Arsenal’s Early-Season Fantasy Premier League Surge

Arsenal are the early-season obsession. Fantasy Premier League managers know it, and the transfer market proves it.

With the champions heading to an Aston Villa side still reeling from a 4-0 opening-day hammering at Brighton & Hove Albion, the rush is on before Friday’s 18:30 BST Gameweek 2 deadline. Arsenal assets are flying off the shelves.

The stampede for Gunners stars

Riccardo Calafiori (£5.5m) is the poster boy of the early bandwagon. An assist, a clean sheet and nine points against Coventry City have tempted more than 239,000 managers into buying the Italian defender.

In midfield, Martin Odegaard and Christos Tzolis (both £6.5m) are also surging. Odegaard’s 11-point haul and Tzolis’ six have propelled them into the four most-bought midfielders this week. Up front, Kai Havertz (£7.0m) is the second most-bought forward, with 135,000 managers jumping on after his goal in the 3-0 win.

Most-bought Arsenal players for Gameweek 2

• Calafiori | 239,000 | 9
• Odegaard | 207,000 | 11
• Tzolis | 163,000 | 6
• Havertz | 135,000 | 6

The crowd has made its move. The question is whether they’ve backed the right Gunners.

Arsenal’s attack: where to place your money?

Against Coventry, Arsenal’s midfield trio of Tzolis, Odegaard and Bukayo Saka (£9.5m) all flashed serious FPL potential.

Tzolis was the most involved attacker on the pitch. Four shots, three chances created, seven total shot involvements – more than any team-mate. He was at the heart of everything.

Saka, who struck Arsenal’s second goal, matched Tzolis for shots in the box with three. He carried constant threat from the right, but the numbers reveal a surprise: Saka’s goal, coming after Coventry goalkeeper Carl Rushworth (£4.5m) spilled Tzolis’ effort into his path, was Arsenal’s only “big chance” of the match.

Arsenal’s attacking stats v Coventry

• Tzolis | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3
• Odegaard | 6 | 3 | 1 | 3
• Saka | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2
• Madueke | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4
• White | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2

Coventry were repeatedly torn open down their left. They conceded 11 chances from that flank, with Ben White (£5.5m), Saka and substitute Noni Madueke (£6.5m) combining for 10 of those from Arsenal’s right.

Villa, though, are a different puzzle. Their 4-0 defeat at Brighton exposed a softer underbelly through the middle of the pitch.

Chances conceded in GW1

• Zone | Coventry | Aston Villa
• Left flank | 11 | 4
• Centre | 2 | 7
• Right flank | 4 | 4

That central weakness points directly to Odegaard. Operating in the most advanced central role behind Havertz in Gameweek 1, the Norwegian is perfectly placed to profit from the spaces Villa allowed Brighton between the lines. Goals, assists, set-piece involvement – the routes to points are clear.

There is a catch. With Arsenal’s defence so reliable and the game flooded with strong midfield picks under £7.0m, Odegaard shapes up as a short-term play rather than a season-long cornerstone.

For managers eyeing a Gameweek 3 Wildcard, especially those who have already deployed or are about to deploy a Bench Boost in Gameweek 1 or 2, Odegaard becomes the standout attacking Arsenal option for this weekend. One fixture, one target.

Sorting out the defence: who actually matters?

The arrival of Ezri Konsa (£4.5m) complicates things in a good way. He missed the Coventry match after his move from Aston Villa, but his versatility could be crucial for Mikel Arteta in the absence of injured pair William Saliba (£6.0m) and Jurrien Timber (£6.5m).

Konsa can slot in at centre-back or right-back. If he starts at right-back, White is the one under threat. If he partners Gabriel at centre-back, Cristhian Mosquera (£5.5m) likely drops out. On the left, Calafiori currently has the edge over Piero Hincapie (£5.5m).

Should Konsa nail down a starting place, his price makes him one of the most enticing value options in the game. Arsenal kept 19 clean sheets last season. Repeat that, and a £4.5m defender delivering six points in half his matches becomes a low-risk, high-reward pick.

For that reason alone, Konsa looks worth owning until Saliba and Timber return to full fitness and Arteta’s long-term defensive hierarchy becomes clearer.

But he is not the main event.

Gabriel: a defender in elite company

Across the season, Gabriel is the Arsenal defender to own. By distance.

He is the league’s most dangerous set-piece threat in its best defence. Last season he averaged 6.9 points per start – more than Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) on 6.7 and virtually identical to Erling Haaland (£15.5m) on 7.0.

