The new Premier League season isn’t far away, and that means your Fantasy Premier League team for the new season needs to be created and tinkered with relentlessly. So to help those FPL players looking for more information we offer up our Captain Tight Arse’s Top 10 Cheap FPL Options.
A new season brings three new sets of players from the Championship, and some hidden gems from last season.
Our Captain Tight Arse’s Top 10 Cheap FPL Options talks about the top ten cheap FPL options for the season ahead, hopefully given a good range of great options to balance your FPL side for all the Salahs and Kanes you need.
We have already covered the Championship players, so will limit this to the very best of them.
Cheapie Criteria as below:
Goalkeeper / Defender – $5M or less
Midfield / Forward – $6.5M or less
Stats are for last season in EPL or Championship where applicable.
See also: 2021-22 Fixture Difficulty we have added the first four games for each player from our own in-house Fixture Difficulty Ratings.
Captain Tight Arse’s Top 10 Cheap FPL Options
Why?
Ivan Toney is an obvious one and over 35% of the FPL players agree. Do you really want to be in the other two thirds or so missing out?
Toney comes to the Premier League with better stats than Ollie Watkins, who did a sterling job for Aston Villa last season.
Yes Toney is playing for a newly promoted side in Brentford, not like Watkins who was helped by playing alongside Jack Grealish in an established Aston Villa team, but his 30+ goals and 10 assists can’t be ignored. And did you see the goal from the Playoff final?
Of course no one will be expecting 30+ / 10 stats this season, but he has the confidence and numbers to get half of that, and all for just 6.5M.
Brentford do have an easy-ish run to start the season too. Our Premier League Fixture Difficulty Ratings give them a 6/10 for their first six games, and that is inflated by a match v Liverpool for game six. Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Brighton, and Wolves isn’t the most difficult start to a promoted side’s life, especially given two of those clubs are going through a bit of change.
Why Not?
More often than not Championship goals don’t lead to Premier League goals in the promotion season. Although Toney looks a different case to most and Pukki proved a good buy in the first half of Norwich’s most recent promotion season.
See Also for Promoted Forwards: Pukki (NOR – 6.0) Joao Pedro (WAT – 5.5)
Why?
Another no brainer from the Championship like Ivan Toney, but unlike Toney (and like Watkins) Buendia is going to an established club (Aston Villa) despite his Championship club (Norwich) winning promotion.
At $6.5M he is at the very upper end for what Captain Tight Arse would class as a cheapie, but the potential is there.
He had a big season in the Championship last season with stats that can’t be ignored. His Key Passes per Game was higher than Kevin de Bruyne and Assist total higher than Harry Kane.
Of course they are Championship stats, but Buendia did feature in some key FPL stats back in Norwich’s last season in 19/20 where the Canaries faded badly after the resumption of the season.
Buendia got seven assists in 2019-20 (one more than Jack Grealish) and was third for Key Passes and only behind Kevin de Bruyne and Grealish. He was also fourth for Chances created. So question on whether he can do it in the Premier League is answered.
Looks like he’s added goal scoring to his repertoire with 15 goals good enough for seventh best last season in the Championship.
Aston Villa looks an exciting prospect for the season ahead, and Buendia can shine with Jack Grealish as they play on different sides of the field, or perhaps get even more attention if Grealish leaves for Man City.
At worst he could be a Matheus Pereira who might take a bit to find his sweet spot, although Buendia is playing in a better side than West Brom were early last season.
With just 10% joining the Buendia bandwagon so far, he’s worthy of a spot in any FPL team’s midfield.
Why Not?
Aston Villa seem keen to build their squad with talk of Smith-Rowe and Dwight McNeil being chased. So the worry is if all those players come there will be more rotation.
See Also for Aston Villa mids: Bertrand Traoré (6.0) Anwar El Ghazi (6.0)
Why?
Here’s a real cheapie to help fill the midfield and allow money to spent elsewhere.
On loan from Chelsea, Gilmour has made the move to Norwich for the season where he will no doubt get infinite more game time than at Chelsea.
You are taking on faith to a degree, but he has shone in his limited opportunities and was good enough for the Scotland squad at the Euros. And Covid.
And the similarly cheap Smith-Rowe ended up being quite the effective cheapie last season.
You could do worse than have him warm the bench and rise in value.
He’s already owned by 7% of the FPL Players. We think that’s wise.
Why Not?
Because he has barely played any Premier League and there’s a doubt on Norwich after how badly they faded last EPL season.
See Also for 4.5M Mids: Oriol Romeu (SOT), Sean Longstaff (NEW), Morgan Gibbs-White (WOL)
Why?
Some keen FPL players have been waiting for Brentford to make the Premier League as they are a potential gold mine of FPL like Leeds and Sheffield United have been in recent seasons.
Ivan Toney is a must include, and we’ll get to him later, but for now we must highlight a real left field cheap option in the midfield.
OK, so Brentford won’t be quite as exciting as the previous season when they were powered by BMW (Benrahma, Mbeumo and Watkins) but they will still surprise.
There’s an argument for taking the M from that BMW – Mbeumo. He has scored one less goal but nabbed two more assists last season. And he played 47 games v Canos’ 49 games last season (in the league), so both are ironmen in a long, long Championship season.
So why take Canos instead? Well he’s currently owned by just 0.5% so you’ll have a real head start to the season if he fires.
But there’s nothing in it, we’re just going for Canos on a hunch.
Why Not?
Because Mbeumo and Dasilva may be better bets. Brentford might struggle first season ever in the Premier League.
