Gameweek 4 is a fixture-shaped trap. The headline acts are the two premium names everybody owns, and both walk straight into a derby: Erling Haaland’s Manchester City travel to Old Trafford, and Bruno Fernandes’ Manchester United host them — the hardest fixture on the board for both sides. The actual gifts sit in plain sight: Liverpool at home to Fulham, Chelsea at home to Hull, Palace at home to Ipswich.
Three gameweeks is enough to talk about form rather than vibes. Gameweek 3 averaged 51 points, down from 81 in Gameweek 2, and the season’s story has not changed: cheap, attacking defenders and budget goalkeepers keep beating the premium template for value.
The fixture board
| Fixture | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Liverpool vs Fulham | Liverpool carry a difficulty of 2 — the softest premium attacking fixture of the round |
| Chelsea vs Hull | Chelsea at 2, Hull at 4. The promoted block get their hardest test yet |
| Crystal Palace vs Ipswich | Palace at 2; the GW3 hero gets another friendly home afternoon |
| Bournemouth vs Brentford | Two of the season’s quietest in-form midfields, at 3-3 |
| Spurs vs Everton | Spurs 3, Everton 3 — the round’s most avoidable clean sheet |
| Sunderland vs Arsenal | Arsenal travel at 3; the champions win without keeping clean sheets |
| Coventry vs Brighton | Brighton at 2 — more cheap-defender traffic |
| Man Utd vs Man City | The derby, 4 against 4 |
| Leeds vs Newcastle | Newcastle travel at 3; Leeds at 2 |
The captaincy call
Alexander Isak. The round’s best marriage of form and fixture: 23 points, a form of 7.7, two goals and 13 points in Gameweek 3, and now a home tie against a Fulham side rated 4 for difficulty. Anfield against mid-table opposition is the easiest premium attacking fixture of the round, and Isak is £9.1m and owned by just 21.8% — an edge, not a default.
Erling Haaland (£15.5m, form 8.0, 24 points) remains the consensus armband at 71.3% ownership, and there is an argument for the safe play: he has scored in each of the last two gameweeks and the whole room is on him. But he is away at Manchester United. If your game is rank protection, fine. If you are chasing, the fixture says Isak.
Cole Palmer (£9.7m, form 7.0, 21 points) is the third way in: Chelsea host Hull at a difficulty of 2, and after a single point in the 2-1 defeat at Arsenal he is a candidate the crowd has momentarily forgotten. He is still owned by 24.4% — not a differential, a discount. Bruno Fernandes (form 9.0, 27 points, 44.7%) leads the form board, but he has settled into an ugly rhythm — 2 points, then 23, then 2 — and City at home is not the fixture to break it. Own him, don’t captain him.
Best picks by position
Goalkeepers — Suzuki (Aston Villa, £5.0m, 12 points, 1.7% owned): a £5.0m keeper with a clean sheet and four saves banked, and Villa host Nottingham Forest at 3. Kelleher (Brentford, £5.0m, 11 points, 6.7%) is the alternative, but travels to an open game at Bournemouth, and Kinsky (Spurs, £4.5m, 18.5%) has the round’s least appealing clean sheet. The season’s leading keeper, Tzolakis (Hull, £4.6m, 26 points), goes to Chelsea — see the avoid column.
Defenders — Start with Tyrick Mitchell (Crystal Palace, £4.5m, 16 points, 6.1%): two goals and 15 points in Gameweek 3, priced like fodder, with Ipswich at home at 2. That is the archetype the rebuilt bonus system was written for. Bogle (Leeds, £4.5m, 22 points, 1.7%) is the most under-owned defender on the board and Leeds host Newcastle at 2; Vuskovic (Brighton, £5.0m, 18 points, 3.1%) travels to Coventry at 2. Pay up and you get Tarkowski (Everton, £6.0m, 21 points, 11.4%) into a 3-rated trip to Spurs, or Calafiori (Arsenal, £5.8m, 22 points, 48.3%) — the premium version of the same bet, and the reason the £4.5m attackers keep out-scoring him for value.
