Amazing bargains and potential traps in the Fantasy Premier League - including Arsenal and Man City stars

With the 2023/24 Fantasy Premier League season set to begin any day now, the FPL have unveiled the last of their early price reveals – and there have been a few surprises along the way, several apparent bargains and one or two nasty traps laid for the unwary fantasy manager to fall into.

We’ve already taken a look at the standout reveals from Monday and Tuesday, so now let’s dive into the most intriguing unveilings from Wednesday – with a few of the biggest names in the game having their prices put out there.

Bukayo Saka - £8.5m

Coming in at the same price point as team-mate Martin Ødegaard, Saka racked up 202 points last season and played practically every game, scoring pretty freely as he went after a slow start. While he didn’t quite rack up as many points as the Norwegian, we reckon Ødegaard is something of a trap this season – but Saka most certainly isn’t.

The logic runs that Saka was scooping up the points at a slightly better rate than his comrade after a comparatively quiet opening act of the 2022/23 season, when the England winger scored just once in Arsenal’s first eight games. The form book suggests that Saka is probably an even more consistent scorer, is only getting better, and will likely play practically almost every minute he’s available for – and at £8.5m, a player who seems all but nailed on to cross the 200-point threshold again should be top of any shopping lists going. Besides, Ødegaard is likely to play a slightly deeper role this season, thanks to the arrival of…

Kai Havertz - £7.5m

Back to being a midfielder in the FPL’s eyes once again, Havertz is an interesting gambler’s option. While he was pretty poor for Chelsea last year (who wasn’t?) he’s still a quality player with a lot of talent and could easily start picking up the points more frequently if he plays in more of a number ten or wide number eight role – which seems likely under Mikel Arteta.

Havertz notched up 36 goals and 25 assists during his time in the Bundesliga, so there’s a regular contributor in there – nevertheless, we’d advise seeing how things pan out at Arsenal before investing, especially given that there are several other high-quality midfielders in the same sort of price range.

Harry Kane - £12.5m

Kane scored just nine points fewer than Erling Haaland last campaign – and is now worth £1.5m less on the balance sheet. That makes it pretty likely that he’s the better bet for the centre-forward slot, even if Haaland will more than likely end up with the Golden Boot again.

Kane’s 263-point return was his best ever, and the fifth time he’s made it past 200 – he’s one of the most consistent scorers in the game, and doesn’t seem to have been prevented from getting his goals in even when Spurs were playing atrociously towards the end of the season. There’s just one problem of course – he could easily be playing somewhere else, with Bayern Munich allegedly leading the chase. If he’s still in the Premier League, however, it’s hard to argue against Kane’s inclusion.

Kevin de Bruyne - £10.5m

Considering De Bruyne managed 183 points despite only starting 28 games, and saw his price shoot up to £12.1m in the process, this lower starting fee seems pretty remarkable. The Belgian midfield maestro also has a best of 251 points, back in 2019/20 – his ceiling, basically, is extremely high.

The question is whether he’s likely to get close to 250 again, because there are several players – including Saka and Bruno Fernandes – who are more than capable of getting to around 200 points and cost £2.0m less. KDB may be simultaneously a bargain and a trap.

Jack Grealish & Bernardo Silva - £7.5m & £6.5m

From a possible pitfalls to player who may as well have “trap” written in giant neon letters above their foreheads. Both feel like players who could rack up huge hauls, but neither ever has – Grealish has a peak score of 149 from his Villa days (before he was converted into a much more selfless player) and Bernardo has never managed more than 155.

As is the case with every Manchester City midfielder other than perhaps De Bruyne, the vicious rotation system employed by Pep Guardiola means that any given player is as likely to start ten on the bounce as he is to sit on the bench for an extended period – and while players like Grealish and Bernardo are great pick-ups if you catch them on a particularly strong spell of form, they’ll let you down more weeks than they pick up the points. They should absolutely not be in your starting teams.

Oleksandr Zinchenko - £5.0m

It’s a slight surprise that Zinchenko only managed 99 points last year given his excellent start to the season, but that’s got a lot to do with how many games he missed – if he got close to 38 games, the Ukrainian could easily have got close to 150 points.

That’s pretty much the gold standard for defenders in the £4.5-5.0m price range, and we’d not bet against him to make it this season if Arsenal’s defence benefits from a beefing-up in the midfield – which, thanks to the arrival of Declan Rice, is likely to be the case. Another defender at the same price point is Brentford’s Ben Mee, who made it to 143 last season – at £5.0m, he’s pretty borderline and there are likely to be some £4.5s, like Newcastle United powerhouse Sven Botman, who are better bets.

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That’s all for the early price reveals - once we get the full slate, we’ll be back with advice and analysis to help you put together the perfect starting fifteen for the new campaign. Until then - get those thinking caps on.