The Gameweek 5 deadline is Friday 18 September at 18:30 UK time. Before you plan your transfers, one thing that is easy to forget: after this weekend, Fantasy Premier League goes quiet for three weeks. That changes the maths on every decision you make before Friday.
Check the calendar first: 21 days without football after Sunday
The Gameweek 6 deadline is not until 10 October — exactly 21 days after Friday’s. This international break is unusually long, and it has three practical consequences.
First: a −4 hit costs more than usual right now. Normally that loss is spread across the weeks ahead — you buy someone for the long run and they have time to earn it back. This time, whoever you bring in plays one match and then does nothing for three weeks. If you do not have a free transfer, think hard about whether the move is worth the points.
Second: the players “back in October” are back right after the break. Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta and Dean Henderson are both listed as returning on 11 October, and Phil Foden is suspended until 17 October. Panic-selling them now serves no purpose — you are not missing gameweeks, because there are no gameweeks for three weeks.
Third: this is a good moment to think about chips. You have three weeks to go through the fixture list calmly and plan your first wildcard — remember the first set of chips expires on 2 January, and our fixture analysis points to around Gameweek 6 as the best window. Which is the one starting after the break.
Two Strong Buys — and one of them costs half as much
Our model currently has exactly two players on the top verdict, both rated 90 out of 100. This is the most interesting thing about the gameweek:
| Player | Price | Rating | Risk | Upside | Fixture | Ownership |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haaland (MCI) | £15.5m | 90 | 34 | 89 | home, SUN (2) | 72.4% |
| Gibbs-White (NFO) | £8.0m | 90 | 34 | 89 | home, COV (2) | 12.4% |
Read that table again. Same rating, same risk, same upside, both at home to a side rated 2 out of 5 — and one costs £15.5m and is owned by three managers in four, while the other costs £8.0m and is owned by one in eight.
This is not a “sell Haaland” argument. Risk and upside are scored separately from price, and Haaland keeps proving every week why half the league hands him the armband. What it does mean is that Gibbs-White at 12.4% ownership is the best-priced differential in the game right now — and the market is starting to notice, with 300,000 managers buying him this week. Nottingham Forest host Coventry on Saturday.
Behind them: Guéhi (89, a City defender at £6.0m) and Semenyo (89) — both in that same home game against Sunderland, which our engine rates as the easiest fixture of the round.
The crowd is selling Szoboszlai for the second week running
Dominik Szoboszlai is the most-sold player in the game — 292,000 transfers out this week, after 227,000 the week before. The reason is simple: 3 points in a goalless draw with Fulham.
Our rating has come down too — from 90 to 87 — but the verdict is still Buy and he remains in our top sixteen. The difference is that the model reacts to a result gradually while the market reacts sharply. One caveat: Liverpool travel to Bournemouth on Sunday, a fixture rated 3, so this is not a game where points are a foregone conclusion.
It is worth remembering how this story can end. Bruno Fernandes was sold en masse before Gameweek 2 and returned 23 points. He was sold again before Gameweek 4, and that time the crowd was right. There is no rule here; there is only the question of whether you are selling because of the data or because of the last scoreline.
What the crowd is buying, and what our model says
This week’s most-bought players, set against our rating:
| Player | Transfers in | Our rating | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rogers (CHE) | 411k | 88 | Buy |
| Groß (BHA) | 331k | 82 | Buy |
| Gvardiol (MCI) | 301k | 81 | Buy |
| Gibbs-White (NFO) | 300k | 90 | Strong Buy |
| Schade (BRE) | 251k | 86 | Buy |
| De Cuyper (BHA) | 243k | 81 | Buy |
| Konsa (ARS) | 193k | 75 | Hold |
| Ødegaard (ARS) | 191k | 83 | Buy |
This time the market and the model agree in most cases — which is itself worth noting, because for the last three gameweeks they kept diverging. One exception stands out: Konsa. 193,000 managers bought him, and our rating is 75 with a Hold verdict. The reason is the fixture — Arsenal travel to Brighton on Saturday, which our engine rates 4 out of 5, the hardest trip of the round alongside Liverpool’s. On top of that two other Arsenal defenders carry flags: Ben White at 75%, Mosquera at 50%.
