With clubs making signings during the summer transfer window, new recruits are being added to Fantasy Premier League. Here, we reveal the cost of three players added on Friday, and The Scout provides analysis.
Christos Tzolis (Arsenal midfielder) £6.5m
The winger arrives at Arsenal on the back of a remarkable season for Club Brugge, scoring 17 goals and assisting a further 23 to steer them to the Belgian title.
Although those numbers help to highlight Tzolis’ all-round attacking potential in Fantasy, his relatively low cost of £6.5m is indicative of the uncertainty surrounding his role as a regular for the Gunners in 2026/27.
An assessment of Mikel Arteta’s line-ups from Arsenal’s title-winning 2025/26 campaign shows that their attacking midfielders and wingers suffered from rotation throughout the season.
Whereas central midfielders Declan Rice (£7.5m) and Martin Zubimendi (£5.5m) started 35 and 34 matches respectively, Bukayo Saka (£9.5m) was their only other Fantasy midfielder to start more than 21 matches, in an injury-hit campaign.
Eberechi Eze, Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli each averaged under 60 minutes per appearance last season, and all of them are priced at £6.5m – the same as Tzolis – as a result of Arteta’s tinkering.
While Tzolis has the all-round style of play to be a success when he does start in Fantasy, he seems an unnecessarily risky pick when you have secure starters at the same price such as Brentford‘s Dango Ouattara, Crystal Palace‘s Ismaila Sarr and Everton‘s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as stronger alternatives.
Arsenal midfielders 2025/26
Player
Starts
Sub apps
Mins per app
Rice
35
1
85.9
Zubimendi
34
4
79.1
Saka
25
6
72.3
Trossard
21
10
65.5
Eze
22
11
58.6
Odegaard
16
8
58.3
Madueke
16
10
48.2
Martinelli
11
19
39.3
Merino
10
12
50.0
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Xaver Schlager (Nott’m Forest midfielder) £5.0m
Nottingham Forest’s new signing from RB Leipzig is expected to compete with Ibrahim Sangare (£5.0m) for the defensive midfield spot vacated by Elliot Anderson’s (£6.5m) move to Manchester City.
A comparison of the trio last season shows that Anderson’s pressing and elite ability to recover any loose balls were fundamental to his huge success for defensive contribution (DC) points.
A midfielder collects two DC points if he makes 12 Clearances, Blocks, Interceptions and Recoveries (CBIRT) in a match. While Anderson averaged 8.3 recoveries per 90 minutes alone in 2025/26, Sangare and Schlager managed only 12 between them – a sign that we simply can’t expect the same level of consistency from his replacement.
Notably, Schlager has played under Forest’s new head coach Olivier Glasner before and the summer friendlies should gives us a clearer picture of their starting XI for 2026/27.
Right now, though, it’s Sangare who looks the more promising of the pair for defensive contribution points, and he could be a real value asset at just £5.0m.
Stats per 90 compared from 2025/26
Per 90
Anderson
Sangare
Schlager
Clearances
1.3
2.2
1.1
Blocks
0.4
0.8
0.1
Interceptions
1.1
1.1
0.3
Recoveries
8.3
4.9
6.1
Tackles
2.8
2.6
1.4
Total
13.9
11.6
9.0
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Matt Targett (Hull defender) £4.0m
The left-back will compete with Hull City’s current first choice Ryan Giles (£4.0m) in 2026/27 after signing on a free transfer following his departure from Newcastle United.
You have to go all the way back to 2020/21 to find Targett’s best ever campaign in Fantasy, when he collected 138 points for Aston Villa.
Since then, though, the Fantasy landscape has changed and it’s centre-backs who have profited most from the introduction of DC last season.
And for that reason, it’s centre-back Charlie Hughes (£4.0m) who looks the best option among the Hull defenders.
In Fantasy, defenders earn two DC points if they make 10 Clearances, Blocks, Interceptions and Tackles (CBIT) in a match.
Considering Hughes averaged 11.8 of them per 90 minutes in the Championship last season – more than any other promoted defender – he could be among the very best assets for DC points in 2026/27.