Mail Sport FPL predictions: Should you triple captain Erling Haaland against Ipswich? Which budget midfielder is 'spooking' fantasy managers? And will Arsenal falter again against Aston Villa?

With the 2024-25 Premier League season now underway, the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal will look to build on their opening weekend victories. 

Reigning champions City are the overwhelming favourites to make it two wins from two when they face Ipswich on Saturday afternoon while Arsenal, who ran Pep Guardiola's side close last year, take on Aston Villa in what promises to be a thriller. 

Elsewhere, Manchester United take on Brighton in the early kick-off while both Chelsea and Liverpool - two likely European contenders - are in action on Sunday.

With so many players to choose from, Fantasy Premier League managers have plenty to ponder ahead of the next round of matches, with popular premiums as expensive as they've ever been and an abundance of budget options on offer.

With that in mind, Mail Sport - with help from our friends over at Fantasy Football Hub - have forged a panel of experts to predict each game's full-time result and the players they expect to score the most points in Gameweek 2.

Brighton vs Man United

Sami Mokbel, Chief Football Reporter

All eyes will be on whether Erik ten Hag throws in Joshua Zirkzee (£7.0m) from the start following his match-winning heroics against Fulham on the opening day of the season.

The Holland international came off the bench to score a late winner against Marco Silva's team last Friday night and will be pushing for his first start versus Brighton on Saturday lunchtime.

Harry Maguire appeared to limp off in the closing stages of the opener which could open the door to summer signing Matthijs de Ligt (£4.5m) taking his place in the team.

New Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler is still working out his strongest starting XI following his arrival in the summer but you'd imagine there's every chance he picks the same starting XI that defeated Everton in their opening day of the season clash.

Georginio Rutter (£5.5m) joined from Leeds this week in a club record deal and will eventually become a key part of Hurzeler's team, but the German coach may look to ease his new forward into his plans, particularly after last weekend's convincing away win.

Score prediction: 1-1 draw

Tottenham vs Everton

Lewis Steele, Merseyside Football Reporter

I watched Tottenham's game on Monday Night Football and, though they only drew, I thought they could have hammered Leicester with a bit of luck in front of goal.

I did not go for Dominic Solanke (£7.5m) from the beginning of the season as I was not sure he would be thrown straight into the starting XI but he looked sharp in that game. 

With Everton leaking goals last week, the former Bournemouth man looked a great pick - before he picked up his injury, that is.

I did breathe a sigh of frustration when Pedro Porro (£5.5m) scored as he was one I had been weighing up all week before going for alternative defensive options. But he looked good, bombing forward and creating chances. If you want a Spurs defender, Porro is your man.

As for Everton, they are the most baffling club in the division. They were well-beaten by Brighton and the Seagulls could well have scored a couple more goals. But I don't think the Toffees will be as bad for the remainder of the season.

They don't score enough goals so I would not recommend any attackers - even Dominic Calvert-Lewin is struggling. 

The only Everton option I'd go for is Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.5m), the left back. The rest of the back four is ravaged with injury.

Score prediction: Tottenham win 2-0

Crystal Palace vs West Ham

Wes Prickett (FPL Heisenberg), Fantasy Football Hub expert

The Eagles started the season with a disappointing 2-1 loss to Brentford – but it could have been very different if Eberechi Eze's wonder-freekick was allowed to stand!

This would've changed the whole dynamic of the game as it would've put Crystal Palace in front – and more importantly it would've changed things for FPL managers like me who had Eze in their Gameweek 1 team (I'm still not over it).

Sticking with the Englishman, Eze is my long-term FPL pick from these teams, a midfielder who will cost you just £7.0m, who's nailed on to start every game, on penalties and will be part of everything Crystal Palace do going forward.

Shoutout to the Palace defensive options too. I think they will get a fair amount of clean sheets this season and defender Daniel Munoz (£5.0m) looks primed for attacking returns from right wing back – he already has an assist to his name this season.

Score prediction: Crystal Palace win 2-0

Southampton vs Nottingham Forest

Nathan Salt, Manchester United correspondent

Both of these sides' opening matches found themselves overshadowed by incidents, with Danilo's horror injury rocking Forest, and the controversy around the sending off of Newcastle defender Fabian Schar dominating the agenda for Southampton.

