The 2025/26 season is in full swing, with many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers deploying chips over the opening six rounds of matches.
It may well be a similar story in Gameweek 7, as form and fixture swings present another opportunity to deploy your first Wildcard of the campaign.
In this piece, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of Wildcarding this week, as well as a few possible drafts.
GAMEWEEK 7 WILDCARD: THE ARGUMENTS FOR
ARSENAL (AND NEWCASTLE) UP…
One key reason for Wildcarding in Gameweek 7 is the fixture swing Arsenal are about to experience. With matches against Liverpool, Manchester City and Newcastle United out of the way, the Gunners sit top of our Fixture Ticker over the next 10+ Gameweeks:
There’s a chance West Ham United get a ‘new manager bounce’ from Nuno Espirito Santo replacing Graham Potter, but the Hammers still have a vastly inferior squad to the one at Mikel Arteta’s disposal, which has helped the Spanish coach lose just once so far in 2025/26.
Fulham and Burnley have both been shaky, as have Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Arsenal are proving to be increasingly capable of grinding out results; might they be the side to end Crystal Palace’s impressive unbeaten run, which could stand at 22 matches by the time Gameweek 9 rolls around?
With their backline in particular likely to be heavily backed, a Gameweek 7 Wildcard allows FPL managers to ensure they are adequately covered with at least one, if not two (or three?) of Arteta’s defenders and potentially get ahead of the pack with their attackers as well.
Newcastle are also about to embark on a great run of games. Their attack is slowly clicking into place following a few new arrivals and the departure of their top scorer over the summer, and the Magpies’ defence is certainly worthy of investment.
… AND LIVERPOOL DOWN?
Liverpool, meanwhile, suffered their first defeat of the season in Gameweek 6 and now travel to face Chelsea. The Blues will admittedly be without four first-choice centre-backs following Trevoh Chalobah’s (£5.2m) dismissal last weekend.
But Arne Slot’s attacking line-ups are getting increasingly difficult to call, with the exception of Mohamed Salah (£14.5m), who remains quieter than usual and isn’t currently living up to his lofty price tag, let alone making a strong case for captaincy. Cody Gakpo (£7.6m) was the latest victim of rotation, Florian Wirtz (£8.2m) is yet to convince, and Hugo Ekitike (£8.7m) could return to the starting XI in Gameweek 7 but now has Alexander Isak (£10.6m) eating into more of his gametime as he builds up match fitness.
Liverpool’s backline has also been far from airtight so far, with plenty of cheaper defenders delivering more points through clean sheets, defensive contributions (DefCons) and attacking returns at the moment.
The Reds do still rank highly on our Fixture Ticker over the next 10 Gameweeks, but you could argue that they may not properly experience a fixture swing until Gameweek 12/13.
Manchester United – for all their many shortcomings – do still manage to make things difficult at times against the top teams, Brentford have been miles better at home than on the road, Aston Villa look to finally be on the up and City away will be no easy feat.
We’ll all undoubtedly want to load up on Liverpool again for their appealing run after that, but between now and then, there are five rounds of matches where players from other clubs may be more likely to haul and/or prove more cost-effective.
RESHUFFLE FUNDS
As we continue to learn the value of DefCon points in Gameweeks with as few clean sheets as these last two, those cheaper defensive options many of us may not otherwise have considered suddenly become more and more appealing. There’s certainly an understandable rationale behind moving money out of your defence, as plenty of FPL managers have already decided to do. A Wildcard is the most opportune time to do so.
The same is true in midfield, where several midfielders priced below £8.0m, £7.0m and even £6.0m are outperforming previous go-to options like Cole Palmer (£10.3m), Manchester United’s misfiring bunch and Salah.
Depending on suspensions – like Chalobah’s – or injuries – like Palmer’s – facing your squad, and your preferred strategy between targeting high points ceilings or reliable returns, Wildcarding now could enable funds to be shifted around your squad and even stored in the bank with one eye on the weeks to come.
HAALAND ESSENTIAL?
With his own formidable form and the comparative lack of other premium FPL assets, you could easily argue that Erling Haaland (£14.4m) is nearing ‘essential’ territory.
Many managers Wildcarded to bring him in last weekend, and thousands more Triple Captained him; both camps, as well as his other existing owners, were handsomely rewarded by the Norwegian’s third double-digit haul in six attempts and indeed his highest score of the campaign to date.
City have a few more good fixtures now and on the horizon, meaning a Gameweek 7 Wildcard could therefore present an opportunity for any stragglers to easily hop aboard the Haaland train before his price skyrockets any further and it becomes even trickier to bring him in.
