Harry Kane (£12.5m) has been identically priced to Mohamed Salah for 2023/24 Fantasy Premier League.
The Tottenham Hotspur forward climbs £1.0m from his starting cost last season, when he scored 30 goals and supplied nine assists to earn his career-high 263 points.
Managers now face a big decision when it comes to picking premium players for their opening squads.
With Erling Haaland costing £14.0m, owning all three of the big-hitters will take up £39m of managers’ £100m starting budget, £3.0m more than the start of last season.
Kane is potentially the least appealing of the trio due to the huge difference in cost compared to his Spurs team-mate Son Heung-min (£9.0m).
See: Every FPL price announced so far
Grealish a value pick?
Kevin De Bruyne (£10.5m), meanwhile, offers the same £3.5m saving over Haaland for Manchester City after dropping £1.5m from last season.
However, a cost of just £7.5m suggests Jack Grealish could be the go-to midfielder for Pep Guardiola’s side.
The winger’s form after the FIFA World Cup 2022 helped secure him a regular role for the Treble-winners.
Grealish made 17 of his 23 starts last season from Gameweek 17 onwards, producing four of his five goals and nine of his 10 assists in that time.
Pick Mee
Elsewhere, Ben Mee (£5.0m) has the added attacking threat to warrant the extra £0.5m over his fellow Brentford defender Rico Henry (£4.5m).
Mee was the fifth top-scoring defender in Fantasy last season on 143 points, combining three goals and two assists with 12 clean sheets.
Crucially, the Bees have a very favourable opening run of opponents in 2023/24.
According to the Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR), five of their first seven matches score only two.
Brentford’s first seven matches
| GW | Opponent | FDR* | GW | Opponent | FDR* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TOT (H) | 3 | 5 | NEW (A) | 4 |
| 2 | FUL (A) | 2 | 6 | EVE (H) | 2 |
| 3 | CRY (H) | 2 | 7 | NFO (A) | 2 |
| 4 | BOU (H) | 2 | |||
*Fixture Difficulty Rating (1= easy, 5= hard)
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Craig Dawson can also be a popular pick in defence after being priced at £4.5m.
The centre-back produced 56 points after joining Wolves in Gameweek 22 last season, more than any outfield team-mate.
Notably, Wolves, produced 10 clean sheets in home matches in 2022/23, second only to the 11 of Manchester United.
Also in this series
Part 1: Haaland equals record while Salah drops
Part 2: Tricky decisions in midfield
Part 3: New role key to Alexander-Arnold rise
Part 4: Big changes for Rashford and Sterling
Part 5: Saka to cost same as Odegaard
