Almost 1.75 million managers have already played their wildcard. Gameweek 2 took 279,227 of them, Gameweek 3 took 709,478 and Gameweek 4 took 760,682 — and that is before the round that most seasons actually turns on. Gameweek 5 is the last chance to reset before the game stops for three weeks: the Gameweek 5 deadline is Friday 18 September, 17:30 UTC, and Gameweek 6 does not arrive until Saturday 10 October.
That gap matters more than any single fixture. If you wildcard now, you are not buying a one-week team — you are buying the fifteen you carry into an eight-gameweek block (GW5-12) that includes the international break and the injury news that always follows it. So this is a piece about structure as much as it is about names: what the wildcard is for, who belongs in it, and who only looks like they belong.
First: should you actually play it?
The honest answer is conditional, and four questions settle it.
Do you already own the cheap end of the market? Twelve of the twenty highest scorers in the game cost £6.1m or less. If four or five of those names are already in your squad, your structure is fine — spend your two free transfers and keep the chip.
Are you carrying genuine dead weight? Not “unlucky” — dead. A £12.0m midfielder on a 2-23-2-2 rhythm. A striker who has left the league. A forward who hasn’t kicked a ball. Those are wildcard problems; a premium who blanked once is not.
Is your bench worth anything? The most common wildcard failure is rebuilding the first eleven and leaving two £4.0m players who never play. If your wildcard doesn’t end with fourteen or fifteen playable assets, you have spent it badly.
Are you behind? The average Gameweek 4 score was 67 and the top score was 151 — in a season where the average has been 50, 81, 51 and 67, the field is not running away from anyone. Play the wildcard when your team is broken, not when you are annoyed.
If three of those four point at “yes”, the chip is yours to spend. Here is what to spend it on.
What four gameweeks actually told us
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | +7 | 12 |
| 2 | Man City | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | +6 | 12 |
| 3 | Leeds | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 8 |
| 4 | Hull | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 8 |
| 5 | Brighton | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 5 | +8 | 7 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 9 | +1 | 7 |
| 7 | Brentford | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 4 | +3 | 6 |
| 8 | Liverpool | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 6 |
| 9 | Everton | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 6 |
| 10 | Ipswich | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 10 | −3 | 6 |
| 11 | Nott’m Forest | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| 12 | Newcastle | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 8 | −1 | 5 |
| 13 | Man Utd | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 4 |
| 14 | Sunderland | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −2 | 4 |
| 15 | Bournemouth | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 7 | −1 | 3 |
| 16 | Crystal Palace | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 11 | −5 | 3 |
| 17 | Tottenham | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | −5 | 2 |
| 18 | Fulham | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 7 | −3 | 1 |
| 19 | Aston Villa | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 | −6 | 1 |
| 20 | Coventry | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 10 | −10 | 0 |
Read that table and the wildcard writes itself.
Arsenal have conceded one goal in four games. One. They have won all four, and they have done it without the clean sheets being the story — Raya, Calafiori, White, Gabriel and Saka have all scored points. It is the only defence on the board you can buy with confidence.
Brighton have scored thirteen goals. A 5-0 at Coventry is doing a lot of the work, but Groß (33 points), De Cuyper (32) and a £5.0m centre-back in Vuskovic (24) are all real. Only the fixtures are a problem — more on that below.
Tottenham have not scored in four games. Zero goals, two points, and a 0-0 at home to Everton. There is no Spurs attacker to own at any price.
Coventry and Aston Villa have one goal between them — Coventry zero from four games and −10, Villa one goal and one point. Easy fixtures do not fix a broken team, and this is the pair that proves it.
And the money, which is the whole season in one line: £27.5m on Haaland and Bruno Fernandes has returned 62 points. Spread that same money across five players — Bogle, Gvardiol, De Cuyper, Tzolakis and Groß cost £25.2m — and you get 163 points. That is not an argument against Haaland. It is an argument about how much of your squad should be priced above £7m.