It is set to be a close encounter at St Mary's in Southampton's first home game since winning promotion, but I'll just give the edge to Forest.

Despite scoring just 2.0 points in Gameweek 1, Morgan Gibbs-White (£6.5m) is a smart differential pull for Forest, with the midfielder on every free-kick and penalty.

Striker Chris Wood (£6.0m) remains a popular option after scoring 9 points in the opening day draw to Bournemouth, while Southampton don't have a single midfielder selected by more than 1% of players.

Given he is listed as a midfielder but playing as a striker, Brereton Diaz (£5.5m) could be a clever move, but Forest and Gibbs-White feels the sensible play here.

Score prediction: Nottingham Forest win 2-1

Fulham vs Leicester

Abdul Rehman (FPL Salah), Fantasy Football Hub expert

Fulham and Leicester had tough opening fixtures to start the season and both fared pretty well. Marco Silva's team will be the favourites to win this one especially with them being at home and they won't get many better opportunities to pick up three points this season.

For Leicester City, veteran Jamie Vardy (£5.5m) was unfortunate not to come away with more than just a goal in their 1-1 draw with Tottenham. He is a proven Premier League goalscorer and Fantasy Premier League asset. Also, with Patson Daka injured and looking to be out a while, he should get a decent amount of playing time. 

Abdul Fatawu (£5.5m) also impressed as he picked up an assist and three bonus points (8 points in total).

However, I still fancy the Fulham assets in this game. Emile Smith-Rowe (£5.5m) should get more minutes in this fixture as he builds up match fitness and he has a plum fixture to register his first attacking returns for his new club. The Foxes were good going forward but gave up 15 shots with an xG of 0.98 against Spurs so will give up chances to the Cottagers.

My top pick for this game though, is Rodrigo Muniz (£6.0m). He scored nine goals and two assists in only 18 starts last term. He established himself as a first team regular in the second half of last season. All his goals came from Gameweek 23 onwards and he is no doubt a first team player now. The Brazilian will get plenty of joy in this game.

Score prediction: Fulham win 2-1

Man City vs Ipswich

Matthew Lambert, Tennis Reporter

The biggest game of the weekend from an FPL point of view, as those managers without Erling Haaland (£15.0m) hide behind their sofas.

The striker could get a hatful of points and some are even considering using the triple captain chip on him. The idea has some merit because, due to a reworking of the FA Cup schedule, there are projected to be fewer double gameweeks than normal this season, so it could make sense to use triple captain in a single gameweek.

But for me I don't like the idea. There is a fair chance an unexpected double gameweek gets added at some point and that should provide a better use for the TC.

Other than Haaland, it will be interesting to see how many minutes Jeremy Doku (£6.5m) and Savinho (£6.5m) get on the wings. If either of them starts to look like a consistent starter they will be bargains.

Some Nkunku owners spooked by his 59th-minute sub may even be tempted to switch to one of the above-mentioned City attackers for this plumb fixture. But, as always in GW2, I would strongly recommend rolling your free transfer this week.

Gaining an extra week of information and the flexibility of two FTs will put you in a much stronger position.

Score prediction: Man City win 4-0

Aston Villa vs Arsenal

Jian Batra, Fantasy Football Hub Expert

The Challengers elect face the side who arguably took the league away from them last year. After not accumulating a single point, out of the six available. With this in mind, and with Mikel Arteta's character in mind, I highly doubt this happens again.

Villa yet again showed their susceptibility to transitions against West Ham, and given Unai Emery's persistence with this system, it doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon.

The Gunners having the perfect arsenal of weapons to exploit that in Kai Havertz (£8.0m), Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) and Gabriel Martinelli (£7.0m), means a bullish prediction is justified. They are all well equipped for a variety of manners to hurt Villa in this way.

Havertz and Saka having such dominion over Arsenal's threat in the final third means they can be gold in FPL this year. Practically fixture proof, they have so many avenues to points.

Villa impressed going forward, and certainly have enough to score, but I'm not confident in their ability to restrain this Arsenal attack enough.

Score prediction: Arsenal win 2-0

Bournemouth vs Newcastle

Aadam Patel, Sports Reporter & Content Creator 

Alexander Isak (£8.5m) was the most selected FPL player in Gameweek 1 and the second most-captained player but he failed to get on the scoresheet against Southampton.

