FPL Fantasy Forecast 2025/26 Season: Gameweek 1

The 2025/26 Premier League season is less than 48 hours from kick-off, with Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players finalising their squad selections ahead of the season. We have covered our top players selections, tips, differentials, and provided a scout picks squad of picks for a standalone Gameweek 1. All aboard.

Prior to our Gameweek 1 Forecast, we have covered the basics of planning FPL for the new season, as well as the opening fixtures for each of the 20 clubs for your wider reading.

What should we expect during FPL Gameweek 1's fixtures?:

A new season for FPL players has everyone considering who to back to start the season, but let's start with how historically the league has panned out on opening day.

Gameweek 1 Breakdown:

2022/23 Season: 28 goals, 5 clean sheets, 4 home wins, 4 away wins, 2 draws

2023/24 Season: 28 goals, 4 clean sheets, 4 home wins, 3 away wins, 3 draws

2024/25 Season: 21 goals, 6 clean sheets, 4 home wins, 4 away wins, 2 draws

There is a consistency from season-to-season with how Gameweek 1 pans out. 4 home wins has become a standard, whilst between 4-6 teams keep a clean sheet.

Who are the teams to likely back?:

Liverpool have won their last 4 outings against Bournemouth, keeping 3 clean sheets in the process, and scoring 12 goals in that time. This season opener at Anfield, against a Cherries side who have sold a trio of key defensive players - Dean Huijsen (Real Madrid), Illia Zabarnyi (PSG), and Milos Kerkez (Liverpool) - this all equates to the safest route for FPL players to open the season.

Fixtures against the newly promoted sides - Leeds, Burnley, and Sunderland - are also attractive right off the bat. Leeds host a stronger Everton side under David Moyes and we anticipate a strong start for The Toffees, whilst West Ham will relish a trip to Sunderland to start the campaign. Whilst both sides will have good FPL representation, Elland Road and The Stadium of Light have good support, so won't be easy games by any measure.

More assured of a strong start will be Spurs hosting Burnley, with Spurs winning 4 of their last 5 outings against the Championship winners. A loss on penalties against PSG in the UEFA Super Cup was tragically Spurs in nature having squandered a 2-0 lead with just 5 minutes left to play, but under Thomas Frank the signs are there of greater stability and translatable returns for FPL players.

Wolves have lost Cunha to Man United and Aït-Nouri to their GW1 opponents, Man City, and in the circles of Wolves supporters, it is expected to be a long, challenging season without much of their creativity. Man City are also strong starters, winning 8 of 9 season openers under Pep Guardiola, scoring 21 goals and conceding just 3 times. Historical logic would suggest backing them at both ends of the pitch in FPL, with Aït-Nouri (£6.0m) a likely feature for Fantasy players, with 21.2% of players backing the new full back at the time of writing.

Brentford are in clear transition, having untested Keith Andrews come in to replace Thomas Frank, and has to contest with losing Bryan Mbuemo to Man United, with Yoane Wissa also pushing fora move. This has opened the door for Nottingham Forest to start the season strong on home soil. There have been 5 games between the duo, with at least 2 goals in each PL game, with Forest looking sharp in pre-season, with FPL rules allowing their defensive assets greater license to entice FPL players - and in our opinions Forest have a top run of games to open the season to provide greater protection of potential FPL picks.

Club World Cup winners, Chelsea, will also fancy themselves at home against FA Cup and Community Shield winners, Crystal Palace. The last 2 fixtures between the sides ended in a 1-1 draw, so this isn't a guarantee, though there is an air that Chelsea have kicked on with their mass of signings settled, and a potential title push on the cards.

Which games are more difficult to predict?:

The first early kick-off on Saturday involves Aston Villa and Newcastle, two teams that have scored a massive 21 goals in their last 5 Premier League outings - with either team scoring a minimum of 3 goals in each game. After a largely disappointing summer (so far) of transfer activity, Newcastle come into this opener with Alexsander Isak pushing for a move to Liverpool, whilst they look light across the park. Aston Villa will be backed, but due to the early kick-off and the turbulence with a fixture in which Newcastle have won 3 of the last 5, this game could still swing either way.

