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Adewale (The FPL Manual) provides a preview of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 2 with tips, best captain picks, and top selections for the weekly Fantasy Challenge.
Hello, RotoBallers! Welcome to our weekly Fantasy Premier League Preview -- your go-to guide for the best fantasy tips and captain picks, along with a comprehensive overview of the top teams to target.
The Reboot Fantasy Challenge series kicked off with the Instant Impact challenge, where new signings earned double points in Gameweek 1. A fresh task awaits us this week, and we'll be sharing insights into the top fantasy picks to help you maximize returns.
The Gameweek 2 deadline for the 2025-26 Fantasy Premier League season is Friday, August 22, at 03:00 p.m. ET, when West Ham hosts Chelsea. Check out the rest of our excellent soccer coverage as the squad gets you all set for every EPL and UCL slate with our EPL DFS lineup picks and betting picks.
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The best way to enjoy #FPL is to play with those closest to you 🫶
Personalise and share this with your friends and family to get them involved in your mini-league 📲 pic.twitter.com/z55KsOvkmQ
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 29, 2025
How To Play Fantasy Premier League Guide
Whether it's your first, second, or 20th season playing Fantasy Premier League, don't miss our How To Play Fantasy Premier League Guide for the 2025-26 season. It covers squad building, transfers, and all the new strategies coming to this great game for the current campaign.
Fantasy Premier League: Best Gameweek 2 Tips
Invest in Arsenal or Bournemouth assets
Despite being tactically outclassed by the Red Devils, Arsenal secured a 1-0 victory against rival Man United. The lone goal came through Riccardo Calafiori, as "the corner kings" now have 31 goals scored from corners in the past two seasons.
31 - Arsenal have scored 31 goals from corners since the start of 2023-24 in the Premier League; 11 more than the team with the next most in this period (Liverpool, 20). Trademark. pic.twitter.com/Rl4EaHKL2i
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 17, 2025
The Gunners' next opponent, Leeds United, is a very high-pressing team that is not scared to put pressure on its opponent. However, the Whites are not exactly clinical, as they produced 21 shots in Gameweek 1 but only had three on target. It's safe to assume Arsenal's defense will keep another clean sheet this week.
After a somewhat rocky debut, new recruit Viktor Gyökeres has the chance to silence his doubters and score his first goal for the North London club. The 27-year-old Swedish international ranks second for expected goals, with 0.58 xG (expected goals) to his name.
📊 25/26 | GW 2-7
⚽ Player Predicted Goals pic.twitter.com/8bQvs9QoHo— elevenify . com (@elevenify) August 19, 2025
Bournemouth is our second recommended team to target this week, as it faces off against Wolves, a side that conceded four goals in its first game against Man City last week.
Bournemouth best stands out for its counter-attacking style of football. According to Opta Statistics, the Cherries' two goals scored in Gameweek 1 were ranked first for most goals from fast breaks, suggesting that Gameweek 2 is the ideal time to invest in their attack.
To this end, FPL managers should prioritize selecting assets from Arsenal and Bournemouth for Gameweek 2. According to market data projections, each club is expected to produce 2.50 xG and 1.90 xG against their opponents this weekend.
💹 PL GW2 matchups
An early look at market projections for the second round of PL fixtures, via spread betting markets - including projected goals and CS%, and teams to target 👇 pic.twitter.com/YBRPQjuhm9
— Rob T (@robtFPL) August 19, 2025
In defense, Arsenal has a high likelihood of keeping a clean sheet, with projections capped at 46%, while Bournemouth is ranked fifth for expected clean sheets with odds of 32%.
Recommended FPL assets for Gameweek 2
- Arsenal: Viktor Gyökeres, Bukayo Saka, and William Saliba
- Bournemouth: Evanilson, Antoine Semenyo, and Djordje Petrovic
Top FPL Gameweek 2 Captain Picks
The weekend fixtures present a list of fascinating options for your captaincy choice. Players like Mohamed Salah against Newcastle, Antoine Semenyo against Wolves, and Cole Palmer against West Ham present strong cases. However, our top two captain picks this week are:
Erling Haaland (£14.0m) - Man City vs. Tottenham
Starting the new season with a bang, Erling Haaland earned a 13-point haul last week after his brace against Wolves, amassing a total of 1.99 xG. This week, FPL managers will confidently entrust the captain's armband to Man City's star man and hope he replicates his numbers.