If you want something the crowd does not have yet, the model points to three: Tavernier (88, £6.1m, 5.5% owned), Barnes (87, £6.0m, 3.2% — Newcastle host Hull, difficulty 2) and Ndiaye (88, £5.9m, 7.9% — the same easy fixture as Haaland).
Injuries: check before you transfer
| Player | Ownership | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Shaw (MUN) | 10.2% | 75% chance of playing |
| Elanga (NEW) | 9.2% | injured, no return date |
| Pedro Porro (TOT) | 9.1% | 75% chance of playing |
| Mendy (HUL) | 7.2% | concussion, 50% |
| White (ARS) | 6.5% | muscular injury, 75% |
| Cash (AVL) | 5.3% | muscular injury, 75% |
| Foden (MCI) | 3.0% | suspended until 17 October |
Elanga is the only case on this list that needs a decision now — an injury with no return date at over 9% ownership. The market has already moved: 272,000 managers sold him this week. The rest are 75% flags, where it pays to wait for Friday’s press conferences. The full list is in our Injury Centre, which updates automatically.
Prices: 74 moves, 64 of them down
Since Sunday, 74 players have changed price, and the direction is decidedly one-sided: only ten rose, while 64 fell. The risers are the ones the crowd is buying — João Pedro (£7.8m), Rogers (£7.7m), Gvardiol, Groß, Tarkowski, Gibbs-White, Schade and Tavernier.
Practical note: if you plan to buy anyone from that list, a price drop is not a risk, but another rise is likely. For a transfer you intend to make anyway, there is no reason to wait until Friday evening.
Gameweek 5 fixtures
| Fixture | Kick-off (UK) | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Brentford – Chelsea | Fri 18 Sep, 20:00 | 4 / 3 |
| Tottenham – Aston Villa | Sat 19 Sep, 12:30 | 3 / 3 |
| Brighton – Arsenal | Sat 19 Sep, 15:00 | 4 / 3 |
| Everton – Ipswich | Sat 19 Sep, 15:00 | 2 / 3 |
| Newcastle – Hull | Sat 19 Sep, 15:00 | 2 / 3 |
| Nott’m Forest – Coventry | Sat 19 Sep, 17:30 | 2 / 3 |
| Bournemouth – Liverpool | Sun 20 Sep, 14:00 | 4 / 3 |
| Leeds – Crystal Palace | Sun 20 Sep, 14:00 | 3 / 3 |
| Man City – Sunderland | Sun 20 Sep, 14:00 | 2 / 5 |
| Fulham – Man Utd | Sun 20 Sep, 16:30 | 4 / 3 |
Watch out for Friday: Brentford host Chelsea at 20:00, which is 90 minutes after the deadline. If you own Rogers, Palmer or João Pedro, you are making your captaincy call before Chelsea’s line-up is known. The full difficulty spread for the coming weeks is in our fixture ticker.
Our recommended squad for Gameweek 5
The model sets up 3-5-2 this week, using the full budget:
Goalkeeper: Raya (£6.0m). Defence: Guéhi (£6.0m), Neco Williams (£5.0m), Mitchell (£4.5m). Midfield: Gibbs-White (vice-captain), Semenyo, Tavernier, Le Fée, Gakpo. Attack: Haaland (captain) and João Pedro.
This is a squad built from scratch for this gameweek rather than a transfer instruction — treat it as a reference point for your own eleven. The full fifteen with the bench is on our recommended squad page, and every rating is in the AI rankings.
Five minutes before the deadline
- Check the flags on your own players — Friday press conferences can change the picture in hours.
- Work out whether a −4 hit is really worth it when three weeks of nothing follow.
- Pick a vice-captain from a different match than your captain — ideally Sunday’s, not Friday’s.
- Check your bench order: over a break this long, autosubs are your last line of defence.
- If you own Elanga, make the call today rather than at 18:29 on Friday.
We will be back on Sunday evening with the gameweek review and the mini league table — you can join at any time with code 3ix1cw.
All figures come from the official game data and from our own engine, read on the morning of Wednesday 16 September. Ratings, prices and flags change daily — check the current state before the deadline. AI ratings are decision support, not a guarantee.