Man United hosting Arsenal is a classic Premier League fixture, and the intrigue with this fixture is strong, though FPL players should look at The Gunners with an air of caution given an acid test of fixtures to begin the campaign. This caution is probably why players are holding off on their FPL potential for now, though in reality Arsenal have won 4 of their last 5 outings against United, though the sides drew 1-1 at Old Trafford last season. The hosts United have revamped their forward line to add an air of unpredictability, with Benjamin Sesko (£7.5m) joining the ranks in attack - United have also been heavily backed by the media to drastically improve (hardly a tall ask given their summer spend and awful campaign last time out), though for us, it is wait and see on their FPL capabilities.

Finally, the most defining mid-table clash of them all sees Brighton hosting Fulham. Both are competent outfits, though the home tie for Brighton has pushed FPL players in their direction, though we wouldn't dare suggest this fixture is an easy home run.

• Brighton have won on Gameweek 1 in each of the last 4 seasons (best record in the league)

• Brighton beat Fulham 2-1 in March, ending a winless run of 9 games against Fulham

• Fulham have only won 1 of their last 7 away games at Brighton

• Fulham have only won 1 of their last 8 opening day PL fixtures

Is Mohamed Salah (LIV) worth his £14.5m price tag to start the season?:

After a pre-season in which The Egyptian has missed several penalties, including in the Community Shield loss to Crystal Palace, keen observers have noted that Salah is staying out wide more in a potentially reduced role - what does this mean when translated to FPL, though? A growing contingent have been making the argument to exclude Mohamed Salah from their Fantasy squads for GW1.

Is there any justification though to the potential hiccups in Salah? Overall, FPL players are still backing Salah despite the £14.5m price tag, with 53.% of players still backing Salah, which is more than what we thought would be the case given the high price.

Salah has historically dominated Gameweek 1 since his time at Liverpool, holding the record for most goals scored (9 goals) during the opening round of games, as well as the most goal contributions (14, with 5 assists).

We are dealing with the current champions, at home, under the lights at Anfield, to open the season, and against an opposition who have sold the majority of their starting defenders (including Kirkez to Liverpool). These factors all add up to high hopes for Salah scoring for an 8th time during GW1. The alternative would be to back Erling Haaland (MCI) away at Wolves, though the home tie, against a weaker Cherries squad, is enough for the FPL populace, with Haaland back by 22.9%, less than half of Salah's ownership.

Who are the essential player selections to start the season with?:

With just over 24 hours before the Gameweek 1 deadline, at time of writing 17 players are above 20% ownership in the game, whilst the pattern for the game's template and key assets have emerged.

Chelsea dominates the top end, with Cole Palmer (£10.5m) and João Pedro (£7.5m) coming in as the most highly selected players in the game. Chelsea's fixtures, combined with their Club World Cup win, and pre-season form will ensure both are universally covered in the game, and it will be difficult to exclude both, especially as they are relatively cheap when compared to their City and Liverpool counterparts.

The reigning Champions kick-off the season at Anfield on Friday evening against Bournemouth, with Mohamed Salah (£14.5m) the 3rd and last player to have more than 50% ownership, with The Egyptian aiming to score for the 8th time during Gameweek 1. New signings Florian Wirtz (£8.5m) is priced well and is an automatic starter for Liverpool, whilst both Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) and Jeremie Frimpong (£6.0m) are internally competing for a defensive birth in FPL squads - and to be honest, we can easily see players having a triple up of both Liverpool and Chelsea to open the season.

For us, it will be hard to ignore Rayan Aït-Nouri (£6.0m) for Man City against his former club, Wolves, whilst Ollie Watkins (£9.0m) and Viktor Gyökeres (£9.0m) will fight for a spot in half the FPL squads, though Watkins has better fixtures and is reliable enough, whilst the latter will be rotated at least initially with Kai Havertz.

In goal, a combination of Martin Dubravka as the bench shot stopper, and one of Robert Sanchez (CHE, £5.0m) or Matz Sels (NFO, £5.0m) are the most selected behind the new Burnley goalkeeper, with fixtures and a high ceiling for save points on their side.

