The first deadline of 2026/27 lands this evening, and Arsenal against Coventry follows it at 20:00. Ten fixtures and no form to read. Everyone is picking on last season and a hunch.
We are picking on last season too, but we have a number for it.
What follows is our board as it stood this morning, position by position, with the price on every name. It is not a squad. It is the evidence you need to build your own.
How to read the numbers
Elo is a skill rating on a Glicko scale. It moves after every match a player appears in, upward when they beat what a player of their standing is expected to return, downward when they fall short. It carries across seasons rather than resetting in August, so a player begins this campaign exactly where last season left them.
Every rating starts life at 1500. Across the 369 players our data can rate, the average sits at 1440.9, so 1500 is not the middle of the league. It is comfortably above it. Anything at 1550 or better is rare air, and only three players in the game are there.
One practical note. Elo is built from Premier League matches, so the squads at Coventry, Hull and Ipswich carry no rating at all, and neither do this summer’s arrivals from abroad. If a player is not in these lists, that is usually why. There is no verdict on them here because there is nothing to base one on.
The other rating on the site, our 1000-2000 z-score, is held back until a gameweek has actually finished. It measures points per game against the position average, and right now the only points on record are last season’s. Publishing it today would be publishing May’s numbers with August’s label on them. Full method is on the About page.
Goalkeeper
David Raya (£6.0m, ARS) · Elo 1544.4 · GKP #1 · 4th in the league · 36.7% owned
The highest-rated goalkeeper in the game by a clear margin, and one of only two defensive assets above 30% ownership. The other is his own team-mate Calafiori. He climbed 24.4 rating points across 37 appearances last season, which is a lot of movement for a position where the ceiling is a clean sheet and a couple of saves. Coventry at home is as gentle an opener as the fixture list gave anyone. Arsenal then travel to Villa before hosting Chelsea, so the run tightens quickly, but you are paying £6.0m for the best-rated player at the position and a home game against a side that has not played in this division since 2001.
Gianluigi Donnarumma (£5.5m, MCI) · Elo 1531.3 · GKP #2 · 6th in the league · 8.6% owned
The value pick of the entire goalkeeping bracket. Half a million less than Raya, second on the board, and owned by fewer than one manager in eleven. City host Bournemouth on Sunday, then go to Palace and host Coventry. Favourites in all three. If you want the Raya clean sheets without the Raya price, this is the trade, and the ownership gap means it costs your rivals nothing when it works for them and everything when it works for you.
Dean Henderson (£5.0m, CRY) · Elo 1488.0 · GKP #12 · 2.7% owned
The genuine budget route. Palace open at Everton, then host City and travel to Fulham. Nobody is pretending that is a run to build around, but at £5.0m from a keeper rated inside the top twelve, it frees £1.0m for the outfield without dropping into the part of the board where the ratings stop meaning much.
A word on the cheap names near the top. Benitez at Palace and Ellborg at Sunderland both show a rating above 1510 at £4.5m, and both are owned by roughly one manager in a thousand. Benitez’s number rests on a single Premier League appearance and Ellborg’s on three. Treat both as an opening estimate rather than a verdict. The board ranks them because leaving a player out of a ranking is its own claim about them, not because we think either is the fourth-best goalkeeper in England.
Defence
Gabriel (£8.0m, ARS) · Elo 1596.8 · DEF #1 · 1st in the league · 29.7% owned
The highest-rated player in Fantasy Premier League, and that is not a typo for highest-rated defender. Gabriel sits above Haaland and above Bruno Fernandes on the whole board. He was also the biggest climber in our data last season, up 85.2 points across 32 appearances. He is a centre-back who scores, in the best-rated defence in the league on our board, at home to a promoted side. At £8.0m he is the most expensive defender in the game and the numbers say he has earned it.
Marc Guéhi (£6.0m, MCI) · Elo 1538.5 · DEF #2 · 5th in the league · 18.3% owned
Second on the defensive board, £2.0m cheaper than Gabriel, and City host Bournemouth to open. He gained 26.9 rating points last season across 35 appearances. The opening five reads Bournemouth at home, Palace away, Coventry at home, United away, Sunderland at home. Three of those five are games City should control without much trouble.
William Saliba (£6.0m, ARS) · Elo 1515.6 · DEF #6 · 15th in the league · 0.3% owned
The single strangest number in this piece. Saliba is the sixth-best-rated defender in the game and three managers in a thousand own him. He plays in the same back line as Gabriel, keeps the same clean sheets, sits fifteenth in the entire league on our board, and costs £2.0m less. Whatever the market knows that we do not, it is not showing up in the ratings.