The fixture swing: Gameweek 5 to 12
Average official difficulty of each club’s next eight fixtures, easiest first:
| Club | Avg | GW5 | GW6 | GW7 | GW8 | GW9 | GW10 | GW11 | GW12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coventry | 2.62 | NFO (A) 3 | NEW (H) 2 | TOT (A) 3 | FUL (H) 2 | SUN (H) 2 | EVE (A) 3 | CRY (H) 3 | LEE (A) 3 |
| Crystal Palace | 2.75 | LEE (A) 3 | NFO (H) 3 | BHA (A) 3 | NEW (H) 2 | TOT (A) 3 | LIV (H) 4 | COV (A) 2 | HUL (H) 2 |
| Aston Villa | 2.88 | TOT (A) 3 | BRE (H) 3 | NEW (A) 3 | MCI (H) 4 | FUL (H) 2 | MUN (A) 4 | SUN (H) 2 | IPS (A) 2 |
| Newcastle | 2.88 | HUL (H) 2 | COV (A) 2 | AVL (H) 3 | CRY (A) 3 | EVE (H) 3 | FUL (A) 3 | ARS (H) 4 | BHA (A) 3 |
| Arsenal | 3.00 | BHA (A) 3 | LEE (H) 2 | NFO (A) 3 | EVE (H) 3 | LIV (A) 4 | HUL (H) 2 | NEW (A) 3 | MCI (H) 4 |
| Man City | 3.00 | SUN (H) 2 | LIV (A) 4 | IPS (H) 2 | AVL (A) 4 | BHA (H) 2 | NFO (A) 3 | FUL (H) 2 | ARS (A) 5 |
| Tottenham | 3.00 | AVL (H) 3 | MUN (A) 4 | COV (H) 2 | CHE (A) 4 | CRY (H) 3 | LEE (A) 3 | IPS (H) 2 | SUN (A) 3 |
| Chelsea | 3.00 | BRE (A) 3 | BOU (H) 3 | EVE (A) 3 | TOT (H) 3 | MUN (H) 4 | SUN (A) 3 | LEE (H) 2 | NFO (A) 3 |
| Everton | 3.12 | IPS (H) 2 | HUL (A) 2 | CHE (H) 4 | ARS (A) 5 | NEW (A) 3 | COV (H) 2 | BRE (A) 3 | LIV (H) 4 |
| Nott’m Forest | 3.12 | COV (H) 2 | CRY (A) 3 | ARS (H) 4 | IPS (A) 2 | BRE (A) 3 | MCI (H) 4 | BOU (A) 3 | CHE (H) 4 |
| Sunderland | 3.12 | MCI (A) 5 | BHA (H) 2 | BOU (A) 3 | LEE (H) 2 | COV (A) 2 | CHE (H) 4 | AVL (A) 4 | TOT (H) 3 |
| Brighton | 3.25 | ARS (H) 4 | SUN (A) 3 | CRY (H) 3 | LIV (A) 4 | MCI (A) 5 | BRE (H) 3 | HUL (A) 2 | NEW (H) 2 |
| Liverpool | 3.25 | BOU (A) 3 | MCI (H) 4 | BRE (A) 3 | BHA (H) 2 | ARS (H) 4 | CRY (A) 3 | MUN (H) 4 | EVE (A) 3 |
| Man Utd | 3.25 | FUL (A) 3 | TOT (H) 3 | LEE (A) 3 | BOU (H) 3 | CHE (A) 4 | AVL (H) 3 | LIV (A) 4 | BRE (H) 3 |
| Brentford | 3.38 | CHE (H) 4 | AVL (A) 4 | LIV (H) 4 | HUL (A) 2 | NFO (H) 3 | BHA (A) 3 | EVE (H) 3 | MUN (A) 4 |
| Leeds | 3.38 | CRY (H) 3 | ARS (A) 5 | MUN (H) 4 | SUN (A) 3 | BOU (A) 3 | TOT (H) 3 | CHE (A) 4 | COV (H) 2 |
Three things fall out of it.
Coventry’s run is soft and irrelevant. They have scored no goals in four games. Soft fixtures are a tiebreaker, not a thesis.
Brighton and Brentford are the traps. Brighton sit fifth with thirteen goals and the best goal difference in the league — and they now face Arsenal (H), Liverpool (A) and City (A) inside five gameweeks. Brentford have the hardest eight-game run on the board. Own their form, but own their fixtures too.
Leeds’ £4.5m defender is the exception that proves the rule. Bogle is the top scorer in the game at £4.5m and 2.4% ownership, and Leeds have Arsenal away and United at home in Gameweeks 6 and 7. He is a buy — but he is a bench-and-rotate buy, not a set-and-forget one.
