Arsenal's Fantasy Premier League Assets: Smart Picks for Gameweek 2

Arsenal assets are flying off the Fantasy Premier League shelves ahead of Friday’s 18:30 BST deadline, with managers scrambling to triple up before the champions walk into Aston Villa – a side already bruised by a 4-0 opening-day beating at Brighton & Hove Albion.

The rush is real. The question is whether it’s smart.

The bandwagon: Calafiori, Odegaard, Tzolis… and Havertz

Riccardo Calafiori (£5.5m) is the face of the early stampede. Over 239,000 managers have bought the Arsenal defender after his assist and nine-point return against Coventry City in Gameweek 1.

In midfield, Martin Odegaard and Christos Tzolis (both £6.5m) have surged in popularity too. Odegaard delivered 11 points, Tzolis six, and both sit among the four most-bought midfielders. Up front, Kai Havertz (£7.0m) is the second most-bought forward, with 135,000 managers jumping on after his goal in the 3-0 win.

Most-bought Arsenal players for Gameweek 2

• Player | Transfers in | GW1 pts
• Calafiori | 239,000 | 9
• Odegaard | 207,000 | 11
• Tzolis | 163,000 | 6
• Havertz | 135,000 | 6

The herd has spoken. But are they actually targeting the right Gunners?

Arsenal’s attack: short-term firepower, long-term questions

Arsenal’s midfield against Coventry crackled with threat. Tzolis, Odegaard and Bukayo Saka (£9.5m) all offered a route to points.

Tzolis was the busiest of the lot. He fired four shots and created three chances, meaning he was involved in seven shots overall – more than any team-mate. Saka, who scored the second goal after Carl Rushworth (£4.5m) parried Tzolis’ effort into his path, matched Tzolis for shots in the box with three.

And yet, that Saka strike was Arsenal’s only “big chance” of the match – the only situation where the data says a goal is genuinely expected.

Arsenal’s attacking stats v Coventry

• Player | Shot inv. | Shots | Shots in box | Chances created
• Tzolis | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3
• Odegaard | 6 | 3 | 1 | 3
• Saka | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2
• Madueke | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4
• White | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2

Coventry’s problem was obvious: they crumbled down their left. Arsenal carved out 11 chances from that flank alone, with Ben White (£5.5m), Saka and substitute Noni Madueke (£6.5m) combining for 10 of them from the right-hand side.

Villa, though, collapsed somewhere else entirely.

In their 4-0 defeat at Brighton, Villa were far more vulnerable through the middle. That suits Odegaard perfectly. He operated in the most advanced central role behind Havertz in Gameweek 1 and looks ideally placed to exploit any gaps between Villa’s lines.

For managers eyeing a one-week punt or working towards an early Wildcard, that matters. Arsenal’s defence is reliable, and there is a glut of strong midfielders under £7.0m across the game. Over the long haul, that makes Odegaard more of a short-term play than a season-long cornerstone.

But if you’re one of those managers planning to Wildcard in Gameweek 3, having already used Bench Boost in Gameweek 1 or 2, Odegaard stands out as Arsenal’s best attacking option for this weekend.

Chances conceded in GW1

• Zone | Coventry | Aston Villa
• Left flank | 11 | 4
• Centre | 2 | 7
• Right flank | 4 | 4

The data points straight at him.

Defence: the Konsa twist and Gabriel’s dominance

The puzzle at the back has a new piece: Ezri Konsa (£4.5m). His recent arrival from Aston Villa didn’t factor into Gameweek 1 – he was unavailable to face Coventry – but FPL managers can’t ignore him now.

Konsa offers Mikel Arteta real flexibility. He can slot in at centre-back or at right-back while William Saliba (£6.0m) and Jurrien Timber (£6.5m) remain sidelined.

The knock-on effect is huge. If Konsa starts at right-back, White is the one under threat. If Konsa partners Gabriel at centre-back, Cristhian Mosquera (£5.5m) is likely to drop out. On the left, Calafiori currently has the edge over Piero Hincapie (£5.5m).

Should Konsa nail down a starting role quickly, his price makes him a potential bargain. Arsenal kept 19 clean sheets last season. If they repeat that, a £4.5m defender regularly starting in this backline becomes a low-risk asset, returning at least six points in roughly half his games.

For value alone, Konsa looks worth holding until Saliba and Timber are fully match fit and Arteta’s long-term defensive structure becomes clearer.

But he’s not the best Arsenal defender to own.

That title belongs, comfortably, to Gabriel.

