GK
Flekken 4.5 - With the reigning top FPL GK scorer, Reyna, on his way out, Flekken can reproduce those results. Add onto that an easy opening 7 GWs and cheap price point make Flekken the obvious choice. Steele will get some shouts but the Brighton goalkeepers combined for 147 points last season, 19 short of Raya.
Any 4.0
DEF
Estupinan 5.0 – Attacking threat + Good Defensive + Easy Fixtures = Easy choice
TAA 8.0 – Fabinho’s potential departure leaves the CDM spot vacant. If Trent moves into that spot, he won’t be as much of an offensive threat compared to when he plays his typical right mid spot. Combine that with Szoboszlai taking some set pieces and tough opening fixtures leaves me feeling nervous about one of the historically safest FPL assets.
Gabriel 5.0 – The best underlying attacking threat from Arsenals nailed defenders.
Pair of 4.0’s
MID
Rashford 9.0 – His 5.9 ppm last season place him only behind Haaland, Kane, and Salah.
Bruno 8.5 – 12th in ppm last season. Bruno led the league in xA but less than half of those chances were converted into goals. A season of average finishes from those chances will vault him into a nailed FPL asset.
Mitoma 6.5 – The best underlying stats from Brighton’s nailed assets.
Saka 8.5 – Should be in most teams.
Bernardo Silva 6.5 – I’m still debating between Bilva and Mbeumo but it feels wrong having only one City asset. The underlying data supports only including Haaland but I’m hoping Bilva can be a solid value option now that he has now competition at RW with Mahrez’s departure.
FWD
Haaland 14.0 – Duh
Jesus 8.0 – Seemingly nailed and significantly ahead of the other Arsenal assets in xG. The only other forward option I would consider is Watkins but my FPL strategy is always biased by strength of schedule.
Any 4.5