Gameweek 5 was Cristiano’s Ronaldo’s gameweek. There were, of course, plenty of other players who played well and hauled big, but whether you liked it or not, in the end the biggest spotlights were really all on the Portuguese superstar. With a brace on his return to Man United, slotting straight into their starting eleven, he lived up to the huge hype and then some. To be fair, Newcastle’s defence did not put up too much of a fight, but then again, was there ever going to be any stopping Ronaldo? Probably not.

From an FPL point of view though, gameweek 5 was interesting for a whole other reason as well. With fitting various premium picks into one team being one of the major challenges of this season’s early stages, the quest for good budget options seems more alive than ever in the FPL community. In that light, the fact that no less than five members of last week’s Team of the Week can be considered serious budget-enablers is very interesting. Wolves defender Marçal (now at £4.6m) and Chelsea midfielder Matteo Kovacic (now at £5.1m) were the round’s joint top scorers with 13 FPL points, while Andros Townsend (£5.4m, 12 points), Odsonne Edouard (£6.5m, 12 points) and Leandro Trossard (£6.4m, 11 points) also provided real differential value.

Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 5 is set at 18h30 (UK time) on Friday, September 17^th. If you’re considering a GW5 FPL wildcard then check out this FISO forum topic.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per September 16^th, 2021)

Premium pick

With 3 goals and 2 assists from the first four games and a home game against Crystal Palace up next, Mo Salah (£12.5m) looks set to become the most-captained player once again this weekend. The Egyptian forward is also our premium fantasy pick of choice. Remember when he came on for a half-an-hour cameo at Selhurst Park last season? Exactly. Salah did play 84 minutes in the Champions League against AC Milan on Wednesday (and scored the all-important equaliser right after the break after missing a penalty), but he should be OK for Saturday’s clash at Anfield. Palace have conceded 5 goals in four games so far and despite their confidence-boosting victory over a 10-men Spurs side in gameweek 4, we can really see this encounter only going one way. You will see Salah return in our captaincy segment as well.

Non-premium pick

After an incredible 2020-21 campaign with 17 goals and 11 assists, and an inevitable price rise as consequence, Patrick Bamford (£7.9m) has had a relatively quiet start to the current season. It should be noted though, that Leeds have not had the easiest of starts to the season with an away game at Old Trafford in GW1 and a home game against Liverpool last weekend. Still, Bamfy has managed a goal an an assist overall for a total of 16 FPL points and has had plenty of shots in the box. Up next are the League’s leakiest defence when the Whites are travelling to Newcastle on Friday night, followed by an appealing run of fixtures until at least November. Based on Leeds’ and Bamford’s performances last season, we’re still confident that they can return to their winning and goal-scoring ways. A free-flowing victory over the Toon might be just what they need to be on their way.

The budget enabler

We mentioned the growing category of budget-enablers in the Fantasy Premier League universe earlier, so we were a bit spoilt for choice here. We would’ve gone with Crystal Palace’s Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher had it not been for his away game at Anfield this weekend. Instead, we’re recommending Everton’s extremely clinical forward Demarai Gray (£5.7m). The 25-year old winger, who is listed as a budget midfielder in FPL, has so far scored with every shot on goal, which is why he currently sits on 3 goals and 24 FPL points from his last three outings. Everton are in excellent goalscoring form and this weekend’s away game at Villa Park is followed by a home game against Norwich. With Gray having earned himself a nailed-on spot in Rafa Benitez’ starting eleven, more points could be on the way in the near future for the very kindly priced attacker.

The differential

One of this Premier League season’s early themes is the Curious Case of the Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite posting some of the attacking and defensive underlying statistics after four games, Bruno Lage’s men find themselves back in 13^th place with just three points. While their expected goals ratio currently sits at just over 7, they have actually scored just twice and one of those goals was an own goal last weekend. Their tough opening fixtures (Leicester away, Spurs at home, United at home) surely didn’t help, but their schedule has cleared up now. This means that several of their fantasy assets might be due a purple patch or at least a haul soon, and one of those assets is striker Raul Jimenez (£7.4m). Despite a total of 12 shots in the box and 12 provided key passes, the Mexican forward does not have a single attacking return to his name so far. As a result, his current ownership is just 4.4%. With Brentford and Newcastle (both at Molineux) and Southampton away coming up in the next three weeks, now could be the moment to bring the big man in and fully benefit from his extreme differential status.