The fifteen
Fifteen players, £100.0m to spend, maximum three per club. This squad costs £98.4m, leaving £1.6m in the bank — deliberately, because the international break sits between Gameweek 5 and 6 and prices will move.
| Pos | Player | Club | Price | Pts | Owned | GW1-4 points | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GK | Tzolakis | Hull | £4.6m | 28 | 10.7% | 10, 10, 6, 2 | First choice |
| GK | Verbruggen | Brighton | £4.5m | 17 | 22.0% | 6, 0, 3, 8 | Bench |
| DEF | Calafiori | Arsenal | £5.8m | 28 | 50.0% | 9, 11, 2, 6 | First choice |
| DEF | Gvardiol | Man City | £5.7m | 33 | 22.4% | 9, 5, 8, 11 | First choice |
| DEF | De Cuyper | Brighton | £4.8m | 32 | 23.3% | 17, 0, 4, 11 | First choice |
| DEF | Bogle | Leeds | £4.5m | 37 | 2.4% | 6, 2, 14, 15 | Rotation |
| DEF | Davis | Ipswich | £4.0m | 23 | 6.0% | 2, 6, 1, 14 | Rotation |
| MID | Saka | Arsenal | £9.5m | 30 | 12.0% | 9, 11, 2, 8 | Captain option |
| MID | Ødegaard | Arsenal | £6.7m | 27 | 19.1% | 11, 3, 10, 3 | First choice |
| MID | Gibbs-White | Nott’m Forest | £7.9m | 26 | 11.2% | 2, 13, 3, 8 | First choice |
| MID | Tavernier | Bournemouth | £6.1m | 29 | 5.0% | 10, 1, 10, 8 | First choice |
| MID | Belloumi | Hull | £5.0m | 27 | 2.7% | 3, 6, 5, 13 | First choice |
| FWD | Haaland | Man City | £15.5m | 33 | 72.2% | 2, 13, 9, 9 | Captain |
| FWD | João Pedro | Chelsea | £7.8m | 33 | 75.0% | 11, 9, 1, 12 | First choice |
| FWD | Calvert-Lewin | Leeds | £6.0m | 20 | 22.0% | 1, 8, 1, 10 | Bench |
Budget: goalkeepers £9.1m · defenders £24.8m · midfielders £35.2m · forwards £29.3m. Total £98.4m, £1.6m in the bank.
The shape of it: one premium, four £4.0m–£4.8m starters, and no money parked on the bench. Haaland’s £15.5m is 15.7% of the budget; everything else is spread across fourteen players who play.
The eleven for Gameweek 5 (3-5-2)
Tzolakis; Calafiori, Gvardiol, Bogle — Saka, Ødegaard, Gibbs-White, Tavernier, Belloumi — Haaland, João Pedro.
Bench order: Verbruggen (GK), De Cuyper, Davis, Calvert-Lewin.
The one deliberate call: De Cuyper starts on the bench. Brighton host Arsenal, the only fixture of the round where you actively do not want a Brighton defender, and De Cuyper’s 17-point Gameweek 1 came against a Coventry side that still hasn’t scored. Bogle takes his place for Palace at home. From Gameweek 7 the order flips back.
Why each line works
Goalkeeper — £9.1m for two starters
Tzolakis (£4.6m, 28 points, 10.7%) is the second-highest scoring goalkeeper in the game and costs £1.4m less than the highest. He has played every minute for a Hull side sitting fourth on eight points, and only two clubs in the league have three clean sheets — Arsenal and Hull. Verbruggen (£4.5m, 17 points, 22.0%) is the second starter, and the pair rotate sensibly: Brighton’s hard weeks (Arsenal at home, Liverpool and City away) fall in the same window as Hull’s easy ones.
If you would rather not think about the position at all, Raya (£6.0m, 29 points, 40.2%) is the set-and-forget answer behind the best defence in the league — but he costs £1.4m more for one point more than Tzolakis, and buying him means dropping a third Arsenal asset, because Calafiori, Saka and Ødegaard are already here. We would rather keep the £1.4m and the extra attacker.
Defence — £24.8m for 153 points
This is the line the wildcard is built around, and the numbers are absurd. Five defenders, £24.8m combined, 153 points — 6.2 points per million. The most expensive defender in the game, Gabriel at £8.0m, has 24 points. He is not in this squad at any price.
