In every FPL season there’ll be players you just can’t afford to miss out on and there’ll be those that will be eating up your budget and preventing you from having a stronger overall team. Below I assess the “premium” players and giving you my thoughts on whether to include them in your team from the start.

Haaland – £15m

Image source: BBC

Let’s start with the big guy.

15m quid! This is a masterstroke by those running FPL. His £14m starting price last year wasn’t enough to put people off so they’ve upped it even further. It’s split opinions and the ownership % tells you everything – he’s 45% owned whereas last season he was as much as 80% at times and the highest owned player. Including him means compromising elsewhere else and there’s an argument that the money can be spent across a team more effectively.

But, and it’s a big but, he’s pretty guaranteed to score goals and lots of FPL points. Every other player has question marks over him but for me Haaland doesn’t. He’s on penalties, he’s in a team that creates more chances than anyone and now one of the only players able to rotate with him (Alvarez) has left for Spain which probably means more minutes. The stats back him up, like his XG and goal to game ratio makes him the best option in FPL and the price simply reflects that.

Salah – £12.5m

Image source: Eurosport

Compared to Haaland he looks like a bargain but for context the next closest player in price is Palmer at £2.5m cheaper. And Palmer was the top FPL point scorer last year.

Salah is an absolute FPL legend. If you have the time, check out his FPL points record…in fact, I’ll put it here.

Source: fantasy.premierleague.com

Let that sink in, last season was a poor season at 211 points, where he was 7th in the overall points leaderboard. Anyone who’s played FPL for the last few years now how “essential” he’s been but this might be changing and it’s because of Haaland, and dare I say it, Salah’s waning powers. He’s still top class and crucial to Liverpool but there are now question marks over whether you need to spend the £12.5m to include him in your team. If it’s him or Palmer (£10.5), or Saka (£10m) then that extra £2m+ goes a long way to upgrading other player.

Liverpool’s early fixtures are good, Salah should be on penalties, he hasn’t been a player who gets rotated or rested (although will his age start becoming a factor here?) and as a midfielder he gets more points for a goal than a forward like Haaland. Saying all that, it’s not yet clear how strong Liverpool will be under new management and I’ve personally been surprised by the lack of action from them in the transfer market. They came up short last year and I felt they actually overachieved given the gaps in their squad and amount of new faces last year so I’m surprised they’ve not continued their rebuild with at least one or two additions.

It’s not an easy choice but I’m leaning more toward no than yes. And I don’t say that lightly given how many times he’s helped my score as a player I’ve regularly captained and even triple captained in the past.

Palmer – £10.5m

Image source: beinsports

Last year’s top FPL point scorer gets a big upgrade on his price from the £5m mark to £10.5m this year. An increase is justified for sure but £10.5m is not to be sniffed at – it’s more than some other elite and high FPL scoring players such as Saka, Son Heung-min and Foden.

Palmer is highly selected already but last year is not always the best measure for what will happen this year. I’m not saying he’s not going to score plenty of FPL points, he will, but we need to wait to see what Chelsea under a new manager will look like. Let’s just say the last couple of years have been quite chaotic at the Bridge with huge numbers of players coming in and a bit of a manager merry-go-round and this summer has been no different.

Palmer hasn’t been involved in pre-season much but Chelsea appear to be poor defensively but very attacking. With FPL it doesn’t matter if they lose 4-3 if Palmer bags a hat-trick but generally the best picks are in winning teams.

He was the perfect FPL player last year – cheap, on penalties and the main attacking threat in a team that played wide-open football. He’s not quite that great this year but still an excellent pick if you can afford him. Excluding Man City in the first game, Chelsea have a good run of fixtures early on but I would keep an eye on how Chelsea are playing to see if it’s likely he’s going to continue returning great FPL scores.

Saka – £10m

Image source: beinsports

Arsenal’s main man last year, on penalties and finished 4th overall in the FPL points with 226. His price is fair given his importance to Arsenal’s attack.

They were so close the last 2 years to breaking City’s strangle-hold on the Premier League title and Saka was central throughout both campaigns. Everyone is expecting Arsenal to be there or there-abouts again and Arteta rarely rests Saka so you get a midfield player with guaranteed minutes, on penalties and key to their attack.

Could this be Saka and Arsenal’s year? They will have added tactical flexibility with a fit again Jurien Timber and new signing Calafiori offering a different style of full-back compared to the likes of Ben White and Zinchenko. This added dynamism could ease the pressure on Saka to produce things single-handedly and help him bag even more goals this season.

However…the lack of rest over the last two seasons, Saka’s heavy involvement in England’s run to the Euros final combined with the collective disappointment of Arsenal being so close but missing out again on the title could see a drop off. It’s unlikely but not beyond the realms of possibility.

My prediction is that he’ll be a mainstay in many top manager’s teams for large chunks of the season. Just maybe not from the start given some tricky early fixtures and his late return following the Euros.

Son Heung-min – £10m

Image source: koreatimes

He’s found his way into 11% of manager’s teams despite the aforementioned names amongst his premium competitors for a place. There’s also not been that much chatter about him in FPL circles compared to others.

We know from last year that Spurs were very attacking under Ange and Son thrived in the system but his form mirrored the team and his goals dried up a bit when injuries hit the team. A second year under a manager can mean players get more to grips with the play style and more players of the right profile have been brought together to compliment this. It’s likely that’s what we’ll see at Spurs but I can’t shake the feeling that we just can’t spare the £10m in the budget to fit him in over the other names on this list.

I’ll be watching Son and Spurs to see if and when they hit form – there’s some tempting run of fixtures to earmark him for but with Newcastle and Arsenal in the 3rd and 4th game, having him from the start is probably not the go-to move.

Which of these is in your team? Have you managed to squeeze two or even 3 of them in? Let me know @FPLwithStu on X.