{"id":1157107,"date":"2026-08-19T07:41:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1157107\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T07:41:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:41:40","slug":"who-is-the-best-arsenal-defender-to-buy-in-fpl-gameweek-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1157107\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the best Arsenal defender to buy in FPL Gameweek 1?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arsenal defenders will likely form the backbone of many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) squads in Gameweek 1.<\/p>\n

The best team in the division for clean sheets, goals conceded and expected goals conceded (xGC) last season, there is a very solid case for investment.<\/p>\n

But with Jurrien Timber<\/strong> (\u00a36.5m) and William Saliba<\/strong> (\u00a36.0m) both set to miss the start of the season due to injury, which defender to go for?<\/p>\n

Here, we take a look at the options available for FPL managers.<\/p>\n

TIMBER + SALIBA INJURY LATEST<\/p>\n

\"Arsenal's<\/p>\n

Timber\u00a0(groin) and\u00a0Saliba\u00a0(back) are both going to miss the start of the season, with Saliba expected to miss significantly more time.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cJurrien [Timber] is progressing really well. He is on the pitch, we are ramping up now, the volume and the load. I think he is in a good trajectory but there is still a few weeks to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cWilliam [Saliba] as we know, is a more long-term injury.\u201d \u2013 Mikel Arteta, speaking ahead of the Community Shield<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

HOW WILL ARSENAL LINE UP WITHOUT TIMBER + SALIBA?<\/p>\n

With no Timber or Saliba, Mikel Arteta opted for Ben White<\/strong> (\u00a35.5m) and Cristhian Mosquera <\/strong>(\u00a35.5m) in their place in the Community Shield.<\/p>\n

This is the defensive line-up that was sent out in Cardiff\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

White, Mosquera and Gabriel Magalhaes<\/strong> (\u00a38.0m) played the full 90 minutes. Calafiori was subbed off for Piero Hincapie<\/strong> (\u00a35.5m) on the hour mark.<\/p>\n

As for total pre-season minutes<\/a>, no Arsenal defender was involved more than Mosquera.<\/p>\nPlayerPricev MKD (Jul 25)v GIR (Aug 1)v BET (Aug 5)v DOR (Aug 9)v COM (Aug 12)v MCI (Aug 16)Total<\/tr>\n\nMosquera<\/td>\n\u00a35.5m<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n61<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n78<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n90<\/td>\n364<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nCalafiori<\/td>\n\u00a35.5m<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n61<\/td>\n62<\/td>\n60<\/td>\n29<\/td>\n60<\/td>\n317<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWhite<\/td>\n\u00a35.5m<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n61<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n78<\/td>\n28<\/td>\n90<\/td>\n302<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGabriel<\/td>\n\u00a38.0m<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n31<\/td>\n60<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n90<\/td>\n226<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nHincapie<\/td>\n\u00a35.5m<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n32<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n61<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n198<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

It does sound like Arsenal will bring in defensive cover for Saliba before the end of the month, with Ezri Konsa<\/strong> (\u00a34.5m) and Jarrell Quansah both linked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, White and Mosquera are devoid of any real competition for now, so here are the options to consider at the back.<\/p>\n

ARSENAL\u2019S DEFENSIVE OPTIONS<\/p>\n

\"FPL<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal defenders will likely form the backbone of many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) squads in Gameweek 1. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1157108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4100],"tags":[314588,155807,314589,94,20943,106416,79,16,15,7674],"class_list":["post-1157107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-best-arsenal-defender","tag-best-fpl-defenders","tag-calafiori","tag-football","tag-gabriel","tag-mosquera","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-white"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117121049810093280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1157108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}