This week we caught up with Tarek Balbaa, one of our Elite XI: Team Reveal managers, who boasts an incredible 10× Top 10k finishes, including a personal best of 796th overall.
Fresh from a successful Triple Captain on Haaland in Gameweek 6, Tarek has decided it’s time to activate his Wildcard in Gameweek 7.
He talked us through his current draft, chip strategy, and the thinking behind his moves.
Tarek was clear that his hand was forced after a rough couple of weeks.
“After a successful Triple Captain in Gameweek 6 on Haaland, and after taking a lot of team value loss it is time to hit the Wildcard. I had 2 free transfers but decided to use the Wildcard as I had no Arsenal at all and I was a bit disappointed from what I saw from Salah so far.
Another trigger was that I needed to change my keeper & defence to lock in some of those DEFCON hoggers.”
Arsenal head into a very favourable run of fixtures and sit top of the Fixture Planner for defensive difficulty over the next five Gameweeks.
The Opta Stats Sandbox highlights exactly why Tarek is so keen on their defence: they have conceded only three goals, the joint fewest in the league, and only Newcastle have kept more clean sheets with four compared to Arsenal’s three.
Defensively, they have also allowed the fewest shots overall (52), the fewest shots in the box (35), and boast the league’s lowest expected goals conceded at just 4.25.
Tarek isn’t just looking at Gameweek 7 in isolation — the Wildcard is part of a bigger plan.
“The plan is to Bench Boost in Gameweek 8 or 9.”
He walked us through the current shape of his squad across all positions.
“My current Wildcard team is consisted of the following:
In keeper it’s either Raya or Pope as well as Dubravka.
In Defence it’s Gabriel, Senesi, & then three of Richards, Andersen, Van de Ven, Alderete, Burn, Rodon.
In Midfield Bruno Fernandes (mainly for Gameweek 7 as he plays Sunderland), Sarr, Reijnders, Semenyo and either Kudus / Ndiaye or Anthony.
Finally in Attack it is locked with Haaland, J Pedro & Gyokeres.”
While his core is largely set, Tarek explained why he’s keeping money in reserve.
“I will try to keep £1.5m/£2.0m in the bank so as to have the option to get a Liverpool option in Gameweek 8 with Salah or Isak.”
Tarek’s Wildcard centres on three big themes: moving away from Salah, tripling up on Arsenal, and reshaping his defence with DEFCON magnets. With the Bench Boost on his radar for Gameweek 8 or 9, it’s a bold play designed for maximum upside.
⚠️ Remember:his draft could still change with Friday’s press conferences. Turn on push notifications in the Elite XI: Team Revealtool to get instant alerts when Tarek locks in his final Wildcard before the Gameweek 7 deadline.
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