That said, over half of all FPL teams still have him in their side and it would not be a surprise if he opened his account for the season against Bournemouth.

Isak got an assist last week with five FPL points and you would expect him to provide attacking returns, but it could be worth the risk to go for a similar priced attacking option like Havertz or Watkins and get an advantage on your opponents.

A word too for Joelinton (£6.0m) who was one of only five midfielders in GW1 to get double figures, securing 11 points. The Brazilian is well worth the punt and looks like he has hit the ground running this season.

From a Bournemouth perspective, Antoine Semenyo (£5.5m) delivered eight points in GW1 and would definitely be a handy option on the bench. Apart from that, it would be a left-field call to include any Bournemouth players in your starting XI in GW2.

Score prediction: Newcastle win 3-1

Wolves vs Chelsea

Ben Willcocks, Senior Sports Reporter

Forget the full-time result, predicting Chelsea's starting lineup is enough of a challenge these days. Pertinently for FPL, Joao Felix became the latest high-profile star to move to Stamford Bridge in midweek, concerning those like me who backed Christopher Nkunku (£6.5m) from the start of the season.

That being said, I fully expect the Frenchman to start at Molineux and for Enzo Maresca to tweak his shape in midfield, removing one of Romeo Lavia, Enzo Maresca or Moises Caicedo to deploy a 4-2-3-1 formation. Pedro Neto (£6.5m) and Cole Palmer (£10.5m) starting on the flanks would allow Nkunku to flourish in the No 10 role, even if an early substitution is highly likely.

I'm backing Palmer to open his account against Gary O'Neil's side and expect him to score the most FPL points from this fixture. Rayan Ait Nouri's tendency to bomb forward for Wolves from left-back means Palmer will have plenty of space to operate on the right wing - and there is every chance he gets an opportunity from the penalty spot.

As for Wolves, I expect them to enjoy their best moments on the counterattack and target the flanks through Hwang Hee-chan (£6.5m) and Rodrigo Gomes (£5.5m). However, Wolves assets likely won't come into our FPL plans until later in the season, mostly due to their tricky run of fixtures.

Don't be surprised if Wolves snatch one against the Blues, but I'm backing the visitors to claim all three points here. Just...

Score prediction: Chelsea win 2-1

Liverpool vs Brentford

James Sharpe, Mail Sport football writer and co-host of the Fantasy Island podcast

If you, like me, were one of those who took a punt on Jarell Quansah (£4.4m) only to watch the Liverpool defender get hooked at half-time against Ipswich after, as Reds boss Arne Slot later clarified, he lost too many duels then you've got a decision to make. Do you stick with him or get rid?

The only problem if you haven't yet made up your mind, is that it might already be too late. Quansah dropped in price on Tuesday night to £4.4m so if you didn't have any money left in the bank when you picked your initial squad and you want to sell him, you're going to have to swap him for a £4m defender like Wout Faes at Leicester or Taylor Harwood-Bellis at Southampton.

If you were astute enough to leave £0.5m in the coffers, you could make the switch to £4.5m assets like Brighton's Lewis Dunk, Aston Villa's Ezri Konsa or Fulham's Antonee Robinson.

I'm just going to keep him and roll my transfer. I don't want to drop down to a £4m defender and, who knows, he may regain his place down the line. I'd rather bank a transfer this early in the season while we're still gathering information than rushing into a change I'm not keen on.

Those who don't have such concerns are ones who plumped for Mo Salah (£12.5m) and watched him rack up a goal, assist and full bonus for a 14-point haul against Ipswich. He looked as sharp as ever and you would fancy the Egyptian King for a return or two against a Brentford side that faced 14 shots against Crystal Palace.

The same goes for Diogo Jota (£7.6m), who rewarded owners with a goal against Ipswich. There's still a lingering concern over if/when Darwin Nunez gets a chance but Jota has earned the right to be the first-choice No 9 and took his chance. He's still a great option for now.

Score prediction: Liverpool win 3-0

FPL Salah, FPL Heisenberg and FPL Jian Batra are all Fantasy Football Hub contributors and have joined Mail Sport's expert panel to kickstart the FPL season.

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