Under two days to go. The Gameweek 1 deadline closes on Friday 21 August at 18:30 UK time (19:30 CET), and the opening match — Arsenal against Coventry — kicks off ninety minutes later.
This is not a guide to building a squad from scratch. We have the fixture-by-fixture breakdown and the recommended squad for that. This is a checklist for the squad you already have, because in the last days before a season starts, most points are lost on small details.
All figures were read from our engine on the morning of 19 August.
1. Five players who have already left the Premier League
This is the most urgent item on the list. The game’s database still carries players who have moved abroad — and managers are still holding them. If one of them is sitting in your squad, he will score exactly nothing this weekend.
- Djed Spence (Tottenham, £4.5m) — joined Inter Milan. Still owned by 3.4% of managers, roughly one in thirty.
- Cristian Romero (Tottenham, £5.0m) — Atlético Madrid, 0.7%.
- Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea, £5.5m) — Como, 0.6%.
- Arthur Masuaku (Sunderland, £4.0m) and Enis Destan (Hull, £4.5m) — both to Konyaspor.
These notes come straight from the official game database, so there is nothing to debate. Checking takes thirty seconds.
Update (19 August): a sixth case joins the list — Lucas Digne (Aston Villa, £4.5m) has moved to Paris Saint-Germain. He is owned by 0.4% of managers, the smallest share of the group, but the rule is the same: zero points. Villa have already announced his replacement, Matteo Ruggeri from Atlético Madrid.
2. The Tottenham goalkeeper puzzle
More than 40% of managers own one of two Spurs goalkeepers: Martin Dúbravka (£4.0m) sits at 21.5%, Antonín Kinský (£4.5m) at 21.3%. The third option, Guglielmo Vicario (£4.5m), is on 1.2%.
Our model rates Dúbravka 65, Vicario 65 and Kinský 47. The problem is not which of them is better. The problem is that two fifths of the league is betting on who actually starts in Gameweek 1.
If one of them is your first-choice keeper, hold the decision until the Thursday and Friday press conferences. If he is a £4.0m bench filler funding the rest of your squad, that is a different situation entirely and not worth agonising over.
The safer route for similar money: Caoimhín Kelleher (Brentford, £5.0m) is the highest-rated goalkeeper in the game at 72, owned by just 5.9%.
3. Captaincy: the model says Bruno, the crowd says Haaland
Erling Haaland (£15.5m) has the armband in 70.1% of squads. Our model rates him 89, with a risk of 15 and an upside of 78.
Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) rates 90, with a risk of 8 and an upside of 89 — the best captaincy profile in the game. Manchester United travel to Hull, a promoted side.
There is a third route: Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m, rated 88, owned by 31.8%) plays in that same fixture, carries an almost identical profile and costs £4m less.
To be clear about the terms: our “risk” measures minutes security, fitness and fixture difficulty, not the chance of a blank. “Upside” is scoring potential in a good scenario. The full set is in Captain Picks.
4. Who is a 75% doubt
Six players with meaningful ownership carry an injury note in the game’s database:
- Jérémy Doku (Man City, £7.5m, 5.7%) — calf, 75% chance of playing
- Ryan Yates (Nottingham Forest, £4.5m, 5.1%) — unspecified injury, 75%
- Matheus Nunes (Man City, £6.0m, 2.7%) — knock, 75%
- Nordi Mukiele (Sunderland, £5.5m, 2.5%) — knock, 75%
- Benjamin Šeško (Man United, £7.0m, 1.6%) — shin, 75%
- Junior Kroupi (Bournemouth, £7.5m, 1.4%) — foot, no return date
75% does not mean “he will play”. The pre-Gameweek press conferences run on Thursday and Friday, and only then do the statuses settle. Our Injury Centre refreshes automatically every hour, so it is worth a look on Friday afternoon.
5. Four popularity traps
This is where our model disagrees with the crowd most sharply:
- Christos Tzolis (Arsenal, £6.5m) — 16.5% ownership, our rating 19. New at the club, without a single Premier League minute.
- Alexander Isak (Liverpool, £9.0m) — 15.6% at a rating of 61.
- David Raya (Arsenal, £6.0m) — 34.7% at a rating of 70. The most-owned keeper in the game is neither the highest rated nor the cheapest.
- Issa Diop (Ipswich, £4.0m) — 18.1% at a rating of 53. Defensible as a £4.0m bench filler; not as a defender you actually start.
Correction (Friday 21 August): our rating for Tzolis needs a caveat, because the model cannot see one thing — pre-season. And his was excellent: a goal on debut against Girona, assists against Real Betis and Borussia Dortmund, the winning penalty in the shootout with Como, and six assists in total, more than any other Premier League player across the summer friendlies. Reports suggest he starts Gameweek 1 on the left of the Arsenal attack. The rating of 19 comes purely from our model counting proven Premier League minutes, of which Tzolis has none — not from any lack of quality. It is a good example of a case where knowing what the model cannot see matters, and the call is yours.
This is not a call to dump everything popular. Haaland, Bruno, João Pedro and Szoboszlai are both widely owned and highly rated — we have no case against them. We covered the wider picture in our rundown of the traps.
Where the value still sits
Differentials — high rating, low ownership:
- Harry Wilson (Leeds, £6.5m) — rated 89 at 7.1%. The same rating as Haaland, £9m cheaper.
- Enzo Fernández (Chelsea, £7.0m) — 88 at 5.2%.
- Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Everton, £6.5m) — 87 at 3.5%.
- Cody Gakpo (Liverpool, £7.0m) — 86 at 3.7%.
- Anton Stach (Leeds, £6.0m) — 86 at 1.0%.
Cheap defence — the place where you save money for the rest of the squad:
- Jan Paul van Hecke (Tottenham, £5.0m) — rated 85.
- Chris Richards (Crystal Palace, £5.0m) — 82 at 0.8% ownership.
- Malick Thiaw (Newcastle, £5.0m) — 82.
- Tyrick Mitchell (Crystal Palace, £4.5m) — 81.
More names like these are in our cheapest enablers piece, and the full top 50 sits in the FPL AI Player Rankings.
A five-minute checklist before the deadline
- Nobody in the squad has left the league (point one above).
- Nobody carrying a 75% note is in your starting eleven.
- Your captain and vice-captain play in different fixtures — same fixture means no cover.
- Your bench is ordered the way you want the substitutions to happen.
- The squad is actually saved. Looking at your changes is not the same as confirming them.
Our 2026/27 league
22 teams have already joined the Fantasy PL Edge league. The code is 3ix1cw. To score from Gameweek 1 you only need a saved squad before Friday’s deadline — you can join the league later and your points still count from the start. Details on the mini league page.
The ratings and picks in this article come from our own AI model, which analyses data from the official Fantasy Premier League API. The model does not know team sheets and does not predict the future — it points to where the value sits. The final call is yours. Fantasy PL Edge is an independent site, not affiliated with the Premier League or the official Fantasy Premier League game.