Arsenal Fantasy Premier League Insights: Key Players for Gameweek 2
Arsenal’s title defence has barely begun, but Fantasy Premier League managers have already made up their minds. They want in.
With the Gameweek 2 deadline looming at 18:30 BST on Friday and a trip to an Aston Villa side bruised by a 4-0 opening-day defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion on the horizon, Arsenal assets are flying off the virtual shelves.
Riccardo Calafiori (£5.5m) is leading the charge. The Italian full-back, fresh from an assist and a nine-point return in the 3-0 win over Coventry City, has attracted more than 239,000 new owners. Martin Odegaard and Christos Tzolis (both £6.5m) are also in demand after 11 and six points respectively, while Kai Havertz (£7.0m) has become the second most-bought forward, with 135,000 managers reacting to his opening goal of the season.
The market has spoken. But has it got Arsenal right?
Odegaard, Tzolis, Saka – who really leads this attack?
Arsenal’s midfield looked sharp against Coventry, but the numbers tell a more nuanced story.
Tzolis was everywhere. He took four shots, created three chances and ended up involved in seven shots in total – more than any of his team-mates. Odegaard matched him creatively with three chances created and added three shots of his own. Bukayo Saka (£9.5m), who struck the Gunners’ second goal, produced three shots in the box, joint-most with Tzolis.
Yet for all that pressure, Arsenal fashioned just one “big chance” in the match – Saka’s goal, which fell kindly after Coventry goalkeeper Carl Rushworth (£4.5m) could only palm out Tzolis’ effort.
On Arsenal’s right, the damage was relentless. Coventry conceded 11 chances down their left, with Ben White (£5.5m), Saka and substitute Noni Madueke (£6.5m) combining for 10 of those from that flank. Arsenal clearly targeted that side.
Villa, though, present a different picture. Their 4-0 collapse at Brighton exposed them most severely through the centre of the pitch. That suits one man perfectly.
Odegaard operated in the most advanced central role behind Havertz in Gameweek 1. In a match where Villa’s central block already looks vulnerable, his blend of goal threat and creativity makes him the standout attacking pick for this specific fixture.
There is a catch. Arsenal’s defensive reliability and the wealth of sub-£7.0m midfield options elsewhere mean Odegaard still feels like a short-term play rather than a season-long cornerstone.
For managers plotting an early Wildcard in Gameweek 3 – especially those who have already Bench-Boosted in Gameweek 1 or 2 – that short-term burst is exactly what they want. In that scenario, Odegaard becomes Arsenal’s premier attacking option for this weekend.
Arsenal at the back: where the real value lies
The arrival of Ezri Konsa (£4.5m) from Aston Villa changes the landscape in defence and cannot be ignored.
Konsa was unavailable against Coventry, but his versatility is gold dust for Mikel Arteta. He can slot in at centre-back or right-back while William Saliba (£6.0m) and Jurrien Timber (£6.5m) remain sidelined.
His inclusion will force a reshuffle. If Konsa starts at right-back, White is the obvious casualty. If he partners Gabriel at centre-back, Cristhian Mosquera (£5.5m) likely drops out. On the left, Calafiori currently has the edge over Piero Hincapie (£5.5m).
Should Konsa lock down a starting spot, Arsenal’s defensive record makes him a classic value pick. They kept 19 clean sheets last season. Repeat that, and a £4.5m defender who starts regularly is effectively returning six points in half his matches. Low risk. High value per million. The kind of player you quietly leave in your XI for months.
He is, however, not the main event.
Gabriel: a defender with premium-level returns
Over the long haul, Gabriel is Arsenal’s defensive king.
The Brazilian is the league’s most dangerous set-piece threat in its best defence, and his numbers from last season were extraordinary. He averaged 6.9 points per start, outscoring even Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m), who managed 6.7, and almost matching Erling Haaland’s (£15.5m) 7.0.
You don’t captain Gabriel, but in terms of “must-own” status, he belongs in that conversation.
He blanked in only six of his 30 starts last season. Multiple routes to points – clean sheets, goals, bonus – make him the kind of defender you simply start every week and forget.
Among the top scorers in Fantasy 2025/26, Gabriel’s 209 points, with just six blanks, underline that reliability:
- Haaland: 239 points, 12 blanks in 34 starts, 7.0 points per start
- Fernandes: 235 points, nine blanks in 35 starts, 6.7 points per start
- Gabriel: 209 points, six blanks in 30 starts, 6.9 points per start
Dig deeper into defensive contribution (DC) and bonus points, and his dominance becomes even clearer.
Gabriel collected 22 DC points last season. That might not sound huge until you realise the rest of Arsenal’s defenders combined for just 30. In total, he amassed 52 points from DC and bonus – 30 of those from bonus alone. That 52-point haul matched the combined total of his three closest team-mates in that metric: Hincapie, Saliba and Timber.
At the other end of the scale sits Calafiori. Despite his attacking promise, he failed to register a single DC point and picked up only six bonus points across the campaign. Six points combined from DC and bonus, 46 fewer than Gabriel.
In raw defensive metrics, Gabriel isn’t just ahead. He’s on a different tier.
The Calafiori conundrum: eye-catching, but costly in BPS
Calafiori’s opening-week haul has triggered a bandwagon. His ownership has surged to 41.3 per cent, the highest among defenders and fifth overall in the game.
Yet the Coventry match offered an early warning. Both Calafiori and White came away with a clean sheet and an assist. White, though, collected two bonus points. Calafiori got none.
That gap is not a one-off quirk. It stems from his role.
Arteta uses Calafiori as a “line-breaking” full-back in games where Arsenal dominate the ball. The Italian is encouraged to drift forward, step into midfield, and attack space. It looks great on the pitch and can lead to assists, but it comes at a cost in the Bonus Points System (BPS).
Because he roams so much, he simply makes fewer passes than the other defenders. Fewer passes mean fewer chances to hit the key BPS thresholds.
Under the BPS rules, a player who completes at least 30 passes with a 90 per cent or better success rate gains six extra BPS points. That’s a significant boost in the race for bonus.
Against Coventry, three of the back four – White, Mosquera and Gabriel – each made at least 57 passes at a 95 per cent success rate, earning that +6 BPS bump. Calafiori attempted just 24 passes at 83 per cent accuracy. He didn’t even reach the 30-pass minimum, so he got nothing from his passing.
In a tight bonus race, that structural disadvantage will hurt him repeatedly.
From a squad-building perspective, the comparison is stark. Gabriel and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer (£9.5m) cost £17.5m combined – exactly the same as pairing Calafiori with Fernandes. With Palmer looking sharp again under Xabi Alonso, the Gabriel–Palmer combination offers a cleaner route to consistent returns than banking on Fernandes and a BPS-handicapped Calafiori.
Raya and the triple-up temptation
There is one final, powerful strategy emerging: go all-in on Arsenal’s defence.
Pair Gabriel with Konsa and add David Raya (£6.0m) in goal. That triple-up might not have the glamour of loading up on attackers, but it carries a different kind of appeal – one built on probability.
Raya stands alone among goalkeepers. In any given Gameweek, he is the most likely ‘keeper in the game to deliver a clean sheet. Starting him every week removes the headache of rotating budget goalkeepers and frees up transfers and brain space for the rest of your squad.
Lock in Raya. Lock in Gabriel. Add Konsa if he nails down his place. Then let Arsenal’s defensive machine do the heavy lifting while you chase upside elsewhere.
The crowd is rushing towards Calafiori and the shiny attacking picks. The numbers, though, keep dragging the conversation back to Gabriel, Raya and a back line that looks ready to carry Fantasy teams deep into the season.
