Planning is the key to a successful Fantasy Premier League season. To fail to plan is to plan to fail.

Thankfully, there is a wide range of resources out there these days to support you in the mission to win your FPL leagues.

Some of these may be familiar already but as you prepare for the 2026-27 season, which starts on Friday, it can’t hurt to review the planning tools available, through the game’s official website and also via third parties, that you should be aware of.

The fixture ticker

The most crucial piece of information that fantasy managers have available at the start of the season is the fixture list, with form almost irrelevant before the Gameweek One deadline.

Planning for the matches coming up is key, with the official Fantasy Premier League website and app, using the Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR) charts, a very good starting point.

For this season, on the “Pick Team” tab, you can now view your team by FDR, with each player’s club’s next three upcoming fixtures given a colour-coded difficulty value on the Premier League’s scale from one to five.

Rotating pairs — those squad members that you continually swap between your bench and your starting line-up depending on the difficulty of their individual fixture — can come to the fore when looking at the calendar, which is particularly helpful for picking your fourth and fifth defenders in a gameweek.

For example, rotating a Manchester United and Brighton defender across the first six gameweeks would give you a fixture list of Hull, Ipswich, Leeds, Coventry, Fulham and Sunderland.

It’s important to study the wider football calendar too, noting the extended international break following Gameweek Five, where there are going to be back-to-back weekends without any Premier League action.

Brighton have a UEFA Conference League qualifying play-off on the Thursdays either side of Gameweek One, while the Carabao Cup’s second round also sits in the midweek after Gameweek One for those Premier League sides not involved in Europe this season.

There’s a free midweek following Gameweek Two but then the ones after Gameweeks Three and Four contain the Carabao Cup’s third round, where the European-qualified clubs come in, plus the opening nights of league-phase play for the Champions League and Europa League.

The price-change tracker

While fantasy prices are locked before the Gameweek One deadline, they then fluctuate up and down during the season relative to action in the game’s transfer market.

The exact mechanics behind price changes have always been a mystery but, for this season, Fantasy Premier League has added a new tool to help you.

It will use official FPL data to track the transfer activity for each player, giving some indication of whose prices will likely rise and fall each day at midnight UK time. The formula itself won’t be revealed but a player’s status will be defined as “very likely to rise”, “likely to rise”, “likely to drop” and “very likely to drop”, negating the need to rely on third parties to try to predict this information.

Remember that a player can rise or fall in price by up to £0.3million each gameweek and a status message will report the likelihood of a change on all individual profiles.

The watchlist

There’s plenty of planning that can be done on the FPL website itself, and I find the “watchlist” feature particularly useful when drafting an initial squad or during a wildcard window.

You can click on players’ profiles and add them to your watchlist, so you can have a good look through and use this information to come up with a definitive shortlist.

I’d aim to initially go through each Premier League team’s squad and add any players of interest to your watchlist, and keep it updated regularly to ensure you make sensible fantasy decisions.

Aim to have around 50 players here, then filter the overall pool by your watchlist on the transfers tab to give you just those you’ve handpicked, which will reduce the noise of the wider options and help prevent any biases creeping in.

A set-piece takers’ list

Another key element of fantasy planning is to do your research on clubs’ set-piece takers — I’ll be covering this in another article as part of your FPL pre-season content in preparation for Gameweek One.

The Premier League actually cultivates its own list of set-piece takers, which is part of The Scout advice section on the FPL website. This section lists each team’s penalty takers, and those on their direct free kicks, corners and/or indirect free kicks, all of which has the potential to provide an important source of fantasy points.

Some of these lists are more contentious than others, and of course, the rest of the summer transfer window and player availability week to week will have some impact, and so it can only be used as a rough guide.

Notes are added when there are inconsistencies from game to game, and there are some instances that suit a left-footed player compared to a right-footed one.

AI transfer tools

It feels like AI is taking over the world sometimes, so it should come as no surprise that it has infiltrated the FPL space too, like it or loathe it!

There are AI tools that can literally manage your team for you every single gameweek, and it’s up to managers whether they want to rely on this solely or just use it to sense-check their decisions. For me, they can provide reassurance, or a second opinion.

