Manchester City FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid

City's opening six is the softest run in the game — here's who to actually buy

Bournemouth at home, Palace away, Coventry at home, then Sunderland sandwiched around the two awkward ones (Old Trafford and Anfield). Four of City's first six are the kind of fixtures where you pencil in goals and a clean sheet before kick-off, and our model agrees: it rates them the league's second-best attack AND second-meanest defence going into that run. That combination doesn't come along often. The question is which slots to fill.

Haaland (£15.5m) is the boring answer and the right one. About 7 in 10 managers already own him, so he's barely a decision — he's the tax you pay to compete. Our projections have him for roughly 33 points over the six, best in the squad by a distance, and BOU (H) and COV (H) are exactly the games where he goes massive. He starts, he plays 90, he doesn't blank often. That's the whole job description.

Semenyo (£8.5m) is the interesting one. About 1 in 4 own him, our model has him second in the entire City pecking order — ahead of Foden — and at £8.5m he's the mid-price attacker this fixture run was built for. Roughly 26-27 points projected over the six. The honest caveat: any new face at City carries rotation questions, and Pep needs no excuse. But the model ranking him this high says the minutes are expected.

At the back, Gvardiol (£5.5m) edges O'Reilly (£6.5m) — same clean-sheet potential, a pound cheaper, and only about 1 in 10 own him. With a favourable run for shutouts (BOU, CRY, COV, SUN all in six), a £5.5m City defender is close to free points. Take the cheaper one and spend the pound elsewhere.

Foden (£7.0m) at 4 in 10... sorry, about 1 in 20 owned, looks tempting on price, but our model ranks him behind Semenyo for a reason — if you're taking one City midfielder, take the one the model prefers.

The wrinkle: MUN (A) in GW4 and LIV (A) in GW6 are the two games where the clean sheet is genuinely at risk, so don't triple up expecting six shutouts.

The call: Haaland in if he's somehow not already, Semenyo as your mid-price midfielder, and Gvardiol as the defensive route in. Captain Haaland for BOU (H) in GW1 and don't overthink it.