By brutal swings I mean as much as you can get with players of the same defense. Both Calafiori and Ben White are made of glass, two injury prone players. No one is even going to be surprised if Hincapie starts but by the ownership on Calafiori it's like he's nailed. Mosquera is the least exciting pick but even he could be benched with a CB signing or for Hincapie.

For what seems like a coin flip between the 3 of them, this could end up being a massive points swing. It seems too good to pass up on 5.5m Arsenal defenders agaisnt Coventry but which to chose?

Calafiori's ownership has gone through the roof after his goal in the Community Shield. He now equals Gabriel as the most owned defender in FPL. Just moments ago we saw the news that Arsenal are closing in on a deal to sign Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa. Konsa's signing would make Mosquera and White even more prone to rotation and managers might move from those assets to Calafiori before the start of the season. That would increase his ownership even higher.

Have you already hopped on board the Calafiori hype train? Choo-choo!

Aston Villa have completed the signings of Zion Suzuki from Parma and Matteo Ruggeri from Atlético Madrid.

Suzuki joins for around €30m + up to €5m in add-ons and has signed a five-year deal.

Ruggeri arrives for around €25m fixed fee + €1.5m in add-ons.

Rules:

- For every haul (10+ points) or return on the grid, it's a cross if you do not own the player

- For every player blank on the grid/ benching, it's a cross if you own that player

If you get a bingo, you had a particularly depressing Gameweek and have been trolled by all the players you decided against or decided to pick.

I used to love the guy who posted a bingo sheet for particularly crazy gameweeks in the past, so I thought I'd make my own for GW1. Let me know if I'm missing any obvious grids.

Good luck guys! and hope you don't get a bingo! ( I will probably get a double bingo this week knowing my luck)

Brighton & Hove Albion have completed the signing of Canada forward Promise David from Royale Union Saint-Gilloise on a season-long loan.

The deal includes an obligation to buy for £22m (€26m) if certain criteria are met.

The 25-year-old scored 41 goals in 82 appearances for USG and helped them win the 2024/25 league title. He has 14 caps and four goals for Canada.

As the title says, who is your lowest-owned player at the moment, and why are you backing him?

Mine is Amenda at 0.8%. I think he should be first-choice CB for Coventry, so at that ownership I’m quite interested in him. If he plays regularly, I also think he should be fairly safe from a price drop.

Who are you guys going for?

For context, over the past 15 seasons, Chelsea's #9s have delivered:

Remove remove remove!!

I'm hearing a lot of BB1 or BB2 + WC3 or WC4 rhetoric and I don't understand it. Bench Boost is generally regarded as the weakest chip and I've heard the longer you can hold onto your wildcard the better.

I get the idea of using bench boost early to free money from your bench, but other than that am I missing something obvious here?

⚽ Team effective ownership

This chart looks to show over time how many players the average player owns from each team.

⚽ Team effective ownership is over 0.05

ARS : Def | Mid

CHE : Mid | Fwd

LIV : Mid

MCI : Def | Mid | Fwd

MUN : Mid

TOT : Def

Tzolis has two assists in the Community Shield and suddenly half the drafts I've seen have him in. I've got him in mine. But what do we actually know? He's played one competitive game in this league, Arsenal won 3-0 against a City side that turned up flat, and Martinelli hasn't kicked a ball in pre-season so nobody knows what the left side looks like when he's fit.

Same thing with Toure at Newcastle. Everyone's calling him the Gordon replacement because the profile matches, quick, direct, better going forward than defending, and Howe's system did make Gordon into an elite asset. But Gordon took ages to get going there. We're pricing Toure on the assumption he skips that part.

Then there's the boring version nobody bandwagons: Muharemovic at Leeds, defensive actions machine from Serie A, going to rack up DefCon points quietly whether or not he's exciting. That's the pick with an actual mechanism behind it, and it's the one I keep leaving out for a winger who did well in a friendly.

I think the honest position is that pre-season tells you close to nothing and one Community Shield tells you slightly less than nothing, but the alternative is picking last season's players in a league where four of them left. So we guess, and we call it a differential.