One such example is Fantasy Football Hub, where you can get your team rated for free by AI in seconds ahead of Gameweek One, simply by uploading a screenshot.

From there, you’re then given AI transfer recommendations to improve your squad, planning and optimising your line-ups for any given gameweek and recommending the best captaincy pick.

They even run a team from Gameweek One, which begins with the AI-recommended team and takes the recommended transfer each week. In its three seasons playing the game, it has recorded two top-100,000 finishes and a top one per cent career average — a better record than my own!

Market odds

Another sound source for fantasy managers is market odds, giving the ability to measure the strength of a fixture, forecast the number of goals or the likelihood of a clean sheet.

One such example of this, optimised for FPL, is the website fpljoe.com, which takes bookmaker totals and handicap markets for Gameweek One to provide projected goals and clean-sheet odds, updating constantly as the market fluctuates.

FPL Joe’s data predicts that Manchester City will be the top goalscorers over the opening six gameweeks, followed by Arsenal and Liverpool.

Arsenal have the best projected goals and clean-sheet odds for Gameweek One when they take on promoted Coventry at home, with City primed for goals against visitors Bournemouth and Manchester United heavy favourites for a clean sheet way to promoted Hull.

These odds are robust and give a very convincing guide when making FPL selections, and they can also help guide captaincy decisions from gameweek to gameweek, as well as ensuring you own the right premium players at the right time.

Statistics

Delving into the data on player form is a crucial analytical tool when it comes to forward planning, with metrics including expected goals, expected assists and expected goal involvements now built into the FPL website itself. I also like to get an overview on goal-threat data, such as shots on target and big chances, which can often help you predict when a player’s form is likely to explode.

When it comes to creativity, the key passes and big chances created metrics are useful indicators of whether a spate of assists is sustainable, as well as numbers on corners and free kicks taken.

Form and fixtures are the two most helpful data points in FPL and having the underlying statistics available to pit them against each other leads to top-draw fantasy decision-making.

There are several football data websites out there, with theanalyst.com and fotmob.com being fine choices.

Expert content

Among the most valuable sources of information out there is the advice of top-quality fantasy managers, with a wealth of opinion widely available on many content streams.

YouTube plays host to some of the best in the business, including Andy Mears (Let’s Talk FPL), who finished 588th in the world in 2025-26 and Harry Daniels (FPL Harry), who managed five consecutive top-10k finishes between 2022 and 2025.

You’ll also find my advice and content on my YouTube channel, where I’ll be running a team managed by a group of 100 FPL experts, who have a minimum of two top-10k finishes or five top-100k finishes between them.

The experts-led side managed a top-10,000 finish in its 2023-24 debut season, backing that up with a 55k finish last time, placing it within the top 0.4 per cent of fantasy managers.

Ahead of the Gameweek One deadline, I’ll be collating the final drafts of this pool of 100 experts to build a team for Gameweek One that represents their picks.

As far as season curtain-raisers go, Manchester City left a lot to be desired in their sorry defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield.

“We knew already before the game the things we need to do,” Enzo Maresca said afterwards, when asked if the manner of the defeat highlighted the need for signings. “We have it quite clear what we need to do, and for sure we are going to do something before the transfer window closes.”

City have entrusted Maresca with continuing Pep Guardiola’s work in Manchester, and they entered the summer with the full intention of backing the Italian in the transfer market. But with a fortnight left of the window, there is a sense that things have not gone to plan so far, and the manner of their 3-0 loss to Arsenal in Cardiff will inevitably lead to questions.

City’s three pre-season games in Asia suggested that Maresca will bring Guardiola football but sped up, with fast passing between the lines and a succession of dribbles from talented wide players. Sunday suggested stilted build-up play, an uncertain midfield and only sporadic opportunities for the wide men to get involved.

Antoine Semenyo and team-mates underwhelmed in the Welsh capital (MB Media/Getty Images)

They will probably end up somewhere in the middle, with the hope at City being that there is far more of the former. The biggest problem they have right now is that the squad is far from complete, and that many of their biggest difference-makers only returned from their post-World Cup holidays on Wednesday.

