The 10% Club: Opta’s Best FPL Differentials for Gameweek 2 ...Middle East

Ahead of FPL Gameweek 2, we use Opta data to highlight five under-the-radar Fantasy Premier League picks owned by fewer than 10% of managers.

DEF – Trevoh Chalobah | 5.0m | 1.3% Ownership

Having lost Levi Colwill to a serious knee injury shortly before the start of the season, Chelsea are in desperate need for one of their central defenders to step up and provide some calm and consistency at the back.

The Blues have a number of centre-backs at the club but there are question marks over many of them, whether it be a matter of fitness (Wesley Fofana, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoît Badiashile) or experience (Josh Acheampong, Jorrel Hato).

Trevoh Chalobah on the other hand has proven himself an industrious, dependable and versatile defender, and there is no reason he shouldn’t start on a weekly basis this season when fit.

While Chelsea clearly weren’t at their best going forward in their season opener against Crystal Palace, they still looked relatively comfortable at the back against a dangerous attacking unit, conceding only 0.36 expected goals in open play. This is a continuation of last season, when they had the second-lowest open-play xG conceded in the second half of the season (14.4), after Arsenal (12.4).

Chalobah defends aggressively and this will come in handy in 2025-26 with the addition of points for defensive contributions; he would have returned an additional two points for his defensive figures in over a quarter of his appearances for Chelsea last season, comfortably higher than any teammate, while he was only one more contribution away from doing so in this season’s opener.

MID – Anton Stach | 5.0m | 0.3% Ownership

Another player who looks like he could be a magnet for extra defensive points is Leeds United’s new bulldozer in midfield, Anton Stach, who ended up with eight FPL points on his Premier League debut against Everton on Monday night, earning a fantasy assist having instigated the game-winning penalty.

Stach has moved to the Premier League with a strong reputation for his defensive capabilities and general physicality. Across the last two campaigns combined in the German Bundesliga, Stach ranked first for interceptions, third for possession recoveries and fourth for tackles; metrics that make up three-fifths of the calculation for ‘defensive contributions’ for midfielders, along with blocks and clearances.

While his defensive capabilities should draw the most focus, it was interesting to note that, despite his height, Stach took six of the seven corners Leeds won against Everton, so you shouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up with assists from time to time.

Indeed, it was really was a jack-of-all-trades performance, with the German attempting four shots and creating four chances on debut, the first Leeds player to reach those figures in a Premier League game since Raphinha in 2021.

MID – Josh King | 4.5m | 1.0% Ownership

While goalkeepers and defenders can be priced as low as 4.0m at the start of the season in FPL, midfielders and forwards have a baseline price of 4.5m before any price rises or drops come into play.

There are currently 82 midfielders in the game who are the lowest possible starting price of 4.5m. Just seven of them received any playing time in Gameweek 1, and only one started a game – Fulham’s Josh King.

King may not be a familiar name to most (well, if you ignore the fact it’s very similar to former Bournemouth forward Joshua King) having only played 126 minutes of Premier League action in his debut campaign for the Cottagers last season. But he is someone you can expect to hear about often in the years to come, with the 2007-born midfielder widely considered to be the best talent the club has produced in a long time.

While it’s safe to say King won’t be starting all 38 games this season, Fulham boss Marco Silva has spoken highly of the youngster in the past, and given he was picked in the number 10 position over Tom Cairney, Emile Smith Rowe and Andreas Pereira, the starting berth was clearly given on merit.

There’s no need to rush to bring King into your squad, but if you’re looking to save some money in midfield to finance a more glamorous transfer, make sure to keep him in your thoughts.

MID – Brennan Johnson | 7.0m | 3.0% Ownership

Tottenham boss Thomas Frank may have the most evident data-led approach of any manager in the Premier League. His Brentford side had the highest non-penalty xG per shot in the division in two of the past three seasons, while they were joint second in the other.

It therefore won’t have gone unnoticed by the Dane that Brennan Johnson ranked third among Premier League players last season for that same statistic (0.19), behind two penalty area predators in Yoane Wissa and Erling Haaland.

Although admittedly against weaker opposition, Johnson started this season with more of the same against Burnley, recording 0.5 xG from two shots, and a composed finish for Spurs’ third goal after making a defence-stretching off-ball run from the left.

Don’t be too fazed by links to Eberechi Eze, as Johnson benefits from being able to play on both wings, and Eze may play as a number 10 anyway should Spurs agree a deal with Crystal Palace.

While Mohammed Kudus appears to be the popular Spurs pick, featuring in more than a quarter of teams, it may well be Johnson that provides the most consistent attacking threat.

FWD – Evanilson | 7.0m | 2.2% Ownership

We’re unlikely to convince fantasy managers to bring in any forward not named Hugo Ekitiké or Chris Wood this week, but if you’re looking to make a change up top, Bournemouth’s Evanilson should be under consideration.

There has been much talk of Bournemouth being a weaker side this season having lost three-quarters of their back four to Liverpool, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, but as we saw in their opening match against the Reds, there is no change to their attacking capacity. They had shots worth 1.7 xG at Anfield while creating three big chances away to the reigning champions.

Evanilson didn’t set the world alight in his debut campaign in England last season, netting 10 times in total, but hitting double figures in year one while having to adjust to the difference in quality from the Portuguese Primeira Liga is no small feat, and only a slight bump in goals this term would make him a solid asset at 7.0m.

The Brazilian is also judged to effectively be the third-likeliest player to score in MD2 by our Player Stat Prediction tool, behind Erling Haaland and whomever is awarded the starting spot up top for Arsenal against Leeds.

*FPL player values and ownership data accurate as of 19 August 2025

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The 10% Club: Opta’s Best FPL Differentials for Gameweek 2 Opta Analyst.

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