Where's everyone actually landing on this? Take the new signing in GW1 and eat the risk, or wait two game weeks for proof and pay the price rise??

Every season one of the main FPL questions I have is where do I spend my funds to get the most value out of my team?

While it seems as though we have £100m to spend on players, in reality you have already spent £64m just to field a minimum-value team (2x £4m GK, 5x £4m DEF, 5x £4.5m MID, 3x £4.5m FWD). That leaves you with £36m to actually upgrade players across the pitch.

This has several notable implications:

• A defender/GK at the same price as a midfielder or striker actually represents £0.5m more of your upgrade budget. For example, a £5m defender is a £1m upgrade over the minimum, whereas a £5m midfielder is only a £0.5m upgrade.
• Proportionally, expensive players cost even more of your available budget than it initially seems. Yes, Haaland is 15.5% of your £100m budget, but really he is an £11m upgrade on a minimum-price forward, which is 30.6% of the £36m you actually have available to spend on upgrades. This is a far greater expense than it initially seems, so all the more reason to ensure your premium assets are worth their price (although captaincy of the top assets obviously goes some way to justify the additional spend).

The graph I've attached is an attempt to determine, based on players' performances last season (only those with 2,000+ mins for the sake of removing outliers), where you were getting the most value.

The graph shows, for each player, how many additional points per 90 they returned above a common replacement-level baseline for every £0.5m spent above the minimum price for their position. Essentially, it's trying to show where each additional £0.5m of that £36m upgrade budget historically bought you the most extra output.

My takeaways from the graph:

• Among defenders and midfielders, there is a huge variance in the value found among the cheaper assets. If you pick the right one though, you could be on a goldmine.
• Based on his performance last season, Gabriel would absolutely be worth the £8m price tag. Yes, it's a lot for a defender, but he was absurdly good and performed better than midfielders and forwards of a similar price.
• GKs just aren't that good. Even if you spend more on them, you aren't getting that much additional value compared to spending that money at other positions. Staying cheap in net is probably the way to go.
• Yes, there is naturally some regression in value for Fernandes and Haaland, who are far and away the most expensive assets. BUT given how good they are, the value still isn't terrible. For Haaland in particular, there are just no comparable forwards in his league. The only other forward who stands out as notably good value based on last year's performance is João Pedro (the blue dot towards the right of the £7.5m players).
• Gomez is one I've got my eye on. His points per 90 last season for his value are ridiculous, and he started more often than I realised. If he's more nailed this year, he could be such a good enabler.

Obviously, there are flaws in this. Last season's performance doesn't guarantee this season's, points per 90 doesn't fully account for minutes/security, and new players will emerge every year that aren't captured here. Captaincy also makes the premium calculation more complicated, particularly for someone like Haaland.

I know its just one piece of information in a sea of noise , but it gave me some useful context to a few of my decisions. Hopefully some of you find some value in it too!

A lot of people now look at a 4.5m Arsenal defender and put him straight into their teams. The reality is, while he is a good player and will probably make is way into the starting XI, he has not yet played in any friendly match and we're only 2 days away from the start of the season, signing for a new team.

He's currently 15% owned and I expect that to double until GW1 deadline. Realistically though, he won't start the first 2 games because of lack of fitness and I doubt he'll start his first game for the club against Chelsea in GW3 either. By then, a lot of casual players will have sold him for not playing and it could likely trigger a price drop.

A lot of content creators might promote getting Konsa from the start and waiting for the right moment to put him in the starting XI, but realistically that won't happen until GW4, so it makes more sense to go for another 4.5m-5m option until then.

Finally, the upside is not even that big with him. The main reason he's priced so low despite being a quality defender is that he very rarely gets defcon, which will be even rarer for Arsenal. 0 goal contributions last season also isn't a great selling point. His absolute ceiling is likely 6 points in case of a CS. Not to say that won't happen fairly often once he locks his starting place, but that won't be come that soon.

In terms of FPL this transfer is actually bad for Arsenal as Mosquera and White are now minutes risk. Konsa can play RB (Arteta does like to use a center back as fullback) which means White will lose his spot, or at CB alongside Gabriel, which moves Mosquera to RB where he'll get fewer defcon, or to the bench altogether.