Gabriel: a defender with premium-level output

Gabriel is the league’s standout set-piece threat in its best defence. Last season he averaged 6.9 points per start – better than Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) on 6.7 and almost identical to Erling Haaland (£15.5m) on 7.0.

He doesn’t carry captaincy appeal like Haaland, but that’s the tier of Fantasy asset he belongs in when you weigh his consistency and ceiling.

Gabriel blanked in only six of his 30 starts last season. Multiple routes to points – clean sheets, goals, bonus – make him a player you simply start every week.

Top-scoring players in Fantasy 2025/26

• Player | Pts | Blanks | Pts/start
• Haaland | 239 | 12/34 | 7.0
• Fernandes | 235 | 9/35 | 6.7
• Gabriel | 209 | 6/30 | 6.9

His underlying defensive metrics back that up. Measured against Arsenal’s other defenders, Gabriel dominated defensive contribution (DC) points in 2025/26. His total of 22 DC points doesn’t jump off the page until you realise the rest of Arsenal’s defence combined for just 30 between them.

Across DC and bonus points, Gabriel collected 52 – 30 of those from bonus alone. That 52-point haul equalled the combined total of his three nearest Arsenal rivals in that category: Hincapie, Saliba and Timber.

And Calafiori? He sits at the other end of the scale.

Arsenal defenders' stats 2025/26

• Defender | DC + BP | DC only | BP only | Starts
• Gabriel | 52 | 22 | 30 | 30
• Hincapie | 21 | 14 | 7 | 20
• Saliba | 18 | 6 | 12 | 30
• Timber | 13 | 4 | 9 | 28
• Calafiori | 6 | 0 | 6 | 22
• Mosquera | 5 | 4 | 1 | 9
• White | 5 | 2 | 3 | 9

Calafiori failed to register a single DC point last season and managed only six bonus points. That’s 46 fewer than Gabriel.

Why Calafiori’s role hurts his bonus potential

None of that has stopped FPL managers piling in. Calafiori’s ownership has rocketed to 41.3 per cent – higher than any other defender and enough to make him the fifth most-owned player in the entire game.

His Gameweek 1 return explains the rush: a clean sheet, an assist, nine points. Yet the bonus points told a different story. While both Calafiori and White delivered an assist and a shutout against Coventry, White took two bonus points. Calafiori got none.

The reason sits in his job description.

Arteta uses Calafiori as a “line-breaking” full-back in matches Arsenal dominate. The Italian is encouraged to roam into midfield and attack, which naturally reduces his volume of simple, recycling passes at the back.

That’s where the Bonus Points System (BPS) punishes him. Passing volume and accuracy are heavily rewarded.

How passing is rewarded in Bonus Points System

• Action | Added to BPS score
• 70-79% pass completion with 30+ passes attempted | +2
• 80-89% pass completion with 30+ passes attempted | +4
• 90%+ pass completion with 30+ passes attempted | +6

Against Coventry, three of Arsenal’s back four – White, Mosquera and Gabriel – attempted at least 57 passes each, completing 95 per cent of them. All three gained six BPS points from passing alone.

Arsenal defenders' passing v Coventry

• Defender | Passes | % Succ passes | BPS score
• White | 78 | 95% | +6
• Mosquera | 65 | 95% | +6
• Gabriel | 57 | 95% | +6
• Calafiori | 24 | 83% | 0

That’s the trade-off. Calafiori’s adventurous role can lead to assists and the occasional attacking return, but it drags down his bonus potential compared with Arsenal’s more traditional defenders.

From a budget standpoint, the comparison is stark. Gabriel and Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer (£9.5m) cost £17.5m combined – exactly the same as Calafiori and Fernandes.

With Palmer looking sharp and confident under Xabi Alonso, pairing him with Gabriel looks a cleaner, more efficient use of funds than backing Fernandes and Calafiori.

The triple-up: trust the back line, not the short-term hype

There is a growing case for going all-in on Arsenal’s defence over the long term: Gabriel, Konsa and David Raya (£6.0m).

Raya shouldn’t be judged against his team-mates but against the rest of the goalkeepers in Fantasy. He is, by some distance, the most likely ‘keeper to deliver a clean sheet in any given Gameweek.

Owning Raya and starting him every week removes the headache of rotating cheap goalkeepers and frees up transfers for chasing value in outfield positions.

So while the crowd races towards Arsenal’s shiny new attacking toys, the cold numbers point somewhere else: a settled back line, Gabriel as a near-premium asset in disguise, and a goalkeeper who can quietly carry your season.