The first gameweek of the new Fantasy Premier League is in full swing. It is time to start planning for FPL Gameweek 2.
And here is one very important GW2 tip for you, FPL managers, from the very beginning of the article.
Keep your emotions in check. Do not make emotional decisions – rage transfers, and do not chase points from previous GW.
That would very likely hurt your score in the next round. Calm down, take a deep breath, and use logic instead. From a mathematical point of view, the FPL is a chaotic system.
The Chaos Theory shows us that chaotic systems can be predictable. But just for a while. Then randomness appears again. So do not let the randomness of the first gameweek disrupt the strategy you set up before the beginning of the season. And do not tear apart your team just to bring in some players that (maybe just randomly) hauled in GW1.
Do not draw conclusions about the 20254/26 season just from one gameweek of data. What you have seen was just a variance.
Read more: 4 Books that will help you improve your FPL skills
That being said, let’s continue with our FPL GW2 tips, best picks, fixtures, transfer targets, odds, captain picks, and team selection.
1. Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 2 Tips
- Try to save free transfer for the next round – you will have more data after GW2 and bigger flexibility with 2 free transfers
- Unless your team is in terrible shape already, avoid wildcarding this early. Wait for a fixture swing. Read more: Essential tips for effective use of Wildcard in FPL
- Stick to the strategy and plan you had before GW1. Eliminate the noise.
- Be patient with players who blanked. Give them more time.
- Past performance is never a guarantee of future results.
- Play the long game. You cannot predict short-term results, but you can estimate which players will do well in the long run.
- As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, keep your emotions in check and do not make rage transfers
Gameweek 2 = time to bench boost?
If you have Dubravka and Esteve in your team, GW2 looks very good for using your bench boost as the play Sunderland. Burnley’s clean sheet odds will not get better than that. Guiu is also more likely to start in GW2 than he was in GW1. But wait a bit before you activate your BB chip – make sure all your 15 players are likely to start – so wait for press conference news, predicted lineups. If you have 2-3 players that might be benched/injured/transferred, consider leaving first BB after your first Wildcard.
What to do with some players:
- Wirtz… – despite he blanked in GW1, it does not make him a bad pick. Be more patient with your picks, give them time to deliver, and do not allow short-term noise to disrupt your strategy
- Frimpong/Kerkez – you should have known before the GW1, that they are slight rotation risks associated with them. But both are keep for us, give them time to deliver. And you have not lost anything as Liverpool conceded 2.
2. Key players to own and transfer targets for FPL GW2
Key players
- Haaland/Salah – have one of them, captain options in almost any gameweek
- Tarkowski/Murillo/Caicedo/Anderson/Baleba – pick one or two players good at defensive contributions and just stick to them
- Dubravka – you bench goalkeeper
- Bruno Fernandes – stable output over the last few years, on pens, OK fixtures, and he should even benefit from defensive contributions – I personally think he is even more “essential” than Salah
- Saka/Palmer – unless you go without Salah, you can hardly fit them both. Pick one of them, and stick with him. GW2 fixture favors Saka, could be a differential captain.
- Bowen, Watkins, Wood – three forwards I like the most currently. With all uncertainties elsewhere, these three should be reliable picks.
Transfer target
- Semenyo? – Well, we still think you should not draw a conclusion about the whole season from just one week of data – one gameweek of noise. So his haul might just be an outlier. But still. He will be popular transfer target of casual FPL managers now after his haul, and will rise in price. And he is some kind of “reliable FPL asset”, as he “did it” in previous seasons – as he delivered 165 points last year. And Bournemouth fixtures are good from GW2.. But we are not rushing in. He is not Buy for us, not yet. I am saving my transfer unless something unexpected happens.
- Wolves/Crystal Palace assets – if you are looking for fixtures play – both team’s fixtures are improving from GW2
3. Fixtures to target in Gameweek 2
In which fixtures we could expect a lot of fantasy points? Fixtures to target in GW2 according to bookies odds:
- Arsenal vs Leeds: The Gunners 77 % to win, 45 % to score 2.5+ goals
- Manchester City vs. Spurs: Citizens 67 % to win, 41 % to score 2.5+ goals
- West Ham vs. Chelsea: The Blues 58 % to win, 29 % to score 2.5+ goals
- Bournemouth vs. Wolves: Bournemouth 54 % to win, 27 % to score 2.5+ goals
Find 2.5+ goals odds for all teams in our article: Premier League Over 2.5 Goals Odds.
4. Best captain pick in FPL GW2
Who is the best captain in Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 2?
- We think Saka is the best captaincy option in GW3
- Salah against Newcastle is our number 2 pick (in the last 2 seasons, Liverpool was averaging 2.75 goals against Newcastle – 11 goals in 4 games)
- Palmer against West Ham
5. FPL GW2 Team selection
Now let’s look at our FPL team selection for Gameweek 2. Saka captain. This would be our Wildcard draft if wildcarded today:
5. Fantasy Premier League Tips
Find more tips, strategies and picks for Fantasy Premier League in these articles:
- Beginner? Read our guide: How to play Fantasy Premier League
- Confused about the rules? Read the Official rules of the game or check our FAQs
- Want to beat your mini-league rivals? This article is for you: 7 Key Tips for Fantasy Premier League Success
- Interested in improving your decision-making process when picking players to your fantasy team? Check out Books that will help you to improve your FPL skills
We hope our FPL GW2 tips helped you to gather some useful information before the Gameweek 2 deadline.
Good luck in FPL GW2!