Facing a settled side such as Arsenal brutally exposed those facts, and the additional complicating factor is that Guardiola was so successful, and set such high standards, that it is difficult to work out exactly what we should be comparing City to.

“In general, I am always concerned — even when we win games. So imagine it now that we did not win the game,” Maresca said with half a smile post-match when asked about how easily City conceded their goals. “But it’s just the beginning; we have many things that we need to do better.”

“The first two goals we conceded, I didn’t like,” he added. “The first one because it was after 25 seconds; the second one, I think there was no pressure on the ball. I don’t know if it’s for physical condition; we had more players at the World Cup. I don’t know the reason why, but the first two goals that we conceded, I don’t like.

“In terms of things that I like, I think after the first goal we conceded, the reaction was very good, at this level… when you concede a goal and you are able to react the way we react, then it’s good, but after the second goal I think it was more complicated.”

City players react to Arsenal taking the lead after 23 seconds (Ian Cook – CameraSport via Getty Images)

There was a period between Arsenal’s first two goals (scored by Riccardo Calafiori and Kai Havertz) where City looked somewhat settled and created some openings, although that was largely after 25 minutes. Before that, there were plenty of passes around the back, and while they were not always flustered, they were hardly incisive.

For the first two goals, Abdukodir Khusanov, Ruben Dias and Gianluigi Donnarumma were all poor, and the third goal somehow looked even worse for City, with Martin Odegaard strolling through the penalty area.

It has never been wise to make sweeping judgments on the Community Shield — anybody who remembers Erling Haaland’s goalless debut in 2022 will know that — and while it is tempting to believe that everything will go wrong without Guardiola at the tiller, it would be foolish to overlook the fact that the Maresca era is about three weeks old, and half the midfield is missing.

As much as there was plenty to be encouraged by in Hong Kong and South Korea, there are some obvious concerns. Some of them go back further than pre-season, to Maresca’s time at Chelsea.

One regards the build-up. So far we have seen that City are going to rely on several set patterns for getting the ball out from the goalkeeper, and they will use Maresca’s trusted 3-2 shape, made up of three defenders behind two midfielders.

Under Guardiola, there was an ever-evolving set of solutions that could be executed by players such as Bernardo Silva, Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan, who were good enough to interpret things on the fly.

Things are different now, and that is an inevitability of losing top players who have been at the club for years, and the finest manager of his generation. The worry is that by coaching certain patterns when City are trying to build out from the back, opposition coaches will be able to come up with a plan to stop them.

City obviously have work to do in the transfer market, with Rodri and Tijjani Reijnders set to move on, after Bernardo left at the end of last season. Ayyoub Bouaddi is still expected to come in, and is best suited to replicate the Rodri role, but at 18 years old he simply cannot be expected to do everything the Spaniard does.

Enzo Fernandez is a player who has split the City fanbase, not just in terms of his ability but also in terms of the controversy following his singing of a racist song in 2024. Maresca wants him, but he is not seen as a Rodri replacement — the idea is that he would play further forward — and even if there are concerns about his contributions off the ball, he does certainly have fight in him, and that is a trait that City need.

It would be unwise to ignore Fernandez’s defensive deficiencies considering the extra need to win a duel and track a runner in this ultra-physical Premier League. That is also important because Maresca is, so far, asking his wingers to press the opposition centre-backs, which means the midfield needs to be ready for battle if the opposition move the ball past the first line of the press. They were too lightweight on Sunday in that regard.

Could Fernandez add the necessary bite to City’s midfield? (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

City are building a team for these kinds of individual battles, and it means that the football is likely to be a lot more rough and ready than under Guardiola, but that would have been the case, even if to a lesser extent, had the Catalan remained in charge.

With players who are better suited to beating a man rather than passing a team to death, that is necessarily going to affect the type of football they play. As much as there are players whose weaknesses could be isolated, there are plenty who appear to fit Maresca’s system like a glove — Nico O’Reilly, for example, could be a major attacking weapon from left-back.

The game was up for City at 3-0, but there were flashes of Elliot Anderson’s ability on his debut, not least his desire to look for an early ball in behind, which suggests that Haaland could get the kind of passes that only Kevin De Bruyne used to try.

