Fantasy Premier League is back for 2025/26, with West Ham United set to kickstart their campaign with a 560-mile round trip to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland on Saturday.
With a £100 million budget to spend, FPL is a true test of your managerial skills, requiring you to recruit players and transfer in new players before they become stars and drop them before they lose form.
Ahead of the new season, FPL have introduced a host of changes to the popular online game, with managers now set to have two sets of chips in 2025/26, meaning everyone will have a Wildcard, Free Hit, Triple Captain and Bench Boost chip to use in each half of the campaign (eight chips in total).
Meanwhile, outfield players will now be rewarded further for their defensive contributions, and any defender who reaches a combined total of ten clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles (CBIT) in a single match will score two FPL points.
For midfielders and forwards, in addition to clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles, 'ball recoveries' will also count towards their total of defensive contributions (CBIRT), and as a result, they have to make 12 defensive contributions to earn their two FPL points, instead of ten, while changes have been made for goalkeeper saves, goalline clearances, penalties scored and successful tackles.
Click HERE for a beginnner's guide to playing FPL this term.
On whufc.com, we’ll be giving you FPL tips and tricks across the season, all with a West Ham focus!
Bowen to start the season on fire
Early in the campaign - and often right through the season - the safest route is to back the most reliable scorers.
As such, Jarrod Bowen (£8.0m) has been listed as a forward this year, having been registered as a midfielder in 2024/25, after racking up an incredible 193 points last term thanks to his consistent goals and assists.
Our No20 was key to the Hammers’ attacking output last season, scoring 13 goals and supplying ten assists.
With Head Coach Graham Potter having had a full summer to work with his side and a successful pre-season schedule, expectations for improvement are high, and Bowen, who has tallied 23 and 22 goal contributions in each of the past two seasons, will be aiming for a statement win at newly-promoted Sunderland that could set the tone for a successful 2025/26 campaign.
Left-back and left-wing-back El Hadji Malick Diouf (£4.5m) has caught the eye in pre-season following his arrival from SK Slavia Prague.
Diouf, whose main attributes are his crossing, heading ability and speed, is owned by fewer than 4% of FPL teams, but he is a dynamic player who will surely play a key role at both ends of the pitch.
Elsewhere, Niclas Füllkrug’s (£6.0m) first year in English football was decimated by injury, but he’s made a strong case for himself in the forward pool having enjoyed an incredible pre-season, which has seen him net in our last three fixtures against Everton, AFC Bournemouth and LOSC Lille.
The Bowen-Füllkrug partnership has looked really promising this summer. Between them, the pair have collected five goals and two assists in pre-season friendlies, combining to score the opener against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League Summer Series.
Opposition Watch: Sunderland
Granit Xhaka (£5.0m) is well known to Premier League fans due to his seven-year spell at north London rivals Arsenal.
The 137-time-capped Swiss midfielder made 33 Bundesliga appearances for Bayer 04 Leverkusen last season, scoring twice and providing seven assists, and with the 32-year-old set to be in a more defensive role for Régis Le Bris’ side, it should help boost his defensive contributions.
He averaged 7.6 defensive contributions per 90 minutes (with 12 needed to gain two points) in his final season at Arsenal in 2022/23, though this will most likely increase playing for a newly-promoted club, and, priced at just £5m, he could be the differential your team needs to get off to a flier on Gameweek One.
Meanwhile, Ivory Coast winger Simon Adingra (£5.5m) completed a £20m move to Wearside in July, having impressed in spells at Brighton & Hove Albion, when given game time.
The 23-year-old, who scored his first Black Cats goal against Hull City in pre-season, made 29 Premier League appearances last season for Fabian Hürzeler’s Seagulls, scoring twice and adding two assists, while in 2023/24, with 25 starts, he scored six times and was close to eclipsing 100 FPL points.