The captaincy

With Ronaldo back in the Premier League, you can expect him to return to this segment weekly bar some kind of force majeure. He’s coming off a dream return to Old Trafford and a mid-week goal in the Champions League, and he has West Ham in London in his sights now. Still, for the GW5 Captain we’re opting for that other powerhouse Mo Salah, when Liverpool host Crystal Palace at Anfield on Saturday. Putting the band on his arm seems like the safest option this weekend.

If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, the Leeds game at Saint James’ Park should interest you as well. Both Bamford and Raphinha look like they could have some fun on Friday night, with the former carrying the additional appeal of penalty duties. To go even more differential, you could opt for Ismaila Sarr at Carrow Road or indeed Teemu Pukki for the home side. The final game of the weekend also offers an interesting option in the person of Romelu Lukaku as Chelsea visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to take on a battered Spurs defence.

1,304,361. One million, three hundred and four thousand and something. That’s how many FPL managers have transferred in Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7) since his transfer to Manchester United was confirmed on August 31^st. That’s over 17% of all managers currently playing the official Premier League fantasy game. We don’t have the historical numbers, but we doubt there have been many, or indeed any, transfers with such an immediate and huge impact on the FPL community.

The Portuguese superstar’s return to the Premier League has seen managers all over the world scrambling to somehow accommodate their squads to bring him in. With the upcoming gameweek 4 already expected to see considerable Wild Card activity prior to the confirmation of Ronaldo’s transfer, you can expect the template to look pretty different come the GW4 deadline. This also explains, for example, the more than 300,000 managers transferring out Romelu Lukaku after a few more than promising showings and over 750,000 managers removing United talisman Bruno Fernandes from their squads. Ronaldo’s arrival to the FPL has made this year’s budgets seem even tighter.

In other news, gameweek 4 is also following this season’s first international break. This means added uncertainty in terms of fitness and starting spots for more than a few players, only worsened by differing quarantine rules depending on where a player was active with his national team. Popular picks like Belgium striker Lukaku and South Korea star man Heung-Min Son are currently injury doubts, while many South American internationals, like Emi Buendia, Raul Jimenez and Raphinha, may all miss out on gameweek 4 due to various quarantine-related issues. Our advice: keep a close eye on team and individual player news, especially if you’re planning on using your Wild Card in GW4.

Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 4 is set at 11h00 (UK time) on Saturday, September 11^th.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per September 9^th, 2021)

Premium pick

It’s kind of hard to not speak about Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.5m) as part of our premium fantasy pick recommendations for gameweek 4, especially not when you consider that Manchester United are hosting Newcastle on Saturday. The Magpies currently boast the worst Expected Goals Conceded ratio in the league bar Arsenal and it’s difficult to see them keeping out the Red Devils this weekend. There has been some discussion in the FPL community about Ronaldo’s chances of starting and him “fitting into the side”, but those points are not very relevant in this extraordinary case. The Portugal captain, who actually brought his national team victory over the Republic of Ireland with a spectacular added-time brace at the start of the international break, is one of the two best players in the history of football and will slide into United’s team right away. He came to Manchester to play, to score and to win, it’s that simple. If not, he would not have returned to Old Trafford. Whether he is worth a major fantasy side overhaul or even an early Wild Card straight away remains to be seen, but count on Ronaldo becoming a major factor at both United and in the Premier League as a whole in record time. Assuming anything else, means doing his international prize-winning and goalscoring record injustice.

Non-premium pick

Speaking of goalscoring, opening a season with 4 goals (and 4 assists) in the first three games is the kind of form we would associate with Ronaldo. In this case though, we’re not talking about Man United’s star forward, but about West Ham’s main man up front, Michail Antonio (£7.9m). The Jamaica international, who switched allegiance to the Caribbean nation and made his debut for the Reggae Boyz last week, is currently the highest-scoring player in the official fantasy game with 40 FPL points. His international exploits are obviously a bit of a worry in terms of fitness and energy levels, but it’s hard to see the Hammers not calling upon him for the upcoming away game against Southampton. The Saints have been unable to keep a clean sheet so far, conceding 6 goals in their first three games, and we’re not expecting the first one to come against the league’s current most prolific side. Antonio in his current form will be more than a handful for them and we can see the Hammers forward making it attacking returns in four consecutive games on Saturday.

