Manchester City
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Manchester City FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid
The call — City's run to start the season reads like a scheduling error in their favour: Bournemouth, Palace, Coventry, United, Sunderland — five fixtures a top-two attack should feast on before Anfield finally asks a question in GW6. That's the shape of it. Our model has City with one of the league's two best attacks and one of its two meanest defences…
What has not being with FFIQ cost you this season?
One squad, picked before a ball was kicked and run for six gameweeks on three transfers — no hits taken. Scored on FPL’s own results.
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Start with the obvious. Haaland at £15.5m is the most boring call in the game, which is exactly why I like it. About 7 in 10 managers own him, our projections have him north of 31 points across the first six, and he can go massive against any of the first five opponents. You don't buy Haaland for a differential punt; you buy him so BOU (H) and COV (H) don't ruin your weekend. He's a start-and-captain, not a debate.
The interesting money is below him. Semenyo at £8.5m sits second on our list and nearly 3 in 10 already have him — good for roughly 24 points over the run, solid most weeks with genuine haul potential in the home games. Then there's Gvardiol at £5.5m, owned by barely 1 in 10, and this is where the dry stuff pays: a favourable clean-sheet run means a defender in the meanest back line around is quietly good for 21-odd points over six. That's midfield money for defender prices.
Foden is the tempting one — £7.0m, hardly anyone owns him (about 1 in 20), same projected return as Gvardiol. But here's my usual question: who gets subbed on 60 when City are 3-0 up? Foden's the romance pick; Gvardiol's the one whose minutes you can set a watch by. Donnarumma at £5.5m is a perfectly sensible keeper if you're shopping in that aisle, though I'd take the outfielder first.
Honest caveat: the run ends at Anfield, and away days at Old Trafford can get scrappy. If you're buying City defence, plan to enjoy GW1-5 and reassess before GW6.
The call: Haaland in and captained if he's not already there, and Gvardiol as the value play at £5.5m — the low-owned defender with the safest minutes in the squad. Leave Foden to the dreamers.