Marcos Senesi (£4.9m) is proving to be the biggest beneficiary of the new defensive contribution (DC) metric in 2025/26 Fantasy Premier League.
Indeed, the AFC Bournemouth star is the ONLY player to earn two points for his defensive contributions in each of the first six Gameweeks.
Added to his two assists, three clean sheets and six bonus points, Senesi’s multiple routes to returns have taken him to the top of the defender standings on 44 points.
That form has earned the Argentinian a hefty 572,000+ transfers in ahead of Friday’s 18:30 BST deadline, second only to the 855,000+ of Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (£14.4m).
Senesi’s recent influx of new owners has taken his ownership to 22 per cent for Bournemouth's Gameweek 7 home encounter with Fulham.
And Bournemouth’s upcoming schedule shows why those backers will be happy to have the centre-back in their starting line-ups for many Gameweeks to come.
According to the Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR), where the difficulty of each fixture is ranked from one to five, with one being the easiest possible match and five being the hardest, only TWO of the Cherries’ next 12 matches score more than three.
Bournemouth's fixtures, GW7-18
| GW | Opp. | FDR |
| 7 | Fulham (H) | 3 |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Crystal Palace (A) | 3 |
| 9 | Nottingham Forest (H) | 3 |
| 10 | Man City (A) | 4 |
| 11 | Aston Villa (A) | 4 |
| 12 | West Ham (H) | 2 |
| 13 | Sunderland (A) | 2 |
| 14 | Everton (H) | 2 |
| 15 | Chelsea (H) | 3 |
| 16 | Man Utd (A) | 3 |
| 17 | Burnley (H) | 2 |
| 18 | Brentford (A) | 3 |
*1 = easiest possible fixture, 5 = hardest possible fixture
How does Senesi's start compare with previous best starts?
It is worth noting, nonetheless, that Senesi’s start to the season is something of an anomaly.
Indeed, if defensive contribution points had been available in each of the last eight seasons, Senesi would have just become the first defender EVER to earn the extra two points in all of his first six matches.
The table below lists the defenders who would each have ranked top for this metric in the first six Gameweeks from 2018/19 to 2025/26.
It shows that, on three other occasions, the leading defender picked up two extra points in five of their six starts, which is an 83.3 per cent success rate.
West Ham United supply two of them, Konstantinos Mavropanos in 2024/25 and Fabian Balbuena in 2018/19, along with Southampton's Jan Bednarek in 2019/20.
Brentford's Ethan Pinnock (£4.4m) and Fulham's Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) have also made big impacts early on historically.
Pinnock would have been the top-scoring defender for defensive contributions after the first six Gameweeks of 2023/24, picking up extra in four of his six starts. This feat was matched by Andersen when playing for Crystal Palace in 2022/23.
First six Gameweeks, 2018/19 - 2025/26
| Player | Season | Starts | Success rate | DC pts |
| Senesi (Bournemouth) | 2025/26 | 6 | 100.0% | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mavropanos (West Ham) | 2024/25 | 6 | 83.3% | 10 |
| Bednarek (Southampton) | 2019/20 | 6 | 83.3% | 10 |
| Balbuena (West Ham) | 2018/19 | 6 | 83.3% | 10 |
| Pinnock (Brentford) | 2023/24 | 6 | 66.7% | 8 |
| Andersen (Crystal Palace) | 2022/23 | 6 | 66.7% | 8 |
| Basham (Sheff Utd) | 2020/21 | 6 | 66.7% | 8 |
Scroll across to see the full table on mobile
Who are the top-performing defenders for defensive contributions this season?
A look at the table below shows that Andersen has been again quick to make his presence felt in 2025/26, collecting 10 points for his defensive contributions.
That keeps him level with Everton's James Tarkowski (£5.5m), who would have been the top-performing defender for this metric in each of the previous four Fantasy campaigns.
Sunderland's centre-back Omar Alderete (£4.1m) is the standout value asset here, earning two extra points in four of his five starts - an impressive 80.0 per cent success rate.
| Player | Starts | No of succ. matches | Success rate | DC pts |
| Senesi | 6 | 6 | 100.0% | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andersen, Tarkowski | 6 | 5 | 83.3% | 10 |
| Alderete | 5 | 4 | 80.0% | 8 |
| Van Dijk | 6 | 4 | 63.3% | 8 |
Scroll across to see the full table on mobile
Who has made the best-ever start to a season for defensive contributions?
Although Senesi has become the first defender to begin a season with six defensive contribution returns out of six, he is not the only player to manage this.
He joins a trio of midfielders with a similarly perfect start - Watford's Etienne Capoue in 2018/19, Bournemouth's Philip Billing in 2019/20 and Leicester City's Wilfred Ndidi in 2021/22.
Of the three, it's Capoue who has set the bar for Senesi - he would have earned defensive contribution points in each of the first NINE Gameweeks before failing in his tenth outing, a 3-0 win over Huddersfield Town.