Initial FPL GW1 Drafts for the 25/26 FPL Season with Pros & Cons

The 2025/26 FPL Season is launched, and in this blog, we have created the first few initial FPL GW1 drafts with pros and cons for each draft. Our idea is to enable you to look at multiple initial GW1 drafts and then arrive at your ideal draft to begin the season.

Link to all our 2025/26 Pre-Season articles including all team pre-season friendly updates, team previews, fixture analysis, position-wise analysis, differentials, players to target, budget enablers and more. Completely free to access as well!

We would highly recommend you to read the FPL Fixture Analysis and Best FPL Rotational Pairs and Combinations to understand the fixtures of all the teams and the potential player combinations you would need to complete the initial draft.

2025/26 FPL Season ~ Best FPL GW1 Drafts

FPL GW1 Draft 1- The Mo Salah + Wirtz Draft

Notes on the draft:

Pickford is our goalkeeper in this draft. He is the highest-scoring FPL goalkeeper in the last two seasons
- 2023/24- 13 CS, 153 FPL Points
- 2024/25- 12 CS, 158 FPL Points
Pickford’s clean sheet potential is great under David Moyes, and he’s always amongst saves too(3rd highest amongst GKs last year with 122 saves).

Top Defenders for Goal Involvements Last Season:

Data from FFHUB – **Subscribe now for the 2025/26 season with an exclusive 50% off discount** and with a win your mini-league or money-back guarantee!

Ait Nouri and Murillo are the premium defenders in this draft. Ait Nouri picked up 11 goal involvements(4 goals & 7 assists) at Wolves last season, the highest amongst defenders, and has now moved to Man City. Combining his attacking capabilities with Man City’s clean sheet potential, we have got an explosive option.
AWB at 4.5 million is great value and should benefit from the addition of points for defensive actions as well. His attacking returns are also improving, with his 8 goal contributions(2 goals, 6 assists) last season, the highest in a PL season for him.

Mo Salah is FPL royalty, and he needs little justification. We have also got Wirtz as well in this draft, he’s a generation talent, and at just 8.5 million, he’s hard to ignore. Last season at Leverkusen, Wirtz had an npxG+xAG/90 of 0.50.
Cold Palmer also makes the draft, Chelsea’s fixtures are great to start the season, and we all know how good Palmer is as an FPL asset.
Kudus and Solanke are both in this draft. Spurs fixtures are great, and it’s worth doubling up on Spurs attack. Solanke picked up 9 goals and 5 assists, his expected goal involvement of 0.50 xGI/90 last season is great too.

Spurs fixtures from GW1-10
**FDR from FFHUB**

Kudus had a disappointing 24/25 season, but West Ham were not great for the large majority of the season. In his first PL season(23/24), Kudus picked up 17 goal contributions(8 goals + 9 assists), and at just 6.5 million, it’s hard to ignore him.

João Pedro is the 2nd striker in this draft, and at just 7.5 million, he’s a bargain, especially since we have gone with Palmer in this draft. The Blues have a great fixture run to begin the season. Pedro has already integrated well with the Chelsea team and was the first-choice forward ahead of Jackson and Delap in the club World Cup semi-finals and final. In the semi-final final he bagged a brace, and he also scored a goal in the final.
Our bench options include Konsa, Guiu(4.5 FWD, Joining Sunderland on loan from Chelsea), and Esteve is the 4.0 defender option in this draft, the Burnley CB is a nailed starter, and the safest option.

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FPL GW1 Draft 2- Salah+ Haaland + Wirtz Draft

Notes on the draft:

This is the Three-Premium Draft with Haaland + Salah + Wirtz.
Salah, Wirtz, and Haaland take up 37 million of the budget, and naturally, there are some cheaper enablers in this draft to compensate for the heavy spending on the three assets.
Haaland had a silent 24/25 season but still managed to rake up 22 goals. In the two prior seasons, he bagged 27 and 36 goals, respectively. City have added the likes of Cherki, Reijnders, Ait Nouri, and Rodri will be back too, so the 14.0 Million investment on him should pay off.
Kelleher is the 4.5 million goalkeeper in this draft. He was great for Liverpool in the absence of Alisson last season, and should do well in terms of saves at Brentford. Concerns do remain in terms of clean sheet potential with Thomas Frank and a lot of Brentford’s key players leaving the club. Alternatively, you can go for Petkovic/Areola in the 4.5 Mil slot or make a 4.5 GK rotation with one of Kelleher/Areola with Petkovic.

Budget Defender Rotation Combinations:

**Left Image denotes Start 2, Bench 1. Right image denotes Start 1, Bench 2**

Konsa + Esteve + Udogie/Van De Ven rotate very well. You can start two and bench one each Gameweek, or even start one and bench two till GW9. Refer to the above images – Green indicates players to start, grey players to bench. PS: We have replaced Udogie with Van De Ven because of an injury concern for Udogie, the full back did not travel with the rest of the squad for their asian pre-season tour.
Reijnders at 5.5 million is a tempting option. He got 10 goals in Serie A last season and can also benefit from the defensive actions points. Alternatively, you can also consider other 5.5 mids like Gruda, Tavernier, Alcaraz, and Tonali.

Wood & Welbeck are the other two forwards in the draft. Welbeck scored 10 goals and picked up 5 assists in just 30 appearances(24 starts) with a healthy xGI of 0.5/90 last season.