GAMEWEEK 7 WILDCARD: THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST
WAIT FOR THE BREAK
International breaks have always been a popular time to deploy an FPL Wildcard; there are two weeks’ worth of price changes to manoeuvre, potentially allowing a big positive swing in team value, as well as plenty of chances for injuries to derail any pre-made plans.
Given Gameweek 7 is the last round of matches until a two-week pause for the October internationals, there may be merit in waiting just one more week before activating your Wildcard.
LAST CHANCE FOR VILLA, UNITED… AND SPURS?
That’s also true because there are players from a few clubs who FPL bosses may currently own, and see a promising fixture for during Gameweek 7, but then want to be rid of come Gameweek 8/9 in the post-internationals world.
For example, those who have kept Ollie Watkins (£8.7m) this long might struggle to offload him now before he faces Burnley at home, given the Aston Villa man finally looked lively and bagged his first goal of the season in the weekend just gone. His teammates Ezri Konsa (£4.5m), Matty Cash (£4.6m) and Morgan Rogers (£6.9m) are all decent options this weekend as well, but easier sells afterwards with Tottenham Hotspur (a), Man City (h), Liverpool (a) and Bournemouth (h) on the schedule.
The same goes for Manchester United’s Bryan Mbeumo (£8.1m), Matheus Cunha (£8.0m) and Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m), who have largely disappointed so far but have a chance to turn things around at home against Sunderland this weekend before spending three of the next four Gameweeks on the road, including at Anfield. Whether they’ll take that chance is, of course, another matter…
Spurs have been much better than Villa or United so far this season, leading to plenty of backing for their players across our squads. However, after Leeds United (a) this weekend, their fixtures do take a turn for the worse, which coincides with fixture swings for other clubs.
BETTER FIXTURE SWINGS COMING?
On that note, while the likes of Arsenal and Newcastle begin their appealing fixture runs now, there are other teams who do so in the near future.
Chelsea, for example, face Liverpool this weekend but then have what could be a brilliant stretch for investment in both attackers and defenders from the Blues’ ranks:
We’ve already discussed Liverpool’s mixed bag of fixtures in the immediate future, but from Gameweek 13 the Reds will face West Ham, Sunderland, Leeds, Wolves and Leeds again in a seven-game span.
Wildcarding then also allows you to dodge a potentially difficult medium-term period for City before investing for their own seven-game spell that features Leeds, Sunderland (twice), Fulham and West Ham.
You can jump back on Villa if they’ve found their groove around that time, too, and the likes of Crystal Palace and Bournemouth offer good entry points in both Gameweeks 12 and 13.
GAMEWEEK 7 WILDCARD TEAM DRAFTS
For those who do decide to Wildcard this week, including the likes of Haaland, Antoine Semenyo (£7.8m) and Marcos Senesi (£4.9m), as we have below, should require little justification.
Martin Dubravka (£4.0m) also remains the top budget goalkeeper at this point, and Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.2m) stands out as boasting the best combination of long-term nailedness and attacking threat among Arsenal defenders. Viktor Gyokeres (£9.0m) will also view this upcoming run as a prime chance to bang in some more goals, and the Swede faces comparatively less competition for gametime than his teammates in the Gunners’ midfield.
Omar Alderete (£4.0m), meanwhile, has emerged as a leading (for now) £4.0m enabler with an eye for goal and plenty of DefCon points to his name already, in a Sunderland side that has exceeded many expectations.
Without further ado, here are a few different Gameweek 7 Wildcard draft variations for your perusal…
DRAFT 1: BIG FRONTLINE
Pairing David Raya (£5.6m) with Gabriel may not be the most exciting way to double up on Arsenal’s defence, but it creates the duo that’s probably the likeliest to start every match.
Dan Burn (£5.0m) looks similarly assured of regular gametime and comes in as representation of a Newcastle defence that has been among the Premier League’s sternest. The Magpies also offer an appealing run of fixtures into the New Year.
Meanwhile, Leeds’ Joe Rodon (£4.0m) – as well as equally-priced teammate Gabriel Gudmundsson (£4.0m) – offers good value for money as a fifth defender at the moment and enables bigger spending further up the pitch.
The same is true in midfield with Burnley winger Jaidon Anthony (£5.6m), whose latest goal came via a deflection but was still his fifth attacking return (four goals, one assist) of the campaign on top of some strong underlying stats – and all of that ahead of a run that includes Leeds (h), Wolves (a) and West Ham (a) in his next five outings.
Form, fixtures and overall importance to his team’s potential going forward also earns Brighton and Hove Albion’s Yankuba Minteh (£5.9m) a nod, with Spurs’ main man Mohammed Kudus (£6.7m) and Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon (£7.4m) completing a midfield five that has plenty of potential but is also fairly easy on the wallet.
