Fantasy Premier League New Arrivals: Tzolis, Schlager, and Targett
The Fantasy Premier League game has barely reset and already the new names are rolling in. Three fresh additions dropped on Friday, each carrying a different kind of temptation – and risk.
This is where the early drafts are won or quietly sabotaged.
Tzolis: Big Numbers, Bigger Question Mark
Christos Tzolis arrives at Arsenal with the sort of headline stats that make Fantasy managers sit up. Seventeen goals and 23 assists for Club Brugge in a title-winning season is elite output for any wide player, never mind one now priced at £6.5m.
On paper, that looks like a gift.
In reality, it drops him straight into Mikel Arteta’s rotation maze.
Last season told the story. Arsenal’s title-winning 2025/26 campaign was built on a stable core in central midfield, not on fixed roles out wide. Declan Rice, at £7.5m, started 35 league matches. Martin Zubimendi, £5.5m, started 34. They were the constants.
Everyone further forward lived with the roulette wheel.
Bukayo Saka – even in an injury-hit season – was the only other midfielder to start more than 21 matches, and he still came in at just 25 starts and 6 sub appearances, averaging 72.3 minutes per outing. Around him, it was chaos for Fantasy managers.
Eberechi Eze, Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli all sat in that awkward band: priced at £6.5m, averaging under an hour per appearance. Eze managed 58.6 minutes, Odegaard 58.3, Madueke 48.2, Martinelli just 39.3. Leandro Trossard wasn’t much better at 65.5. Mikel Merino, when used, hit 50.0.
Tzolis now joins that group at the same price point, with the same cloud hanging over him: will he actually start often enough?
The Greek winger clearly has the all-round game to thrive when he does get on the pitch. He can score, he can create, and he fits the aggressive, front-foot style Arteta demands. The problem is not his talent. It’s his minutes.
With safer, nailed-on options at £6.5m elsewhere – Brentford’s Dango Ouattara, Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr and Everton’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall all look set for secure starting roles – gambling on Tzolis feels like an unnecessary early-season roll of the dice.
If you want Arsenal’s midfield, you probably still pay up for Saka or trust the volume of Rice and Zubimendi. If you want value at £6.5m, you look away from north London.
Schlager v Sangare: Forest’s DC Battle
At Nottingham Forest, the picture is different. This is not about goals and assists; it’s about the grind.
Xaver Schlager arrives from RB Leipzig at £5.0m, expected to fight Ibrahim Sangare, also £5.0m, for the defensive midfield role vacated by Elliot Anderson, who has moved to Manchester City for £6.5m.
Replacing Anderson is no small task in Fantasy terms. His game was built on pressing, recoveries and relentless work off the ball – all of it feeding directly into the new Defensive Contribution (DC) scoring.
Midfielders earn two DC points if they reach 12 Clearances, Blocks, Interceptions and Recoveries (CBIRT) in a match. Anderson lived in that zone. In 2025/26 he averaged 8.3 recoveries per 90 minutes on his own. Sangare and Schlager, between them, managed only 12 recoveries per 90.
The rest of the numbers underline the gap.
Per 90 last season, Anderson produced:
- 1.3 clearances
- 0.4 blocks
- 1.1 interceptions
- 8.3 recoveries
- 2.8 tackles
That’s a total of 13.9 defensive actions per 90.
Sangare sat at 11.6. Schlager at 9.0.
The volume Anderson delivered made him a DC machine. The replacements, at least on last season’s evidence, don’t hit the same level.
There is one intriguing wrinkle. Schlager has worked with Forest’s new head coach Olivier Glasner before. That familiarity could matter when the starting XI for 2026/27 takes shape, and the summer friendlies will tell us more about who Glasner trusts at the base of midfield.
Right now, though, the numbers lean towards Sangare as the more promising Fantasy asset for DC points. At £5.0m, if he nails the role, he has the profile to become a quiet, low-ownership value pick in the middle of the park.
Targett Arrives, but Hughes Steals the Spotlight
At Hull City, the new arrival is a familiar name.
Matt Targett, once a Fantasy favourite at Aston Villa, joins on a free after leaving Newcastle United. He comes in at £4.0m and will compete with current first-choice left-back Ryan Giles, also £4.0m, for the starting spot in 2026/27.
To remember Targett at his Fantasy peak, you have to rewind. Back to 2020/21. Back to 138 points for Villa and a time when attacking full-backs were among the most reliable budget defenders in the game.
That world has shifted.
With the introduction of DC scoring for defenders last season, centre-backs have become the real winners. They hoover up Clearances, Blocks, Interceptions and Tackles (CBIT) in a way full-backs rarely match, and the scoring system now rewards that.
Defenders earn two DC points if they hit 10 CBIT in a match. For Hull, that points you away from the flanks and straight towards Charlie Hughes.
Also priced at £4.0m, Hughes averaged 11.8 CBIT per 90 minutes in the Championship last season – more than any other defender in the promoted sides. That kind of volume puts him in the conversation not just as Hull’s standout defensive option, but as one of the very best DC assets in the entire game for 2026/27.
Targett might still have moments. He may even reclaim some of that old Fantasy relevance if he secures the shirt and Hull find clean sheets. But in the current landscape, and at the same price, Hughes is the one who fits the modern scoring era.
The temptation is to chase the names you know. The smart play, this time, might be to back the centre-back you don’t.
