The Hard Tackle lists the five best options to consider to bring into your team heading into FPL Gameweek 21 of the 2025/26 season.
Manchester City’s title charge has started to narrow the margin for error in FPL, and Gameweek 21 feels like one of those moments where brave transfers could define the next stretch of the season. This is not a week for safe, template picks alone; it is a week for spotting fragile defences, mispriced differentials, and form lines that have not yet fully registered in ownership numbers.
Across the fixtures, several patterns jump out. Manchester City host a Brighton & Hove Albion side that still blow hot and cold at both ends of the pitch; Everton welcome a Wolves team that can look blunt when forced to break organised blocks; Nottingham Forest face a West Ham United side who often leave space between the lines; Manchester United meet a leaky Burnley; Fulham meet a Chelsea still searching for any sort of consistent identity. Those match‑ups alone do not tell the full FPL story, but they do frame the opportunity.
Into that landscape step a handful of players who are not yet automatic picks in most squads but have enough underlying threat, fixtures and role upside to justify aggressive investment. The focus here is on five names: Matheus Nunes, Michael Keane, Morgan Gibbs‑White, Matheus Cunha and Raul Jimenez. Each brings something slightly different: clean‑sheet potential, set‑piece threat, advanced starting positions, or talisman appeal.
The other common thread is price. None of these picks sit at the very top of the FPL bracket in their positions, which makes them easier to fit around premium assets and gives managers flexibility to react to injuries or fixture swings in the coming weeks. With doubles and blanks still to navigate later in the season, making value work now can be the difference between burning hits in March and rolling transfers with a strong squad.
Matheus Nunes: City’s “defensive” wildcard
Manchester City’s defensive platform has quietly settled into the sort of rhythm FPL managers love: control, territory, and long spells where the opposition barely get a shot away. Across this season, City’s structure has meant their midfielders and hybrid defenders rack up steady appearance and bonus potential, and that is where Nunes starts to stand out.
Deployed in a deeper, ball‑progressing role as a right-back, he benefits from City’s dominance of possession and low concession of big chances, which keeps them in the mix for repeated clean sheets. On top of that, Nunes is no stranger to end‑product. Across his Premier League seasons for City, he has produced multiple goals and a healthy tally of assists, profiling as a technically clean, forward‑driving player even when starting deeper.
His points history reflects a pattern of steady two‑ and three‑pointers punctuated by double‑digit hauls when he combines appearance points, a clean sheet and an attacking return. Those “DEFCON”‑enabled returns can transform a Gameweek, and Nunes has already shown over previous campaigns that he has the passing range and late‑arriving movement to deliver them.
Brighton’s visit in Gameweek 21 only sharpens the appeal. Fabian Hurzeler’s side remain expansive and brave in possession, but that bravery often tips into naivety, especially against teams that press cleanly and punish transitions.
Brighton have mixed high‑scoring wins with heavy defeats and spells of defensive disorganisation, and Manchester City are exactly the sort of side who can pin them back and suffocate their build‑up. For Nunes, that means extra touches in advanced zones, potential key passes into the final third and, importantly, a strong platform for another clean sheet plus bonus if City control the game as expected.
Michael Keane: set‑piece hammer against erratic Wolves
Everton’s defensive story this season has been one of quiet resilience: they concede territory in spells, but when Michael Keane plays, they have a clear leader in the box who attacks crosses at both ends. From an FPL point of view, that matters twice over.
Firstly, Keane is on the pitch for most of Everton’s clean sheets, and the underlying metrics back up his value: in the Premier League, this season he has already kept multiple clean sheets, with Everton being quite impressive, the heavy defeat to Brentford notwithstanding. That kind of volume clears the way for bonus points when Everton manage to grind out low‑scoring wins. Secondly, Keane brings a genuine goal threat.
The Englishman has already scored twice in the Premier League this season, placing him among Everton’s top scorers despite being a centre‑back. Recent match logs show full‑game appearances across a long run of fixtures, including solid displays with clean sheets and dominant aerial defending against sides like Nottingham Forest and others.
Wolves, his Gameweek 21 opponents, are inconsistent in the final third; they can look sharp when counter‑attacking space but often run out of ideas against disciplined low blocks. That combination, Keane’s set‑piece threat plus Wolves’ tendency to stall, makes him an appealing budget defender for anyone chasing both clean‑sheet and headed‑goal upside in a single pick.
Morgan Gibbs‑White: Forest’s creative heartbeat
Nottingham Forest have leaned heavily on Morgan Gibbs‑White as their main creative outlet, and his role screams FPL value. Lining up as an advanced midfielder, often between the lines or in the right half‑space, he gets on the ball in dangerous pockets rather than sitting alongside the holding players. That shows up in the numbers.
