Welcome back to the weekly Hive FPL blog.

I started the GW9 preview post by saying that we've now reached a stage of the season where it's worth considering how the Premier League table is shaping up and so it only seems fair that we do the same for the Hive equivalents.

Hive FPL Classic League

A quick reminder that this is where the big prizes are at the end of the season with the top 10 getting a share of the spoils.

Once again, we've got some truly elite players in the mix as demonstrated by these headline stats

• Our top 2 players @emeka4 and @deniskj have scores which put them within the top 2% of all teams in the game at the moment. Hats off to them for making such a fantastic start to the season.

• The top 10 then are all within the best 5% and the top 16 within the best 10% of players in Fantasy Premier League. In other words, to win some Hive at the end of the season, you're going to have to be significantly better than average across 38 game weeks.

• The other big trend in this first part of the season has been the failure of many of our Division 1 Head to Head sides to perform in the Classic League. Cunha Do Sum' 4 Mee and the Red Cards of Rohan are the only 2 Division 1 sides in the top 10 at present.

• There is a group of 8 x Division 1 sides all sat around the 460 to 485 point mark who can probably claim to have had a better than average start to the season but have some work to do to close the gap on those at the very top.

• Season on season success is proving incredibly difficult to achieve. Last year's champions @sperosamuel15 sit down in 45th place, 91 points off the pace, while @blockchainfpl who finished 2nd are in 64th place 115 points behind the leaders! Never mind lads, there's always the cup (as we Spurs fans like to say around this time of the year).

Division 1 Head to Head

Division 1 of the head to head leagues is, as it always has been, incredibly tight. It's pretty rare to get an easy win in this division and if you needed further proof of that, you only need to look at the last game week that saw 2 matches drawn. It really is a league where every point counts!

Very much like the real Premier League, the table is so tight that a couple of wins would propel most sides towards the top of the table while a couple of losses would have you back down towards the relegation zone (reminder that the bottom 5 go down in Division 1).

However, we do have a couple of really significant matches at both ends of the table which warrant a bit more focus.

@deniskj vs @thoth442

These 2 players can lay claim to being amongst the most successful in the Hive FPL. @deniskj were the inaugural winners of the Classic League while @thoth442 won back to back cups. Both have been Division 1 stalwarts throughout and both have had great starts to the 25/26 campaign as they look to add to their respective trophy cabinets.

A win for Red Cards of Rohan would take them level on points with Cunha Do Sum'4 Mee and as the differentials above demonstrate, this is going to be a very tight game.

With Fulham's Andersen a doubt for the weekend, RCR's defensive options may be limited but Senesi at home to Nottingham Forest, on their 3rd manager of the season, is a definite advantage. That being said, while Guehi and Alderete face tough away matches against Champions League opposition, they are both part of tight defensive units and have a real chance of recording some Defcon points too.

In midfield, RCR will also be sweating on the fitness of Enzo who has recently missed training with a niggle. With such a large squad, we wait to see how Chelsea use their resources over the next few weeks. Caicedo burned FPL managers in GW8 by coming on as a 2nd half substitute.

Otherwise, Kudus is delivering goal involvements this season even if Spurs do have a tough away match at Everton. That's more than Anthony Gordon can say. Granted the England winger has missed 3 and a half matches this season due to his sending off against Liverpool but he's yet to get a goal or an assist in the Premier League during 25/26. Of course if he can set one up this weekend then it's likely to be for Woltemade who has 4 goals in his first 5 Premier League appearances and gives CDSM a massive advantage in this fixture.

@sperosamuel15 vs @samostically

This match then is the polar opposite. 2 sides desperate for a win, particularly bottom placed Spero FC who could find themselves 9 points adrift of safety even at this early stage of the season. What's more, it's a fixture with loads of differentials!

Spero FC have gone for a squad with both Haaland and Salah and given the laters form and price tag that is hurting them. They did captain the Liverpool star in GW8 suggesting that they retain some confidence that he can turnaround his season but is it time to play the wildcard and say goodbye to the Egyptian?

