The first gameweek of the new Fantasy Premier League season is now over. It was a pretty high-scoring round but is time to look forward to FPL Gameweek 2.
And here is one very important GW2 tip for you, FPL managers, from the very beginning of the article.
Keep your emotions in check. Do not make emotional decisions – rage transfers and do not chase points from previous GW.
That would very likely hurt your score in the next round. Calm down, take a deep breath, and use logic instead. From a mathematical point of view, the FPL is a chaotic system.
The Chaos Theory shows us that chaotic systems can be predictable. But just for a while. Then randomness appears again. So do not let the randomness of the first gameweek disrupt the strategy you set up before the beginning of the season. And do not tear apart your team just to bring in some players that (maybe just randomly) hauled in GW1.
Do not draw conclusions about the 2024/25 season just from one gameweek of data. What you have seen was just a variance.
Read more: 4 Books that will help you improve your FPL skills
That being said, let’s continue with our FPL GW2 tips, best picks, fixtures, transfer targets, odds, captain picks, and team selection.
1. Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 2 Tips
- Try to save free transfer for the next round – you will have more data after GW2 and bigger flexibility with 2 free transfers
- Unless your team is in terrible shape already, avoid wildcarding this early. Wait for a fixture swing. Read more: Essential tips for effective use of Wildcard in FPL
- Stick to your strategy and plan you had before GW1. Eliminate the noise.
- Be patient with players that blanked. Give them more time.
- Past performance is never a guarantee of future results.
- Play the long game. You cannot predict short-term results, but you can estimate which players will do well in the long run.
- As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, keep your emotions in check and do not make rage transfers
What to do with some players:
- Barco/Johnson: 4m defenders that did not start in GW1. They (especially Barco) will likely drop in price soon. But you knew what was at stake before you bought them, you knew they were rotation risk, so now try to bench them and save the transfer, wait how the situation evolves. However, if you cannot field the starting XI now, sell Barco (hopefully you have some money in the bank to upgrade to 4.5m defender)
- Quanshah – his place is at risk now, Konaté will be pushing for a start. If you have a bench cover for him, keep Quanshah and play him, and count on autosub if he will not feature. It is too early to say whether he lost his spot or not.
- Haaland / Salah situation. It is hard to have them both without making significant sacrifices in your team, just keep the one you picked. Salah owners had a haul against Ipswich in GW1, and Haaland owners will have a haul against Ipswich in GW2.
- Gordon, Eze, Fernandes, Parmer, Watkins… – despite they blanked in GW1, it does not make them bad picks. Be more patient with your picks, give them time to deliver, and do not allow short-term noise to disrupt your strategy
- Gvardiol – he did not play an advanced role, it could change when Wlaker is back, but for now, do not have unrealistic expectations about attacking returns, you will have to rely more on clean sheet points
- Mbeumo/Wissa transfer will wait until GW6 – fixtures are now tough for Brentford, so if you did not pick their players before GW1, wait a couple more gameweeks until their fixtures improve
- Isak/Gordon/Murphy – hold them
- Nkunku – keep him, fixtures are improving for Chelsea, you knew he was not going to be a 90-minute man giving his fitness issues
2. Key players to own and transfer targets for FPL GW2
Key players
- Haaland/Salah – have one of them, captain options in almost any gameweek
- Saka – stable output over the last few years, on pens, bonus points magnet
- Gabriel/Saliba/White/Raya – Arsenal continues in their solid defensive displays from last season. They can keep a clean sheet against anyone. Pick 1 or 2 of their defenders and stick to them
- TAA – had an amazing 1.06 xGI in GW1 – more than any other defender. TAA from his top season could indeed be back.
Transfer target
- Havertz – it seems he will continue playing the advanced role (and not in midfield), Arsenal can score in any fixture
- Smith Rowe/Robinson – Fulham have amazing fixture run from GW2
Differential transfers
- Foden – well it’s not just Haaland who has a hat-trick potential in GW2
3. Fixtures to target in Gameweek 2
In which fixtures we could expect a lot of fantasy points? Fixtures to target in GW2 according to bookies odds:
- Manchester City vs. Ipswich: Citizens 89 % to win, 64 % to score 2.5+ goals
- Liverpool vs. Brentford: The Reds 78 % to win, 57 % to score 2.5+ goals
- Tottenham vs. Everton: Spurs 67 % to win, 41 % to score 2.5+ goals
- Wolves vs. Chelsea: The Blues 56 % to win, 31 % to score 2.5+ goals
Find 2.5+ goals odds for all teams in our article: Premier League Over 2.5 Goals Odds.
4. Best captain pick in FPL GW2
Who is the best captain in Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 2?
Hard to look past Haaland captaincy against Ipswich in GW1.
- If you have Haaland, captain him.
- If you have Salah, captain him.
- If you have both, captain Haaland.
- If you do not have either, consider Son or Palmer.
According to our captaincy index, Salah is the best captain in FPL Gameweek 2 with a captaincy index score of 2.23 (mainly because of his haul in GW1 which had a huge impact on his form metric inside the index).
Haaland (captaincy index score 1.99) is the number 2 captaincy pick and Jota (1.64) is number 3.
5. What bookies odds say about Gameweek 2
As usual, we converted bookies odds into probabilities using our Odds to probability calculator, to assess the potential of gameweek 2.
Clean sheet odds for GW2
Man. City (57%) is the most likely team to keep a clean sheet in GW2. Bookies also favor Liverpool (40 %) and Tottenham (36 %) to potentially keep a clean sheet in GW2.
In the last season (2023/24), we were used to a rate of 4.13 clean sheets per gameweek. (A big decline in comparison to 2022/23 season when we saw 5.45 clean sheets per gameweek!)
Goalscoring odds for GW2
You can look at all most likely goalscorers here: Premier League Any Time Goalscored Odds.
6. FPL GW2 Team selection
Now let’s look at our FPL team selection for Gameweek 2. Haaland captain. This would be our Wildcard draft if wildcarded today:
7. Fantasy Premier League Tips
Find more tips, strategies and picks for Fantasy Premier League in these articles:
- Beginner? Read our guide: How to play Fantasy Premier League
- Confused about the rules? Read the Official rules of the game or check our FAQs
- Want to beat your mini-league rivals? This article is for you: 7 Key Tips for Fantasy Premier League Success
- Interested in improving your decision-making process when picking players to your fantasy team? Check out Books that will help you to improve your FPL skills
We hope our FPL GW2 tips helped you to gather some useful information before the Gameweek 2 deadline.
Good luck in FPL GW2!
