FPL Challenge Best Picks and Team Reveal – Gameweek 2
With the new feature gaining momentum, our FPL Challenge Best Picks and Team Reveal – Gameweek 2 is what many managers are looking for right now.
This week’s challenge offers a fresh twist on squad building, and making the right choices could be the difference between a huge score and a missed opportunity. In this article, we’ll go through the standout picks and reveal a team built to take on GW2.
What is the Gameweek 2 Challenge?
This weeks Challenge is ‘The Promoted’. Challengers earn double points from promoted players, but can select just one player from each club.
Top Picks
Goalkeepers
With only one player allowed from each promoted club, Challengers can own three promoted players maximum in Gameweek 2. This opens up the pool of non-promoted players, so focusing on them as well will be equally important.
The standout goalkeeper heading into the round could be Martin Dubravka. Burnley play at home this week, which could give them the edge over upcoming opposition Sunderland. They also kept a massive 30 clean sheets in the Championship last season.
Alternatively, Challengers could back Sunderland man Robin Roefs. The Black Cats kept a clean sheet in their opening round match against West Ham. As well as clean sheet potential, an away fixture could mean plenty of save point potential for Roefs.
Leeds assets are far less convincing this week due to their match against Arsenal. With that in mind, non-promoted goalkeepers like Arsenal’ David Raya, Chelsea’ Robert Sanchez v West Ham, and Nottingham Forest’ Matz Sels could also be great options.
Defenders
The Burnley defence remains a standout for the round ahead. Their record-breaking 30 clean sheets in the Championship last season makes them extremely appealing, especially when considering they face a fellow promoted side.
Burnley have two really nice picks. One of them is centre-back Maxime Esteve who could offer both clean sheet and defcon potential. Some could also look to attacking full-back Quilindschy Hartman who offers more offensive potential.
New signing Reinildo Mandava provides an exciting route into the Black Cats backline after moving from Atleti. Right back Trai Hume bagged three goals and six assists in the Championship last season, so offers multiple routes to points.
Challengers will also look to the likes of Arsenal centre-back Gabriel for his match against Leeds, Chelsea’ Marc Cucurella who continues to get into advanced positions, Nottingham Forest centre-back Murillo v Crystal Palace and Brighton full-back Maxim De Cuyper for his meeting with Everton.
Check out our FPL Gameweek 2 Essential Guide for team reveals, free hit drafts and much more!
Midfielders
The Burnley midfield options are extremely limited. However, one player who does stand out is former Sporting CP attacker Marcus Edwards. Edwards bagged two goals during pre-season, so if starting this week, he could be a real threat.
Sunderland’ 3-0 win against West Ham highlights their frontline ahead of the new round. Arguably the best of the bunch if Simon Adingra who recently moved from Brighton. Adingra has scored and assisted since making the move over. Teammate Granit Xhaka could also offer potential via defcons and attacking threat.
Outside of the promoted teams, Arsenal hold huge appeal this week for their match against Leeds. Newly promoted sides tend to be great teams to target, and Arsenal’ main man Bukayo Saka will be hoping to get on the score sheet for the first time this season.
There is an abundance of great midfield options this week, including Chelsea’ Cole Palmer v West Ham, Bournemouth talisman Antoine Semenyo against Wolves, Aston Villa man Morgan Rogers versus Brentford, and Manchester United penalty taker Bruno Fernandes for his clash with Fulham.
Forwards
Rotation among the Burnley strikers is far from ideal, so monitoring the line-ups for either one of Lyle Foster and Zian Flemming could be key. The latter had a great end to his 2024/25 campaign though – scoring five goals and registering three assists in his final 10 league matches.
20-year-old Eliezer Mayenda looks to be the Black Cats most promising striker though. As well as finding the net in two of his sides three Championship play-off matches, he also scored against West Ham in Gameweek 1.
It could be very difficult to ignore Arsenal’ match against Leeds this week. The Gooners could rack up a handful of goals against the newly promoted side, and expected to be involved is of course new signing Viktor Gyokeres.
Other striker picks like: Chelsea’ Joao Pedro, Erling Haaland of Manchester City against Tottenham and Aston Villa’ Ollie Watkins against Brentford could also have potential.
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Team Reveal
- I think it’s going to be a low scoring game between Burnley and Sunderland, I can see it being 0-0 or 1-0 to Burnley. For that reason I’m using my picks on defence.
- I have gone for Roefs because I think he could rack up more save points than Dubravka. I also wanted to captain a Burnley player, just not Dubravka, so I went for Esteve. Esteve could keep a clean sheet and get defcons this week.
- Midfield is stacked with players who I think could do really well this week, Palmer, Saka and Semenyo.
- I’m on the fence with Watkins over Gyokeres. I think Arsenal are going to score a few goals, but Watkins should play the entire 90 minutes against a poor Brentford side.
Gameweek 1 Review
- Last week I hit 68 points which helped me to a 36k global rank – a solid start.
- Captaining Ait Nouri went as well as I had hoped, whilst including Kudus was a very good idea.
- I think my mistake last week was going for Gyokeres, but as explained he was a punt.
- Overall, it wasn’t a bad start to my Challenge campaign!
