Is Ben White the best FPL defender option at £4.5m?

We assess the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) appeal of Ben White (£4.5m) following his £50m move to Arsenal from Brighton and Hove Albion.

When it came to the skimpy price reveal by the powers that be last month, as part of a Brighton defence that conceded the fewest goals of anyone in the Premier League last season outside the traditional “big six”, the eyes of many where being drawn to the England defender.

Fast forward little over a fortnight, and the 23-year-old’s big-money move from the south coast to an Arsenal back three that cried out for a commanding, if silky, centre-half presence through much of last season, has turned the eye-catching to unmissable.

The rarest of gems, White’s post-Fantasy mark-up move has seen his ownership figures rocket to over 23% and he is by far the most-owned asset at a club with big expectations to improve on what was a dismal campaign last season.

Wesley Fofana‘s (£4.5m) horrendous injury and the FPL exodus that followed has also boosted White’s numbers

Falling firmly within the much coveted ‘premium enabler’ category, the question now turns to how much of an asset he can become to our squads. 

Whilst Fantasy legends are born on similar tales of late-summer transfer fortune (Diogo Jota (£7.5m) springs to mind), the name Rhian Brewster still rings violently in the heads of many a scorned selector.

With that in mind, we use the datasets found in the Fantasy Football Scout Members Area to run the rule over this season’s great White hope.

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The History

If you feel that Ben White’s is a name you have been hearing for quite a few years in terms of a glorious coming of age, few could put a reasonable argument to the contrary. 

Having left boyhood club Southampton as a 16-year-old before joining the Seagulls academy in 2014, White got his first taste of senior football during a much-lauded loan spell at Newport County across their 2017/18 League 2 campaign, making 42 appearances for the Welsh side as a teenage centre-half.

It was at the start of that 2018-19 season that White first pinged on the FPL radar, priced up at £4.0m whilst playing understudy to the proven centre-back partnership of Lewis Dunk (£5.0m) and Shane Duffy (£4.0m) that, incredibly, still are available for Brighton backers to select this season.

White registered no Premier League minutes throughout that Dunk and Duffy dominated 18/19 campaign, spending the latter half of the season on loan at League One side Peterborough United. He earned rave reviews during his 16-game spell, with the Posh narrowly missing out on the play-offs on the final day of the regular season.

Still deemed surplus to starting XI requirements at the Amex, White secured a high-profile loan to Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United at the beginning of what proved to be the most fruitful of years for the Yorkshire giants. As the Whites romped to Championship success, White was an ever present at the heart of their all-action defensive third.

By the time he had left Elland Road before embarking on his first full season as a playing asset for Brighton in the Premier League last season, White was voted the Championship Young Player of the Year as well as featuring in the Championship Team of the Season for 2019/20.

And so finally, last season, and a breakout year in the Premier League, where the Dorset-born defender made 36 Premier League appearances in that impressive Brighton defence. He was voted Club Player of the Year on the night he made his first senior start for his country against Romania.

White (eventually) found himself in the England squad for the Euros, after the withdrawal of Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) through injury yet failed to make an appearance at this summer’s showpiece event as England made it to the final of the competition.

Hailed for his ball-playing attributes, interest in White reached fever pitch over the summer and eventually resulted in Brighton wilting in their attempts to keep hold of him when Arsenal came calling.

Having penned a long-term contract at the Emirates he has been handed the number four shirt immortalised by the likes of Patrick Vieira and Cesc Fabregas and made his debut in Saturday’s 2-1 friendly defeat to Chelsea.

The Statistics

The 23-year-old’s output from a Fantasy perspective was credible last season, if falling short of awe inspiring. For instance, we still await his first attacking return, having only engineered 10 attempts from 22 touches in total in opponent’s penalty areas throughout last season. Only one gave an opposing keeper any worry.

But Mikel Arteta certainly has not acquired White on the back of his attacking prowess, but rather that sustained consistency that evaded the Gunners for the vast majority of last season. 

White registered 3,194 minutes of Premier League playing time, 636 minutes more than Rob Holding (£4.5m) – Arsenal’s most featured defensive asset. That’s seven games.

Despite Arsenal and Brighton both recording 12 clean sheets last season, White tallied more than any Arsenal defender in the category given his nigh-on ever-presence for Graham Potter’s side.

Given that, it’s no surprise that the Gunners newbie scored significantly higher than his new teammates in terms of Baseline Bouns Points last season, but more telling in terms of what White can bring to his new side can be found in his per 90 stats in key defensive categories.