Using your Free Hit this early in the season is rarely the right strategic use of the chip — it is more valuable later, during double gameweeks or major fixture swings. But the outlook this week is promising enough for us to build the team we would pick if we pressed the button anyway. Formation: 3-4-3.

The fixtures shaping the team

  • Man City at home to Coventry — still without a point, and comfortably the best fixture of the gameweek.
  • Liverpool away to Ipswich — Ipswich rank bottom on almost every key defensive metric in the league, although Liverpool's own defence has yet to keep a clean sheet (see below).
  • Aston Villa away to Hull — comfortably the easiest fixture in Villa's opening run, and the reason otherwise irrelevant Villa players come into contention right now.

Goalkeeper

Donnarumma (£5.5m) — City at home to a Coventry side without a point is the second-safest clean-sheet fixture of the entire gameweek.

Defence (3)

  • Van Dijk (£6.5m) — not a pick with a 'nailed-on' clean sheet: Liverpool have conceded four goals in their opening two matches against an expected 3.89, so roughly as expected, not better. The argument is instead that Liverpool have performed well above expectations in attack (4.65 xG across two matches) and should settle down defensively soon — a differential pick, not a safe one.
  • Gvardiol (£5.6m) — direct exposure to the Coventry fixture without having to pay Haaland's price for a player from the same team.
  • Cash (£4.5m) — Villa's cheapest route into the favourable Hull fixture, and a way to free up funds for premium picks elsewhere.

Midfield (4)

  • Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) — the Everton fixture is middling rather than ideal, but a hat-trick built on 1.95 xG and a confirmed role as penalty taker make him too good to leave out entirely (see our separate article on whether he is worth keeping or replacing).
  • Cherki (£7.6m) — his momentum combined with City's fixture makes him an obvious pick.
  • Szoboszlai (£7.0m) — a creative role in a Liverpool side that should dominate possession against Ipswich.
  • Hemmings (£4.5m) — a cheap enabler for the Hull fixture, following the same logic as Cash.

Attack (3)

  • Haaland (£15.5m) — captain. At home to a Coventry side without a point, this is the week to take the highest projected scorer and not overthink it.
  • Isak (£9.0m) — vice-captain. Seven shots and three on target across two matches, the best fixture schedule of any forward this week, and still owned by fewer than 20 per cent of managers.
  • Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m) — the cheapest way to fill the third forward slot without weakening the midfield.

Budget and bench

The starting XI above comes to around £83–84m of the £100m budget, leaving you roughly £16m for four cheap substitutes (typically £4.0–4.5m players) to complete the 15-man squad. Exact prices change from day to day — check the current figures in the FPL app.

In short

The captain is obvious, the vice-captain is a genuine differential based on shot volume, and the Villa players (Cash, Hemmings) are there purely to free up funds for Van Dijk and Isak — not because they are players you believe in over the longer term. Van Dijk is the one pick in the team that is purely a gamble on imminent improvement, not a sure thing.