Following the release of the 2025/26 fixtures, The Scout highlights the clubs and players to target for the opening Gameweeks in Fantasy Premier League.
Everton
Everton’s opening run of opponents gives them a great chance to make a quick impact in their first full season following the return of David Moyes as manager.
The Toffees start the campaign with a trip to promoted Leeds United, and they then have four home matches in the subsequent six Gameweeks, hosting Brighton & Hove Albion, Aston Villa, West Ham United and Crystal Palace at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Assessing the Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR) helps to highlight the clubs who have the most favourable starts. The FDR is a tool based on a complex algorithm developed by FPL experts, where the difficulty of each fixture is ranked from one to five, with one being the easiest possible match and five being the hardest.
According to the FDR, only ONE of Everton's first seven matches scores more than three. That fixture comes in Gameweek 5, when the Toffees visit Merseyside rivals Liverpool.
Everton's first seven fixtures
| GW | Opponent | FDR* |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leeds (A) | 2 |
| 2 | Brighton (H) | 3 |
| 3 | Wolves (A) | 3 |
| 4 | Aston Villa (H) | 3 |
| 5 | Liverpool (A) | 5 |
| 6 | West Ham (H) | 2 |
| 7 | Crystal Palace (H) | 3 |
*1 = easiest, 5 = hardest
A look at the underlying statistics indicates that managers in Fantasy may be best-served by investing in Everton’s rearguard.
From the point of Moyes’s return in Gameweek 21 last season, the Toffees conceded just 28 big chances, which are situations where the player is expected to score.
That total was the BEST record in the league, and nearly half the total of the 53 big chances conceded under Sean Dyche in the 20 Gameweeks prior to Moyes’s arrival.
This resilience helped Jordan Pickford finish as the top-scoring goalkeeper in Fantasy for the second successive season, with 158 points.
Pickford collected a team-leading 71 points across Moyes’s 19 matches in charge, while defenders Vitalii Mykolenko and Jake O’Brien also finished among the club's four top performers during that spell, with 65 and 64 points respectively.
It’s also worth noting that forwards Iliman Ndiaye and Beto also impressed with Moyes at the helm, averaging 4.8 and 4.6 points per start respectively.
And then there’s also Dwight McNeil to consider. The midfielder delivered four goals and eight assists in a mere 15 starts in an injury-hit campaign and could provide great value if he is again priced under £6.0m in Fantasy.
