3 Arsenal players you need in your FPL team (and 3 Gunners you must avoid)

FPL is live for 2026/27 and users will, naturally, target names from the Premier League champions – but who should you purchase?

A league-best defence might draw folks towards the Arsenal backline, with an opening-day game vs promoted Coventry City likely to boost that appeal. Seeing your asset get one over the former Blues man Frank Lampard would add the cherry on top.   

3 Arsenal players you need in your FPL team (and 3 Gunners you should avoid)

Elsewhere, there is a new face in the attack as Christos Tzolis has arrived from Club Brugge; his stats from last season (17 goals and 23 assists in the Belgian Pro League) might cause differential chasers to take notes.

It can be a minefield, but here are three Arsenal players everyone needs in their FPL team (as well as three names to avoid).

Players to buy

1. Riccardo Calafiori (£5.5m)

He is the standout option for Arsenal.

Riccardo Calafiori almost feels like a steal at £5.5m: this is a fairly inexpensive route into the Gunners backline, his marauding runs make him a good attacking option, and he has had a full summer off so he should be in peak physical condition.

You could argue that Piero Hincapié will hurt his minutes but one would expect Calafiori to remain as first choice whenever both are fit. The Italian is just so well-rounded and unique in profile that Mikel Arteta will likely field him at every opportunity.

Calafiori ranks joint second among defenders at his price for how often he hit four points or more last year in FPL (59% of the time, as per @FPL_TomHadley), while he will also benefit from a tweak to the Bonus Points System – no longer will players be docked one point when tackled, meaning the 24-year-old will not unduly suffer if he loses the ball during his forward runs.

There is a lot to like here.

2. Cristhian Mosquera (£5.5m)

For those who hate a rotation headache?

Look no further than Cristhian Mosquera. He is a shoo-in for the first team because of the long-term injury to William Saliba – he could have RCB locked down until Christmas – and has done enough in Arsenal colours since joining last summer to indicate that he can ably cover the Frenchman, without forcing the boss into a big backline spend.

One should look at the drawbacks: for all of the BPS benefits of Calafiori, centre backs like Mosquera will suffer as there is less reward for clearances, blocks and interceptions, while the Gunners defence might be weaker in the absence of Saliba.

But Mosquera is no fool himself, and Arsenal defend so well as a unit that their solidity should not be undone by one injury alone. Feel enthused by that and you have a nailed-on route into the strongest backline in the league for the same price as Calafiori.

Keep him in your plans.  

3. Bruno Guimaraes (£7.0m)

For others, perhaps the Saliba injury will force them to look past defenders and weigh up options in the midfield.

That is where Bruno Guimaraes comes in. His protracted move to Arsenal is near completion and he will be here in good time for the first game, with fellow Brazil World Cup stars, Gabriel Martinelli and ‘Big Gabi’, already back for pre-season work.

Bruno should be safe for minutes as Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze and Mikel Merino will all return later after their World Cup exploits. If used as a no. 8, he can rack up the goal contributions too as he got nine goals and seven assists from that position for Newcastle last year, while he will not be impacted as much as the defenders if Arsenal lose their clean sheet (a distinct possibility with Aston Villa and Chelsea to come in the early weeks).

Amid much uncertainty in other areas of the pitch, Bruno could prove quite the reliable asset in the heart of this team.

Players to avoid

1. Gabriel (£8.0m)

This might not take much convincing; his price tag alone – the highest in FPL among defenders – will scare many people off.

Gabriel is often hard to ignore and his extortionate price is for good reason. He stands to gain a lot in terms of defensive points for a well-drilled Arsenal team, while he also poses quite the threat from a set piece.

However, he (like Mosquera) will not reap the same BPS points as last year following the tweaks that FPL made and the extent to which it might, in turn, boost full backs (like Calafiori) makes it difficult to justify such a big investment.

Bruno Fernandes and Erling Haaland will dominate FPL teams, so it is hard to find room or funds for a third premium asset. Squeezing in Gabriel alongside them would require quite a lot of surgery and all of that is before you consider the tricky fixtures that Arsenal have to navigate at the start of the new campaign.

Perhaps he is best left alone.

2. Viktor Gyokeres (£7.5m)

FPL brought down his price but it is still unlikely to convince the masses to buy him ahead of the new campaign.

For a start, Arsenal are yet to seriously bolster their frontline this summer (no offence, Tzolis) despite their apparent determination to sign a LW. Fans can expect to see a similar stodginess to last term if Viktor Gyokeres is once again starved of service.

His tally of 14 league goals in 2025/26 was good but not spectacular and it only serves to underline the fact that he is not an explosive FPL option. Consider, too, how his minutes could be impacted by Kai Havertz and it feels even more difficult to justify his selection.

There are other decent names at his price point and below like Joao Pedro (£7.5m) or else Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m) so perhaps give Gyokeres a miss.  

3. Gabriel Martinelli (£6.5m)

Leandro Trossard is gone, Vinicius Jr is off the cards and Tzolis is still an unknown quantity at PL level; is this a chance for Gabriel Martinelli to shine?

His price adds allure as it is either in keeping with or slightly below that of his fellow Arsenal attackers and, furthermore, the Brazilian might well start the season at LW if Arteta feels Tzolis needs a bit more time to adjust to the first team.

But Martinelli has underwhelmed for years and his league output from last season – just one goal in the PL (albeit a hugely important one) – is quite damning, even if his UCL figures paint him in a more favourable light.

He just does not score enough, he is not particularly creative and, if Tzolis does get a run in the team, then his time on the pitch could be curtailed.

Perhaps the return of a Xhaka-like figure in Bruno Guimaraes will revive his sparkling form from the 2022/23 campaign – what a differential to have then! But fans will need to see it to believe it and are best advised to steer clear until it does.

Hopefully Bradley Barcola or Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will have him pushed further down in the pecking order before long anyway…

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