Daniel Muñoz (£5.5m, CRY) · Elo 1519.2 · DEF #4 · 13th in the league · 10.2% owned
The best attacking full-back on the board for the money. Fourth among defenders, thirteenth overall, and £5.5m. Palace open at Everton, which is not a fixture to build a captaincy around, but Muñoz has been priced as a budget enabler and rated as a genuine starter for two seasons now.
Marcos Senesi (£6.0m, TOT) · Elo 1516.8 · DEF #5 · 14th in the league · 8.7% owned
Thirty-seven rated appearances behind the number, which is more evidence than almost anyone at this price carries. Spurs go to Brentford, then host Newcastle before travelling to Forest. The fixtures are middling. The rating is not.
Rúben Dias (£5.5m, MCI) · Elo 1510.1 · DEF #10 · 1.6% owned
If Guéhi at £6.0m is too rich, this is the same defence for half a million less and an eleventh of the ownership.
Midfield
Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m, MUN) · Elo 1571.5 · MID #1 · 3rd in the league · 50.7% owned
The best-rated midfielder in the game and the second-biggest climber in our data last season at plus 82 points across 35 appearances. Only Gabriel moved further. He opens away at Hull, home to Ipswich, then away at Everton, which is the kindest opening three of any premium asset in the game. Half of FPL already owns him. At £12.0m that is a lot of squad tied up in one player, and the fixture run is the reason it keeps being worth it.
Antoine Semenyo (£8.5m, MCI) · Elo 1527.6 · MID #2 · 7th in the league · 26.4% owned
Second on the midfield board, seventh in the league, and City host Bournemouth first. Semenyo plays as a forward and scores as a midfielder, which is five points a goal instead of four. At £8.5m with 26.4% ownership he is closer to essential than optional.
Bruno Guimarães (£7.0m, ARS) · Elo 1524.2 · MID #3 · 8th in the league · 7.1% owned
Third-best-rated midfielder in the game at £7.0m, owned by seven managers in a hundred, and Arsenal host Coventry. He gained 29.9 points last season across 29 appearances. There is a version of this season where the market works out what it has here in about a fortnight and the price rises accordingly.
Bukayo Saka (£9.5m, ARS) · Elo 1520.2 · MID #5 · 10th in the league · 9.3% owned
Tenth in the league on our board and under 10% owned, which for a player of this profile is close to unheard of. He gained 25.9 rating points across 31 appearances last season, so this is not a rating propped up by one hot spell. The question is only whether £9.5m is the right way to buy an Arsenal attacker when Bruno Guimarães sits two places above him at £7.0m.
Elliot Anderson (£6.5m, MCI) · Elo 1511.7 · MID #7 · 8.6% owned
Thirty-eight rated appearances, seventh on the midfield board, and £6.5m. He opens Bournemouth at home, Palace away, Coventry at home, the same run as Haaland and Guéhi at a fraction of the price. The most defensible mid-price midfielder on the board.
Anton Stach (£6.0m, LEE) · Elo 1504.3 · MID #9 · 1.0% owned
Ninth-best-rated midfielder in the game, owned by one manager in a hundred. Leeds open away at Forest, then host Brentford. Set pieces and shots from range at £6.0m, from a player the board rates above Cunha at £8.0m and Wirtz at £7.5m.
Forwards
Erling Haaland (£15.5m, MCI) · Elo 1571.8 · FWD #1 · 2nd in the league · 69.4% owned
Second in the league behind Gabriel, plus 51.8 rating points last season, and City host Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon. Seven managers in ten own him and the eighth is thinking about it. £15.5m puts a sixth of your entire budget into one player, and there is no argument against that which survives the fixture list.
João Pedro (£7.5m, CHE) · Elo 1514.2 · FWD #2 · 16th in the league · 62.9% owned
Second-best-rated forward, less than half Haaland’s price, and 62.9% of the game already has him. Chelsea play Fulham on Monday night, which means he is the last of the popular assets to report and the one most likely to decide a lot of green arrows late. He gained 24.2 points last season across 35 appearances.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m, LEE) · Elo 1491.6 · FWD #4 · 29.8% owned
Fourth on the forward board at £6.0m and owned by nearly a third of the game, which tells you the market has already found the price advantage. Leeds go to Forest, then host Brentford and travel to Brighton. He is the enabler that lets a squad carry both Haaland and a premium midfielder.
