Fulham and Newcastle own the next six weeks
Five gameweeks of noise are behind us and the fixture swings from gameweek 6 point straight towards mid-priced attackers.
Five games into a season is usually enough time to convince yourself that a terrible team is good and a good team is dead. It is also nowhere near enough matches to prove either. What we do know with total certainty is who plays whom next.
The early noise clears from gameweek 6, and two fixture runs stand out above the rest.
Fulham
Newcastle
Man City
Nottm ForesteasierharderInternal model rating, 0 to 100. Not FPL's fixture rating.
Ratings on a 0-100 scale where 100 is easiest. Based on defensive ratings across the first 5 gameweeks.
Fulham spend five consecutive matches facing backlines that have struggled across the opening five matches. From gameweek 6 to 10, they meet 
Ipswich Town with a defensive score of 89, 
Hull City at 91, 
Coventry City at 88, 
Aston Villa at 79, and Newcastle United at 87. You could not handpick a more welcoming run if you drew the balls yourself.
Newcastle United sit right alongside them. Their upcoming five-game lookahead rating reaches 73.1 for attack, starting away to Coventry City where the defensive rating sits at 88.
Average fixture rating over gameweeks 6 to 10. Higher numbers mean easier opponents based on 5 games of data.
Barnes sits at just 5.4% ownership heading into this run. At 6.1m, he offers a cheap doorway into an attack about to play three weak defences in four matches between gameweek 6 and gameweek 9.
At the cheap end of midfield, Belloumi costs 5.1m and holds a 4.8% ownership share. Hull City face Everton away in gameweek 6, followed by Fulham, 
Brentford, and Ipswich Town. That gives Belloumi an overall fixture rating of 64.7 over the next five games.
73.1Barnes fixture ratingHighest lookahead in data5.4%Barnes ownershipDifferential price entry
45.7Palmer fixture ratingTougher run aheadLookahead rating calculated across gameweeks 6 to 10.
Compare that to Palmer. Chelsea hit a trickier patch where his five-game lookahead rating drops to 45.7. In gameweek 6 they play 
Bournemouth with a defensive score of 66, but then encounter tighter opposition through gameweeks 7 to 9 with Everton, 
Tottenham Hotspur, and 
Manchester United.
BarnesPalmerFixture rating covers gameweeks 6 to 10 on our internal 0-100 scale.
The model rates Barnes much higher for short-term fixture ease than Palmer, saving you 3.6m in team value along the way.
Remember that all of these rating numbers are derived from five gameweeks of competitive football. Team defensive strengths will shift as tactical setups adjust and small samples expand. But when the schedule opens up like this for Fulham and Newcastle, sitting on your hands is usually the riskiest move of all.
Get Barnes into your team before Saturday's deadline.