Bogle (£4.5m, 37 points) is the top scorer in the game and 2.4% of managers own him. Two goals from right-back, 15 points in Gameweek 4, and a form figure of 9.2, the best on the board. Calafiori (£5.8m, 28 points, 50.0%) is the template Arsenal defender and the cheapest route into the league’s best defence. Gvardiol (£5.7m, 33 points, 22.4%) has a goal and two assists from centre-back and City’s fixtures are the friendliest of any top side — Sunderland (H), Ipswich (H), Brighton (H), Fulham (H) are four of the next eight. De Cuyper (£4.8m, 32 points) has a goal and three assists — the only defender in the game with three — for £4.8m, a full £1.6m below the next name on that list. Davis (£4.0m, 23 points) has two goals and two assists from Ipswich’s back line at £4.0m.
If you want the single most under-owned name on this list, it is Bogle, and it is not close.
Midfield — £35.2m, and no £12m anchor
Saka (£9.5m, 30 points, 12.0%) is the wildcard’s defining bet. A £9.5m Arsenal attacker owned by one manager in eight, with three goals already and a run of Brighton (A), Leeds (H), Forest (A), Everton (H) ahead of him. That is a genuine edge, not a differential for its own sake. Ødegaard (£6.7m, 27 points, 19.1%) is the second route into the same attack for £2.8m less. Gibbs-White (£7.9m, 26 points, 11.2%) gets Forest’s two best fixtures of the block — Coventry at home and Ipswich away.
Then the value. Tavernier (£6.1m, 29 points, 5.0%) has three goals from midfield and Bournemouth’s Gameweeks 9 and 10 are Leeds at home and Ipswich away, both rated 2. Belloumi (£5.0m, 27 points, 2.7%) scored 13 in Gameweek 4 and is the cheapest way into the Hull attack that sits fourth.
And the deliberate omission. Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m, 29 points, 42.0%) has scored 2, 23, 2 and 2. His entire season is one afternoon against Ipswich, he is the second most expensive player in the game, and United’s next eight include Chelsea away and Liverpool away. If you own him, this is the week the wildcard earns its keep by moving him on. Cole Palmer (£9.7m, 26 points, 26.8%) at 13-7-1-5 is the same argument at a lower price.
Forwards — £29.3m, and the two most-owned names in the game
Haaland (£15.5m, 33 points, 72.2%) and João Pedro (£7.8m, 33 points, 75.0%) are the two most-owned players in FPL, they have scored 66 points between them, and they are both in. Haaland has four goals from four games and City’s Gameweek 5 is Sunderland at home — a difficulty of 2, and the softest fixture any premium attacker gets this week. João Pedro has three goals and three assists, has started every minute, and Chelsea’s next eight are the most even of any club in the league: nothing rated 5, nothing rated 1.
Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m, 20 points, 22.0%) is the third forward and the one bench attacker. He scored 10 in Gameweek 4, Leeds are unbeaten, and at £6.0m he is a genuine starter in a two-forward system if anything happens to the pair above.
Captaincy plan, Gameweek 5 to 12
| GW | Captain | Fixture | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Haaland | Sunderland (H), 2 | The softest premium fixture of the round |
| 6 | Saka | Leeds (H), 2 | City travel to Liverpool; Arsenal host the promoted side |
| 7 | Haaland | Ipswich (H), 2 | Do not overthink it |
| 8 | Saka | Everton (H), 3 | Haaland is at Villa (4) |
| 9 | Haaland | Brighton (H), 2 | City’s easiest home game of the block |
| 10 | Saka | Hull (H), 2 | Arsenal’s softest fixture before Christmas |
| 11 | Haaland | Fulham (H), 2 | Third City home game rated 2 in six weeks |
| 12 | João Pedro | Forest (A), 3 | Haaland is away at Arsenal (5) |
Differentials worth a swap
| Player | Pos | Club | Price | Pts | Owned | GW5 | GW6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bogle | DEF | Leeds | £4.5m | 37 | 2.4% | CRY (H) 3 | ARS (A) 5 |
| Belloumi | MID | Hull | £5.0m | 27 | 2.7% | NEW (A) 3 | EVE (H) 3 |
| Davis | DEF | Ipswich | £4.0m | 23 | 6.0% | EVE (A) 3 | FUL (H) 2 |
| Tavernier | MID | Bournemouth | £6.1m | 29 | 5.0% | LIV (H) 4 | CHE (A) 4 |
| Schade | MID | Brentford | £6.0m | 30 | 5.5% | CHE (H) 4 | AVL (A) 4 |
| White | DEF | Arsenal | £5.5m | 21 | 6.8% | BHA (A) 3 | LEE (H) 2 |
| Janelt | MID | Brentford | £5.0m | 25 | 2.4% | CHE (H) 4 | AVL (A) 4 |
Schade and Janelt are the honest counter-argument. Thirty points for £6.0m and twenty-five for £5.0m are real returns from Brentford’s midfield, and they are owned by roughly one manager in twenty. But Brentford have the joint-hardest eight-game run in the league: Chelsea at home, Villa away, Liverpool at home. Buy them after Gameweek 8, not now.
