Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 1: Must-Have Players
The countdown is on. Screens are glowing, drafts are being ripped up, and across the Fantasy Premier League world there’s one question echoing louder than the rest: how many City players can you squeeze in before the Gameweek 1 deadline at 18:30 (UK) on Friday 21 August?
Unlimited transfers are on the table. Excuses won’t be.
And three City names are already shaping the template.
Haaland: The game-breaker at £15.5m
Erling Haaland has smashed records on the pitch; now he’s doing it in the game itself.
Priced at £15.5m, he stands as the most expensive FPL asset in history. That sort of fee usually sends managers scrambling for “value” elsewhere. Not this time.
Haaland delivered 239 points last season, more than any other player. Thirty-five attacking returns. Week after week, he turned captaincy into a formality and left non-owners hiding behind sofas.
The result? A staggering 75.2% ownership in early drafts. Three out of four managers have already decided they’d rather rebuild their squads around him than risk going without. Structure your team how you like, but every decision now starts with the same line: Haaland – in or out?
Right now, the answer is obvious.
Guehi: The £6.0m rock at the back
Further down the pitch, Marc Guehi has quietly become one of the most powerful defensive picks in the game.
Last season he racked up 179 FPL points, with only one defender outscoring him. That’s elite company, built not on hype but on relentless consistency.
Fourteen clean sheets. Three goals. Five assists. Twenty-two defensive contribution points. Fourteen bonus points. It reads like the output of a premium full-back, yet comes from a centre-back who has turned solidity into a fantasy weapon.
At £6.0m, he’s no longer a budget enabler; he’s a cornerstone. And FPL managers have noticed. Guehi currently sits in 24.7% of squads, a clear sign that many are prepared to pay up for reliability at the back rather than chase volatile attacking punts.
If you want a defender who just keeps ticking, his name is already on the team sheet.
O’Reilly: From prospect to must-watch
Then there’s Nico O’Reilly, the story that every fantasy manager loves: the breakout star who suddenly becomes impossible to ignore.
The 2025/26 campaign transformed him from fringe pick to serious asset. Listed as a defender, he produced five goals, four assists and 14 clean sheets, surging to 160 FPL points.
The context makes that even more striking. That tally was 129 points higher than his 2024/25 return. This wasn’t a gentle progression; it was a leap.
The price rise to £6.5m for the new season reflects that explosion. He’s no longer a hidden gem, but he’s still attracting heavy interest, sitting in 24% of teams so far. Managers are clearly betting that last season was the start, not the peak.
If he maintains anything close to that output, £6.5m will look cheap by Christmas.
The pattern is clear. Haaland, Guehi and O’Reilly are already shaping the early drafts and forcing tough conversations about budget, balance and risk.
Unlimited transfers mean there’s still time to rip it all up again before Friday night. The real question is simple: are you brave enough to go without any of them when the points start counting for real?
