Three days left to lock in your squad: the GW1 deadline is Friday 21 August at 18:30 UK time, ninety minutes before kick-off at the Emirates. Instead of another list of “the best players overall”, we go through all ten fixtures in order and tell you who our model points to in each one.
For every match you get the AI Rating out of 100, the price and the percentage of managers who already own the player. That last number matters more than people think: in Fantasy you are not racing points, you are racing other managers. Someone owned by 5 per cent moves you up the table. Someone owned by 70 per cent only stops you falling behind.
Before you start: prices have not moved
Every season brings the same panic — “buy now before he rises”. We checked it directly in the game data today: not one of the 555 players has changed price yet. Prices are frozen until Friday’s deadline and will only start moving once the season is under way. You have three days to think, and it costs you nothing.
Friday 21 August
Arsenal v Coventry, 20:00
The season opener is also the most lopsided fixture of the round: the official difficulty rating for Coventry is 5 out of 5. From Arsenal we rate Declan Rice highest (£7.5m, rating 87), and among defenders Gabriel (£8.0m, 85) — already owned by almost 29 per cent of managers, so he is more of an obligation than an edge. Bukayo Saka (£9.5m, 84) is tempting here, but at 9.8 per cent ownership he remains a bold call.
There is nothing to take from Coventry, and we will say it plainly: the highest-rated player at any promoted club scores 40 out of 100 with us. We explained why in our analysis of the promoted sides — the model rewards proven Premier League minutes, and that is exactly what these squads lack.
Saturday 22 August
Hull v Manchester United, 12:30
The most important match of the weekend for your squad. United travel to a promoted side with a difficulty rating of 2 and have the only Strong Buy in the entire game: Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m, rating 90). Alongside him sits Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m, 88) — same club, same easy fixture, four million cheaper, owned by 30 per cent.
The third option is the interesting one: Matheus Cunha (£8.0m, 86) is owned by just 11 per cent. If you want someone who makes a difference at the start without dropping into completely anonymous names, this is the address. At the back, Diogo Dalot (£5.0m, 80) is the cheap route in.
Nottingham Forest v Leeds, 15:00
The best value-per-pound fixture of the round. For the hosts, Morgan Gibbs-White (£8.0m, 88) and cheap defender Neco Williams (£5.0m, 82). For the visitors, the name we have been repeating all week: Harry Wilson (£6.5m, rating 89) — the same score as Haaland, nine million cheaper, owned by only 7 per cent.
Two more for the patient: Anton Stach (£6.0m, 86) at 1.1 per cent ownership, which means essentially nobody has him, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m, 86) — the cheapest forward of that quality in the game, already at 27 per cent.
Everton v Crystal Palace, 15:00
Two evenly matched sides (difficulty 3 for both) and a fixture full of cheap defenders. Palace offer three in the same price bracket: Daniel Muñoz (£5.5m, 84), Chris Richards (£5.0m, 82, owned by 0.8 per cent) and Tyrick Mitchell (£4.5m, 81). Everton counter with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£6.5m, 87) at 3.5 per cent ownership, plus James Tarkowski (£6.0m, 85) and Iliman Ndiaye (£6.0m, 85).
Ipswich v Sunderland, 15:00
Nothing on one side, a little on the other. Enzo Le Fée (£6.0m, 85) is a solid mid-price pick for Sunderland. From Ipswich the only name worth mentioning is Issa Diop (£4.0m) — not because he is good, but because he is the cheapest starting defender available and 18 per cent of managers use him as a bench filler.
Brentford v Tottenham, 17:30
For the hosts, Igor Thiago (£8.0m, 87) — one of the few forwards our model rates highly — and Kevin Schade (£6.0m, 83). Tottenham arrive with two top-tier defenders: Marcos Senesi (£6.0m, 87) and Jan Paul van Hecke (£5.0m, 85), the best-rated £5.0m defender in the game. Pedro Porro (£5.5m, 81) has higher ownership at 23 per cent but a lower rating than either.