Igor Thiago (£8.0m, BRE) · Elo 1494.8 · FWD #3 · 17.6% owned
Third-best-rated forward, thirty-eight rated appearances behind the number, and Brentford host Spurs on Saturday evening. He drifted 15.2 rating points the wrong way last season, and at £8.0m he is priced £2.0m above Calvert-Lewin while rated only 3.2 points higher. This is a fixture call rather than a ratings call.
The captain
Haaland, at home to Bournemouth. He is the second-highest-rated player in the game, 69.4% of managers already own him, and City are at home. Bournemouth’s five best-rated defenders average 1473.2 against City’s 1520.0. There is no clever answer here and looking for one is how gameweeks get lost.
If you are captaining out of the crowd, Bruno Fernandes away at Hull is the pick. Best-rated midfielder in the game, away at a promoted side in its first Premier League match back.
Four the numbers rate below their price
These are not bad players. They are players a lot of squads own at a price our board does not support.
Alexander Isak (£9.0m, LIV) · Elo 1454.9 · FWD #10 · 142nd in the league · 16.4% owned. Tenth on our forward board and 142nd overall, and Liverpool open away at Newcastle. One manager in six is paying premium money for a rating in the Average band. The honest caveat is that his number rests on only 14 rated appearances, far fewer than anyone else in this section, so there is more room for it to move than the figure suggests.
Viktor Gyökeres (£7.5m, ARS) · Elo 1436.8 · FWD #14 · 199th in the league · 9.8% owned. At 1436.8 he is rated below the league average of 1440.9, and he fell 48.2 rating points across 36 appearances last season. Arsenal host Coventry and he may well score, but £7.5m buys into Saka’s price bracket without Saka’s rating.
Luke Shaw (£4.5m, MUN) · Elo 1431.9 · DEF #97 · 21.5% owned. More than a fifth of the game owns the ninety-seventh-best-rated defender on the board, and he fell 58.6 rating points across 38 appearances last season. The fixtures are the reason and they are a good reason, but understand what you are buying.
Will Hughes (£4.5m, CRY) · Elo 1348.4 · MID #167 · 368th of 369 · 11.7% owned. The second-lowest-rated player our data can rate, owned by nearly one manager in eight. He fell 141.1 rating points last season. If he is in your squad as a non-playing fifth midfielder that is fine. If he is in your starting eleven, the board is as clear as it gets.
Nine differentials under 10% owned
Every one of these sits at 1500 or better, which only 34 of the 369 rated players manage, and every one is owned by fewer than one manager in ten.
| Player | Price | Elo | Position rank | Owned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gianluigi Donnarumma (MCI) | £5.5m | 1531.3 | GKP #2 | 8.6% |
| Bruno Guimarães (ARS) | £7.0m | 1524.2 | MID #3 | 7.1% |
| Bukayo Saka (ARS) | £9.5m | 1520.2 | MID #5 | 9.3% |
| James Tarkowski (EVE) | £6.0m | 1519.9 | DEF #3 | 9.1% |
| Marcos Senesi (TOT) | £6.0m | 1516.8 | DEF #5 | 8.7% |
| William Saliba (ARS) | £6.0m | 1515.6 | DEF #6 | 0.3% |
| Matheus Nunes (MCI) | £6.0m | 1513.6 | DEF #7 | 1.7% |
| Jurriën Timber (ARS) | £6.5m | 1512.6 | DEF #8 | 0.2% |
| Anton Stach (LEE) | £6.0m | 1504.3 | MID #9 | 1.0% |
Timber and Saliba are the two that should not be possible. Both are top-eight defenders on our board, both start for the best-rated defence in the league, and between them they are owned by five managers in a thousand.
Gameweek 1 in full
| Fixture | Kick-off |
|---|---|
| Arsenal v Coventry City | Fri 20:00 |
| Hull City v Man Utd | Sat 12:30 |
| Everton v Crystal Palace | Sat 15:00 |
| Nott’m Forest v Leeds | Sat 15:00 |
| Ipswich Town v Sunderland | Sat 15:00 |
| Brentford v Spurs | Sat 17:30 |
| Brighton v Aston Villa | Sun 14:00 |
| Man City v Bournemouth | Sun 14:00 |
| Newcastle v Liverpool | Sun 16:30 |
| Fulham v Chelsea | Mon 20:00 |
Every rating in this piece comes from our snapshot of 21 August 2026. The full board, all 599 players, is on the rankings page, and every player has a profile with their season-by-season history behind the number.