More Premier League action to reflect on as we look back on the Gameweek 15 curtain-raiser: Aston Villa 2-1 Arsenal.

• READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 15: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus + ‘DefCon’ points
• READ MORE: FPL notes: Senesi update + Delap injury good for £4.2m Guiu?
• READ MORE: FPL notes: Is Salah’s time at Liverpool coming to an end?

RICE AT THE MIDFIELDER SUMMIT

He’s had only six shots in the box all season, scoring just twice, and he’s delivered one attacking return in five matches.

Yet Declan Rice (£7.1m), as of Sunday night, sits top of the FPL midfielder points table.

Is Rice’s ascension an indictment of midfielders in general this season or just the new order of things, with the introduction of defensive contribution (DefCon) points? A bit of both, Clive.

This time last season, the top-scoring midfielder, Mohamed Salah (£14.0m), had 67 more points than Rice does now! Bukayo Saka (£10.1m) and Cole Palmer (£10.3m) were both ‘centurions’ after Gameweek 15 of 2024/25, too. For one reason or another (injury/form), it’s simply not been a good campaign for the big guns in midfield. In other positions, Erling Haaland (£15.0m) and Daniel Munoz (£6.1m) have proven that the ‘old ways’ can still win out.

But, that aside, DefCon has ushered in a new era, and helped long-overlooked players to compete with the household FPL names. Rice now has 12 DefCon points to his name after Saturday’s game. That’s the equivalent of four assists. It’s meant 5.9 points per start, not 5.1. If you count DefCons as a ‘return’, it’s meant Rice blanking in just 28% of his starts and not 50%.

SAKA THREATENS

Rice is now more widely owned than Saka, with the £3.0m saving – not to mention the better points tally – hard to argue with.

But with Salah and, for now, Palmer off the table, there’ll be plenty of managers still comfortable owning Saka. He’s actually not blanked – if you include DefCon – in five Gameweeks. That run has seen him deliver two goals, two assists and four DefCon points.

On Saturday, he was again a threat. He was Arsenal’s top player for penalty box touches (11), shots (four) and chances created (four). It was his cross-shot that Emi Martinez (£5.1m) palmed out, with Leandro Trossard (£6.9m) following in to score. Less than 20 minutes later, Saka had beaten Martinez – only for Boubacar Kamara (£4.9m) to kick away the goalbound effort.

All things factored in, he was right up there on Saturday for expected goal involvement (xGI) among midfielders (below) – as he has been over the last five Gameweeks, too.

Rather than Rice v Saka in a straight fight, could an Arsenal midfield double-up be the way to go while the defence is ever-so-slightly understrength?

MERINO + EZE HOOKED AT HALF-TIME

With Arsenal trailing at the break, Arteta took off Mikel Merino (£6.0m) and Eberechi Eze (£7.8m).

Merino was always going to be a short-term fixture in the Gunners’ side. The Spaniard had some credit in the bank following his recent goals, while Viktor Gyokeres (£8.8m) is only recently back from injury. Once the form of the former and the fitness of the latter began to move in opposite directions, however, it was just a matter of time.

Eze’s slightly different. He’ll no doubt continue to play a significant part in Arsenal’s season for weeks and months to come.

But since his Gameweek 12 hat-trick, which attracted a new wave of owners, four positional rivals in central midfield/on the left wing have returned to full fitness: Noni Madueke (£6.8m), Gabriel Martinelli (£6.8m), Martin Odegaard (£7.8m) and, after a shorter spell out, Trossard. The xMins are back down again, especially with the busy month ahead. No Gunner will escape some minute management in this period; Saka and Jurrien Timber (£6.5m) were benched in Gameweek 14, indeed. But there aren’t the same number of serious threats to, say, Saka’s position as there are to Eze’s.

The former Palace man is probably not worth the risk over Christmas.

CALAFIORI BAN + ARTETA CONFIRMS MOSQUERA INJURY

Arsenal will be without Riccardo Calafiori (£5.8m) in Gameweek 16. The Italian picked up his fifth booking of the season on Saturday, so serves a one-match league ban.

And Cristhian Mosquera (£5.4m) will definitely be out, too. Reports had suggested the centre-half would be out for 6-8 weeks and while Arteta didn’t ratify that timeline, he did confirm that it will be “weeks” for the young defender.

“He’s going to be out for weeks, unfortunately, it’s much more than what we expected. But the player was feeling it, so he’s going to be out for weeks.” – Mikel Arteta on Cristhian Mosqeura

TIMBER BREAKS HIS DEFCON DUCK

The absence of Mosquera, along with first-choice pair William Saliba (£6.0m) and Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m), saw Jurrien Timber line up at centre-half. He had finished there against Brentford in midweek, too.

While the attacking threat diminished at centre-back, up went the defensive contributions – and Timber secured his first DefCon points of 2025/26.

Saliba, if Arteta is to be believed, ought to be back in the reckoning come Gameweek 16, so Timber should be resuming right-back duties soon.

“We know what those two [Gabriel and William Saliba] bring, especially in a game like this. But the other two [Piero Hincapie and Jurrien Timber], I think they were exceptional as well today.” – Mikel Arteta

WHY DON’T WE OWN VILLA PLAYERS?!

They’re second in the table and have won nine of their last 10 Premier League games.

A draw was the least they deserved on Saturday, as they went toe to toe with the title favourites:

So, given the form, why don’t many of us own any Aston Villa players?

For one, they’ve been better as a collective, rather than offering too many stand-out individual players. And FPL is mostly about individuals.

Their two top goalscorers, Emiliano Buendia (£5.3m) and Donyell Malen (£5.1m), are only on four goals apiece, and are far from nailed: they were both benched on Saturday, and have only started 10 league matches between them in 2025/26.

No Villa player has more than three assists, either. The points are simply being spread around.

Last season’s big Fantasy success stories, Morgan Rogers (£6.9m) and Ollie Watkins (£8.5m), have been slow off the mark at the start of 2025/26, too. Despite Villa’s renaissance, Watkins – who has looked sharper this week, testing David Raya (£6.0m) on Saturday – only had one league goal to his name before Gameweek 14. Rogers, meanwhile, only averages a shot every 70 minutes this season; Ian Maatsen (£4.2m) can better that.

Finally, they’re vastly overachieving on the expected goals front. Villa are ranked 14th for xG, and 15th for xGC in 2025/26. So, despite their lofty standing, no real talisman and iffy underlying data make them an uneasy proposition.

There is one Villan who does leap out at present: Matty Cash (£4.7m). Shorn of the competition affecting Lucas Digne (£4.5m) on the opposite flank, he’s started every league game this season. He’s one of the few defenders to hit double figures for both shots (15) and chances created (13). Even then, his three goals have come from an xG of 0.59 – so temper those expectations.