The Scout Squad returns ahead of Gameweek 4 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL).

In this article, our in-house team of Marc, Sam, Tom F and Neale will discuss who they think the best FPL players are for the upcoming Gameweek in isolation.

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MORE ABOUT THE SCOUT SQUAD

The focus is only on the upcoming Gameweek with the Scout Squad, so there’s no medium-term planning involved.

The players who get the most votes are much more likely to make the Scout Picks, although the final XI can’t exceed £83.0m – so occasionally, we have to select cheaper alternatives.

Each of our writers must meet the following requirements for this feature:

• At least one sub-£5.0m goalkeeper
• At least one sub-£5.0m defender
• At least one sub-£6.0m midfielder
• At least one sub-£7.0m forward
• No more than three players from the same club

SCOUT SQUAD: BEST FPL PLAYERS FOR GAMEWEEK 4

• MOST PICKS: David Raya, Bart Verbruggen, Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, Joao Pedro, Erling Haaland, Alexander Isak (four), Riccardo Calafiori, Maxim De Cuyper, Virgil van Dijk, Anan Khalaili, Diego Gomez, Dominik Szoboszlai (three)

MARC SAID…

I can definitely understand why some are opting to use their Free Hit now, because several teams have a great fixture to pile in on – I’ve tripled up on four of them.

Chelsea assets are this week’s shiniest toys because of a general determination that Hull’s unbreached defence will eventually collapse, knowing their expected goals conceded (xGC) tally is 5.05. Picking a defender against the Tigers would be handy, but these three spots are going to Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro and Morgan Rogers.

Each of them already has at least three attacking returns on the board. Palmer and Pedro are on two more points than Rogers, but the former Aston Villa man is yet to blank and is the league’s joint-best for chances created (10).

Perhaps Brighton have a nicer fixture, given Hull’s recent win over Coventry. Frank Lampard’s lot are without either a goal or a point, so having both Bart Verbruggen and Maxim De Cuyper makes sense. After all, the latter keeps playing in attack, rather than defence, and just added an assist on top of his 17-point opening weekend haul.

Pascal Gross almost matched that in Gameweek 2, is the leader for crosses (25) and missed a sitter versus Leeds. I’d love to pick his shot-machine teammate Diego Gomez, but the two remaining midfield spots need to cover Arsenal and Liverpool’s promising encounters against Sunderland and Fulham.

Bukayo Saka has started all three league games and scored twice, while the Gunners’ supreme defence hasn’t exceeded 0.4 xGC in any match (including the trip to Napoli). David Raya and Gabriel Magalhaes next get to face Sunderland’s fairly weak attack and, although Riccardo Calafiori has more output, the Brazilian beats him for shots on target and big chances.

The goal is coming, which I also feel for Virgil van Dijk because Liverpool are hosting a Fulham defence that has allowed the most big chances (14) so far. It’s a good reason to back a repeat of Alexander Isak’s two-goal return. Now that Cody Gakpo is a doubt for Saturday, I’ll go for Dominik Szoboszlai as he’s taking all set pieces, crossing loads, and scored in open play versus Atletico Madrid. From close range, too!

Elsewhere, Tyrick Mitchell just scored twice past the Cottagers, but I thought the other Crystal Palace wing-back, Anan Khalaili, was very good. Arriving on the back of a six-goal, six-assist season at Union Saint-Gilloise, he missed a big chance of 0.69 expected goals (xG) in the build-up to Palace’s winner. He’s effectively their next Daniel Muñoz.

Completing my backline is Antonin Kinsky – fresh from a clean sheet – and Jayden Bogle, who scored a tap-in last week and secured a clean sheet because he was substituted before Leeds conceded. I like him and Dominic Calvert-Lewin at home to Newcastle. Yes, the Magpies are unbeaten under Matthias Jaissle, but there’s a feeling that results have masked the performances at both ends of the pitch. It’s understandable, of course, after such a huge overhaul. But maybe Leeds will punish that.

Aston Villa are about to face Nottingham Forest, having finally scored their first goals in Tuesday’s Champions League win. Nicolas Jackson got one of them, and I think he will soon be a popular FPL purchase. Meanwhile, Erling Haaland did it twice in Porto. He’s netted each of Man City’s last four goals, and has a great record in Manchester derbies.

SAM SAID…

It’s triple-ups galore in my picks this week! Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Brighton and Spurs – yes, Spurs – all appear three times. Here’s why.

