Arsenal top picks for FPL

The Premier League season is edging closer and closer along with the Official Fantasy game. Because of this we direct our focus towards the Arsenal top picks in FPL. Analysing their defensive and offensive stats from last season to pick out their best fantasy players.

Looking at the Arsenal top picks in FPL can be extremely helpful to managers. ‘The Gooners’ finished in second place last season after pulling off an impressive title challenge with Manchester City. But before looking at their players, lets take a look at their early fixtures.

Fixture ticker

We can see from the ticker below Arsenal rank first. They face Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Manchester United, Everton and Tottenham in their first six games. This means they have the easiest fixtures to start the season with. It also suggests that their assets could be some of the most investable in the game.

The Arsenal defence

Arsenal were one of the best defensive units in the league last season. This is reinforced in their underlying data from last season – they ranked:

Joint second best for goal conceded (43).
Joint second best for clean sheets kept (14).
Third best for expected goals conceded (42.20).

With this in mind it could be wise to invest in their defensive assets.

Arsenal defensive assets

We compare the Arsenal defenders below to see how they do in terms of minutes and expected goal involvement.

Firstly it could be vital to compare their reliability for expected game time in the data from last season. We can see that centre-back Gabriel (£5m) leads the way with 3407 minutes with left-back Ben White (£5.5m) behind with 3040 minutes.

Clean sheets can be a great way to earn points but goal involvement can be even more beneficial. Below is a graphic comparing the Arsenal defender’ expected goal involvement from the 22/23 campaign.

Gabriel, once again, leads the way. The Brazilian racked up a non-penalty goal involvement of 5.71 last season whilst Ben White fell short with 4.98. What is interesting is that Oleksander Zinchenko (£5m) played far less minutes than White (under 600 less) but still clawed a 3.77 expected goal involvement.

Taking into account expected minutes and goal threat, Gabriel looks to be the standout Arsenal defender option.

Considering Zinchenko played less minutes and still came close to Ben White’ non-penalty expected goal involvement, and the fact he is £0.5m cheaper, could implicate the Ukrainian as a better option than White.

The Arsenal attack

Arsenal also impressed offensively last season. In fact, in their 22/23 campaign they ranked:

Second best for goals scored (88).
Fifth for shots on target (197).
Fourth for expected goals scored (72.09).

The stats back the Arsenal attackers but how do their assets compare?

Arsenal attacking assets

In terms of minutes played last season, the graphic below shows how they stack up against each other.

We can see that Bukayo Saka (£8.5m) was the most reliable (3172 minutes). Martin Ødegaard (£8.5m) follows closely behind with Gabriel Martinelli (£8m) in third. The latter may have some competition with Leandro Trossard (£7m) for the new season again. Gabriel Jesus (£8m) sits last for minutes, but it is worth highlighting that he suffered some injuries last campaign.

When comparing goals and assists last campaign Saka came out on top again with 25. Following the emerging pattern, Martin Ødegaard isn’t far behind with 22. Another interesting point is that although Gabriel Jesus played over 1000 minutes less that Saka and Martin Ødegaard he was only eight and five goals and assists behind.

From what we have seen and the fact he is on penalty duty Bukayo Saka is the standout attacking option from the Arsenal frontline. Martin Ødegaard could be a close second behind Saka but taking into account his minutes and output last season Gabriel Jesus could also be another fantastic asset – he is also £0.5m cheaper that the former options but is currently injured.

Pre-season

Arsenal have played five friendly matches so far – winning three, drawing one and losing one.
In the five matches they played they kept one clean sheet and scored 12 goals.
Amongst the goals was Bukayo Saka (two), Leandro Trossard (three) and Kai Havertz (two).