This week’s FPL Challenge is called The Shield. This week, players who register defensive contribution points will pick up 10 POINTS. There is a limit of one player per club, with managers selecting a 6-a-side team using an unlimited budget.
Here, FPL expert Sam Bonfield reveals her team and explains her thinking, to help managers pick their own line-ups.
Like in the main game, in FPL Challenge players can still register points for defensive contributions.
For defenders they need to register a combination of 10 clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles (CBIT) in a single match, and 12CBIT for midfielders and forwards.
Normally hitting these thresholds would give the player two points. However, in this week's challenge, any player hitting the defensive contributions numbers will be rewarded with 10 points.
With the possibility of 10 additional points when a player reaches their defensive contribution target, there is an opportunity for a big score in Challenge this week.
I have decided to maximise this by playing a 2-2-1 formation. So far no forwards have received defensive contribution points this season and therefore it makes sense to only pick one forward.
Goalkeeper
In goal the focus is on the shot-stopper most likely to keep a clean sheet as they can't register the additional defensive contribution points. However, it's not just as simply as picking the goalkeeper most likely to keep a clean sheet as the one player per club rule also rules out a number of options.
I would have liked to have picked either Tottenham Hotspur's Pedro Porro (£5.5m), Cristian Romero (£5.0m) or Micky van de Ven (£4.5m), however the appeal of other defenders who are more likely to register defensive contribution points means that there is no space for them.
That's why I have opted for Guglielmo Vicario (£5.0m) in goal. Spurs have kept successive clean sheets in the opening two weeks of the season.
He is also the highest-scoring goalkeeper in the game having registered nine points in each of the opening matches. To date Vicario has registered two save points and four bonus points.
Other options that I considered were Everton's Jordan Pickford (£5.5m) and Nottingham Forest's Matz Sels (£5.0m). I instead opted for outfield players for both these teams which ruled them out.
Defenders
This week feels like one of the biggest decisions in Challenge. So far we have had 33 defenders reach the defensive contribution threshold - 15 in Gameweek 1 and 18 in Gameweek 2. There are a few defenders that have hit twice already.
Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) and James Tarkowski (£5.5m) have already achieved four defensive contribution points, which we probably expected given they were high up last season for points that they would have received if defensive contributions were in the game.
However, we also have Maxence Lacroix (£5.0m), Marcos Senesi (£4.5m), Sepp van den Berg (£4.5m) and Matthijs de Ligt (£5.0m) all hitting 10 defensive contribution actions in the opening two Gameweeks.
Liverpool face an Arsenal side likely to attack in Gameweek 3. This means that whilst I am not confident of a clean sheet for Van Dijk this week, I do expect him to register defensive contribution points again.
With the potential for 10 points there, he is a must have. I have also opted for Tarkowski, like Van Dijk he is also a defensive contribution machine and should achieve the 10-point bonus. However, unlike Liverpool, I can also see a clean sheet for Everton against Wolverhampton Wanderers this weekend.
De Ligt would have been in my side were I not opting for one of his team-mates in my midfield.
Midfielders
Manchester United have surprised me in the opening weekends of the season. Despite not winning yet, they have looked much improved on the team that finished 15th in 2024/25.
In my main team I am likely to go for Matheus Cunha (£8.1m), however Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m) loves the defensive side of the game. Fernandes registered two defensive contribution points in Gameweek 2 and missed out on them in Gameweek 1 by just one action.
With the possibility of the additional 10 points, as well as an attractive fixture and set-piece responsibility, Fernandes feels like he could be the highest scoring player in Challenge this week.
Therefore he will also wear my captains armband.
Alongside Fernandes, I have picked Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.5m). As a Spurs fan I was hoping to see him play for my team this season, however with a home fixture against struggling West Ham United, who have also just been knocked out of the EFL Cup, Gibbs-White and Nottingham Forest could be set to score well this weekend.
Elliot Anderson (£5.5m) is the obvious pick for defensive contributions at Nottingham Forest having already had 22 contributions. However, the attacking upside of Gibbs-White has made me lean towards him.
Gibbs-White has had four attempts on goal already this season, the same as Chris Wood (£7.7m) and his four chances created are more than any other Nottingham Forest player.
If this round had a set budget this is the position I would likely have saved £2.0m on by taking Anderson instead. However, as I see a high-scoring fixture I am banking on Gibbs-White registering more than 10 points in attacking returns.
Forwards
I expect the likes of Richarlison (£6.7m) and Joao Pedro (£7.6m) to continue in the form that they have started the season and both look like good picks for this round in FPL Challenge.
For me Richarlison is ruled out by my goalkeeper selection and Joao Pedro's London derby against Fulham is a more difficult task than the Blues faced last weekend. There was really only one forward that I seriously considered this weekend - Erling Haaland (£14.1m).
Haaland was unlucky not to score last weekend, were it not for the brilliance of Vicario and Spurs' defensive performance.
In Gameweek 3, Haaland faces a Brighton & Hove Albion defence that have conceded in both the opening rounds and have looked vulnerable at the back. Haaland has registered six defensive involvements in the opening weeks of the season and looks unlikely to register them in Gameweek 3.
However, all the forwards look unlikely to register the bonus points for defensive contributions as the highest number by a forward so far is 13 with Richarlison, leaving him way short of the 12 required to register the points each week.