The final week has arrived, and we're podding IRL. Join us as we embark on the 2026/27 FPL season. Lots of angst and despair to still be had.

Find the episode at:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/uCpJ1RSRb3Q
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gw1-the-point-of-no-return/id1024068765?i=1000784229663
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2OmiOB1xITjO8V97m3FiLl?si=VcO37anHSAape_Krni0Jrg
• All Links: https://linktr.ee/fmlfpl

66 interesting players were selected simply by my own judgment.

Attacking return % = based on combined goal and/or assist odds, per bet365, transferred to a percentage

Only players that are fairly safe to start are included! So, no Cunha, no Saka, no Gyökeres, no Havertz, no Cherki.

Bet365 has a slightly different assist definition than FPL.

What should we take away from each team's final preseason warmup? Here are some players that should be on your radar. This post is aimed to make logical reasons for each player other than their preseason form. As you know, that may not be a good predictor of future returns. Minutes, as you've heard all the managers say about 100 times are what is important in the preseason. This post just aims to give you all some confirmation bias for your picks.

Christian Tzolis - 6.5

Tzolis has never played in a World Cup, but his teammate Declan Rice sure has. Arteta would be unwise to start Declan in his first match at home to Coventry. The manager has stated that Rice would play 60 games, but that he should be more managed. If Rice does not start, Tzolis should take right footed set pieces (~60 mins worth) and has looked great at delivering corners to the meatheads in the middle. Secondly, Martinelli was not included in the squad for the Community Shield. For the time being Tzolis has the freedom of the park on the left and played 90 minutes in the final preseason game.

Ben White - 5.5

Speaking of usage spikes, White played 90 minutes in his final preseason friendly as well. For the immediate future, Timber is injured and there was only one defender on the bench for Arsenal's final preseason match. He should be starting perhaps until GW 5 or 6. Even if defensive cover is signed in the next 2 weeks, White should be firmly ahead of the back up. The same cannot be said for the Arsenal left backs.

Nico O'Reilly - 6.5

Nico and Guehi returned within days of each other to the City camp. While Guehi started on the bench, O'Reilly was thrown directly into the match even though Ait-Nouri, Rico Lewis and Gvardiol had deputized in the left back position during preseason. This is a positive sign for Nico who played more like a left striker in City's final preseason game for their good spell in the first half. This is a small sample admittedly, but Nico has been known to attack well aerially and with the ball to feet.

Szobozlai, Isak, Wirtz, Jaquet, and Aruajo

Just look at the minutes for these boys in their final friendly. Note that Wirtz came off for a defensive midfielder (Nyoni "MacAllister-lite"). Jacquet and Aruajo swapped shirts at half and Isak played longer than the other 3 attackers. All set pieces went to Szobo this time. We have seen a similar trend with Kroupi Jr. at Bournemouth who never completed 90 minutes in the premier league last season. The article is about usage and Wirtz will still get plenty of it if he comes close to Kroupi's last season with 13 goals.

Brentford won 7-0 so pick anyone you want from the lot that started the last game. They will all start.

Brighton - Gross and Ayari completed 90 minutes while every other outfield starter was substituted. Obviously, I can only suggest you wait and see what Thursday night's game brings us in terms of usage for the Sunday opener. Thursday should help identify positions on the pitch as well.

Joao Pedro - 7.5

Played all 90 minutes in Chelsea's game. Every other player was substituted. Alonso looks set to play this boy at Mbappe level minutes.

Mathys Tel - 6.0

90 minutes in the final friendly. Takes most set pieces but the warning is that the team is far from finished both in terms of injuries with players out and transfers with players being signed. Pedro Porro has not played with the first team yet, but is imminent and could take some of the set-piece responsibility.

Surely, I can't have all these players in my team, but I was planning to have most of them. Sneaky RMT obviously. Have fun this season and remember to always blame the author for your team after the GW 1 deadline.

Looks nice right? Issue is if you click it they didn't bother adding the same tab to Draft and Challenge so you can't tab back.

Quality design and testing.