FPL GW3 Preview: Team Selection Tips and Transfer Trends

The Gameweek 3 deadline is tonight at 18:30 UK. Two rounds of football have already settled some arguments: Bruno Fernandes owns the form table, well over a million managers have boarded the Cherki bandwagon, and the league’s softest three-game run begins at Portman Road. Here is where the first two gameweeks should steer your team for the third.

The form table after two gameweeks

The top ten after two gameweeksLive

#Rank	Player	Club	Price	GW1	GW2	Tot	Sel	GW3–5
1	B.FernandesMID	MUN	£12.0m	2	23	25	48.5%	EVE (A) gameweek 3, difficulty 3: AverageMCI (H) gameweek 4, difficulty 4: DifficultFUL (A) gameweek 5, difficulty 3: Average
2	CherkiMID	MCI	£7.7m	8	14	22	29.6%	COV (H) gameweek 3, difficulty 2: EasyMUN (A) gameweek 4, difficulty 4: DifficultSUN (H) gameweek 5, difficulty 2: Easy
3	AjayiDEF	HUL	£4.1m	14	6	20	9.3%	AVL (H) gameweek 3, difficulty 3: AverageCHE (A) gameweek 4, difficulty 4: DifficultNEW (A) gameweek 5, difficulty 3: Average
4	CalafioriDEF	ARS	£5.7m	9	11	20	44.3%	CHE (H) gameweek 3, difficulty 4: DifficultSUN (A) gameweek 4, difficulty 3: AverageBHA (A) gameweek 5, difficulty 3: Average
5	João PedroFWD	CHE	£7.7m	11	9	20	69.4%	ARS (A) gameweek 3, difficulty 5: Very DifficultHUL (H) gameweek 4, difficulty 2: EasyBRE (A) gameweek 5, difficulty 3: Average
6	PalmerMID	CHE	£9.6m	13	7	20	18.4%	ARS (A) gameweek 3, difficulty 5: Very DifficultHUL (H) gameweek 4, difficulty 2: EasyBRE (A) gameweek 5, difficulty 3: Average
7	SakaMID	ARS	£9.5m	9	11	20	10.8%	CHE (H) gameweek 3, difficulty 4: DifficultSUN (A) gameweek 4, difficulty 3: AverageBHA (A) gameweek 5, difficulty 3: Average
8	TzolakisGKP	HUL	£4.6m	10	10	20	7.8%	AVL (H) gameweek 3, difficulty 3: AverageCHE (A) gameweek 4, difficulty 4: DifficultNEW (A) gameweek 5, difficulty 3: Average
9	M.SangaréMID	BRE	£5.7m	14	4	18	14.7%	SUN (H) gameweek 3, difficulty 2: EasyBOU (A) gameweek 4, difficulty 3: AverageCHE (H) gameweek 5, difficulty 4: Difficult
10	TarkowskiDEF	EVE	£6.0m	6	12	18	10.6%	MUN (H) gameweek 3, difficulty 4: DifficultTOT (A) gameweek 4, difficulty 3: AverageIPS (H) gameweek 5, difficulty 2: Easy

Fernandes’ 23 points in Gameweek 2 are the biggest single-gameweek haul by anyone so far, and at nearly half the game owned, the market was largely already there. Everton away is a fixture to keep faith with; the catch comes a week later, at home to City, so buy him as a hold rather than a one-week punt.

Cherki is the signing the table vindicates — 22 points at £7.7m, with Coventry at home now and Sunderland at home in Gameweek 5. The Manchester derby between them is the one red week in his next three; everything else is graded 2.

The fixture list then takes four of the top ten and points them at each other: Calafiori, Saka, Palmer and João Pedro all meet at the Emirates, with Arsenal’s home fixture graded 4 and Chelsea’s trip a 5. João Pedro and Calafiori are the second and fourth most-selected players in the game, so most squads are exposed on both sides of it. The sensible play is the boring one: hold what you own, open nothing new into it, and put the armband elsewhere.

The budget story needs its health warning. Ajayi (£4.1m) sits level with Calafiori at the top of the defensive scoring, and Tzolakis (£4.6m) leads the goalkeepers — but promoted-club opposition supplied a chunk of that, and Hull’s run now turns: Villa at home, then Chelsea and Newcastle away. They are cover, not a destination for new money. Two games settle nothing about roles either — De Cuyper followed his 17-point opening with a blank, and Hinshelwood, the other Gameweek 1 haul, is flagged at 50% for this one.

The moves since the last deadline

Nothing else this week is on Cherki’s scale — his net inflow is multiples of anyone else’s. The next-biggest buys are a Newcastle block: Wissa, Elanga and Hall arrive together for a run with nothing harder than a 3 through Gameweek 5, and at £6.1m or less each they slot in without surgery.

The sells are more interesting. Mbeumo is the market’s oddest call — over half a million managers out on the back of an 11-point week, which means the fixtures, Everton away then City at home, are doing the pricing rather than anything he did. Tzolis has gone from pre-season darling to exit queue after one returnless week, with a fifth of the game still holding him and Arsenal opening against Chelsea. Watkins is the compulsory sale: flagged unavailable, no points, and a dead slot for anyone still carrying him.

Where the fixtures point

Liverpool’s run — Ipswich away, Fulham at home, Bournemouth away — is the softest in the league over the next three. Strong squad, clean run: this is a hold window, so go to two or three Liverpool players and stay put. Gakpo (£7.1m, 8.5% owned) leads the club’s scoring and is the differential route; Szoboszlai remains the most-owned way in, though the market has quietly been trimming him after a modest fortnight.

Brighton’s next two are graded 2 before Arsenal visit in Gameweek 5 — exactly the shape that suits De Cuyper’s price, because the hard week costs nothing from the bench. Villa open at Hull and also average under 3, though with Watkins unavailable the route in is less obvious. At the other end, Arsenal, Chelsea and United share the heaviest runs among the big clubs, which is one more reason this is a week to hold their assets rather than add.

Map the picture past Gameweek 5 on the FDR planner, and check any one player’s numbers in the player stats table.

The captain

Haaland at home to Coventry is the chair, and roughly seven in ten squads have him. His two-point Gameweek 1 is the reminder of the floor; a promoted club at the Etihad is the reminder of the ceiling. If you hold him, this is not the week to be clever.

Fernandes at Everton is the form case, and at nearly half the game owned he is barely a differential. Cherki is the aggressive route into the same fixture as Haaland — a mini-league move, not a rank-protection move. The one warning: nearly seven in ten squads own João Pedro, and a trip graded 5 is not where an armband goes.

Before the deadline

Team news lands late on deadline day, so run the three checks worth making before every deadline once the press conferences have filtered through — and if you plan to leave it late, the transfer market page tracks tonight’s price pressure.