Welcome back to the Hive FPL for GW33!

The Premier League season itself is winding down with leaders Liverpool able to claim the title this weekend if they win and 2nd place Arsenal lose.

The former seems highly likely with the Reds visiting whipping boys Leicester but you'd back Arsenal to get 3 points too at fellow relegation candidates Ipswich to mathematically keep them in the title chase.

It's likely then that FPL managers will be targeting players from those 2 clubs to get them big points this weekend while there is also the advantage of 4 clubs enjoying double game weeks in GW33.

That includes Arsenal as well as Man City, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace. FPL managers will be hoping that Palace can do a little better this time around than they did last week when they conceded 9 goals across their 2 matches.

The big concern looking at the other 3 sides is the potential for rotation. Arsenal's focus is now on the Champions League and a semi-final encounter with PSG that begins in 10 days time. They do however need to keep an eye on Newcastle who are finishing the season strongly to ensure they finish 2nd.

For City and Villa, while they don't need to worry about European fixtures, they do both have an FA Cup Semi-Final to come next weekend. That posses a double risk for FPL managers. Firstly, there will almost certainly be rotation and secondly, anyone you bring in from those 2 sides will have a blank in GW34.

I think by this stage of the season we know who the main runners and riders are as far as players to pick for your Fantasy Squad so I thought it would be worth looking at how the Hive FPL head to head and classic leagues are shaping up as well as the Hive FPL Cup which started last week for some teams.

Hive FPL Classic League

We'll start with the classic league not least of all because this is where the big prizes are at the end of the season.

The top 10 sides will enjoy a payout at the conclusion of Premier League season next week. Here I'm showing the top 21 teams who have a realistic chance of getting a top 10 finish (the gap from 21st to 22nd is another 20points).

It looks to be a 4 way battle for the title itself meaning that the conclusion of the Hive FPL season is going to by far more exciting than the actual Premier League!

That being said, it's probably too early to rule out Skander and Hiveheadz in 5th and 6th just yet so we'll include them in our analysis below.

Chips remaining amongst Hive FPL title contenders

Still plenty of chips to use amongst the top teams but you'd have to say it's advantage to @sperosamuel15 who have everything bar their 2nd Wild Card available to them.

The Assistant Manager chip in particular will be key as it delivers additional points over 3 GWs. It also means that @sperosamuel15 will have a chip active for every remaining game week of the season, assuming they plan to use them all...

I would imagine that we'll see a lot of the top players using their free hit either this week or next. Effective use of that could also prove a defining factor in the final outcome.

Division 1 - Head to Head

It's no great surprise to see that 3 of the sides competing for the title in the Classic League are also battling for top spot in the Head to Head.

It's a bit of shame that none of those teams have to play each other between now and the end of the season but you can rest assured that there are no easy matches in Division. Just ask @mckane who lost to 2nd bottom @talesfrmthecrypt last week.

In regards the relegation battle itself, it's worth remembering that 5 teams go down to Division 2. Again, 50 points looks likely to be the magic number for safety which means we have 12 teams who still need something to ensure their status in the top flight.

However, realistically it's a battle between the 6 teams from 14th place to 19th place to avoid the drop with @pappyelblanco having gone AWOL some weeks ago.

At the bottom, there certainly are some really big '6 pointers' coming up between now and GW38 so the focus of the blogs for the last 5 weeks of the season will switch to matches that matter most across both divisions.

Division 2 - Head to Head

*Hungry Lions are excluded as they accidentally joined Division 2 (they are a Division 1 team)

Competing to replace the 5 bottom clubs in Division 1 are these teams in Division 2.

It'd take a monumental collapse by either @borran or @samostically to not finish in the top 5. Meanwhile the vagaries of a head to head league mean that @sperosamuel15's dominate perform in the classic league so far doesn't necessarily mean they will go up to Division 1, although with the aforementioned number of chips they've got to play then you'd still fancy them to get the job done.

Again, we'll begin switching our focus to these sides as they race to get into the top 5 come May.

Hive FPL Cup Rounds 1 & 2

GW32 also saw the start of the Hive FPL Cup.

As a reminder, all teams with the Classic League are entered into the Cup. Round 1 saw most sides get a bye as we whittled our way down to 64 teams competing in Round 2.

Remember, there is a 10 Hive prize split amongst the winners in each round so if you've not got much left to play for in the Head to Head or Classic leagues then you might want to follow Spurs and Man Utd in throwing all your resources at your one remaining chance of glory this season.

Round 1 Results

Significant early casualties include the likes of Division 1 side @b0s who were defeated by @twicejoy. @happyboy1 and @samostically who are both doing well in Division 2 this season are also out following round 1 defeats.

Round 2 Fixtures

The pick of the round 2 ties is almost certainly @skanderh v @uwabbs001, 5th v 9th respectively in the classic league. Uwabbs failed to join one of the Hive Head to Head leagues prior to the start of the season so they've missed out on what would otherwise have been regular rewards. Can they make a mends with a good run in the Cup?