Arsenal Fantasy Premier League Insights: Key Players for Gameweek 2

Arsenal assets are flying off the Fantasy Premier League shelves again. With the champions heading to an Aston Villa side bruised by a 4-0 opening-day defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion, managers are piling in before Friday’s 18:30 BST deadline for Gameweek 2.

Defender Riccardo Calafiori (£5.5m) is leading the charge. Over 239,000 managers have snapped him up after his assist and nine-point return against Coventry City. In midfield, Martin Odegaard and Christos Tzolis (both £6.5m) have joined the bandwagon too, among the four most-bought options in their position after scoring 11 and six points respectively. Up front, Kai Havertz (£7.0m) sits as the second most-bought forward, with 135,000 new owners following his goal in the 3-0 win.

The rush is real. But is it smart?

Arsenal’s attack: short-term gold, long-term question

The numbers from the Coventry game shine a flattering light on Arsenal’s midfield.

Tzolis was at the heart of everything. He took four shots, created three chances and ended up involved in seven of Arsenal’s attempts on goal – more than any of his team-mates. Bukayo Saka (£9.5m), who scored the second, fired three shots in the box, matching Tzolis for penalty-area threat.

Yet there’s a twist. Saka’s strike – a rebound after Coventry goalkeeper Carl Rushworth (£4.5m) pushed out Tzolis’ effort – was Arsenal’s only “big chance” of the match. For all their control, they didn’t exactly slice Coventry open at will.

Odegaard, though, quietly put together a compelling Fantasy case. He produced three shots, three chances created and six total shot involvements, operating in the most advanced central role behind Havertz. With Villa having been exposed through the middle in their 4-0 loss at Brighton, that positioning matters.

Coventry’s weakness came down their left flank, where Arsenal repeatedly overloaded. The numbers tell the story: Coventry allowed 11 chances from that side. Ben White (£5.5m), Saka and substitute Noni Madueke (£6.5m) combined to create 10 chances from Arsenal’s right. Villa, by contrast, were far more vulnerable through the centre, conceding seven chances there.

All of that steers the eye towards Odegaard for Gameweek 2. He looks tailor-made for this specific fixture: advanced role, central spaces to exploit, multiple routes to points.

But there’s a catch for the longer term. With so many strong midfielders priced under £7.0m across the game, Odegaard feels more like a targeted, short-term hit than a season-long cornerstone. If you’re one of the many planning to Wildcard in Gameweek 3 – perhaps after a Bench Boost in Gameweek 1 or 2 – he becomes Arsenal’s standout attacking pick for this weekend, a one-week punt with clear upside.

Beyond that? The smarter long game might lie at the back.

Building from the back: Gabriel the cornerstone

Arsenal’s defence has become a Fantasy institution. Nineteen clean sheets last season. Relentless control. Predictable points.

Into that structure steps Ezri Konsa (£4.5m), a new signing from Aston Villa who missed the Coventry match due to the timing of his move. His arrival complicates the picture but also opens a door for huge value.

Mikel Arteta can use Konsa at centre-back or right-back while William Saliba (£6.0m) and Jurrien Timber (£6.5m) recover from injury. If Konsa plays at right-back, White is the one at risk. If he partners Gabriel at centre-back, Cristhian Mosquera (£5.5m) likely makes way. On the left, Calafiori currently sits ahead of Piero Hincapie (£5.5m).

Should Konsa lock down a starting role, his price makes him one of the standout value picks in the game. If Arsenal repeat last season’s 19 clean sheets, a £4.5m defender who brings you at least six points in roughly half his matches is close to a no-brainer, at least until Saliba and Timber are fully fit and Arteta’s preferred back line is clearer.

But even a bargain can be overshadowed.

Gabriel remains the premium Arsenal defender to own over the season, and it isn’t close. As the league’s most dangerous set-piece threat in its best defence, the Brazilian averaged 6.9 points per start last season. That’s more than Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) at 6.7, and just a shade behind Erling Haaland (£15.5m) on 7.0.