Some of those savings have been kept in the bank here to allow an upgrade of Watkins – a one-week placeholder, given Burnley’s defensive vulnerability – to Liverpool’s record signing Alexander Isak (£10.6m) at some stage. The Villa striker could also be (or become) the popular and cheaper Joao Pedro (£7.8m).
Gyokeres then completes an Arsenal triple-up ahead of the Gunners’ promising run of games, alongside the obvious Haaland pick for an expensive front three.
DRAFT 2: BACK PALACE, 2X ARSENAL DEFENDERS
Nick Woltemade (£7.1m) offers an alternative to Watkins in a similar three-up-top set-up, having scored twice in three league matches ahead of the Magpies’ promising fixture run. Again, though, he could be Pedro if you’re worried about the German’s gametime once Yoane Wissa (£7.4m) returns.
Pedro aside, Enzo Fernandez (£6.7m) could be a good Chelsea representative, particularly in Palmer’s absence. The Argentine has taken on a more attacking role lately, helping him register five goal involvements so far this season. He has a great run of games after Gameweek 7.
Completing this draft’s midfield are City’s dribbling maestro Jeremy Doku (£6.5m), who has four assists in his last three matches (all of which the Belgian started), and Palace’s Ismaila Sarr (£6.4m), whose positioning and clinical finishing, as exhibited in last weekend’s win over Liverpool, could help him add to his record of three goals from four games despite the Eagles’ immediate fixture schedule looking a little difficult on paper.
The attacking threat of Sarr’s teammate, Daniel Munoz (£5.6m), will also surely bear fruit soon, even if he’s currently being outscored by others in Palace’s resolute backline. There are funds to enable the Colombian’s inclusion in this draft for his upside, but he could easily be Marc Guehi (£4.8m) or DefCon magnets Maxence Lacroix (£5.1m) or Chris Richards (£4.5m), too.
Putting Jurrien Timber (£5.8m) – or indeed fellow Arsenal full-back Riccardo Calafiori (£5.7m) – alongside Gabriel raises the points ceiling of a defensive double-up on the Gunners compared to having Raya, while Newcastle shot-stopper Nick Pope (£5.0m) has been having a great season to date and could be a decent set-and-forget goalie for the foreseeable future.
DRAFT 3: DOUBLE ARSENAL ATTACK, DOUBLE CHELSEA
A trifecta of Arsenal’s most expensive assets in each FPL position forms the basis of this draft, so there’s an attacking double-up instead of a defensive one.
It means Bukayo Saka (£9.8m) takes one of the midfield slots, which is admittedly a bit of a risk as he eases back into action amid the Gunners’ busy schedule.
For the sake of presenting something different, Reece James (£5.4m) comes in following back-to-back assists. He’s benchable against Liverpool this week, but Chelsea then have some appealing fixtures over the next few months which also rotate nicely with Alderete’s over the next couple of weeks. James, like Palace’s Chris Richards (£4.5m), could of course be another defender at his price point.
Pedro is in as the third forward here with an eye on those upcoming Chelsea fixtures, with Minteh, Anthony and Kudus suggested as well for reasons already discussed. That midfield trio’s inclusion is also down to some lingering uncertainty over who will start on Newcastle’s wings every week, given the options at Eddie Howe’s disposal and the multiple competitions the Magpies must contend with, as well as a general reluctance to advocate for Man Utd players in the form they’re in.
DRAFT 4: SALAH INCLUDED
If you’re after a draft that includes an Arsenal triple-up alongside both Haaland and Salah, here’s one such option.
There are slight savings to be had with Raya, Calafiori or Timber over Gabriel, which could be used to bring in someone like Guehi for Andersen – although the Fulham man now has five straight DefCon returns and enjoys some decent fixtures beginning in a few weeks’ time, hence his inclusion at the £4.5m price point. Josh King (£4.5m), one of the Cottagers’ bright sparks so far in 2025/26, is the fifth midfielder likely to spend most of his time on a bargain bucket bench alongside Dubravka, Alderete and Rodon.
Eberechi Eze (£7.5m) impressed against Newcastle and would be an ideal pick-up if his gametime was a bit more assured, but Declan Rice (£6.5m) could also be a shrewd differential, having registered his third assist of the season last weekend. We know all about Arsenal’s threat from set pieces, and Rice takes lots of those.
Fitting Salah into a team that also includes Haaland and Gyokeres requires cheaper picks across the pitch, which brings us to Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.5m). The ex-Everton striker has started three in a row for Leeds, has a few good fixtures coming up and was a little unlucky not to score against Bournemouth in Gameweek 6. Burnley’s Lyle Foster (£5.0m) is another inexpensive forward option with solid short-term fixtures, and could give a £0.5m boost elsewhere in this squad.
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