Fantasy Football

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

By Andrew Francis

Published: 7:00, 1 September 2023

You’ll need the very best choices in the centre of the park if you want to top your mini-leagues. We’ve crunched the numbers to identify the best picks ahead of Gameweek 4. 

Among the higher point-scorers in FPL are the players who pull the strings from the middle of the park, whether they excel in making or scoring goals.

Our FPL rating system — Squawka Score — has been engineered to identify the best attacking midfielders in the Premier League, judging a player’s output per 90 minutes for a group of specifically selected stats.

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 midfielders
Top midfielder pick for Gameweek 4
Best cheap midfielders for Gameweek 4
Best midfielders with easy fixtures

Best FPL Midfielders

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

Player FPL Squawka Score 23/24 Team 23/24 FPL Price
Bruno Fernandes 81% Man United 8.5
Solly March 81% Brighton 6.6
Phil Foden 80% Man City 7.6
Mo Salah 80% Liverpool 12.5
Bukayo Saka 75% Arsenal 8.7
Jack Grealish 75% Man City 7.4
Bryan Mbeumo 75% Brentford 6.8
Gabriel Martinelli 72% Arsenal 8.0
Eberechi Eze 67% Crystal Palace 6.4
Martin Ødegaard 65% Arsenal 8.5

Top midfielder pick for Gameweek 4

Every week, we will bring you a Differential Duel to highlight a player who both ranks well according to our Squawka Score system and isn’t being picked by the vast majority of FPL managers.

We will then crunch the numbers and pit the chosen differential against a comparable asset who is proving popular — it is then on you to choose your fighter.

This week, we are comparing Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon (0.9% ownership) and Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma (42.9%).

You can net 1.1m in savings by switching from Mitoma to Gordon this week. Gordon showed his ability last weekend, terrorising the Liverpool defence, and Newcastle have some easier fixtures coming up, giving the youngster the chance to pick up some major points.

Conversely, Brighton have a string of tough matches on the horizon, with four of their next six fixtures against teams that finished above them in the league last season, as well as a tough trip to Aston Villa.

Could it be time to ditch your Brighton playmaker and look for more value in the North East?

Here’s how their 2022/23 stats compare on our Comparison Matrix

Best cheap midfielders for Gameweek 4

We all want to load up on premium picks, but your £100million budget must always be in the back of your mind.

This is where bargains come in handy to balance out your squad. Using our Squawka super computer, we have picked out some budget midfielders for consideration who fare best according to the key fantasy football metrics. Where a Squawka Score cannot be provided, players did not reach the minimum Premier League minutes threshold for the calendar year 2023. Scores will be available from Gameweek 6.

The best 4.5 picks for 23/24 FPL

  1. Pape Sarr, Spurs (N/A)
  2. Saša Lukić, Fulham (10%)
  3. Elliot Anderson, Newcastle (N/A)

The best 5.0 picks for 23/24 FPL

  1. Jacob Murphy, Newcastle (66%)
  2. Alejandro Garnacho, Man United (56%)
  3. Harvey Elliott, Liverpool (48%)

The best 5.5 picks for 23/24 FPL

  1. Leon Bailey, Aston Villa (52%)
  2. Pedro Neto, Wolves (49%)
  3. Willian, Fulham (48%)

The best 6.0 picks for 23/24 FPL

  1. Saïd Benrahma, West Ham (60%)
  2. Alexis Mac Allister, Liverpool (56%)
  3. Morgan Gibbs-White, Nottingha Forest (50%)

 Best midfielders with easy fixtures

Is your midfield almost set and ready to go? Hold fire for a moment — we have only more factor for you to consider before submitting your team.

Below, using our Squawka Score system and the FPL’s official Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR), we have the identified the top selections from each of the Premier League clubs deemed to have an ‘easy’ fixture in Gameweek 4.

Team Top pick FPL Squawka Score 23/24 FPL Price
Brentford Bryan Mbeumo 75% 6.8
Chelsea Raheem Sterling 58% 7.1
Crystal Palace Eberechi Eze 67% 6.4
Everton Alex Iwobi 36% 5.4
Luton Tahith Chong* 5.0
Man City Phil Foden 80% 7.6
Sheffield United Gustavo Hamer* 5.0
Spurs Son Heung-Min 59% 9.0
West Ham Jarrod Bown 63% 7.0
Wolves Pedro Neto 49% 5.5
*Does not qualify for a Squawka Score until GW6 as he did not feature in the Premier League last season.
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