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Written for Gameweek 8. Its deadline has passed. Read the newest: Gabriel scores 17 as João Pedro misses out and Fernandes stays on the bench

FPL Tilt · Team talk · Wildcard · Gameweek 8

Wildcarding in Gameweek 8? Brighton's next two games are easier than they look

By FPL Tilt on YouTube (opens in a new tab) · 19 October 2026

FPL rates Brighton's next two games the hardest in the league, yet Liverpool have not won at Anfield all season. How to think about a Gameweek 8 wildcard, from Brighton and Chelsea to Szoboszlai's money and Haaland, with two example squads.

Brighton scored three goals in the first ten minutes against Crystal Palace on Sunday and finished with five. By Monday morning, Pascal Groß and Maxim De Cuyper were the two most bought players in the game.

Their next two games are Liverpool away and Manchester City away. On FPL's own fixture ratings no club has a harder fortnight, and that is the first thing anyone wildcarding this week will see.

Look at the results instead of the ratings and the picture changes. If you are wildcarding in Gameweek 8, Anfield and the Etihad are not a reason to leave Brighton out. The decision that shapes the rest of the squad is Erling Haaland.

Anfield, then the Etihad

Brighton are third, and they have lost once all season, 4-3 at Chelsea in a game they scored three in. In Gameweek 5 they beat Arsenal 3-0. It is still the only game Arsenal have lost, and the only one they have failed to score in.

Liverpool at Anfield have not been what their rating suggests. They have not won a league game there this season. Nottingham Forest and Fulham both left with draws, and City won 3-0. They have scored nine league goals in seven matches, and Dominik Szoboszlai and Jeremie Frimpong are now both out.

City are the real test. They have won all seven, but they have conceded in three of their four home games, so the risk at the Etihad is to the clean sheet more than to the goals. After that Brighton's run turns: Brentford at home, Hull away, Newcastle at home, Bournemouth away.

That makes Groß (Brighton, £6.1m) the easier of the two to own through it. He takes their penalties, corners and free kicks, and he has had a hand in a goal in five of the seven Gameweeks. De Cuyper (Brighton, £5.2m) leans more on clean sheets, with five in seven games, and the Etihad is the week that puts them at risk. For the top scoring defender in the game, one week of risk is a fair price on a wildcard.

Two more Brighton players are worth knowing about. Luka Vušković (£5.1m) is the second highest scoring defender in FPL, and nobody in Brighton's back line does more defensive work. Charalampos Kostoulas (£5.7m) is the fourth highest scoring forward, cheaper than most of those around him, and has scored in three of the last four Gameweeks.

The cheap end of the squad

Jayden Bogle (Leeds, £4.7m) has more points than Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal, £6.0m). Leeds are seventh, only Arsenal and Brighton have let in fewer goals, and their next three are Sunderland and Bournemouth away and Tottenham at home, three of the bottom six.

For the bench, Bobby Thomas at Coventry and Leif Davis at Ipswich cost £4.0m each. Thomas does as much defensive work as almost any defender in the league. Davis has been involved in four goals, though none in the last three Gameweeks.

The goalkeepers depend on whether the Bench Boost has been played. Without it, one keeper who plays and a £4.0m one who does not is enough. David Raya (Arsenal, £6.1m) has more points than any other keeper. Bart Verbruggen (Brighton, £4.6m) is much cheaper and has his two hard games first. With the Bench Boost still to come, Verbruggen and James Trafford (Leeds, £5.0m) fit together almost exactly: Trafford plays while Brighton are at Anfield and the Etihad, and they share the weeks after.

How many from Chelsea

Chelsea are the only club among the most owned with a kind six weeks, and João Pedro is already in nearly three teams in four. On a wildcard the question is how many Chelsea players, and which.

No team's games have had more goals than Chelsea's, thirty in seven. They have scored seventeen and let in thirteen, which is the case for their attack and the warning about their defence at once.

João Pedro (£7.9m) has been involved in more of those goals than anyone at the club, so he comes first. After him it is a choice between Morgan Rogers (£7.9m), who does more defensive work than any other Chelsea attacker and so still scores on quiet days, and Pedro Neto (£6.5m), who scored both goals at Everton from right wing-back. Cole Palmer (£9.7m) is the luxury: he takes the penalties and has not scored since the second weekend of the season.

The defence is the part to be careful with. The clean sheet at Everton was Chelsea's first of the season, and Emi Martínez is out for a few weeks after an operation on his jaw, which leaves Mike Penders, 21, in goal.

Where Szoboszlai's money goes

Szoboszlai (£6.8m) is the most sold player in the game, and the natural move is to put his money back into Liverpool, where Alexander Isak is one of the most bought players. Isak (£9.0m) has his own case: five league goals, joint second behind Haaland, and the winner at Brentford. The case against using him as the like-for-like swap is the rest of Liverpool's attack, and their next two at Anfield, against Brighton and Arsenal.

For about the same money as Szoboszlai, Marcus Tavernier (Bournemouth, £6.2m) has exactly twice his points. He takes Bournemouth's corners and free kicks, he scored against Sunderland on Sunday, and he is in fewer than one team in ten.

A million more buys Bryan Mbeumo (Manchester United, £7.8m), who is leading United's line while Benjamin Šeško is out and has had half of their big chances, according to the Premier League's own analysis. The chances he is getting are better than the ones he had in the season he scored twenty for Brentford. United have won one league game all season, so he is a bet on the player more than the fixtures.

Haaland, and the shape of everything else

Haaland (Manchester City, £15.7m) has scored in six Gameweeks running. He went off with a knock in stoppage time against Ipswich, and Enzo Maresca said afterwards that Haaland had told him he was fine. City play AEK Athens on Tuesday, the first chance to see whether that holds.

He has 58 points this season. So has Groß, at well under half the price, and De Cuyper has one more.

The rest of City is harder to read. Maresca made six changes against Ipswich, and Rayan Cherki, the most bought player before that deadline, did not get off the bench. This week Cherki is among both the most bought and the most sold players. City's next six sit in the middle of the league's fixture list.

So the points table is the smaller part of the Haaland question. With him, the other fourteen are built around his price, and the cheap end above is what makes it work. Without him, the money buys several of the earlier ideas at once: Vušković beside De Cuyper, Gabriel (Arsenal, £7.9m) beside Calafiori, Rogers and Isak.

Two example squads

Prices on the morning of 19 October 2026, before that night's price changes. Source: Fantasy Premier League.

Ten of the fifteen players are in both. Squad A bets on Haaland and on three starting defenders from Brighton, Arsenal and Leeds, with its cover from Coventry and Ipswich. Squad B bets on the two best defences in the league and on goals spread across more players, and it pays for every week Haaland scores. Its weak point is Gameweek 9, when five of its defensive players are away at City and Liverpool in the same week. With the Bench Boost still to come, Trafford replaces Dubravka in either squad, and both still fit under £100m.

Neither squad is an answer. They are the two shapes the week's evidence points to, and the five players between them are the decision: Haaland and the cheap players who pay for him, or more of Arsenal's and Brighton's defences, with Rogers and Isak.

The Gameweek 8 deadline has passed.

Results, goals, points, prices, ownership, set-piece order, defensive work and FPL's fixture ratings are Fantasy Premier League's, read on the morning of 19 October 2026, before Tottenham against Coventry that evening. Maresca's comments on Haaland and Martínez's operation were reported by ESPN. Mbeumo's share of United's big chances is from the Premier League's analysis of 15 October 2026. The two squads are worked examples, priced on 19 October.

Figures read on 19 October 2026. Players shows today's figures.

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