The first Fantasy Premier League gameweek of 2026 is in the books – how did the new year start for your FPL team?
This week saw a boon of points for defenders across the league, at the expense of the forwards. Did you structure your team accordingly?
Goalkeepers
Two goalkeepers were tied for the prize of biggest winner between the sticks – both Jordan Pickford and Lucas Perri scored ten points for their efforts.
On top of this, both Gianluigi Donnarumma and Robin Roefs were able to secure clean sheets and a share of the bonus points.
On the other end of the spectrum, it was a difficult outing for Emi Martinez for Aston Villa at Arsenal. The Gunners ran riot on the Villans, putting four goals beyond the 2022 World Cup winner. He scored just one point for this performance – as one of the most expensive ‘keepers in the game, this isn’t good enough.
Defenders
Gabriel was once again the highest-scoring defender on FPL this week. While Arsenal couldn’t keep a clean sheet, it still counted for Gabriel, as he had left the field before the Gunners conceded. As such, he took 15 points home this week.
Matheus Nunes also bagged 11 points, as did Nordi Mukiele, as they kept clean sheets against each other during Sunderland’s game against Manchester City at the Stadium of Light.
Meanwhile, we have to pick another Aston Villa player to occupy our ‘biggest loser’ slot. Lamare Bogarde scored -1 this week, as he conceded four goals and picked up a yellow card to boot.
Midfielders
Everton’s James Garner was by far this week’s top midfielder in FPL. He scored and assisted both of the Toffees’ goals against Nottingham Forest, giving him a very healthy points total of 16.
Leandro Trossard and Lucas Paqueta were also on top form this week, as they each went home with 13 points for their displays against Aston Villa and Brighton, respectively.
We’ll pick Matheus Cunha for our biggest midfield loser. Many players transferred him in for United’s game against Wolves, expecting him to run riot on his former club – however, the Brazilian international drew a blank and could only muster two points in a dour 1-1 draw.
Forwards
As we mentioned earlier, this was a bad week for strikers in FPL. Despite this, Jean-Philippe Mateta managed to impress, as he scored Crystal Palace’s only goal of the game in a 1-1 draw against Fulham at Selhurst Park.
Joshua Zirkzee also scored, picking up eight points – sadly, his contributions were limited to just 45 minutes, as he was substituted at half time. Likewise, both Jarrod Bowen and Armando Broja were on hand to score a goal for West Ham and Burnley, respectively.
Erling Haaland, on the other hand, didn’t score this week. Any time he fails to score a goal or register an assist, we will automatically place him as our biggest loser of the week in terms of strikers – he only has himself to blame for setting such an astronomically high standard.