Sunday 23 August
Manchester City v Bournemouth, 14:00
The second fixture of the round with a difficulty rating of 5 for the away side — and the biggest concentration of highly rated players in one squad. City field five men near the top of our rankings: Antoine Semenyo (£8.5m, rating 90, the second Strong Buy alongside Bruno), Erling Haaland (£15.5m, 89), Nico O’Reilly (£6.5m, 88), Marc Guéhi (£6.0m, 88) and Elliot Anderson (£6.5m, 88).
Look at how ownership splits. Haaland is owned by 71 per cent of managers, Anderson by 9.6 per cent. They play the same fixture against the same opponent and the rating gap is a single point. This is the cheapest way to hold City’s attack without spending half your budget on one man.
Newcastle v Liverpool, 16:30
The hardest fixture of the round for a home side (difficulty 4) and the only genuine heavyweight tie of the weekend. From Liverpool, Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.0m, 89) — at 41 per cent ownership he is now a crowd pick — and Virgil van Dijk (£6.5m, 87). For something different: Cody Gakpo (£7.0m, 86) at just 3.6 per cent.
Newcastle’s only sensible option is Malick Thiaw (£5.0m, 82), though a clean sheet against Liverpool is a lot to ask.
Brighton v Aston Villa, 14:00
The quietest fixture of the round. Ollie Watkins (£8.0m, 86) is the highest-rated player on the pitch, while Brighton’s only stand-out is cheap defender Ferdi Kadıoğlu (£4.5m, 80).
Monday 24 August
Fulham v Chelsea, 20:00
The fixture that closes the round, and good news if you are planning a captain: hold anyone from Chelsea and your gameweek runs until Monday night. Enzo Fernández (£7.0m, 88) is owned by just 5.3 per cent and is the most interesting pick here. Next to him, Morgan Rogers (£7.5m, 87) after his record move from Villa, and João Pedro (£7.5m, 87), already owned by 60 per cent. At the back, Maxence Lacroix (£6.0m, 83).
Who to captain
The model points to Bruno Fernandes: the highest rating in the game (90), the easiest possible fixture (away at a promoted side) and the lowest risk among the candidates. The crowd will go with Haaland — owned by 71 per cent, a safe pick, but safe here means “the same as everyone else”.
If you want to gamble, Mbeumo has exactly the same fixture as Bruno, a rating of 88 and far fewer managers behind him. The full list with calculated risk and upside is in Captain Picks.
Check these on Friday
Three situations from today’s data that could still change:
- Nordi Mukiele of Sunderland and Omar Alderete — both carrying knocks with a 75 per cent chance of playing.
- James Garner of Everton is due back on the day of the match — too risky for GW1.
- Joachim Andersen of Fulham is suspended until 30 August, so he misses this round.
The current state of every injury in the league is in our Injury Centre, refreshed automatically every hour.
Three takeaways from the round
First: two fixtures stand apart from the rest — Hull against United, and Manchester City against Bournemouth. If you have to choose where your attacking players come from, take them from there.
Second: the best value in this round is not the stars. It is Harry Wilson at £6.5m with a rating of 89 and Elliot Anderson at £6.5m with 88, both at low ownership.
Third: do not overpay at the back. Van Hecke at £5.0m, Richards at £5.0m and Mitchell at £4.5m are rated as highly as defenders costing twice as much — we set it out in our guide to the cheapest enablers.
A full squad for this round, assembled automatically within the £100m budget, is in our Recommended Squad. The fifty highest-rated players are in the FPL AI Player Rankings, and the schedule for the coming weeks is in the Fixture Ticker.
The ratings in this article come from our own model and were read on 18 August 2026. Prices and ownership change during the season. This article was produced with AI assistance, using data from the official Fantasy Premier League API. We are not affiliated with the Premier League or the FPL game.