{"id":563857,"date":"2026-07-28T17:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/563857\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T17:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:16:08","slug":"the-scouts-must-haves-for-start-of-2026-27-fpl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/563857\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scout’s MUST-HAVES for start of 2026\/27 FPL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Scout pinpoints the players you NEED to own for the start of 2026\/27 Fantasy Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pick your Fantasy team NOW<\/a><\/p>\n

Erling Haaland (Man City) \u00a315.5m<\/p>\n

The start of any Fantasy season is all about limiting risk, which makes picking Haaland a very straightforward decision.<\/p>\n

Managers have already made their intentions clear for the season ahead, with a massive 75.2 per cent selecting the Manchester City<\/a> forward since 2026\/27 Fantasy launched on 23 July.<\/p>\n

Despite his record-breaking price tag of \u00a315.5m, it\u2019s a near-certainty that Haaland \u2013 as we witnessed last season \u2013 will be the No 1 captain by a huge margin in any given Gameweek.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His history also shows why going without the Norwegian could be very detrimental to your ranking early on.<\/p>\n

He has been the top-scoring player after the first six Gameweeks in all four of his seasons at Man City, averaging nine goals and 61.3 points over that initial period of each campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Home matches against promoted sides Coventry City<\/a> and Ipswich Town<\/a> over the first seven Gameweeks will make Haaland a big favourite for managers playing their first Triple Captain chip<\/a> of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t go without him.<\/p>\n

Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd) \u00a312.0m<\/p>\n

The Portuguese was the top-scoring player in Fantasy after head coach Michael Carrick took charge of Manchester United<\/a> in Gameweek 22 last season, producing 129 points at an average of 7.6 per match.<\/p>\n

Fernandes\u2019 consistency and potential for huge returns under Carrick shows why he\u2019s the most-owned midfielder in Fantasy, found in 48.8 per cent of squads.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, he scored or assisted in 14 of his 17 outings for Carrick, producing eight of his 12 double-figure hauls for 2025\/26 over those matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Man Utd\u2019s opening pair of matches hand Fernandes the opportunity to immediately challenge Haaland for the captaincy, with back-to-back matches against promoted pair Hull City<\/a> and Ipswich.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gabriel (Arsenal) \u00a38.0m<\/p>\n

In only 30 starts last season, Arsenal<\/a>\u2019s centre-back delivered the third-highest total of all time by a defender in Fantasy.<\/p>\n

Gabriel\u2019s huge threat at set-pieces is evidenced by his three goals and five assists, while he also collected 18 clean sheets to total 209 points.<\/p>\n

Notably, in the inaugural season of defensive contribution (DC) points<\/a> in Fantasy, Gabriel\u2019s total of 22 was just eight fewer than the combined 30 of all other Arsenal defenders.<\/p>\n

Due to his many routes to returns, the Brazilian blanked in only six of his 30 starts in 2025\/26.<\/p>\n

Similarly to Haaland and Fernandes, Gabriel was among the four top-scoring players in both home and away matches last season.<\/p>\n

Granted, he\u2019s not a captaincy option like his premium rivals here but, as the table below shows, Gabriel\u2019s averages of 7.0 points per start (pps) in home matches and 6.8 pps in away matches were on par with Haaland and Fernandes over the season.<\/p>\n

Simply play the Brazilian in every Gameweek, but avoid handing him the armband.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2025\/26 comparison<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nGabriel
\nHaaland
\nFernandes<\/p>\n

Home pts
\n106
\n120
\n124<\/p>\n

Home pps
\n7.0
\n7.4
\n7.3<\/p>\n

Away pts
\n103
\n119
\n111<\/p>\n

Away pps
\n6.8
\n6.6
\n6.2<\/p>\n

Pts = Points, PPS = Points per start. Scroll across to see the full table on mobile<\/p>\n

Joao Pedro (Chelsea) \u00a37.5m<\/p>\n

A hat-trick and an assist in Xabi Alonso\u2019s first pre-season match in charge of Chelsea<\/a> on Tuesday shows why Joao Pedro can already be found in more than 50 per cent of squads.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian has quickly emerged as managers\u2019 preferred partner for Haaland up front. Indeed, his ownership is 25 per cent higher than any other forward apart from Haaland, and he has now overtaken Fernandes as the second most-selected player in Fantasy.<\/p>\n

Granted, Joao Pedro is no match for Haaland, Fernandes or Gabriel when it comes to consistency \u2013 he blanked in 17 of his 31 starts in 2025\/26.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But you only need to look back at last season for a reminder of why going without him could hurt you.<\/p>\n

Having impressed during the FIFA Club World Cup for Chelsea in pre-season, Joao Pedro started 2025\/26 Fantasy as the most-picked player overall, owned by more than 58 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After blanking in Gameweek 1, he then delivered a bumper 15-point haul in Gameweek 2 and climbed to 63 per cent ownership ahead of Gameweek 3.<\/p>\n

By the end of Gameweek 5, Joao Pedro had two goals, three assists and 35 points to his name \u2013 second only to Haaland among forwards and seventh overall in the player standings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you want to limit risk early on, Joao Pedro’s early pre-season form for Alonso and high ownership are hard to ignore.<\/p>\n

Chelsea’s opening schedule only adds to their forward’s appeal. In the first four Gameweeks, they visit Fulham<\/a> and play at home against Brighton & Hove Albion<\/a> and Hull.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Scout pinpoints the players you NEED to own for the start of 2026\/27 Fantasy Premier League. Pick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105,4277],"class_list":["post-563857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}