Arsenal’s defence is once again set to be one of the most important factors for Fantasy Premier League managers to consider this season. 

They offer a combination that is difficult to find elsewhere: high clean-sheet potential, the possibility of attacking returns and, of course, the bonus of the DEFCON scoring system rewarding defensive actions. 

But choosing the right Arsenal defender is not straightforward. Price, rotation, attacking threat and some fierce competition for places all need to be considered. 

Gabriel (£8.0million)

If money were no object, Gabriel would be the clear number one. However, since his cost is high, we have to take his price into consideration. 

The Brazilian was the highest-scoring defender in FPL last season, producing a remarkable 209 points. He combined everything managers could want from a defender: clean sheets, goals, assists, bonus points and DEFCON returns.  

Gabriel is Arsenal’s most complete FPL option. His threat from set pieces gives him a ceiling that most centre-backs simply cannot match, while the DEFCON scoring system further enhances his appeal. 

Though at £8.0million, Gabriel is significantly more expensive than the other Arsenal defenders, so the question is whether he can justify spending that extra money.

Last season’s numbers suggest that he absolutely can, but repeating 209 points is going to be a difficult task. Still, if you want the safest route into the Arsenal defence and the player with the highest points potential, Gabriel is the one.

Cristhian Mosquera (£5.5m) 

Mosquera started in Gameweek One but as things stand, the Spaniard is probably the one who is most under threat in the immediate term.

Arsenal’s defensive injury situation did open the door for him to get significant minutes. With William Saliba (£6.0m) unavailable, Mosquera had a realistic opportunity to establish himself alongside Gabriel. 

There is a big uncertainty now, though. With the signing of Ezri Konsa (£4.5m), it is likely that the ex-Aston Villa centre-back will oust Mosquera from the starting XI sooner or later.  

The arrival of Konsa is particularly significant. Arsenal have strengthened an already stacked defence and once everyone is fit, minutes could become extremely difficult to predict. Mosquera might be OK for Gameweek Two but beyond that, it doesn’t look good.

Ezri Konsa (£4.5m)  

Arsenal’s new signing Konsa immediately becomes one of the most intriguing budget defenders in FPL.

At just £4.5m, the appeal is obvious. If he can establish himself as a regular starter, managers have a route into the best defence in the league for a basement price. 

Arsenal have brought Konsa in with Saliba sidelined and Jurrien Timber (£6.5m) also dealing with injury issues, potentially giving the England international an immediate opportunity to force his way into the side.  

Konsa’s versatility is another major advantage. Comfortable at both centre-back and right-back, he gives Mikel Arteta another flexible option and could benefit from Arsenal’s current injury problems.  

Ezri Konsa has joined Arsenal from Aston Villa and has a budget price tag in FPL (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

With Ben White (£5.5m) an established right-back, I do think Konsa has been bought in to play alongside Gabriel, so that’s where we should see him. However, we have to take into consideration that White’s expected minutes also take a small hit as Konsa can play in his position.

Saliba is expected to be out for a while, and there is currently no expected return date for him. That makes Konsa pretty much an essential pick at £4.5m, especially as he is almost half the price of Gabriel. 

Riccardo Calafiori (£5.5m)  

Calafiori might have the highest attacking ceiling of any of Arsenal’s defenders. 

When he plays, he is far more than a conventional left-back. His movement, ability on the ball and tendency to get involved in attacking areas give him genuine attacking upside.  

The only slight downside is he has competition from Piero Hincapie (£5.5m) for a role on the left side of the defence. That makes Calafiori difficult to trust as a long-term pick.

Riccardo Calafiori set up Kai Havertz in Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Coventry last Friday (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

The Italian is no doubt first choice and should be fine until the first international break (after Gameweek Five), but once the Champions League and domestic cup tournaments fully kick in, he is at risk of rotation. 

For the moment, he looks set to start while the schedule is kind and his upside is so high that I still think he is fine to buy as a medium-term pick. But Calafiori’s long-term appeal is a bit more uncertain. 

Ben White (£5.5m)  

White will very likely continue to start at right-back until Timber is back to full fitness. If White can recapture the form that previously made him such a popular FPL asset — he scored four goals and five assists in the 2023-24 season — he will be excellent value.  

