The Scout picks out clubs and players who can be paired together effectively in opening squads in 2025/26 Fantasy Premier League and give FPL managers a great run of early fixtures.
Everton and Crystal Palace
It could be a good idea to own a defender from both Everton and Crystal Palace at the start of the new season.
By rotating them (starting one and benching the other) according to their strength of opponent, you would face only ONE club who finished in the top 13 in the Premier League last season.
This would take place in Gameweek 2, when Everton host Brighton & Hove Albion in their first league match at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
See: How and why to rotate your defenders
According to the Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR) – where the easiest possible matches are ranked as No 1 and the hardest are ranked as No 5 – as many as FOUR of the first six matches score only two.
That run includes two matches against promoted clubs; Everton visit Leeds United in Gameweek 1, while Palace entertain Sunderland in Gameweek 4.
Everton and Palace rotation, Gameweeks 1-6
| GW | Club | Fixture | FDR |
| 1 | Everton | Leeds (A) | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Everton | Brighton (H) | 3 |
| 3 | Everton | Wolves (A) | 3 |
| 4 | Crystal Palace | Sunderland (H) | 2 |
| 5 | Crystal Palace | West Ham (A) | 2 |
| 6 | Everton | West Ham (H) | 2 |
*1 = easiest possible fixture, 5 = hardest possible fixture
Who will be the best budget picks?
Both Everton and Palace were among the league’s best defences for clean sheets last season, claiming 12 and 11 respectively. From a Fantasy aspect, this suggests that their key assets at the back will be at least £5.0m.
This is likely to apply to David Moyes’ preferred centre-backs due to Everton’s big potential at set-pieces. It may limit your options in the budget bracket to left-back Vitalii Mykolenko, although Jake O’Brien would be the standout pick if he also remains at £4.5m and continues at right-back.
Oliver Glasner’s 3-4-2-1 formation means that the value is likely to be found among Palace's centre-back positions this season.
There's a chance that both Maxence Lacroix and Marc Geuhi could remain at £4.5m, with the former’s big threat from set-pieces giving him the edge here.
Next: Aston Villa and Bournemouth
