GW5 Review: Brobbey Beats Haaland, Arsenal Ship Three and the Break Arrives
By Geomi George · Published 22 September 2026
Gameweek 5 was a low-scoring, upside-down round: a 48-point average, the game's most-owned player absent, the league's meanest defence shipping three, and a Coventry side without a goal all season winning away. The top score was 126. Here is what happened, how our calls held up, and what the international break means for your team.
The scores that mattered
The Team of the Week was led by two 17-point hauls from opposite ends of the same match. City beat Sunderland 5-3: Semenyo scored twice and assisted for 17, while Sunderland's Brobbey answered with a hat-trick and maximum bonus for 17 of his own. Haaland scored once in that game for 6. Elsewhere, Groß (14, a goal and an assist in Brighton's 3-0 over Arsenal) is now the season's top scorer on 47 points at £5.8m, Tarkowski (14) kept Everton's third clean sheet and added an assist, and Hall (13) scored in Newcastle's 2-1 over Hull.
The rest of the XI came from nowhere. Coventry's Dasilva (15) and keeper Rushworth (11) beat Forest 1-0 for the club's first goal of the season, Brentford's Schuster (14) helped shut out Chelsea 3-0, and Villa's Manzambi (13) and Buendía (12) won 3-2 at Spurs. Of the eleven, only Groß is owned by more than one manager in five.
Where the points went missing
- João Pedro did not play. The knee injury behind his 75% flag kept him out of Friday's 3-0 defeat at Brentford, and two-thirds of the game took a zero from its most expensive forward slot. Palmer (2) and Rogers (2) played the full match for nothing, and Palmer now carries a flag of his own.
- Arsenal's defence conceded three at Brighton. Raya, Calafiori and Gabriel returned 1 point each, Saka and Ødegaard 2. One goal conceded in four games became four in five.
- Bruno blanked again. A 1-1 at Fulham gave Bruno Fernandes (2) and Mbeumo (2) a third quiet week running.
- Wissa missed a penalty in a game Newcastle won, and finished on 0 after 90 minutes.
- Dubravka, again. Still owned by one manager in six, still not starting. He has zero points for the season.
How our preview calls landed
The big one was right. We said do not captain João Pedro at a 75% flag with a Friday kick-off, keep him rather than sell, and set a vice from a weekend game. He was left out; anyone who followed that lost nothing to the armband. Our captain, Haaland, returned 6 for 12 with the armband, which beat the 48 average comfortably even in a 5-3 game where the bigger scores went elsewhere. "Keep Groß, do not captain him" against Arsenal produced 14 points and a rise in price. Tarkowski and Mykolenko at home to Ipswich returned 14 and 5. Schade, whom we said was mislabelled as a hard fixture, gave two assists in a 3-0 win for 9.
The rest was poor. Our vice-captain pick, Bruno, scored 2. Our differential armband, Gibbs-White at home to goalless Coventry, scored 2 as Forest lost 1-0, and we called that fixture "the value play of the week". We called Spurs v Villa "nothing to see" and it produced five goals and two Team of the Week midfielders. Among the differentials, Bogle (5, a clean sheet) and Schade (9) delivered; King, Davis and Emersonn managed 2 each. The backtested Best XI scored 58, ten above the average, its best week of the season relative to the field, though still five points behind the average manager over the five weeks combined.
The market has already moved
Groß was bought by more than 600,000 managers over the weekend, twice anyone else, and rose in price along with Schade, Kostoulas, Hall and Barnes. João Pedro lost more than 300,000 owners and fell £0.1m, as did Bruno, Elanga, Tzolis and Sangaré. With three weeks until the next deadline, prices will keep moving on transfers made during the break, so anyone planning to sell a faller should check the price predictor before waiting.
Injuries to watch
- João Pedro (CHE) — knee injury, 75%. The break is in his favour; do not sell on the flag alone.
- Palmer (CHE) and Rice (ARS) — both 75%. Same advice.
- Mateta (CRY) — hamstring, expected back around 11 October.
- Watkins (AVL) — has left for Al Hilal and cannot score again. Sell.
The international break, and GW6
There is no Premier League football until Saturday 10 October, and the GW6 deadline is Saturday morning because Arsenal v Leeds is the early kick-off. Three weeks is a long time in FPL: flags clear, prices move, and it is the traditional window for the first Wildcard, which must be used by the GW19 deadline. If your team has three or more problems after this round, read our Wildcard squad for GW6 onwards, built by the optimiser across the next six gameweeks. If it only has one, hold your transfer until the press conferences.
GW6 itself is headlined by Liverpool v Man City, with Arsenal at home to Leeds and Coventry hosting Newcastle on the Monday night. The full grid is on the fixtures page, and your mini-league has the GW5 table settled, with September's monthly winner decided.