White is capable of getting forward, combining with Arsenal’s right-sided attackers and picking up attacking returns. He already has one assist to his name. The concern is what happens when Timber returns. 

White’s long-term place is far from guaranteed, particularly with Arsenal continuing to add defensive depth in the form of Konsa. Arteta did say that Timber is ”progressing really well” before the start of the season but he has been out of action since March, so even when he is back, he will need to be reintegrated.

Timber’s injury could keep him out for a long period of time, and White ends up being a sure starter for a while. The 28-year-old is a fine option right now — we only have to keep an eye on Timber’s return date and, to a smaller extent, where Arteta decides to play Konsa.

Piero Hincapie (£5.5m)  

Hincapie would only really become an option if there was a long-term injury to Calafiori. 

The Ecuador international can play at left-back and centre-back and, like most of his team-mates, he is attractively priced for an Arsenal defender. The issue is that Arsenal simply have too many good defenders and he is a bit behind in the pecking order. 

Calafiori is competing with him on the left, while Gabriel is almost impossible to dislodge centrally. Hincapie could certainly become an option if injuries hit, but at the moment there are too many questions. 

A final ranking of Arsenal defenders

1. Ezri Konsa. At his price, he has to be top even if he is not as nailed as Gabriel.
2. Riccardo Calafiori. Huge attacking upside and looks safe for the medium term. The fact he is £2.5m cheaper than Gabriel puts him ahead, as that money can go a long way.
3. Gabriel. Lofty price, but he does offer the most security and also has arguably the most routes to points.
4. Ben White. Has attacking upside and is nailed for now, but as soon as Timber is back he becomes a non-option. If we had confirmation that Timber was out longer term, I would place him second.
5. Cristhian Mosquera. I just think it’s a matter of time before he loses his place. Not an option to buy now.
6. Piero Hincapie. Only becomes an option if Gabriel or Calafiori suffer a serious injury.

Tottenham’s last home league game now feels like something from another era.

It was only three months ago when the entire Spurs community filled the streets of N17 to welcome the team coach before their final game of the season, against Everton, needing a win to guarantee Premier League survival. Fans climbed onto bus stops, clambered up lampposts; children sat on their parents’ shoulders — all trying to get a glimpse of the team coach through the blue and white smoke.

It was one of the most memorable occasions in Tottenham’s modern history, as Roberto De Zerbi’s side ground out a 1-0 win that kept them up at West Ham United’s expense. The relief at the end was palpable. As was the gratitude and love directed from the crowd towards De Zerbi, the man who had jumped aboard the sinking ship and steered them away from disaster. The sense of unity, of every single part of the Tottenham Hotspur universe pulling in the same direction for once, was palpable.

The big question, almost 14 weeks on, is whether that unique magic is at all replicable in Spurs’ home form this season. No one is expecting them to be in anything like that situation this year, playing for their Premier League status. Playing, as De Zerbi memorably put it before the Everton game, for the “dignity” of the club. But they must hope that they can still build on something like that, harnessing the power of a unified, supportive fanbase again.

Spurs fans take to the streets to welcome their team to the stadium (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Because one of the most important tests of Tottenham this season, the only way they can start to become truly competitive again, is by fully resuscitating their home form in the league. One of the reasons why that Everton win was so significant is that Spurs had been so utterly miserable at home all year, as they had been for most of the season before that. There were certainly times last season when it felt as if playing at home was a burden rather than a benefit to Tottenham, and that they would have been better off playing all 38 league games on the road.

Tottenham won only three of their 19 home league games last season. Only relegated Burnley — with two — won fewer.

Over last season and the season before (2024-25), of the 17 teams to be in the Premier League both seasons, no single side won fewer than Spurs’ nine out of 38 home league games. Wolves, with 35 points, took one fewer than Spurs’ 36. Even West Ham (11 home wins, 42 points) had a better home record over that timespan.

We could spend all day digging through the knotty weeds of this record and reminiscing over the worst home moments of last season.

Was it the Chelsea game, when Spurs’ only real attack was Rodrigo Bentancur not quite connecting with a long throw? Was it the Fulham game, when the south stand jeered Guglielmo Vicario’s kicking, prompting Thomas Frank to hit back, doing fatal damage to his standing with the crowd? Was it the West Ham game, when Spurs could have opened up a gap over Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, and instead became the springboard for a claret-and-blue comeback that nearly sent them down?