This Premier League season, he has already scored four goals and sits top of Forest’s scoring charts, while across 20 league matches, he has taken over forty shots, more than two efforts per ninety minutes. For an FPL midfielder, that blend of shot volume and central creative responsibility is exactly what managers seek when hunting for mid‑priced differentials.
His points history this campaign reflects steady involvement. With close to 1,700 league minutes, Gibbs‑White has combined his four goals and regular involvement in Forest’s best attacking moments. His shot accuracy, roughly 30 percent of attempts on target, suggests that when Forest build attacks through him, he is not just recycling possession but actively working the goalkeeper.
Gameweek 21 hands him an enticing fixture against West Ham United, a side that can look disjointed defensively when their double pivot gets dragged out and full‑backs push on. The Hammers have conceded space between the lines all season, and that is precisely the channel where Gibbs‑White thrives, linking midfield to attack and arriving late for cut‑backs. For managers looking for a midfielder with both a high ceiling and secure minutes, his advanced role and talisman status make him one of the best bets this week.
Matheus Cunha: Manchester United’s new spearhead
At Manchester United, Cunha’s arrival was framed as part of a broader rebuild of the attacking unit, and his early numbers back up the excitement. Across this league campaign, he has featured in 17 matches, starting the vast majority, and has already contributed four goals and an assist while racking up a high shot volume.
That shot‑happy profile means that even when the Brazilian does not score, he is putting himself in positions to do so, which is often a better indicator of future returns than a short‑term dry patch. His recent form has been particularly encouraging, and the goal against Leeds United on the weekend made his three goals in five games for Cunha.
He is clearly central to United’s build‑up, often dropping to link play before bursting into the box, while also being trusted to lead the line in big games. Gameweek 21’s opponents, Burnley, have struggled badly to keep clean sheets since returning to the top flight.
The Clarets’ backline has leaked chances in transition and from crosses, two areas where Cunha’s movement and physicality can hurt them. For FPL managers in search of a forward‑classified midfielder who offers shots, minutes and a soft defensive matchup, Cunha’s blend of role and fixtures makes him a standout punt.
Raul Jimenez: old fox, new opening
Raul Jimenez might no longer be the shiny new toy up front, but his underlying numbers at Fulham this season show there is still plenty left in the tank. In the Premier League so far, he has scored four goals with several assists, broadly matching an expected‑goals figure just under five and placing him comfortably in the middle of the league’s forward scoring charts.
The context of Gameweek 21 adds a layer of intrigue. Fulham face Chelsea, who, despite their name and budget, are still a deeply inconsistent defensive side, prone to lapses in concentration and poor structure when chasing games. Recent form charts for Jimenez show a mix of outings, but sprinkled among them are full‑match performances with goals in narrow Fulham wins and high‑scoring fixtures, especially through November and early December.
For FPL managers, that paints the picture of a streaky but dangerous forward who can string together returns once confidence kicks in. Chelsea’s current struggles give him exactly the kind of shaky back line he can bully, particularly from crosses and second balls in the box, and a strong display here could set him up as a medium‑term pick as Fulham continue a run of mixed but attackable fixtures.
FPL transfer recommendations at a glance
| Player | Club | GW21 opponent | Main appeal | Risk level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matheus Nunes | Manchester City | Brighton (H) | Clean‑sheet platform plus occasional attacking returns in a dominant side. | Medium |
| Michael Keane | Everton | Wolves (H) | Set‑piece goal threat combined with solid clean‑sheet potential at home. | Medium |
| Morgan Gibbs‑White | Nottingham Forest | West Ham (H) | Advanced creative role, on the ball in dangerous central zones with shots and goals. | Medium |
| Matheus Cunha | Manchester United | Burnley (H) | High shot volume focal point against a leaky, newly promoted defence. | Medium‑High |
| Raul Jimenez | Fulham | Chelsea (H) | In‑form striker facing an error‑prone defence, with penalties and aerial threat. | High |
Honourable mentions
There are, of course, more than five ways to attack Gameweek 21. Gabriel Magalhaes remains a constant set‑piece and clean‑sheet threat for Arsenal and deserves monitoring if fixtures swing kindly. Josko Gvardiol offers a different route into Manchester City’s defence, mixing minutes at left‑back and centre‑back with some attacking involvement from wide areas.
Further up the pitch, Elliot Anderson and James Garner have enough minutes and underlying involvement to be on watchlists in deeper leagues or draft formats. Rayan Cherki’s flair and unpredictability make him one to stash if he nails a starting role.
Meanwhile, Dominic Calvert‑Lewin and Benjamin Sesko both carry the profile of classic FPL forwards who could explode if they hit a scoring streak in the right run of fixtures at Everton and Manchester United respectively. As ever, the trick is getting on them just before the bandwagon starts, and Gameweek 21 might be the first chance to do exactly that.
