As has become a bit of a tradition, Fantasy Premier League has revealed some prices ahead of the game launching "next week".

Today, we got to see some early prices for Arsenal, Brentford, Brighton, Leeds and Manchester City which have been the talk of Twitter all day.

Having reviewed the Defensive Fixture Strength in a previous article, we'll build upon this knowledge with what we know from how these players performed last season.

£4.5m Options

What was perhaps surprising is that Arsenal, who will be expected to challenge for the top 4, have two £4.5m priced defenders to choose from in Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White. Whilst neither player will get you much in the way of attacking returns, they could provide an unexpected £4.5m rotation pairing.

Arsenal's fixtures rotate best with Spurs or Crystal Palace and whilst we don't expect Spurs to have any £4.5m defensive options, we didn't expect this from Arsenal either so it could be a goer. This would give us an opening 5 fixtures of:

Southampton (h), Leicester (h), Wolves (h), Notts Forest (a) (or Fulham(h)) and Aston Villa (h).

Alternatively, a Crystal Palace pairing would give us:

Arsenal (h), Leicester (h), Aston Villa (h, Fulham (h) and Aston Villa (h).

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However, when we look at the player (per 90) data from last season, a more interesting £4.5m option becomes clearer.

The Data

We've included all of the prices revealed so far and it's worth noting that Rasmus Kristensen of Leeds scored 7 goals and got 4 assists (in 29 appearances) for Austrian side RB Salzburg last season. There's no knowing how he'll adapt to the Premier League yet and I wouldn't be expecting much from Leeds' defence (especially with Kalvin Phillips almost certainly leaving) but he's one to monitor.

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Kieran Tierney

It's interesting to see that £5.0m priced Kieran Tierney has the best per 90 attacking data and represents the best attackingvalue out of all of the defenders announced so far.

Arsenal appear 4th in our defensive fixtures ranking so Tierney looks like a great option if he can stay clear of injury. It's these injuries that sidelined him for 13 games last season which is why his "Minutes Played" is low.

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Joao Cancelo

Next up is a FPL favourite in Joao Cancelo. As one of a handful of players to break the 200 point barrier last season, he's been priced at £7.0m for the forthcoming campaign. With Man City's excellent start to the season and the additional likelihood of Clean Sheets, he feels guaranteed to start the season well.

He's also about as safe a pick for minutes as you'll get under Pep Guardiola as he is comfortable in either Full Back position.

It's worth noting though that Man City rarely keep a clean sheet against their opening opponents, West Ham.

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Sergi Canos

It's perhaps surprising to see Canos ranked so highly and he's been reclassified as a Defender (rather than a Midfielder) this season.

Brentford have a mixed opening set of fixtures and conceded far more goals than they should have last season. The return of David Raya (£4.5m) could improve these defensive numbers but Canos isn't a guaranteed starter so at £5.0m, he could be a risk too far.

If you're willing to take the risk, a rotation paired with Crystal Palace could pay off.

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Tariq Lamptey

The final player we'll focus on is Brighton's flying wing back Tariq Lamptey. He had a tough 2021/22 season which was ravaged by injury but when he did play, he looked incredibly dangerous and the stats back this up.

At £4.5m and with Brighton's good fixtures, he looks like good value but Brighton consistently underperform both their xGA and xG so it's difficult to predict whether Lamptey can return on the potential.

We've previously discussed a potential rotation with Crystal Palace or Bournemouth which looks like a viable strategy.

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The Rest

We've already mentioned Tomiyasu who had a difficult last season with injury. Given he'll have a full pre-season and was Arsenal's 1st choice right back when fit, we like him as a budget option.

Pontus Jansson is a safer (and cheaper) route into Brentford's defence if that's the route you want to take and he does have plenty of aerial threat.

Similarly, Lewis Dunk's price has dropped to £4.5m and he's also a safe and cheap route into Brighton's defence. Whilst he had a quiet season on the goal scoring front, he scored 5 goals the season before and 3 goals/3 assists the one before that.

We still haven't seen Aymeric Laporte's price but we'd expect it to match Ruben Dias'. If he comes in cheaper, he'd be an appealing route into Man City's tight defence. Kyle Walker's also an interesting option if Man City's chase for Marc Cucurella comes to nothing and similarly, Cucurella becomes an interesting option if the move happens.

We're expecting another 5 team's price reveals tomorrow (Liverpool, Man United, Wolves, Aston Villa and Fulham) so stay tuned for some Midfielder and Forward analysis over the weekend.

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