The Gameweek 4 deadline falls on Saturday 12 September at 13:30 UK — not Friday evening. This is one of those things that catches someone out every season: the international break pushes the deadline forward a day and five hours earlier than usual.
If you are in the habit of setting your squad on Friday after work, this week that will be too late. The first matches kick off at 15:00 on Saturday.
What has changed in three days
The game has formally closed Gameweek 3, so our ratings have recalculated with the results included. The changes are significant.
Three “strong buy” verdicts instead of two
| Player | Club | Price | Rating | Owned | GW4 fixture |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gakpo | Liverpool | £7.2m | 90 | 14.0% | home Fulham (2) |
| Rogers | Chelsea | £7.6m | 90 | 28.1% | home Hull (2) |
| Szoboszlai | Liverpool | £7.0m | 90 | 38.6% | home Fulham (2) |
Gakpo has climbed to the very top of the ranking after eleven points in Gameweek 3. He is the same player we had only fourth among our captaincy picks on Friday — and the only one of the five who delivered.
All three are at home against opponents rated difficulty 2. That is the kindest set of fixtures in the round.
The star of the round has entered the top ten
Tyrick Mitchell of Crystal Palace, who scored twice for 15 points in Gameweek 3, now rates 89 at a price of £4.5m on 5.6% ownership. He is the cheapest player in our top ten, and Palace host Ipswich in Gameweek 4.
Watch O’Reilly — one manager in six owns him
Nico O’Reilly of Manchester City, owned by 15.3% of managers, has picked up a back injury flag at 75% chance of playing. He is comfortably the most-owned flagged player right now.
Other flags affecting a meaningful number of squads: Mosquera (Arsenal, 3.5%) with a muscular injury, Collins (Brentford, 1.8%) with a calf problem and only a 25% chance, plus Caicedo and Palestra at Chelsea on 75%. Mateta is out until around 11 October, Rodon until 21 November.
It is only Tuesday, and players return from international duty all week. The list will almost certainly grow — it always does after these breaks. The full version is in the Injury Centre.
The Manchester derby complicates captaincy
On Sunday Manchester United host Manchester City. For FPL that is an awkward fixture, because it contains four of the most-owned players in the game, and it is rated difficulty 4 for both sides:
| Player | Club | Rating | Owned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haaland | Man City | 88 | 71.2% |
| Bruno Fernandes | Man Utd | 88 | 46.5% |
| Mbeumo | Man Utd | 88 | 25.7% |
| Semenyo | Man City | 88 | 18.1% |
All four rate highly, but they have drawn the hardest fixture of the round. Meanwhile the three players with a “strong buy” verdict are at home to weaker opposition. This is a rare situation where the template and the model diverge across the board — and it is worth thinking through before 13:25 on Saturday.
Prices: seventy-two changes, mostly downward
Since Sunday prices have moved for 72 players, and the largest group of fallers are Arsenal players: Rice, Tzolis, Mosquera, Hincapié and several squad men. The market is selling them ahead of the trip to Sunderland.
The rule we have repeated for a month still stands: £0.1m is not a reason to make a transfer. But if you are making the move anyway, doing it earlier is sometimes cheaper.
What to do this week
- Write down Saturday 13:30. That is the most important line in this article.
- Check whether you own O’Reilly — decide on Friday or Saturday morning, when more is known.
- Do not plan your squad around today’s flags. Players return from international duty until Thursday.
- If you own players from the Manchester derby, consider whether you want your captain there.
- Sell anyone who has left the league — Watkins is still in 3.4% of squads.
All ratings are in the AI Rankings, the difficulty run is in the Fixture Ticker, and a ready-made fifteen is in the Recommended Squad. We will be back with a full guide before Saturday’s deadline.
If you want to measure yourself against others, join our mini league — code 3ix1cw, currently 69 teams. In Gameweek 3 our league comfortably outscored the rest of the world, as we covered in the review.
Our ratings are generated by an AI model from official FPL data, refreshed hourly. The numbers are from Tuesday 8 September.