He won’t wear your armband often, but that’s the level of consistency you’re dealing with. Gabriel blanked in only six of his 30 starts last season. Multiple routes to returns – clean sheets, goals, bonus – mean he is a plug-and-play defender. You own him. You start him. Every week.

His underlying contribution backs that up. In 2025/26, Gabriel amassed 22 defensive contribution (DC) points. That number alone doesn’t leap off the page, until you realise the rest of Arsenal’s defenders combined for just 30 DC points between them. Add in bonus, and Gabriel collected 52 points from DC and bonus together – 30 from bonus alone. That total matches the combined DC+bonus haul of his three closest team-mates in those metrics: Hincapie, Saliba and Timber.

At the other end of that scale sits Calafiori. He earned no DC points at all last season and just six bonus points, giving him a combined total of six – a massive 46 behind Gabriel. For a defender now sitting in over 41 per cent of squads, that gap is hard to ignore.

The Calafiori conundrum

Calafiori’s surge in ownership has been dramatic. He’s now in 41.3 per cent of teams, the most popular defender in the game and the fifth most-owned player overall.

On the surface, the hype makes sense. Clean sheet, assist, eye-catching movement. But the Coventry match exposed why his role under Arteta could repeatedly leave him short-changed in the Bonus Points System (BPS).

Both Calafiori and White walked away from that game with a clean sheet and an assist. White, though, took home two bonus points. Calafiori got none.

The reason lies in Calafiori’s “line-breaking” brief. He’s encouraged to roam, step into midfield and join attacks when Arsenal dominate possession. It’s exciting to watch, and it can bring attacking returns. Yet it also means he attempts far fewer passes than the rest of the back line – a key factor in the BPS.

The system rewards accurate volume passing heavily. Any player who completes at least 30 passes with 90 per cent or better accuracy earns a six-point bump to their BPS score. Even 80–89 per cent brings four points, and 70–79 per cent adds two, as long as they hit that 30-pass mark.

Against Coventry, three of Arsenal’s back four – White, Mosquera and Gabriel – all made at least 57 passes, each with a 95 per cent success rate. Each of them picked up the full +6 to their BPS tally.

Calafiori? Just 24 passes, at 83 per cent accuracy. Not enough volume to trigger any passing bonus at all.

That pattern is likely to repeat in matches where Arsenal dominate the ball and Calafiori is given licence to wander. His attacking involvement might look attractive, but the underlying scoring system is stacked in favour of the calmer, more conservative passers around him.

From a budget perspective, the trade-offs are stark. Gabriel and Cole Palmer (£9.5m) together cost £17.5m – the same as Calafiori and Fernandes. With Palmer looking sharp and confident under Xabi Alonso, pairing him with Gabriel appears a more efficient use of funds than backing Fernandes and a defender whose role inherently limits his bonus-point ceiling.

The Raya factor: triple up at the back?

There’s a final angle to the Arsenal puzzle: David Raya (£6.0m).

If you believe in the Gunners’ defensive machine – and last season’s 19 clean sheets offer a strong case – then a triple-up at the back built around Gabriel, Konsa and Raya starts to look very appealing.

Raya isn’t just another goalkeeper. On probability alone, he is the standout option for a clean sheet in most Gameweeks. Owning him and playing him every match removes the headache of rotating cheap goalkeepers and frees your transfers to chase value in outfield positions.

Instead of juggling fixtures and form between two £4.5m keepers, you simply lock in Raya and focus on maximising your outfield upside.

So while the crowd rushes to Calafiori and chases short-term midfield hauls, the cold, unforgiving numbers point in a different direction: build around Gabriel, grab the value of Konsa if he nails down a spot, and let Raya quietly rack up the clean sheets.

The question now is simple: as Arsenal chase another title, will Fantasy managers back the fireworks in attack, or trust the defensive machine that just keeps paying out?