Despite Hull having three clean sheets in the opening three matches of the season, I have opted for the attacking Chelsea trio of Joao Pedro, Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer. Hull have an expected goals conceded (xGC) tally of 5.05 over the first three Gameweeks, which suggests that they have been lucky not to concede to date. Meanwhile, Chelsea are the league’s joint-top scorers. Rogers is yet to blank in FPL this season and got four assists (including what would have been a Fantasy assist) in the League Cup on Wednesday. Palmer, meanwhile, has had the most shots in this Chelsea side (12) and Joao Pedro has started this season in the same form we witnessed at the beginning of 2025/26.

Despite a win and a draw for Sunderland in the last two matches, this feels like a good fixture for Arsenal, especially as they managed to rest some key players in the Champions League on Wednesday evening. David Raya and Riccardo Calafiori form a defensive double-up, but I was really unsure about this and gave serious consideration to Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard as an attacking pairing, with Calafiori as the lone defender. In the end, though, Arsenal’s defensive securities won out: they are the best team in the league for xGC with just 0.93, well clear of anyone else.

Liverpool take back-to-back wins in all competitions into what I think is potentially the best fixture of the Gameweek against Fulham. The Cottagers have really struggled this season and have been defensively vulnerable, something that Liverpool can profit from. I would have picked Cody Gakpo, as Fulham’s weakest point of defence was down their right against Crystal Palace, where Tyrick Mitchell was able to exploit that weakness twice. However, with the Dutch midfielder missing the midweek match and now flagged, I have played it safe with penalty-taking Dominik Szoboszlai. Joining him is Alexander Isak, who is showing signs of the striker who hit 20+ goals in two seasons at Newcastle United. Finally, I have opted for Virgil van Dijk for his threat from set pieces. It was a close call between him and Milos Kerkez because of the vulnerabilities we saw from Fulham on his side of the pitch.

Brighton have had a good start to the season and now face Coventry City in Gameweek 4. With the Sky Blues goalless, there’s another defensive double-up with Bart Verbruggen and Luka Vuskovic. Many will question why the latter over the ‘out of position’ Maxim De Cuyper but Vuskovic poses a serious goal threat of his own and is far likelier than De Cuyper to deliver DefCon points, so I’m happy to side with him. Diego Gomez joins those two: he is top for shots in the Brighton team with 12, the same as Palmer, and he has also created five chances. The midfielder is often found in great positions, with 18 penalty area touches, while Coventry have allowed more chances to be created down their left (17) than their right (six) by some margin.

Yes, you did hear me right: three Tottenham players. Have my Spurs goggles taken over? Maybe! But I do think we have seen developments, for the better, in each of the last three weeks. Antonin Kinsky and the Spurs defence kept their first clean sheet of 2026/27 in Gameweek 3, while Everton have a very poor record against Spurs: two wins in 27 league games. You might remember Micky van de Ven’s heroic returns against them on my Bench Boost in Gameweek 9 last season; I will never forget it. But it’s not van de Ven who gets the nod, it’s Pedro Porro, who has had the most shots for Spurs this season (six) despite not featuring in Gameweek 1. Omar Marmoush was unlucky not to score in Gameweek 3 and I think when he gets off the mark, he will find his rhythm with the attacking unit around him.

Erling Haaland is the sole pick from the Manchester derby. Haaland’s best record in the league is against United: he has returned 66 points in eight league matches against them, via eight goals and three assists.

Evanilson and Leif Davis are my other lone rangers.

TOM F SAID…

It was really easy to go with a Chelsea triple-up this week, and there’s an argument to pick three attackers.

Hull City have kept a clean sheet in each of their three matches, but have allowed over 5 expected goals (xG). Although their low block has the potential to make life difficult for Chelsea, it isn’t sustainable long-term, so I do think there is a decent chance that all three of Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Joao Pedro return.

Also enjoying an appealing match on their own turf are Liverpool. There’s no great conviction with the Jeremy Jacquet pick; he’s just the cheapest route into a defence that features near the top of the clean sheet odds list this week.

Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexander Isak also get the nod. The Reds are up against a Fulham outfit who have allowed more big chances than any other top-flight team. They are also in the bottom two for expected goals conceded (xGC) at this very early stage of 2026/27.

Fresh from another clean sheet in Naples, an Arsenal defensive double-up for the trip to Sunderland is a bit of a no-brainer. I was tempted by Ezri Konsa’s budget price tag, but Riccardo Calafiori’s goal threat is on another level compared to the rest of the backline. He was rested with Kai Havertz in midweek.

The Brighton and Hove Albion defence is also of interest against Coventry City, who are yet to score this season. An ‘out of position’ Maxim De Cuyper is an obvious inclusion: he’s top for attacking returns among FPL defenders in Gameweeks 1-3, with one goal and two assists.