The swap menu, if you want to move off the fifteen:
- More Arsenal defence, cheaper keeper: Raya £6.0m (29) for Tzolakis — but only if you also drop Calafiori or Ødegaard, or you are carrying four Arsenal players.
- The template midfield: Rogers £7.7m (27, 37.1%) for Gibbs-White — £0.2m cheaper, twenty-six percent more popular, and Chelsea’s fixtures are the flattest on the board.
- Premium ceiling: Palmer £9.7m (26, 26.8%) for Saka — £0.2m more and twice the ownership, but five points behind.
- Third forward: Emersonn £5.5m (24, 2.4%) or Barry £5.6m (14, 6.5%) for Calvert-Lewin, freeing £0.4m–£0.5m for the international break.
- Minimum-price defence: Giles £4.0m (24, 2.3%) for Davis — a straight swap, same club price bracket, one point more.
Who not to own
Coventry — anybody. Four games, no goals, no points, −10. The softest run of fixtures in the league belongs to the worst team in it.
Tottenham’s attack. Zero goals in four games, and a 0-0 at home to Everton. Kinsky (£4.5m) is a cheap keeper with two clean sheets and no support.
Aston Villa’s attack. One goal in four games, one point, no Watkins — he has joined Al Hilal permanently and is not in the FPL game.
Hull’s £4.1m defensive block, from Gameweek 10. Ajayi (26 points), Egan (25), Mendy (25) and keeper Tzolakis have been the feel-good story and every number is real. But the run that produced those points is behind them, Mendy is a 50% concussion doubt, and Hull go to Arsenal in Gameweek 10. Own Belloumi and Tzolakis; do not build a wall out of the rest.
Foden (£7.0m, suspended until 17 October), Elanga (£6.2m, out with no return date), Porro and Shaw (both 75% after injuries). There are fifteen fit, cheap, in-form defenders on the board. There is no need to buy a flag.
Chip sequencing for the rest of the first half
The first chip set must be used by the Gameweek 19 deadline — Friday 1 January 2027, 18:30 UTC — after which the chips refresh for the run-in. Playing the wildcard now leaves you three chips and fourteen gameweeks.
- Bench Boost. This squad is fourteen deep by design because of it. Hold the chip for a double gameweek, or for a week where all four bench names have soft fixtures. Gameweek 12 is a live candidate: Verbruggen and De Cuyper at home to Newcastle (2) and Calvert-Lewin at home to Coventry (2).
- Triple Captain. Haaland at home to Ipswich in Gameweek 7 and at home to Fulham in Gameweek 11 are the two obvious windows. A word of warning from Gameweek 3: 1,787,071 managers played their triple captain that week and the round still averaged 51 points.
- Free Hit. Hold it. The blank gameweeks that cup rounds create in January and February are worth more than any single fixture in September.
Bottom line
Play the wildcard if your squad is broken, not if it is merely unlucky — and if you play it, spend it on structure. One premium, four minimum-price starters who actually score, no £12m midfielder on a 2-23-2-2 rhythm, and a bench that could score if you boosted it. Captain Haaland into Sunderland at home, back Saka’s 12% ownership as the edge the wildcard exists to find, and bank the £1.6m — the international break between Gameweek 5 and Gameweek 6 will hand you an injury or two, and cash is the only thing that fixes that for free.
That’s the way the commentary desk calls it — and this week, the chip is the story.
Methodology & credit: All prices, ownership figures, points, form, minutes and fixtures are taken from the official FPL API (bootstrap-static, fixtures and event/{gw}/live endpoints), snapshot 14 September 2026, after the Gameweek 4 fixtures and before the Gameweek 5 deadline of Friday 18 September, 17:30 UTC. Fixture difficulties are the official FPL 1-5 team difficulty values. Squad totals are validated against the API prices and the £100.0m budget, with a maximum of three players per club. Per-player multi-gameweek projections were cross-checked against the expected-points engine that powers this site’s /projections page. The league table is computed from the official fixture results. This article is editorial analysis, not a guarantee — verify prices before you wildcard, because they move.