Further Read: FPL Rotational Pairs & Combinations for the 2025/26 FPL Season

FPL GW1 Draft 3 – Salah+ Palmer+ Wirtz Draft

Notes on the draft:

Salah + Palmer are the two premium midfielders in this draft
Sels is the goalkeeper in this draft. At 5.0 million, he offers great value and has good saves + clean sheet potential.
The double up of Rogers and Watkins should do well, Villa have good fixtures, and both offer great value with Watkins likely on penalties too. The duo has scored two goals each in the pre-season games so far.

Aston Villa pre-season summary until the 2-1 win over St Louis

Udogie/Van de Ven + Esteve rotate well(Rotation planner below) and offer great value at just 8.5 million(combined). As mentioned earlier, Udogie is currently injured, so if he’s not fit, go for Van de Ven.

Gabriel and VVD are the two premium defenders in this draft. Virgil offers points through clean sheets, defensive contributions, and goals from set pieces/corners. He was also seen practicing free kicks during pre-season. All other Liverpool defenders have slight xMins issues, and VVD is the only safe Liverpool defender option going into GW1.
Do not worry much about Gabriel’s lack of minutes in pre-season. Arteta, in the post-match press conference after the Spurs friendly(31/07), mentioned that he expects Gabriel, Calafiori, and Timber to be fit for the start of the Premier League season if they progress as they have been.

De Cuyper is another exciting 4.5 million defender to watch out for. With Estupinan off to AC Milan, the new Belgian signing should be the first-choice left-back/LWB. In his senior club career, De Cuyper has 75 Goal Contributions from 220 appearances, which are too good for a Defender.

Lacroix is the differential defender first on the bench, the Palace CB offers a combination of Clean sheets + attacking threat + CBIT potential. Palace fixtures improve from GW4 onwards, so you can have him on the bench for the first few games.
Adingra is the 5th midfielder option in the draft, the new Sunderland signing offers a good goal threat and should be nailed to start. Alternatively, you can go for defensive players who could do well for defensive contribution points like E Anderson, Caicedo or Xhaka.

Further Read: FPL Fixture Analysis for The 2025/26 FPL Season | PL Fixtures

FPL GW1 Draft 4 – Haaland + Gyokeres + Palmer + Wirtz Draft

Notes on the draft:

A forward-heavy no-Salah draft with Haaland and Gyokres leading the forward line
Gabriel Gudmundsson is the 4.0 million defender in this draft, and he’s expected to be a regular starter
Adrien Truffert makes this team as the exciting £4.5 Hidden Gem! He is the Kerkez Replacement(signed from Rennes) and an attacking LB who can play LM as well. Truffert has 21 Goal Contributions(5 Goals, 16 Assists) over the last 3 seasons. He also scored 2 goals in the Pre-season closed-door friendly vs Bristol a few days back. He should certainly be on your pre-season watchlist. In Bournemouth’s last friendly vs Man United, Truffert picked up an assist from an excellent cross which was deflected in by De Ligt(own goal)

Triple Chelsea attack with Caicedo joining Palmer and Pedro. Caicedo had the most defensive action points amongst midfielders last season(42 pts) and had 55.3% of starts with defensive action points.
Welbeck is the 2nd forward in this draft. The Seagulls forward scored 10 goals and picked up 5 assists in just 30 appearances(24 starts) with a healthy xGI of 0.5/90 last season.
Barry is rumored to be the starting forward for Everton this season, so he makes this draft along with Ndiaye, If he’s not a starter, then you can go for other budget forwards like Beto, Muniz, Piroe(Leeds), Mayenda(Sunderland)

Further Read: FPL Rotational Pairs & Combinations for the 2025/26 FPL Season

FPL GW1 Draft 5- GW1 Bench Boost Draft:

This is the Draft with the GW1 Bench Boost in plan. You will have 15 good players to start the season and get rid of the chip early as well. The new FPL rules(Double the Chips) make the GW1 Bench Boost even more appealing.
In this Bench Boost Draft, there are 3*West Ham against Burnley, 2*Everton against Leeds, and 3*Spurs vs Burnley in GW1.
Saka makes this Draft over Palmer as the first 2 games are really good for Arsenal. After that, you can decide between sticking to Saka/Moving to Palmer. In GW1, Saka plays MUN(A) followed by LEE(H) in GW2.
Bowen, who has been re-classified as Forward this season, has a very favorable GW1 fixture vs Sunderland and also ended last season on a high.

GW38: ⚽🅰️, 13 points
GW37: ⚽, 8 points
GW36: ⚽, 8 points
GW35: ⚽, 9 points
GW34: 🅰️🅰️, 10 points
GW33: ⚽, 9 points

Further reads from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of FPL GW1 of the 2025/26 FPL Season

If you’re new to FPL, here is a link to all our FPL Beginners Guide including FPL Beginner’s Guide- How to play?, Bench boost, Team value, Triple captain, Effective ownership, Price Changes, Free Hit, Bonus Points, and more.

Link to all our 2025/26 Pre-Season articles including all position-wise analysis, team previews, fixture analysis, position-wise analysis, and more. Completely free to access as well!

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Initial FPL GW1 Drafts for the 25/26 FPL Season with Pros & Cons