Manchester City have the kindest run ahead
Three matches into the season, fixture difficulty swings heavily towards Manchester City and Crystal Palace.
Three matches tell you almost nothing about a team, but they tell you everything about who they have played. The sample is thin, exactly 270 minutes long, but the schedule from gameweek 4 to 9 is fixed.
Manchester City sit at the top of our fixture ease index over the next six matches. 
Liverpool and 
Arsenal sit near the bottom. If you are holding off on double City assets, this is where the spreadsheet tells you to stop overthinking it.
Man City
Crystal PalaceArsenalLiverpooleasierharderInternal model rating, 0 to 100. Not FPL's fixture rating.
Ratings on a 0-100 scale where higher is easier. Based on three matches of 2026-27 data.
Manchester City turn the screw
Haaland is already in 71.3 per cent of squads, so recommending him is not a revelation. The real value lies next to him.
Cherki comes in at 7.8m with an overall fixture ease rating of 70.4 across the next five weeks. That ranks him second among all realistic midfield targets. He faces Ipswich at home in gameweek 7, where Ipswich carry a defence ease rating of 55, and Sunderland at home in gameweek 5, where Sunderland score 51 for defensive generosity.
Next five gameweeks lookahead. Internal scale where higher means easier.
Budget options emerge in South London
If you need cash to fund City attackers, Crystal Palace offer the cleanest defensive entry point.
Mitchell costs 4.5m and is owned by 5.8 per cent of managers. Palace open gameweek 4 against Ipswich at home, whose attack ease rating sits at a maximum 100. Ipswich have simply failed to test opposition backlines over the opening three matches. Mitchell enjoys a fixture ease index of 60.7 over the next five gameweeks, putting him second among defenders in our model behind Gabriel.
76.2Haaland fixture ratingHighest in the game100Ipswich attack easePalace opp in GW44.5mMitchell price5.8% ownedRatings based on three gameweeks of performance data.
The Arsenal and Liverpool slow down
The short term is far less appealing for Arsenal and Liverpool.
Saka faces a fixture ease score of 46.7 over the next five matches. Arsenal must travel to Brighton in gameweek 5, where Brighton hold a defensive tightness score that translates to just 35 on our ease scale, and then visit Liverpool in gameweek 9.
Liverpool have it worse. In gameweek 6 they host City, where City score an ease rating of 1 for attack and defence combined, followed by a trip to Brentford and home ties against Brighton and Arsenal. Gakpo sits on a fixture rating of 45.9 as a result.
CherkiSakaLookahead ratings over next five gameweeks.
Selling Saka before Sunderland in gameweek 4 is unnecessary, but bringing him in today means buying right before his schedule hardens.
Move your free transfer towards Cherki or Mitchell before gameweek 4 locks in at the deadline.