Brentford's Strong Start in Fantasy Premier League 2026/27
Brentford’s flying start to the 2026/27 campaign has come with a twist for Fantasy Premier League managers – and a little extra help.
The club has linked up with Fantasy Football Scout for the new season, with the analytics powerhouse set to feed managers regular hints, tips and gameweek advice aimed at keeping them alive in their mini-leagues.
On the pitch, Keith Andrews’ side did the rest.
Bees blow Spurs away – and light up FPL
Brentford tore into Tottenham Hotspur, three goals to the good by the 50-minute mark and never really loosening their grip.
New signing Mamadou Sangaré (£5.5m), flagged last week for his potential to churn out defensive contributions (DefCon) points, wasted no time backing up the hype. On debut, he hit the DefCon threshold and laid on two goals.
His first major involvement was pure precision. A sharp one-two with Dango Ouattara (£6.5m), a low cutback, and Keane Lewis-Potter (£5.5m) swept in the opener.
Spurs never recovered from the early punch.
Vitaly Janelt (£5.0m) reacted quickest to a rebound after Mathias Jensen’s (£5.5m) effort, doubling the lead and joining Sangaré and Kristoffer Ajer (£4.5m) in hitting those valuable DefCon numbers.
The pressure didn’t ease after the break. Early in the second half, Antonín Kinský (£4.5m) could only push Sangaré’s strike back into danger, and Michael Kayode (£4.5m) pounced from close range for the third.
Even when Igor Thiago (£8.0m) smacked a penalty against the post, the damage to Spurs was already done. The miss hurt 1.5 million Fantasy managers more than it hurt Brentford.
Kayode in the spotlight
Sangaré’s 14 points set the tone, but Kayode finished just one shy of that tally and made a statement of his own.
While Ajer and Nathan Collins (£5.5m) both had chances to add goals to their clean sheets, it was Kayode who kept arriving in the right pockets of space at exactly the right time.
Brentford’s dominance was ruthless and relentless. They racked up 13 attempts from set pieces alone – more shots than half of the Premier League’s teams managed in total during Gameweek 1. Across the 90 minutes, they outshot Spurs 20-4 for efforts inside the box. Four of those fell to Kayode.
This was no fluke, either. Last season, Kayode led all defenders for take-ons (107) and successful long throws into the area (38). The underlying numbers now have an early headline performance to match.
Brighton, Hull and the big-name blanks
While Brentford stole one storyline, the biggest FPL hauls came from Brighton.
Maxim De Cuyper (£4.5m) and Jack Hinshelwood (£6.0m) posted 17 and 16 points respectively, as the Seagulls ripped into Aston Villa and led 4-0 by half-time. Listed as a defender but deployed high on the left, De Cuyper looked every inch the out-of-position dream.
At the same time on Saturday, newly promoted Hull City were busy unsettling the script. The play-off winners surged 2-0 up at home to Manchester United, with centre-backs Semi Ajayi (£4.0m) and Nobel Mendy (£4.0m) finding the net.
Hull held firm. The result left a host of premium assets empty-handed: Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) and Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m) for United and Brentford, and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (£15.5m) and Antoine Semenyo (£8.5m) also failed to return.
City still found a way, though. Marc Guéhi (£6.0m) and Joško Gvardiol (£5.5m) stepped up to rescue the champions against Bournemouth, salvaging both points and pride for FPL managers who gambled on their defensive upside.
Early movers: Arsenal and Chelsea assets surge
The market reacted quickly.
On Friday night, Riccardo Calafiori (£5.5m) didn’t score but he did supply the first goal of the entire 2026/27 campaign, immediately pushing himself into the group of most-bought players ahead of Friday’s 6.30pm BST deadline.
Arsenal’s second goal came from a familiar source of creativity. Christos Tzolis (£6.5m), who laid on seven assists in pre-season after recording 23 in his final year at Club Brugge, produced again. Martin Ødegaard (£6.5m) then made it 3-0, reinforcing his appeal as a mid-priced midfield anchor.
The story continued on Monday. Chelsea’s Cole Palmer (£9.5m) and João Pedro (£7.5m) both delivered double-digit returns, instantly turning themselves into priority targets for managers looking to jump early on form.
Sangaré and De Cuyper now sit alongside them on countless watchlists, the new names at the heart of early wildcard debates.
Armband anxiety – but the heavyweights still rule
Gameweek 1 hurt many captaincy calls, yet the hierarchy is unlikely to change overnight.
Despite their blanks, most armbands in Gameweek 2 are still expected to land on Haaland or Fernandes – last season’s top two FPL scorers.
Haaland’s failure to score on City’s opening day was a first, but Crystal Palace arrive next amid a troubled summer and ongoing questions over their resilience.
Fernandes, for his part, still found ways to influence United’s defeat at Hull, carving out three chances and creating three more. His underlying numbers remain intact. Next up is a home clash with another promoted side, Ipswich Town.
The template captains have stumbled. The question now is whether bold managers will dare to look beyond them this early in the season.