The budget enabler

One of the low-key surprises of this young 2021-22 Premier League campaign is Demarai Gray (£5.6m), who currently defends the colours of Everton FC on loan from Leicester. The lowly-priced winger, who is listed as a midfielder in the official fantasy game, has played at least 80 minutes in each of Everton’s first three league games of the season and with good reason. The 25-year old was on target in both gameweek 2 against Leeds and gameweek 3 against Brighton for a more than decent total of 17 FPL points. The Toffees have a visit of Burnley coming up next, who have taken just a single point from three games and conceded 5 goals in the process. At just £5.6m, Gray looks like a very shrewd bet, not just for the upcoming game against the Clarets, but also for the medium-term as Everton will be facing Aston Villa away and Norwich at home after this weekend.

The differential

With the Harry Kane situation settled for now, some calm and clarity seems to have returned to Spurs. Under former Wolves coach Nuno Espirito Santo, the London side has had an effective if not somewhat unspectacular start to the season with three consecutive 1-0 victories, including one against reigning champions Manchester City in gameweek 1. One of the players who seems to have impressed Nuno from the get go is Dutch international Steven Bergwijn (£6.0m), who has played at least 75 minutes in every league game this season. He has paid back his manager’s confidence with 2 assists, meaning that he has been directly involved in 2/3 of his team’s goals so far. This also led to return to the Dutch national team for the past international break, in which he left a good impression in the victories over Montenegro and Turkey. Despite being seen icing his ankle on Tuesday after being taken off by Louis van Gaal in the 61^th minute against Turkey, Stevie seems to be fit and ready to start for Spurs against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday. With a current ownership of just 1.3%, he represents considerable differential value in GW4.

The captaincy

As far as the captaincy goes, we’re expecting plenty of managers to give the armband to Cristiano Ronaldo this weekend. Despite his obvious Premier League and overall goalscoring pedigree, and the real chances of him hitting the ground running against Newcastle, we are opting for another Red Devil as our captain this weekend. There has been much talk about Bruno Fernandes‘ diminished appeal as a premium FPL asset with the arrival of his compatriot and penalty specialist Ronaldo, but don’t forget that Bruno has been one of the most consistent fantasy performers over the past two seasons. He could very well have a big haul coming his way on Saturday after two disappointing outings and we’re placing the captain’s band in his arm.

Outside of United hosting Newcastle, gameweek 4 offers a few other interesting captaincy options as well. There is, of course, the case of Mo Salah visiting Leeds on Sunday, while Harry Kane starting against Palace a day earlier looks enticing as well. The form of Michail Antonio as West Ham visit Saint Mary’s should not be ignored either. For the more differential captaincy picks, Dominic Calvert-Lewin at home against Burnley, Kai Havertz at home to Villa and Raul Jimenez (if available) for his encounter with promoted Watford could reap big rewards.

Much of the gameweek 2 debate was about who was going to haul bigger, Mo Salah against Burnley at Anfield or Bruno Fernandes against Southampton at St. Mary’s. After impressive double digit hauls in the opening round of the season, another big-time return was only a question of time, right? Right?!

Well, the Premier League wouldn’t be the Premier League and the FPL wouldn’t be the FPL without throwing millions of fantasy managers (no player in FPL history had ever been more captained than Salah last weekend) a serious curveball when they least expect it. Instead of a bunch of goals and assists, Salah managed just a clean sheet for 3 FPL points. And Bruno? Well, he didn’t score, he didn’t assist and he didn’t record a clean sheet, but he did get a yellow card for arguing. One point for Portugal.

Instead, the outstanding fantasy performers of the weekend were Chelsea’s Reece James (18 FPL points, now part of 10% of all teams), West Ham’s Michail Antonio (16 points, now part of 38.4% of all teams) and Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings (15 points, 9.9% of teams now). With Gabriel Jesus, Mateusz Klich and Aymeric Laporte, the Team of the Week also contained three players with ownerships well below 4% at the time of playing. It’s easy to focus our attention on the premium fantasy assets in a season in which budgets seem more restricted than ever, but gameweek 2 was mainly one for the non-premium picks and the differentials.

Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 3 is set at 11h00 (UK time) on Saturday, August 28^th. Also do check out the Premier League Injury Table and Predicted Premier League Line-Ups before finalising your teams.

Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per August 26^th, 2021)

Premium pick

With many of the popular premium fantasy picks preparing for difficult fixtures in gameweek 3, we have shifted our focus to the encounter between Spurs and Watford. The two London sides face each other on Sunday afternoon and with the continued uncertainty regarding Harry Kane’s role in Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, underlined by the fact that he has played just 18 minutes of PL football so far, we feel his partner up front Heung-Min Son (£10.1m) could haul big this weekend. Spurs have been far from free-scoring in the first two gameweeks of this campaign, winning both games one to nothing, but the Korean did score one of those goals, in GW1 versus Manchester City. Watford, on the other hand, have conceded two goals in each of their opening games. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Son make it two consecutive home games with attacking returns against the Hornets.

Non-premium pick

After 3 goals and 3 assists in the first two league games of the season, it’s kind of impossible to ignore Michail Antonio (£7.7m) for West Ham’s home game against Crystal Palace. At the moment, no player in the entire game has recorded more than his 29 FPL points. His starting price of £7.5m is already starting to look like a serious bargain and it’s no surprise that the Jamaica international looks set for a third price rise in just two gameweeks. Palace boast some of the worst underlying defensive stats in the league after two rounds and confidence is not exactly high after starting the season with a (calculated) defeat against Chelsea and a draw with newly-promoted Brentford, and no goals in their favour. West Ham’s story is quite different, because the Hammers have started their 2021/22 campaign with two victories versus Newcastle and Leicester, and 8 goals scored. More goals should be on the menu on Saturday and Antonio will likely be involved once again.

The budget enabler

Budget constraints as a result of expensive players in all categories are marking the start of the 2021/22 Fantasy Premier League season, but at the same time, an unprecedented number of budget-enabling defenders have emerged, some more permanent than others. We had Kostas Tsimikas as Andy Robertson’s replacement, while currently £4.0 assets Shane Duffy and Daniel Amartey are racking up playing minutes as well in the absence of one or more of their team mates. The budget enabler we would like to highlight this week though, is Southampton’s Tino Livramento (£4.0m), who is probably the safest extreme budget pick on the long-term. The Saints are far from the most defensively solid outfit in the league and the 18-year old Livramento has accrued just 3 FPL points so far, but he does seem to have the right-back spot nailed down. The Chelsea academy graduate hasn’t missed a minute so far and looks to have taken Kyle Walker-Peter’s spot in the starting eleven, seeing as the latter has been fit since the start of the campaign. His determined performance in the draw with Man United certainly earned him praise from the fans. With Newcastle away coming up this weekend, there could be some freedom for forward-oriented Livramento on the right flank, but the main argument for bringing him in is his starting berth at just £4.0m, making him a very good option as the fifth defender in your squad.

The differential

One young man who has been going under the radar over the past weeks is Dele Alli (£6.5m). Now, we know that more than a few fantasy managers will experience light symptoms of PTSD when mentioning his name due to his tendency to disappoint in a big way in past seasons, but the Spurs midfielder has had a more than decent start to the current campaign. Dele scored Tottenham’s only goal against Wolves in GW2 and he scored it from the penalty spot, which is interesting. Should Kane return to the Spurs fold soon, then penalty duties will most likely shift to the star forward, but Dele taking the spot kick last weekend inspires confidence. His new manager Espirito Santo has kept the England international on the pitch for 90 minutes in both league games so far and the attacking midfield spot seems his to lose. Against a Watford side that has already conceded 4 goals in two games, he will be looking to further cement his role as key man for Spurs this season. With an ownership of 2.9% at the moment of writing, the differential value here is more than considerable.

The captaincy

After overwhelming captaincy numbers for Salah and Fernandes in gameweek 2, we expect armbands to be a lot more spread around this weekend for the GW3 FPL captain. The Egyptian is always an option, but he does face Chelsea at Anfield this weekend, while the Portuguese playmaker visits Molineux on Sunday. At the same time, Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son are hosting new boys Watford, and that’s where we’d recommend to leave the armband. With Kane’s situation unclear still, our preference goes to Son, who could easily book a few attacking returns against a Hornets side that has already shipped 4 goals in two games against Villa and Brighton.

Outside of the more premium bracket, Michail Antonio at home to Crystal Palace and Dominic Calvert-Lewin away at a Brighton side that is vulnerable in the air look like excellent options for the armband. If you’re willing to play Pep Roulette, Riyad Mahrez, Jack Grealish and even Gabriel Jesus are interesting options as they host a weak Arsenal side. Jamie Vardy could haul for the first time this season as Leicester visit Norwich, while the ever-dangerous Callum Wilson might find the net against Southampton, just like Bamford and Raphinha at Turf Moor or Ings at home to Brentford who are yet to concede.