The Scout highlights some of the key takeaway's from the first nine matches of Gameweek 2 in Fantasy Premier League.
No Palmer, no problem for Chelsea
Chelsea’s 5-1 win at West Ham United in the first match of Gameweek 2 was all the more impressive after Cole Palmer (£10.5m) missed out with an injury sustained in the warm-up.
Following their goalless draw with Crystal Palace, Enzo Maresca changed his tactics in order to have two No 10s behind a lone striker, with both their new forwards Joao Pedro (£7.5m) and Liam Delap (£6.4m) in the line-up.
The Blues’ five goals are more than the combined four of the other eight away sides so far in Gameweek 2, suggesting Maresca may have struck on the ideal set-up against weaker opponents.
Time to abandon the Watkins/Rogers double-up
Aston Villa’s kind early schedule had persuaded some managers to start the season with both Ollie Watkins (£9.0m) and Morgan Rogers (£7.0m).
Fast forward two Gameweeks and Unai Emery’s side are still without a goal from their matches against Newcastle United and Brentford.
Watkins’ backers have already made their mind up, with 175,000+ transfers out making him the most-sold forward in the Gameweek.
Frank’s Spurs have fixtures to keep flourishing
It’s two wins and two clean sheets for Tottenham Hotspur under Thomas Frank, with their 2-0 victory at Manchester City highlighting why their key assets at both ends of the pitch can be worth the investment.
Richarlison (£6.6m) and Brennan Johnson (£7.0m) have both produced attacking returns in back-to-back matches, while Pedro Porro (£5.5m), Cristian Romero (£5.0m) and Micky van de Ven (£4.5m) offer options across the price points in defence.
Spurs’ upcoming schedule is one of the best around, with fixtures against West Ham, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leeds United over the next five Gameweeks.
Schedule and Saka absence limits Arsenal appeal
Similarly to Spurs, Arsenal have also started the season with a pair of victories and clean sheets.
Unlike their north London rivals, the Gunners could barely face a tougher run of opponents, with matches against Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Man City and Newcastle across the next four Gameweeks.
With Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) reportedly ruled out for up to four weeks, it looks safer to wait until the fixtures turn in Arsenal’s favour in Gameweek 7 before bringing in their key picks.
It's worth owning a £4.0m-priced promoted defender
Over the last two seasons in particular, backing attackers who face promoted clubs has been a very successful strategy.
However, Burnley’s 2-0 win over Sunderland means that all three promoted clubs have kept a clean sheet in their very first home match of the season.
Bearing in mind that Ipswich Town managed one clean sheet at home across ALL of last season, it’s looking more positive for the three promoted clubs this time around.
Added to their potential for defensive contributions, it makes sense to have one of their £4.0m defenders for your bench.
Brentford rack up the defensive contribution points
As many as SIX Brentford players collected two points for their defensive contributions in Gameweek 2.
Written off by some on the back of their opening weekend defeat at Nottingham Forest, the Bees' 1-0 win over Villa means they have already equalled their total of ONE clean sheet at the Gtech Community Stadium in Frank’s final season in charge.
Centre-back Sepp van den Berg (£4.5m) is among six players to have picked up defensive contribution points in both of the opening Gameweeks and five of them are defenders: AFC Bournemouth’s Marcos Senesi (£4.5m), Crystal Palace’s Maxence Lacroix (£5.0m), Everton’s James Tarkowski (£5.5m) and Manchester United’s Matthijs de Ligt (£5.0m).
Brighton & Hove Albion’s Mats Wieffer (£5.0m) is the only midfielder to achieve this feat, although it’s worth noting he has played in defence – as a right-back – in both their matches.
Add Grealish to the list of appealing mid-price midfielders
Jack Grealish (£6.5m) has immediately leapt on to the watchlists of many managers after producing two assists and 11 points on his full debut for Everton.
While the Toffees do face Liverpool in Gameweek 5, encounters with Wolves and West Ham in the next four give Grealish every chance of more goals and assists.
The winger faces strong competition in the mid-price bracket, though; along with Spurs’ Johnson, Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo (£7.2m) and Nott'm Forest’s Dan Ndoye (£6.0m) have delivered attacking returns in each of the first two Gameweeks.
West Ham and Wolves look the teams to target
West Ham and Wolves are the only two clubs yet to pick up a point and are rooted to the bottom of the table following back-to-back defeats.
After conceding eight goals in those contests, West Ham’s visit to Forest this weekend gives Chris Wood (£7.6m) the chance to reward his 22.0 per cent backers.
Wolves’ home meeting with Everton could allow the Toffees’ summer signing Thierno Barry (£6.0m) the chance to make his mark in the budget forward bracket, having made his first start of 2025/26 against Brighton.
Fernandes and Mbeumo sharing set-pieces, Cunha up front
While Bruno Fernandes’ (£9.0m) missed penalty against Fulham did at least confirm he is currently on spot-kick duties for Man Utd, there were key takeaways for his fellow midfielders ahead of a home match against Burnley this weekend.
Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m) is taking his fair share of set-pieces – he’s taken four corners to the five of Fernandes and one free-kick to the Portuguese’s two.
With Benjamin Sesko (£7.5m) still to get up to speed, Matheus Cunha (£8.0m) played up front at Craven Cottage. The Brazilian’s seven shots, five shots in the box and four shots on target are all team-leading totals this season.
Wirtz hampering Salah output
For the second Gameweek in a row, Mohamed Salah’s (£14.5m) attacking return came after the withdrawal of Florian Wirtz (£8.4m).
While Liverpool’s Egyptian added to his Gameweek 1 goal against Bournemouth with the assist for Rio Ngumoha's (£4.5m) winner against Newcastle on Monday evening, he failed to have a single shot against the Magpies – this happened only once across ALL of last season.
A goal from Hugo Ekitike (£8.6m) and Cody Gakpo’s (£7.5m) two assists in the 3-2 victory continued their own fine starts to 2025/26, a further indication that the Reds’ new 4-2-3-1 formation can now bring Salah’s team-mates into consideration for Fantasy squads.