Or maybe it was Nottingham Forest, when Spurs started fast, lost their footing and were then picked off?

Thankfully all of that has now been consigned to history. This season is a chance to start afresh.

For much of the past two years there has been a chicken-and-egg debate about why exactly the home form is so poor. Is the record bad because the atmosphere is flat? Or is the atmosphere flat because the team is bad? The latter is probably truer than the former, although the club has also been working to directly address the atmosphere. Various things were tried last season, some of which worked well (working with a fan group to make ‘tifos’ in the south stand), others less so (pitchside pyrotechnic machines).

But the story of the final weeks of last season was that the crowd did show up to back the team, even when the team was on its knees. The atmosphere for the final few home games of last season — Forest, Brighton, Leeds, Everton — was supportive, unified, loud, positive. Even though it took until that memorable final day for Spurs to win their first home league game for more than five months.

There was an early sign of sorts on Wednesday evening. Spurs played their first competitive home game of the season against Charlton Athletic in the second round of the Carabao Cup. And — admittedly against a Charlton side that made 10 changes and suffered injuries — they were excellent. After a slow start, Spurs dominated, monopolising the ball, creating chances, cheered on by the crowd, and won 5-1. The challenge will be to replicate that every other week against stronger opposition.

Because ultimately the onus — both practically and morally — is on the team and on De Zerbi to deliver. It helps that De Zerbi already has so much credit in the bank with the crowd after the events of last season. He is the man who kept Spurs up and that alone buys him a lot of good grace. It also helps that De Zerbi has an instinctive understanding of how to carry yourself as the manager of a big club. He fills the stage. And that moment at the end of the Everton game when the Italian stood in front of the south stand and looked overwhelmed by emotion was one of profound communion.

De Zerbi celebrates winning at home against Everton in May (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

What De Zerbi offers — not that the conditions existed to see this last season — is a positive, innovative vision for the game, one that fans feed off. Part of the issue with Thomas Frank was that his minimalistic, over-optimised game was far more suited to picking off clever away wins than it was to playing at home. Fans want to see more of a show, a Tottenham team proactively taking control of the game. As they did on Wednesday night.

But even debates about style feel slightly beside the point in a world where simply winning games has become so unfamiliar. Take a step back from all the personnel changes and politics — the single worst thing to happen to Tottenham has been the complete collapse of any sort of winning habit. Especially at home, where those habits have to be built. Spurs have won just 21 of their previous 77 league games and, quite incredibly, nine of their past 38 at home. For too long, the very act of winning league games, the whole point of the enterprise, has felt like trying to push water uphill.

And, if there is one thing that will determine the success or failure of this season, this era, and justify the outlay of the summer, it is the rebuilding of that simple winning habit. Showing up to a home game, dominating, winning, and then doing it again as if it were routine.

De Zerbi knows this better than anyone. Which is why on Wednesday night, after the Charlton win, he talked about the importance of having “to win games in a row, three, four, five, six”, and the need for a “change in mentality” to bring this about.

What has become rare and unusual must become normal and habitual again. Continuing with Newcastle United on Saturday evening.

Babar Azam will face tougher decisions, you would say. Calling correctly at a toss delayed by dark and rainy skies above Lord’s on the opening day of the second Test, Pakistan’s returning captain did not hesitate.

We’ll have a bowl.

In some ways, it was still a brave decision.

Eight of the previous 10 Test skippers to win the toss at Lord’s have stuck the opposition in, but none of those arrived off the back of quite so chastening a performance as Pakistan endured in the first Test last week. The underlying numbers may have been more encouraging than the scorecard, but the visiting attack took heavy criticism after Headingley.

At Lord’s, they had to deliver. Quickly.

It did not take long to vindicate Babar’s call. Within an hour, Mohammad Abbas had accounted for three of England’s top four, reversed the momentum of the series, and put Pakistan firmly in the driving seat of a match they desperately need to win.

Emilio Gay was the first to go, strangled down the legside, but Ben Duckett was bang to rights, plumb in front to a ball jagging back viciously off the seam and aided by the slope. That brought England’s captain to the crease in typically trying circumstances for a brief but compelling contest, and a perfect demonstration of the challenges facing a bowler of Abbas’ talent.

