'll see a bit of squad rotation over the next 4 weeks.

How for example will the Leicester vs Southampton match shape up? Both teams are playing for pride. For the Foxes fans, they'd just love a goal to celebrate while for the Saints, it's that magical 12th point of the season that they need to gain in order to beat Derby's haul in 2008.

There is of course much more riding on the fixtures involving City, Villa, Newcastle, Chelsea and Forest as they continue to battle it out for a Champions League spot but as Forest showed last night when they crumbled to a defeat at home to Brentford, at this time of the year it is always tricky to predict results!

Classic League

It is incredibly tight at the top of the table between @sperosamuel15 and @blockchainfpl. The later won the game week scoring 91 points to Ref's Team's 83 to close the gap to just 6 points!

In fact, the top players in the Hive FPL all had pretty good weeks when you consider that the average score across the entire FPL game was 47 and no one in the top 10 registered under 74 points!

That average score is probably a little misleading as the means by which most teams recorded those higher totals was by playing their free hit chip. In fact, only 1 of the current top 10 didn't play their free hit so for all intensive purposes this was a one off GW.

@ipalibo were the winners in that regard thanks to big points haul from their Wolves and Newcastle defenders. They were also the only team that moved up a place in the top 10 going from 5th to 4th and just about hanging in the title race.

Head to Head - Division 1

It got even better for @ipalibo and Whyte FC in the H2H league as they won and @blockchainfpl lost to narrow the gap to just a single point. @mckane turned around their disappointing form to also narrow the gap to the top to just 3 points as we head for a thrilling finish to the campaign.

At the other end of the table, @yagman01 got a huge victory to move themselves 5 points clear of the drop zone. They are still competing for a top 10 spot in the Classic League and are going well in the Cup so that victory should allow them to focus on gaining rewards in those competitions.

@talesfrmthecrypt came out on top in the relegation 6 pointer thanks to their Assistant Manager Chip, Thomas Franks, who delivered a healthy 20 points with victory at Forest.

Both @pappyelblanco and @herbae lost by just 2 points. The defeat formerly relegates Creekside to Division 2 while Herbae would need a miracle to survive. That miracle would start in GW35 as they take on 17th placed Suffragette City.

@talesfrmthecrypt v @herbae

Both these teams played a chip in GW34 which could well have a bearing on the outcome of this one. Suffragette City's Assistant Manager will still be live and give them an advantage while Herbae used their 2nd Wildcard last week and it might set them up for a bench boost in GW35.

Otherwise, there are enough differentials to make this an interesting match-up. Despite Dan Burn's goal last week, you'd have to say that Suffragette City's defence is one that is more likely to keep a clean sheet in GW35 but Herbae's players are more likely to get attacking returns. With TAA now edging closer to his final Liverpool performance, does Slot consider giving others minutes instead?

Again, in midfield and attack plenty of differentials. The big question mark might be over whether Fernandes is rested ahead of United's European commitments and whether Gordon comes back in for Barnes at Newcastle. Cunha and Wissa are 2 of the inform strikers in the league at the moment with both going up against Manchester clubs this weekend.

GW34 Results

GW35 Fixtures

Head to Head - Division 2

Into Division 2 and wins for the top 4 mean that it's increasingly looking like they will all be playing in Division 1 next season. If results in GW35 go a certain way, that can be mathematically confirmed on Monday for the top 2.

Outside of that though and it's a real battle for 5th! Hadji lost, HappyboysFC lost while places 8th to 13th at the start of GW34 all won meaning there are now just 3 points separating 8 teams in the hunt for the final promotion spot!

The big match in Division 2 this week is most certainly the one below with Tangram hoping to win and boost their chances of promotion while simultaneously dragging Ref's Team back into the pack.

@desro v @sperosamuel15

Not much to choose between these 2 sides albeit that the differentials that they do have may well be significant.

Murphy is perhaps the most underated player in the Premier League this season but he is now appearing regularly in Premier League squads. By contrast, Eze was a player expected to do big things in 24/25 but as with last year, appears to be peaking in the final part of the season.

I guess the big question for the Palace players more generally is how distracted they are by the thoughts of a Cup Final to come ...

Of course, the big advantage for Ref's Team is their abundance of chips still to play which we've noted in previous blogs. By contrast, Tangram have played all of theirs!

GW34 Results

GW35 Fixtures

Hive FPL Cup

This week's round provided plenty of opportunity for some giant killing feats but unfortunately only 1 non-Division 1 team managed to overcome a top flight opposition. Nonz FC were the unlucky side to be dumped out by Newton Heath FC who are having a solid season, sitting 17th place in the Classic League.

Their rewards is a final 16 spot against high-flying Blockchain FPL who are still chasing an unprecedented treble having comfortably overcome Kraken99 this week.

Another side having a great season is Ref's Team but the current leaders of the Classic League lost to Uwabbs FC who are 1 of 6 Division 2 sides who have made it through to the final 16.

Round of 32 Results

I'd genuinely like to spend a bit more time analysing a couple of the fixtures this week but I'm cutting it fine as it is on posting this blog before the transfer cut-off for GW35 at 6:30pm BST.

Round of 16 Fixtures

Good luck to those who have made it this far and we'll do a deep dive in the QF fixtures next week.