Fantasy Football

FPL best goalkeeper picks: Gameweek 4 complete budget, differential and premium tips

By Andrew Francis

Published: 7:00, 1 September 2023

Having the best option possible in between the sticks could make all the difference. We’ve got all the info you need ahead of Gameweek 4. 

One of the underrated assets of a successful fantasy football team is a safe pair of hands behind your defence churning out consistent points hauls.

Using our brand new rating system, the Squawka Score, we look at the best goalkeeping options for Gameweek 4. Our tool judges a player’s output per 90 minutes for a group of selected stats and spits out a percentage based on their potential to score FPL points.

What is the Squawka Score? You can learn more about how we devised our fantasy football ranking system here

If you think you can beat our FPL boffins, you can join the Squawka Challenge League here.

Best FPL goalkeepers
Top goalkeeper pick for Gameweek 4
Best cheap goalkeepers for Gameweek 4
Best goalkeepers with easy fixtures

Best FPL Goalkeepers

Here are the top 10 Premier League goalkeepers based on their FPL Squawka Score from the 2023 calendar year.

Player FPL Squawka Score 23/24 Team 23/24 FPL Price
David Raya 62% Arsenal 4.9
Alisson 60% Liverpool 5.5
Bernd Leno 60% Fulham 4.5
Nick Pope 58% Newcastle 5.5
Alphonse Areola 57% West Ham 4.1
Sam Johnstone 56% Crystal Palace 4.5
Emiliano Martinez 56% Aston Villa 5.0
Ederson 55% Man City 5.6
Robert Sanchez 50% Chelsea 4.5
Neto 48% Bournemouth 4.5

Top goalkeeper pick for Gameweek 4

As part of our FPL coverage, we are going to pick out a Differential Duel ahead of every Gameweek.

The idea is to pit two comparable assets against each other — one who isn’t necessarily being selected by most FPL managers, and one who is proving popular.

We will then give you the stats and it is your call as to who gets the final nod.

This week, we compare Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario (3.5% ownership) with Man City’s Ederson (20%).

Vicario has got off to a great start to life at Tottenham, securing 19 points so far — the highest of any goalkeeper this season. When this is compared to Ederson, it’s easy to see that Vicario could be a key differential this week. Ederson has won five points fewer than his counterpart from North London, but he costs 0.6m more.

Spurs take on Burnley and Sheffield United in the next two weeks, giving you even more reason to consider picking up the Spurs ‘keeper ahead of Gameweek 4.

Here is a closer look at how their 2022/23 stats compare on our Comparison Matrix

Best cheap goalkeepers for Gameweek 4

It is fair to say that goalkeepers at the bottom end of the price scale might not start you many games, but that does not mean they should be completely ruled out when it comes to FPL.

For genuine starters, you might want to focus on our 4.5 picks, although Alphonse Areola and Matt Turner also look like keeping the gloves for their respective sides as things stand. The below selections have been produced after running this year’s numbers through our Squawka Score super computer ahead of Gameweek 4.

The best 4.0 picks for 23/24 FPL

  1. Matt Turner, Nottingham Forest (N/A)
  2. Fraser Forster, Tottenham (47%)
  3. Robin Olsen, Aston Villa (N/A)

The best 4.5 picks for 23/24 FPL

  1. Bernd Leno, Fulham (60%)
  2. Alphonse Areola, West Ham (57%)
  3. Sam Johnstone, Crystal Palace (56%)

 Best goalkeepers with easy fixtures

Giving you further food for thought, we have crunched the numbers using both the FPL’s official Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR) and our Squawka Score tool to determine the best player to pick from each club facing an ‘easy’ fixture this weekend.

Team Top pick FPL Squawka Score 23/24 FPL Price
Brentford Mark Flekken* 4.5
Chelsea Robert Sanchez 50% 4.5
Crystal Palace Sam Johnstone 56% 4.5
Everton Jordan Pickford 44% 4.5
Luton Thomas Kaminski* 4.5
Man City Ederson 55% 5.6
Sheffield United Wes Foderingham* 4.5
Spurs Guglielmo Vicario* 5.0
West Ham Alphonse Areola 57% 4.1
Wolves Jose Sa 40% 5.0

*Expected to start, but does not qualify for a Squawka Score until GW6 as he did not feature in the Premier League last season.

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