FPL Scout: Gameweek 1 hints, tips and advice | OneFootball

Brentford have teamed up with Fantasy Football Scout to help bring you hints, tips and advice during the 2025/26 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season.

Scout will be using their expertise to provide info, advice and Gameweek tips which may prove useful in ensuring you sit on top of your mini-leagues.

Best of the Bees

The last campaign was good for Brentford, finishing in 10th place after accumulating the joint-fifth most goals (66) and being seventh-best for big chances (109). They even boasted two of FPL’s eight highest scoring players.

Following Thomas Frank’s departure, the internal promotion of Keith Andrews to head coach seems to be a case of evolution rather than revolution. That’s promising for FPL managers.

Names like Jordan Henderson (£5.0m), Antoni Milambo (£5.5m) and goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher (£4.5m) have signed for the Bees, with Michael Kayode’s (£4.5m) loan move from Fiorentina made permanent.

The right-back helped secure a 1-0 pre-season victory at Queens Park Rangers, crossing for new club captain Nathan Collins (£5.0m) to head home. Hopefully, the clean sheet is also a sign of things to come.

Collins was involved in a goal against Borussia Mönchengladbach, too, nodding a free-kick down for Fábio Carvalho’s (£5.0m) to turn in. Less than two minutes later, Mikkel Damsgaard (£6.0m) took advantage of a goalkeeping mistake to make it 2-1, before the Bundesliga side equalised late on.

Early league fixtures look promising for Fantasy investment. The initial trip to Nottingham Forest still has May’s 2-0 win fresh in the mind and Gameweek 3 will be against newly-promoted Sunderland.

The Spotlight

A knee injury and infection wiped out most of Igor Thiago’s (£6.0m) debut Premier League season, so his availability almost feels like a new signing.

2023/24 concluded with 29 goals for the Brazilian at Club Brugge, but the subsequent transfer to west London suffered an immediate setback. It meant he was only able to start one league match and play 169 overall minutes.

Still, there’s a lot of anticipation about what his season could become. He scored against Gil Vicente – set up by Damsgaard – and went close to a couple more summer strikes.

His £6.0m price point brought huge Yoane Wissa (£7.5m) and Chris Wood (£7.5m) success last time but, in truth, not many forwards below £6.5m enter Gameweek 1 with much appeal. Perhaps just Thiago, Niclas Füllkrug (£6.0m) and Joël Piroe (£5.5m).

In demand

Elsewhere, mixed weekend fortunes have seen João Pedro (£7.5m) overtake Mohamed Salah (£14.5m) to be the most-owned player after new Chelsea team-mate Cole Palmer (£10.5m).

He’s one of several new signings currently enjoying high ownership, as managers are excited about Florian Wirtz (£8.5m), Viktor Gyökeres (£9.0m), Jeremie Frimpong (£6.0m), Rayan Aït-Nouri (£6.0m) and Mohammed Kudus (£6.5m).

On the other hand, 20% have Alexander Isak (£10.5m) and should change plans in time for Friday evening’s deadline.

New chip and transfer rules have been added to FPL – ones that encourage managers to play more aggressively.

There’s a Wildcard, Free Hit, Triple Captain and Bench Boost to use before Gameweek 19, then the same four afterwards.

Furthermore, this winter’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament means that all managers will see their Gameweek 16 free transfer allowance topped up to five.

Yet the biggest addition to FPL is defensive contribution (DC) rewards. This will hand players two extra points if they reach a particular number of clearances, blocks, interceptions, recoveries and tackles in one match. Expect previously unfashionable picks to suddenly become popular.

Captaincy

As for your first weekend’s captain, whose points will be doubled, both Salah and Erling Haaland (£14.0m) are traditionally brilliant in Gameweek 1.

The Liverpool star’s eight outings have brought in nine goals, seven assists and six double-digit hauls, while Manchester City’s striker averages 11 points over his own three.

Some may turn to Chelsea assets, despite facing FA Cup and Community Shield winners Crystal Palace.

Tottenham v Burnley has armband potential, but injuries, knocks and transfer rumours make it tricky to pin down their best route for attacking returns.