Midfielders — Palmer and Bruno anchor the position, with Ødegaard (Arsenal, £6.7m, 24 points, 15.8%) the pick of the mid-price after a 10-point Gameweek 3. Below £7m, Scott (Bournemouth, £6.1m, 24 points, 5.1%) hosts Brentford and Janelt (Brentford, £5.0m, 21 points, 1.9%) travels to that same open game. Rogers (Chelsea, £7.6m, 19 points, 30.8%) is the second route into the Hull fixture.
Forwards — Isak is the anchor, Haaland the hold. João Pedro (Chelsea, £7.7m, 21 points, 72.8% owned) blanked for one point at Arsenal and now faces Hull at home: do not sell him into a fixture this soft. Havertz (Arsenal, £7.5m, 16 points, 7.7%) is the cheap route into the champions’ attack, and Wissa (Newcastle, £6.2m, 13 points, 17.4%) carries the flag at Leeds.
Differentials worth a flutter
| Player | Pos | Club | Price | Form | Owned | GW4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bogle | DEF | Leeds | £4.5m | 7.3 | 1.7% | Newcastle (H) |
| Janelt | MID | Brentford | £5.0m | 7.0 | 1.9% | Bournemouth (A) |
| Suzuki | GK | Aston Villa | £5.0m | 4.0 | 1.7% | Nott’m Forest (H) |
| Vuskovic | DEF | Brighton | £5.0m | 6.0 | 3.1% | Coventry (A) |
| Tavernier | MID | Bournemouth | £6.0m | 7.0 | 3.4% | Brentford (H) |
| Scott | MID | Bournemouth | £6.1m | 8.0 | 5.1% | Brentford (H) |
| Barnes | MID | Newcastle | £6.0m | 5.7 | 5.7% | Leeds (A) |
The form lives under £6.5m and the ownership has not caught up. Bogle, at 1.7% with 22 points, is the most mispriced asset on the board.
One to avoid: Hull’s £4.1m defensive army
The cheap Hull block has been the feel-good story of the young season — Ajayi (£4.1m, 25 points, 11.7% owned), Mendy (£4.1m, 24 points, 7.9%), Egan (£4.1m, 23 points, 6.3%) and keeper Tzolakis (£4.6m, 26 points, 9.6%). Every one of those numbers is real, and none survive this weekend: Hull travel to Chelsea, a difficulty of 4, against a side that has already scored four in a game this season and is coming off a narrow defeat it will want to avenge. The promoted block banked its points against fixtures of a different colour. If one of them is starting for you, bench him — and if you were about to buy the whole set, buy the fixture instead. Palace at home, Leeds at home, Brighton at Coventry: those are the £4.5m defenders with the wind behind them.
The wildcard window
The classic GW3-4 wildcard window is open, and the honest verdict is: conditional. Rebuild only if you are carrying genuine dead weight — a £12m midfielder on a 2/23/2 rhythm, a striker who has not kicked a ball because of an Achilles problem (Ekitiké, £7.4m, 0.1% owned), a forward who has left the league permanently (Watkins has joined Al Hilal, £7.8m, 3.2%). If instead you own the cheap attacking defenders, a budget keeper and one or two of Chelsea’s premium pair, hold your nerve and spend two transfers. Watch the flags, too: Gakpo (Liverpool, £7.2m, 28 points — the highest scorer in the game) carries a thigh problem at 75% chance of playing, and O’Reilly (Man City, £6.4m, 14%) has a back issue on the same odds.
Bottom line
Captain Isak at home to Fulham, own Haaland without captaining him into a derby, and spend your money where the form board points — the £4.5m-£6.5m defenders and midfielders with green fixtures in front of them. Bench the Hull block, hold João Pedro and Palmer into Hull’s visit to Stamford Bridge, and use the wildcard only if your squad is broken rather than merely unlucky.
That’s the way the commentary desk calls it — and this week, the derby is the one place we’re not looking.
Methodology & credit: All fixtures, prices, ownership, form and points figures are taken from the official FPL API (bootstrap-static and fixtures endpoints), snapshot 11 September 2026, before the Gameweek 4 deadline of Saturday 12 September, 12:30 UTC. Fixture difficulties are the FPL official 1-5 team difficulty values for Gameweek 4. Prices and ownership are verified against the API and not estimated.