He doesn’t carry captaincy appeal like Haaland, but in FPL terms, that is the bracket he belongs in when you decide whether a player is “essential”.

Gabriel blanked in only six of his 30 starts last season. Multiple routes to points – clean sheets, goals, bonus – make him a plug-in-and-forget option.

Top-scoring players in Fantasy 2025/26

• Player | Pts | Blanks | Pts/start
• Haaland | 239 | 12/34 | 7.0
• Fernandes | 235 | 9/35 | 6.7
• Gabriel | 209 | 6/30 | 6.9

His underlying numbers back it up. Across Arsenal’s backline, Gabriel dominated defensive contribution (DC) points in 2025/26. He totalled 22 DC points, while the rest of Arsenal’s defenders combined for 30.

Factor in bonus, and the gap widens. Gabriel collected 52 points from DC and bonus points last season, with 30 of those from bonus alone. That 52-point tally matches the combined DC-and-bonus total of his three nearest Arsenal rivals in that metric – Hincapie, Saliba and Timber.

Arsenal defenders' stats 2025/26

• Defender | DC + BP | DC only | BP only | Starts
• Gabriel | 52 | 22 | 30 | 30
• Hincapie | 21 | 14 | 7 | 20
• Saliba | 18 | 6 | 12 | 30
• Timber | 13 | 4 | 9 | 28
• Calafiori | 6 | 0 | 6 | 22
• Mosquera | 5 | 4 | 1 | 9
• White | 5 | 2 | 3 | 9

Calafiori, by contrast, sits at the wrong end of these tables.

The Calafiori conundrum

The hype is real. Calafiori’s ownership has rocketed to 41.3 per cent, the highest of any defender and fifth most-owned player in the entire game.

Yet the Coventry match offered a warning. Both Calafiori and White emerged with a clean sheet and an assist. White, though, took home two bonus points. Calafiori got none.

The reason lies in Calafiori’s role. Arteta uses him as a “line-breaking” full-back in games where Arsenal dominate the ball, giving him licence to roam into midfield and attack. It’s great for the eye test, but not for the Bonus Points System (BPS).

Because he steps into advanced areas rather than recycling possession, Calafiori attempts far fewer passes than the rest of the backline. In BPS terms, that hurts.

The scoring model rewards accurate volume passing heavily. Any player who completes at least 30 passes with 70–79 per cent accuracy gets +2 BPS. At 80–89 per cent, it’s +4. Hit 90 per cent or better and it’s +6.

How passing is rewarded in Bonus Points System

• Action | Added to BPS score
• 70–79% pass completion with 30+ passes attempted | +2
• 80–89% pass completion with 30+ passes attempted | +4
• 90%+ pass completion with 30+ passes attempted | +6

Against Coventry, three of Arsenal’s back four – White, Mosquera and Gabriel – each made at least 57 passes at a 95 per cent success rate. All three gained six BPS points from passing alone.

Arsenal defenders' passing v Coventry

• Defender | Passes | % Succ passes | BPS score
• White | 78 | 95% | +6
• Mosquera | 65 | 95% | +6
• Gabriel | 57 | 95% | +6
• Calafiori | 24 | 83% | 0

For many, that will be the crucial detail. Over time, Calafiori’s adventurous positioning could limit his bonus returns, even when he matches team-mates for attacking output.

From a squad-building angle, the trade-offs are stark. Gabriel and Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer (£9.5m) cost a combined £17.5m – exactly the same as Calafiori and Fernandes.

With Palmer looking sharp again under Xabi Alonso, the Gabriel–Palmer pairing offers a cleaner, more explosive use of funds than backing Fernandes and a bonus-unfriendly Calafiori.

The case for a defensive triple-up

There is one more route to consider: going all-in on Arsenal’s defence.

Pair Gabriel with Konsa and goalkeeper David Raya (£6.0m), and you have a long-term triple-up built on clean-sheet probability rather than chasing short-term attacking hauls.

Raya doesn’t need to be compared to his team-mates. His battle is with the rest of the league’s goalkeepers. On current evidence, he is the single most likely ‘keeper to keep a clean sheet in any given Gameweek.

Start him every week, remove the headache of rotating budget goalkeepers, and free your transfers to attack value further up the pitch.

Arsenal’s attackers will have their moments. They always do. But as Gameweek 2 looms and Villa wait, the numbers point to a different truth: the real foundation of your season might be built at the back, in red and white.