Having scored four goals in his last six appearances against Tottenham, the 25-year-old Norwegian international will be eager to get on the scoresheet on favorable home grounds at Etihad Stadium.
21 - Erling Haaland has scored 21 Premier League goals in August. Despite Haaland only playing 12 games in the month, the only players with more August goals are Andrew Cole (25 in 44 games) and Les Ferdinand (22 in 47 games). Impressive. pic.twitter.com/JySlQTxue3
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 17, 2025
Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) - Arsenal vs. Leeds
Arsenal's "Starboy," Bukayo Saka, is back in our RotoBaller top captaincy selection. It's pretty much a no-brainer here; Arsenal has an easy fixture against a newly promoted side, Leeds United, and this could be an opportunity for the winger to kick-start the new season strongly.
With just 16.8% ownership, the 23-year-old could be a real rank booster if he hits double digits this weekend, making Saka an excellent captaincy option for Gameweek 2.
🏴 Bukayo Saka's statistically calculated player characteristics:
✅ Strengths:
🟢 Crossing
🟢 Holding on to the ball
🟢 Passing
🟢 Set pieces
🟢 Key passes
🟢 Finishing❌ Weaknesses:
𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔 pic.twitter.com/M2uuqCzvKV
— WhoScored (@WhoScored) August 12, 2025
RotoBaller's FPL Team of The Week
With double chips available at play this season, Fantasy Premier League managers have the luxury of triggering their first set of chips (Free Hit, Triple Captain, Bench Boost, and Wildcard) early to gain momentum.
As a result, we'll be calling this section our "FPL Team of the Week," sharing our best one-week team to bank on against that gameweek's fixtures. This will significantly benefit managers who are planning to activate their Free Hit chip.
Here are our recommended FPL picks for Gameweek 2.
Courtesy: FPLEdits.com
Factoring in the recent price changes and market data projections, this team is projected to score 60 FPL points or above. Kindly note that the above picks should solely serve as a guide in making those final decisions. Feel free to make your modifications where necessary.
FPL Challenge: Reboot Series
The FPL Challenge section for the 2025-26 season is back, and RotoBaller remains your go-to source for valuable insights on selecting the right assets for any challenge.
Reboot is the tag given for the first three gameweeks, which will involve selecting a 6-a-side team each week. In this series, you will be given an unlimited budget and only allowed to choose one player per team. Here are the tasks below:
- Gameweek 1: Instant Impact - New signings earn double points.
- Gameweek 2: The Promoted - Players from promoted teams are rewarded double points.
- Gameweek 3: The Shield - Defensive contributions are worth 10 points.
Fantasy Challenge is LIVE for 2025/26 and the first three challenges have been revealed 🤩
Read about the changes coming to Fantasy Challenge for the season ahead 👇
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 30, 2025
Our Gameweek 1 FPL challenge team finished with 82 points, with the main highlights being Man City's Tijjani Reijnders and Spurs' Mohammed Kudus scoring a combined 60 points. Now ranked at 13,042 out of nearly half a million managers, we're hoping to improve on last week's performance.
Gameweek 2 Fantasy Challenge: The Promoted
Among the newly promoted teams, both Burnley and Sunderland face off against each other, while Leeds United has a challenging away game against Arsenal this weekend. Therefore, we will only be recommending one promoted asset that fits into this week's challenge.
Double points for players from promoted clubs 🤩#FPL expert Tom Johnson reveals his six-a-side team in the latest Fantasy Challenge 👇
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) August 20, 2025
RotoBaller's top six picks for this week's challenge are:
- In goal, Crystal Palace's Dean Henderson is a solid shot-stopper to rely on for quality saves and clean-sheet points against Nottingham Forest.
- In defense, Burnley's Quilindschy Hartman is an amazing wingback likely to contribute to the Clarets' attack. Hartman is our sole promoted pick who could seal double-digit returns, given Burnley keeps a clean sheet against Sunderland.
- In midfield, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah is our top midfield pick for next Monday's clash against Newcastle.
- In attack, a trio of Man City's Erling Haaland, Bournemouth's Evanilson, and Arsenal's Viktor Gyökeres complete the attack, rounding off our lineup in a 1-1-3 formation. Evanilson takes the spotlight as our captain of the week.
Best of luck to everyone participating in this week's challenge!
Stick around for more 2025-26 Fantasy Premier League content coming soon. Hit us up on X @RotoBaller. We would love to hear your feedback and ideas!
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