Lord’s is an historic venue, and across the 150 years it has hosted Test cricket, there have been many magical spells of bowling.

However, ball-tracking data is only available from 2006 onwards. In that time, there have only been two sessions at the north London ground that have seen more seam movement than the first two hours of this match.

These were seriously tough conditions for batting, and Pakistan are blessed with a bowler absurdly well-suited to harnessing them — perhaps more so than anyone in the world.

To counter the sideways movement, and safe from the short-ball response that quicker bowlers may have up their sleeve, Joe Root had been setting up down the track to Abbas. His interception point has been almost three metres away from his stumps — that is, at least, when the wicketkeeper is back.

As soon as Mohammad Rizwan came up, Root was forced to move back in his crease, intercepting the ball over a metre deeper in the crease. That metre was crucial in allowing the ball’s deviation to take it past Root’s defences, crashing into his pad and costing him his wicket. Punch, counter-punch, knockout.

At that point, England were 36-3, and while they managed to put up a solid 248-9 by the end of the day, Abbas’ tone-setting intervention had done its job.

The sense of insipid, passive defeatism that came off Pakistan’s performance in Leeds was gone. It may have been the fourth day of the series, but they had finally turned up.

According to the tracking data, this was the second most accurate an attack has ever been at the outset of a Lord’s Test, only narrowly beaten by New Zealand’s effort earlier this summer. An indication of the ongoing issues with the Lord’s surface? Undoubtedly. A remarkable attack-wide recovery in rhythm from the first Test? Without question.

The fact that it was Abbas who inspired this turnaround should not come as a surprise.

The 36-year-old has spent the better part of 10 years honing his craft in this country, turning out for Hampshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and, most recently, Derbyshire, developing a relationship with the Dukes ball that is matched by very few others. County cricket gets a hard time for being too dominated by medium-pace bowlers — the criticism even comes from its own managing director — but when performed by someone as accurate, as artistic, as Abbas, one of the game’s more maligned skills is just as watchable as any other.

The dismissal of Duckett was Abbas’ 900th first-class wicket. Only three seamers — Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Tim Murtagh (the latter of Surrey, Middlesex and Ireland) — have more this century. These are the numbers, both in scale and the manner in which they have been achieved, of a man from a previous world. He is not of this time.

Abbas’ Test dismissals

“Stump to stump” is a bit of a faint-praise phrase when it comes to assessing seamers, but it is unavoidable here. Almost half of Abbas’ Test victims have fallen leg before wicket or bowled.

Only a handful of seamers can boast a higher percentage, and they are largely bowlers who rely on express pace (Shoaib Akhtar), extravagant movement (Wasim Akram) or both (Jasprit Bumrah).

The only man in a similar mould around him on that list is Terry Alderman, the infamously accurate Australian who decimated England in the 1981 and, more spectacularly still, 1989 Ashes series. Over the course of that summer 37 years ago, through six Tests and a luxurious 10 tour matches, Alderman took 76 wickets at an average a touch under 17.

In the course of one series, he notched up six Tests. Abbas, on his third visit to England for a Test series, is just about into his seventh.

For that, the schedule has much to answer, but it is reflective of a wider attitude towards Abbas from team management. In short, Pakistan still seem suspicious of him. By bowling average alone — Abbas takes his wickets in this format at 22.56 — he is their best seam bowler in history, and yet he has made just 32 appearances over almost a decade. At times, he has gone years between caps.

Institutionally in Pakistani cricket, there is a disbelief that a bowler can be successful in varied conditions operating at the speed Abbas puts out. As recently as last month, he was dropped amid concerns around his pace. There are limitations to what seamers operating in the 77mph zone can do in certain circumstances, but the lack of appreciation for a bowler with Abbas’ record beggars belief.

There is an Urdu phrase that sums up the entire debate: “Pace is pace, yaah.” Tortological but deeply revealing of a nation’s feelings about the game, it basically means bowl fast and not a lot else matters.

Another masterpiece of a spell ripping out an entire top order; 902 red-ball poles; a few more summers ruining the lives of county batters; an average speed of 77mph.

Pace is pace? Nah.

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