See Also for Brentford Mids: Mbeumo (5.5), Dasilva (5.5)
Why?
Defender Max Aarons is a much sought-after defender in the Premier League this season. And by big European clubs like Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich no less.
Whilst his stats above are nothing outstanding as part of a good Norwich side last season, he is being linked to bigger clubs.
While Manchester United have reportedly been sniffing around, his best chance is Arsenal where he may get more of a chance to shine.
If he remains at Norwich he’s still a great cheap option to keep that bench warm.
But at a better club may score up a storm.
Why Not?
Because the Norwich defence, although improved in last season’s Championship for their previous season, is still a concern in the Premier League. And if he moves to a bigger club will he get game time.
They also have a terrible run of opening fixtures.
See Also for Promoted Defenders: Ethan Pinnock (4.5 – BRE) , Kiko Femenía , Sierralta (4.5 – WAT)
Why Not?
Vladimir Coufal finished off last season well for both West Ham and the Czech Republic at the Euros, with six assists in his last 16 games for club and country.
West Ham had a great second half of the season and Coufal and his fellow Czech Soucek were regularly involved.
His 632 touches in the final third is just outside the top ten for defenders and well ahead of his West Ham team mate Aaron Cresswell.
Why Not?
5.0 is an awkward price. Another 0.5 gets you Luke Shaw, John Stones or even fellow West Ham player Aaron Cresswell.
With no Jesse Lingard will West Ham be as effective as late last season.
See Also: 5.0M Defenders Kieran Tierney (ARS), Ben Dunk (BHA) Junior Firpo (LEE)
Why?
Brighton may have been frustrating to watch at times last season, and a little blunt in goal scoring, but they ended their season with six clean sheets at home in last ten matches.
Many FPL punters will be hoping that continues into the new season with over a quarter of FPL players currently having the Brighton custodian in their teams.
There doesn’t appear to be any meaningful competition that will keep him out of the side, so it is solid, dependable solution. Which is all you want from a keeper.
He gets to start the season too which will be good. And they play Burnley first week who are usually slow starters.
Trying to compare FPL points to minutes played (took 24 minutes per FPL point last season), he is well behind Martinez (18 mins per FPL point) who costs a million more. Comparing similar FPL points per minute has him level with West Ham’s Fabianski, which is not a bad start.
Why Not?
Who knows with Brighton, they might just come out this season and be terrible.
See Also: cheaper keepers: Ben Foster (WAT – 4.0) David Raya (BRE – 4.5)
Why?
Jack Harrison scored some wonderful goals last season and who says we can’t enjoy the football as well as the points.
You could ask why Harrison over Raphinha and the answer lies in the price. He is a full 0.5M less and there’s not a a lot of difference in some FPL stats.
He leads Raphinha for goals scored 8 v 6 and had over 100 more final third touches last season. Harrison is only one assist behind his team mate and not far behind in chances created (64 v 59).
One area he does lack in is shots, where he had two thirds the shots in total and five fewer shots on target.
Both players were in the top 15 last season for chances created.
Why Not?
Because Raphinha is arguably the better bet for 0.5M more. 25% of the FPL players agree too.
Second season syndrome for Leeds after surprising first season?
See Also – Other Good Leeds Mid options: Raphinha (6.5), Dallas (5.5)
Why?
Because why can’t you just have one fun player. An excitement machine.
But you are taking him on faith a little. He was sensational at times last season but never quite seemed to get the FPL points that his performances deserved. His season was affected with injury and Covid so a refreshing off season we might see more points from the Max this season.
A fully fit Callum Wilson helps.
Why Not?
Newcastle being Newcastle and always not far from crisis. And the Max also has the occasional bad injury run.
His stats didn’t quite match his impact last season.
For 1M more you can have Ollie Watkins or Michail Antonio.
See Also Fun Players: Adama Traore (WOL 6.0)
Why?
Because he is an underrated defender who played big minutes last season and has some decent stats on his side.
Ayling was top ten for Big Chances created and Top 15 for Key Passes and Shots on Target. For Defenders that is.
And was 4th for touches in the penalty area for defenders last season.
In fact his stats are very similar to Arsenal’s Kieran Tierney (who we rate highly) but costs 0.5 less. And while Tierney lost game time last season through injury, Ayling was an Ironman playing in all games.
Plus aren’t Leeds fun to watch anyway, so another FPL asset is a good thing?
Why Not?
Worries over second season syndrome at Leeds.
See Also – cheap non big six defenders Mitchell (CRY – 4.5), Fofana (LEI – 4.5), Tamptey (BHA – 4.5)
Captain Tight Arse’s Cheap FPL Options Weekly Update
Be sure to return to the Gurgler website throughout the 2021-22 season as we have the cheapies team of the week and season as well as weekly tips.
The players who will feature in the Cheapies weekly is any player who starts the season off as below.
Goalkeeper / Defender – $5M or less
Midfield / Forward – $6.5M or less
Captain Tight Arse’s 2021-22 Cheap FPL Options Team
Time to put our money where our mouth is and take all of the above cheap FPL options as well some of our See Also suggestions into an FPL side for the season.
The rules for our cheap FPL options side is we have to select all of our top ten cheapies, but are allowed one premium player per position. Because 15 cheapies won’t get you too many wins.
Can this team outscore our proper team, or indeed any team? We’ll see.
It does have a healthy 4.0 left in the bank, and we anticipate a good interest return from our cheap investments.
But the team for GW1 is below.