Which budget options should be in consideration ahead of Gameweek 1?:

Starting at the back of the pitch, in our opinion the only true value goalkeeper currently is Martin

Dúbravka (BUR, £4.0m), who will be a starter and act as an enabler in most squads, allowing the likes of Sanchez (CHE), Sels (NFO), and Caoimhín Kelleher (BRE, £4.5m) as the standout picks. If Brentford prove themselves to be defensively compact, Kelleher will become an instant selection for the most due to the price point.

Defensively minded, there are a handful of budget defenders to consider right out of the gate that offer FPL potential. West Ham's away opener at Sunderland offers a route to points, with full backs Aaron Wan-Bissaka (WHU, £4.5m) and El Hadji Diouf (WHU, £4.5m) both high on the radar - Diouf is going to be the most advanced of the duo at left back. Spurs hosting Burnley has allowed the always-injury-prone Micky van de Ven (TOT, £4.5m) come into the fold as a central defender with good potential defensive contribution returns, whilst Djed Spence (TOT, £4.5m) is a likely contender to start should Spurs play a similar 3-5-2 formation as they deployed against PSG in the Super Cup loss, and offers the same price point, and potentially more reliability for players.

Elsewhere, Maxim De Cuyper (BHA, £4.5m) wants to form a lethal partnership with Kairo Mitoma on Brighton's left hand side, and should you need a bench or rotation enabler, the marauding De Cupyer and Esri Konsa (AVL, £4.5m) are reasonably priced and likely to be reliable - the only downside with both is a banana peel Gameweek 1.

If your game is pain, then you have a trio of nailed on starters from promoted clubs that come in at the basement price of £4.0m, though you'll need to pick your poison. Reinildo (SUN), Maxime Estève (BUR), and Gabriel Gudmundsson (LEE), are the current FPL considerations, though Estève has proven to be the most popular selection, with 18.1% of players currently backing the central defender who appeared in every game in Burnley's Championship winning season, where The Clarets managed 30 clean sheets last season, only conceding 15 goals in 46 matches.

Moving onto midfielders, the top cheap option comes in the form of Mohammed Kudus (TOT, £6.5m), with his move from West Ham keeping his FPL price down, and with 24.4% of players backing Kudus (who managed 5 goals and 4 assists in 24/25), the ceiling will be much higher at Tottenham than the 103 points managed last season should he play on the right of midfield, whilst the injury to James Maddison likely secures a starting spot for the midfielder.

Another midfielder on the move, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (EVE, £5.0m) is potentially the one to watch with Everton not only away at Leeds on the opening Monday night game of the season, but the signing from Chelsea who only managed 18 FPL points last season in a diminished campaign, has been occupying set-pieces and looked electric in Everton's pre-season tie against Roma - and has a great opening run of fixtures to rely upon. If you have the budget, Dwight McNeil (EVE, £6.0m) will also compete for set-pieces and will look to supply Beto and Barry in attack.

Donyell Malen (AVL, £5.5m) had a strong pre-season for Villa and comes in at a cheap price on the right of Villa's midfield, whilst with an eye to defensive contribution points, Moises Caicedo (CHE) and Elliot Anderson (NFO) will look to capitalise on good fixtures to start the season.

In attack, budget options are few and far between, though we would make the case that Pedro (also an essential above) comes in at a good price at £7.5m, whilst the arrival of Marc Guiu (£4.5m) at Sunderland is a wait-and-see pick, and should Guiu eventually nail down a starting birth, this is the mother of all enablers, though at Sunderland, the ceiling for points is low, despite Sunderland have excellent fixtures to start the season.

If you also want to gamble on an Everton attacker, Beto (£5.5m) and new signing Thierno

Barry (£6.0m) both offer a lot of power and height, though understanding which one will be the dominant force is yet to be seen.

Hype Train's Scout Picks for Gameweek 1:

Our Gameweek 1 squad picks utilise a £100.0m budget, and we have used this just for a squad of players for GW1's fixtures. Click the link here or below to see our picks on social media.

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