If they don't, then we pretty much know what Spero's side are going to be because they have 3 no hopers on the bench. By contrast, their opponents aren't shy in making transfers, they've made 9 changes over the past 3 weeks, costing themselves 12 points in GW8 for the additional transfers despite sitting on their 1st wildcard. In fact, neither side has played a chip all season so they do have the tools to begin moving up the league.

Both sides have a vested interest in the Everton v Spurs and Arsenal v Palace matches. The result and individual performances in those games + transfer actions will go a long way to deciding this one.

Division 2 Head to Head

Into Division 2 and you can see again that it's going to be a tough battle to get promoted this year. @suttercane are the only side to retain a 100% record across both divisions but they are already being chased hard by a pack of players who have all enjoyed strong starts to the season.

In fact, you've got so many strong teams in Division 2 this year that even @emeka4 who is top of the classic league has managed to lose 3 head to head matches this season and sits down in 13th, 1 of 15 sides with 5 wins to their name.

This is a division that has historically settled down a bit as the season drags on and players begin to lose interest. However, even within the bottom 10, there are only 3 players who haven't made changes to their sides over the last 3 GWs suggesting that at least for now we have an engaged group of players.

Division 1

GW8 Results

GW9 Results

Division 2

GW8 Results

GW9 Results

GW9 Player Picks and Tips

Haaland as captain or time to change it up?

Here's a fun fact. The top 52 teams in Hive FPL all have Erling Haaland in their squad. Given his recent form, that's not surprising and if you've stubbornly resisted bringing him in (I'm talking to you @seki1) then you are probably feeling the pain at this point in time.

Added to that, is the fact that 46 of those 52 sides captained the City striker in GW8 and enjoyed a 26 point boost as a result.

Of course, what it increasingly means is that there is no net benefit to you having him and captaining him as you are essentially getting the same points that most other teams are also getting.

The question then is who is going to blink first and is this the week to do it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrif5xyjigA

Haaland's only goal to date against Villa came as part of their all conquering 22/23 side

City face tougher opposition in the form of Villa who are not only on a good run of form themselves but have an excellent record at home against the Citizens.

Haaland himself has just a goal and an assist in 4 previous appearances vs Villa and both of those came back in the 22/23 season.

So if not Haaland then who?

Home fixtures to target this weekend and potential Haaland alternatives

Bournemouth, Arsenal and Chelsea all play at home this weekend and as such will be popular destinations for fantasy managers when it comes to their transfer and potential captaincy strategy in GW9.

Semenyo continued his fine form this season with an assist against Palace taking his tally to 10 goal involvements for 25/26. He's only blanked twice this season and Bournemouth face a Forest side in crisis. Yes, there is an expectation that Sean Dyche will tighten them up at the back but this is a side that has been struggling defensively for a while and has already shipped 15 goals this season.

No clean sheet for Forest in their last 16 Premier League matches and yet Mat Sels (10% of teams) at 5mil is still more popular than his GW9 opponent Petrovic (5% of teams) at £4.5mil who has 3 clean sheet bonuses this season.

The other Bournemouth player to watch is Kroupi Jnr who scored a brace on his full Premier League debut last weekend having also scored off the bench at Leeds in GW6. Evanilson, you'd assume, is still the first choice striker for Areola's side but is unlikely to feature in GW9 with a calf injury handing the young France striker another opportunity to stake his claim. At £4.5mil he'd represent a player that most sides are going to jump on if he can establish himself as a starter.

Arsenal's home match against Palace appears a much tougher assignment but that shouldn't disuade you from looking at their stars.

Gyokeres would be a high risk high reward option potentially as captain too. The Sweden star scored twice in midweek and has generally blown hot and cold since his arrival in North London. Palace haven't kept a clean sheet in their last 5 domestic matches and will have to deal with playing Thursday/Sunday against the table topping Gunners who played their Champions League match on Tuesday.

Arsenal defenders have scored heavily in FPL 25/26 to date

Of course, you might want to ignore forward options and look at defenders instead. After all, Gabriel with 59 points is the 3rd highest scorer in the league this season behind only Haaland and Semenyo. Timber is 4th with 54 points and Califiori on 48 points not too far behind.

Palace's attack is very effective but Arsenal have conceded just once at home this season and that was a Haaland goal. Add to that the fact that the 3 Arsenal defenders noted above have