If games come down to a series of individual battles, City do have players in both attack and defence who can thrive, even if there will probably be some painful afternoons as they find their feet. Sunday in Cardiff was one of them, and it will inevitably raise questions about how many more could follow.

Even if there are areas to be concerned about, it is still very early days, with plenty of time for those ideas to be improved upon, for the players to become used to them, and for tweaks and evolutions to be made.

There will inevitably be doubts about life post-Pep, but it cannot be denied that the midfield is in urgent need of a makeover and the football is likely to be pretty different. Still, it is too early to make any judgments.

Playing twice within 48 hours was an inconvenience Crystal Palace could have done without last season.

Competing in the UEFA Conference League alongside a run to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup and a congested festive period in the Premier League, their success caused a fixture pile-up.

But it offered an opportunity. Then-manager Oliver Glasner chose to name a completely changed starting XI for the Conference League game against Finnish side KuPS in December, with a Premier League fixture away at Leeds United to follow two days later on the Saturday night and the Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal on the following Tuesday.

That meant a chance for two youngsters in particular. The youngest of them was Joel Drakes-Thomas, a 16-year-old forward who can play as a wing-back. Also in the starting line-up for his debut was 17-year-old left wing-back Dean Benamar. Both impressed, but Drakes-Thomas was especially bright, subsequently becoming Palace’s youngest Premier League player when coming off the bench in what was a heavy 4-1 defeat by Leeds.

There was a brief appearance from the bench against Newcastle United on January 4 before a start in the 2-1 defeat by Macclesfield in the FA Cup, a game on which he struggled to impose himself.

Joel Drakes-Thomas playing against Newcastle in the Premier League in January (George Wood/Getty Images)

But the teenager is viewed with great promise at Palace. The Athletic reported in December that he had agreed to sign a professional contract when eligible to do so on his 17th birthday, with that being confirmed in June.

His efforts in that 2-2 draw with KuPS did not go unnoticed, and while Glasner later warned that Palace would have problems if they were to rely on a 16-year-old, those comments did not reflect his view of Drakes-Thomas but acknowledged his inexperience and age.

He had praised Drakes-Thomas’ confidence after the KuPS game. Glasner, not a manager to prioritise youth, was demanding of his players and age made no difference. “He has a nice personality,” Glasner said. “I like it if (young players) take responsibility and if they just do (rather than think too much). You can make a few mistakes, but I like the way he played today.”

The arrival of Brennan Johnson in January for a then-club record transfer fee of £35million put Drakes-Thomas’ first-team prospects on hold, while Evann Guessand’s arrival from Aston Villa on loan further set his chances back.

There had been a sense at the club that he would debut last season. This year he may prove to be Palace’s breakthrough player, but that is unlikely to be as a regular in the first team.

Realistically, there is no space for any of the academy talent to make their mark at this stage. 

Goalkeeper Lucca Benetton is highly regarded but is 15. If he continues to stand out, he may step up to play under-21 football this season and he was part of the travelling squad for the Como Cup as Palace try hard to convince him that he should stay at the club as one of their brightest talents.

Palace will hope that holding onto Drakes-Thomas despite interest elsewhere, combined with minutes as he develops, highlights a pathway for others. They have lost several academy players to other clubs in recent seasons, including forward Jesse Derry and the more highly-regarded midfielder Reggie Watson, both to Chelsea.

Not all of those who have been left were considered to be highly likely future first-team players, but Palace’s only realistic way to compete with bigger clubs is to show a future in the senior setup sooner.

Under new manager Pierre Sage, who prefers his No 10s to move the ball wider, more quickly, Drakes-Thomas should benefit. He is naturally more suited to the role of a traditional winger but demonstrated in the under-21s and those fleeting senior appearances that he is adaptable.

With Palace in the Europa League this season and that guaranteeing at least eight league-phase games, he stands a chance of being given further chances to impress. The most important thing is that he is not stunted by a lack of games at any level and he still plays regularly for the under-21s.

Drakes-Thomas will benefit from being a more established part of the first team setup — learning, improving and becoming a more rounded player.