Further forward, opposition weaknesses best explain the Diego Gomez pick: Coventry have conceded 17 key passes down their left flank this season, three more than any other team and 11 more than on their right flank. Gomez feels like a solid enabler for Gameweek 4, then.

Anan Khalaili is my left-field pick for this week. The Crystal Palace wing-back has three shots and two chances created in his first three matches, which includes only two starts. He’s also racked up 33 defensive contributions (DefCon), the third-most of any FPL defender.

Finally, Erling Haaland loves a derby (eight goals and three assists in seven games v Manchester United), while Unai Emery has surprisingly never beaten a team managed by Oliver Glasner. The Spaniard has experimented with different tactics, even switching to a back three, but it just never seems to work. Consequently, Morgan Gibbs-White makes the cut.

NEALE SAID…

My longlist is, as pretty much every other Free Hit team is this week, predictably heavy on Chelsea, Brighton and Liverpool players. I won’t waste too much time explaining the obvious selections from those teams, then.

I did ruminate over the Liverpool midfielder for longer than any other pick, however. It’d have been oh so simple had Cody Gakpo been 100% fit but, given that he missed a match on Wednesday night, it’s asking a lot for his adductor problems to clear by 3pm on Saturday. I could’ve gone with the dullard (but eminently sensible) Dominik Szoboszlai nomination, and no doubt that’s who’ll end up in the Scout Picks, but there’s something that feels overly cautious in opting for a midfielder who has had one penalty box touch all season against a Fulham side in defensive disarray. With Bradley Barcola cramping against Atleti, I fancy Victor Munoz to start this weekend. Alvaro Arbeloa pushes his full-backs very high, which could be disastrous against a speed merchant like Munoz, and the nippy Spaniard impressed me on his last Anfield start against Nottingham Forest, racking up four shots.

Diego Gomez over Pascal Gross is purely about the open-play attacking threat. The Paraguayan has found himself in some excellent goalscoring positions in the opening three Gameweeks, particularly against Chelsea, when he amassed five attempts. He’s got two assists to his name, too. Whether he’ll get the same space against a five-at-the-back Coventry is the question but the Sky Blues have conceded a hell of a lot of chances from that flank, with Ben White and Antoine Semenyo assisting from there in Gameweeks 1 and 3.

The front three of Joao Pedro, Erling Haaland and Alexander Isak are so far ahead of the other forwards this week that it seems futile to nominate two others. Still, it must be done, so Omar Marmoush and Dominic Calvert-Lewin are the two album fillers. Marmoush had decent sniffs of goal in Gameweeks 2 and 3, and his movement, if not yet his finishing, has been good. Everton, meanwhile, have been conceding ‘big chances’ for fun this season, fluking a clean sheet against Crystal Palace on the opening weekend. As for Calvert-Lewin, I think, from watching every Newcastle game this season, that we’re due a momentum-checking defeat, as results against Spurs and Bournemouth were on the spawny side.

Leeds under the Elland Road floodlights are a different beast, too, and I’ve even gone with Tarik Muharemovic, after yet another showcase of his set-piece threat against Chelsea in midweek. No side has allowed more set-play chances (22) than Newcastle in 2025/26.

Most of the midfield is covered by Chelsea, Brighton and Liverpool players. I ummed and ahhed over the fifth midfielder, and I was Yeremy Pino-deep before asking myself: ‘What’s wrong with Bruno Fernandes this week?’. City looked far from watertight even against Coventry last Saturday, while the Portuguese playmaker has scored in both of his previous home encounters against an Enzo Maresca-led side. He assisted in the last Manchester derby, too, and he’s further forward than ever before, with Youri Tielemans’ string-pulling negating Bruno’s need to drop deep and dictate the tempo.

As well as the obligatory Arsenal defensive representation (the league’s tightest defence in the previous three seasons and already well in front for lowest xGC this term), there is a Scout Squad debut for Anan Khalaili. Have we found a wing-back who offers Munoz-level attacking threat along with Lacroix-esque DefCon potential? Nine defensive contributions in 35 Gameweek 1 minutes were the first clue re the latter, and he’s built on that since. He also nearly scored last weekend when rounding Bernd Leno, only to stumble. It’s a pity that Palace look like a shambles at the back, mind…

Aston Villa have failed to score in all three of their league games, and Forest in two of theirs. A bore draw at Villa Park on Saturday, then? Zion Suzuki features as my third and final ‘keeper this week.

• READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 4 tips: Best players, predicted line-ups, team news + more