Looking for an early differential after the opening weekend of Fantasy Premier League?
These five FPL Gameweek 2 differentials are all selected by 10% of managers or fewer at the time of writing, giving them the potential to deliver meaningful rank gains.
The selections combine encouraging Gameweek 1 performances, strong 2025/26 statistics, favourable fixtures and predicted points from Fantasy Football Fix’s algorithm.
The selection rules are:
Martin Ødegaard (£6.5m) began the new season with an 11-point return against Coventry. The Norway captain scored, collected maximum bonus and combined three shots with three attempted assists.
✅ Goal & maximum bonus points in GW1
— Fantasy Football Fix (@FantasyFootyFix) August 25, 2026
✅ Injuries hopefully behind him
✅ 8 goals, 11 assists & 186 FPL points in 23/24
✅ Only 10% owned
✅ Just £6.5m
If Ødegaard is back to his best, could he be the ultimate budget differential? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/53mRRi5nMl
The 27-year-old endured an injury-disrupted 2025/26 campaign and was limited to 24 league appearances. He scored only once from 1.02 xG, taking 22 shots and hitting the target eight times. However, seven FPL assists showed that his creativity remained evident even during a difficult season.
If Ødegaard is fully fit and returning to his best, the upside at £6.5m is enormous. In 2023/24, he recorded eight goals and 11 FPL assists across 35 appearances, finishing on 186 points as shown in the Opta Comparison tool. This made him the eight top scoring player in FPL.
He produced 77 shots, 23 efforts on target, 101 attempted assists, 7.34 xG and 10.56 xA. A return towards those levels would make a mockery of his current price.
You can read our full Ødegaard vs Tzolis comparison in this week’s transfer-target analysis.
Aston Villa’s Gameweek 1 display also strengthens his short-term appeal. As covered in our Maxim De Cuyper analysis, Villa made repeated defensive errors and were already 4-0 down before João Gomes was sent off. The absences of Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Martínez added to an already disrupted team. Villa could offer more resistance at home, but Arsenal’s captain has the form and historical ceiling to punish another uncertain performance.
Enzo Le Fée (£6.0m) offers several possible routes to points. The 26-year-old French midfielder played 36 Premier League matches in 2025/26, scoring five goals from 4.89 xG. He registered 36 shots, with 12 on target, but his creative statistics were even more impressive. Le Fée supplied six FPL assists from 53 attempted assists and 7.94 xA.
His penalty involvement adds to the appeal, although managers should view it as a shared role rather than a monopoly. Le Fée converted three of his four league penalties last season, but Habib Diarra also took spot-kicks and remains in the conversation for 2026/27. Even partial access to penalties still raises his ceiling at £6.0m. Current Sunderland set-piece guides list both Le Fée and Diarra.
The French midfielder has also caught the eye of Matt Corbidge, a manager with six top-10k finishes, who selected Le Fée for his opening 2026/27 squad. You can view Matt’s full team using the Elite XI: Team Reveal tool and receive notifications whenever he makes a change.
Fulham at home looks like a promising fixture. The Cottagers conceded three times against Chelsea in Gameweek 1, allowing 13 shots inside the box and recording 2.28 expected goals conceded.
Álvaro Arbeloa’s side used an aggressive defensive line, but their centre-backs were repeatedly exposed by runs in behind. If the new head coach persists with that approach without greater recovery pace in his back line, Sunderland could find space to exploit at the Stadium of Light.
Anton Stach (£6.0m) was Leeds United’s Gameweek 1 match-winner, scoring a late direct free-kick in the 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest.
No player on either side attempted more than the German international’s three shots. He also collected maximum bonus and reached 16 defensive contributions, earning two additional FPL points on his way to a 13-point haul.
Although the goal carried an xG value of only 0.07, it should not be dismissed as pure luck. Stach scored three direct free-kicks in 2025/26 as shown in the Opta Stats Sandbox, with only Dominik Szoboszlai managing more in the Premier League.
His wider numbers also reveal several routes to returns. Across 29 appearances, the 27-year-old scored five goals from 2.83 xG and 55 shots, 14 of which were on target. He added six FPL assists from 63 attempted assists, 5.14 xA and eight big chances created.
Stach’s appeal extends beyond Gameweek 2. As explained in our FPL Fixture Difficulty Rating analysis, Leeds rank fifth for attacking fixture difficulty between Gameweeks 2 and 5. Brentford at home is followed by Brighton away, Newcastle at home and Crystal Palace at home, giving the Whites three Elland Road fixtures in four Gameweeks.
Kristoffer Ajer (£4.5m) delivered eight FPL points as Brentford beat Spurs 3-0 in Gameweek 1. The clean sheet provided the foundation, but the Norway international also made exactly 10 defensive contributions to collect an additional two points.
DEFCON is the main reason to consider the 28-year-old. Ajer accumulated 190 defensive contributions in 1,807 minutes last season — approximately 9.5 per 90 — leaving him just below the 10-action threshold required by defenders.
Among defenders priced at £4.5m or less, Ajer ranks second in the Predicted Points & Stats tool with a projected 14.8 points over the next four Gameweeks. Only Justin ranks higher — more on him shortly.
Brentford kept 10 clean sheets as a team in 2025/26, and Ajer’s ability to supplement clean-sheet returns with defensive contribution points makes him one of the most interesting £4.5m defenders.
James Justin (£4.5m) is the lowest-owned player on the list, yet he opened the campaign with 10 points against Nottingham Forest.
The former England international combined a clean sheet with 12 defensive contributions and two bonus points, immediately demonstrating three separate routes to FPL returns.
The 28-year-old also offered more attacking threat than his output initially suggests last season. Justin scored twice from 2.88 xG across 29 appearances, producing 24 shots and six efforts on target.
He added one FPL assist from 1.95 xA and 12 attempted assists, while six clean sheets, 185 defensive contributions and nine bonus points strengthened his all-round profile.
Brentford are projected to keep 1.2 clean sheets over the next four Gameweeks, the joint-fifth-highest total in the league.
Brentford will present a tougher attacking test after scoring three times against Spurs, but that may also give Justin more opportunities to reach the DEFCON threshold.
With Leeds playing three of their next four matches at home, he offers managers a budget route into a defence that started the season with an away clean sheet.
Stach leads these five players for predicted points and combines form, set pieces, defensive contributions and a favourable medium-term schedule.
Ødegaard arguably possesses the highest ceiling if his Gameweek 1 display signals a genuine return to his best, while Le Fée is the riskier option whose creativity and partial penalty role could be rewarded by Fulham’s high defensive line.
In defence, Ajer and Justin both demonstrated that they do not need to rely solely on clean sheets. Their DEFCON potential gives them an additional route to points at £4.5m, with Justin standing out as the more aggressive differential at only 0.9% ownership.
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