Arsenal in Dream Team 2025/26: Top performers, smart selections & potential flops

The Sun

5 days ago

ARSENAL have finished as Premier League runners-up for three consecutive seasons.
Silverware may have escaped the Gunners but Mikel Arteta's troops have provided Dream Team points in vast quantities and there's no reason to expect anything different in 2025/26.
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Since Arsenal players are generally very popular, let's analyse their top performers, smart selections and potential flops ahead of Gameweek 1.
Top Performers
Bukayo Saka (£6.5m) will start the campaign as the outright most expensive midfielder in the game but with good reason.
Those a fraction cheaper than him all have minor caveats; Bruno Fernandes (£6m) is without European commitments, Cole Palmer (£6m) has struggled for goals since the turn of the year, and Florian Wirtz (£6m) is untested in English football.
Whereas Arsenal's No7 is a proven performer, with European fixtures, whose form has barely faltered since he became an established starter at his boyhood club.
He racked up 286 points via 12 goals and 17 assists last season, an astonishing return given he missed a third of the campaign through injury.
Saka is almost a must-have asset when fit.
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The Gunners have conceded the fewest goals in each of the last two Premier League campaigns, hence why there is a premium attached to their defenders.
William Saliba (£5m) and Gabriel (£5m) virtually guarantee a steady stream of clean sheets and the latter's set-piece threat makes him a particularly inviting prospect.
Speaking of clean sheets, David Raya (£4.5m) shared the Golden Glove with Matz Sels (£3.5m) in 2024/25 but he was unrivalled at the top of the Dream Team goalkeeper rankings, finishing with a total of 259 points.
Some Dream Team bosses prefer to save budget between the sticks but the Spaniard is probably the best option for those prepared to spend a little more for a quality set-and-forget keeper.
Oh, we should mention Viktor Gyokeres (£6m) here too given he scored 54 goals in all competitions for Sporting CP last season.
The Swedish striker is certainly an exciting addition to the league.
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Smart Selections
Myles Lewis-Skelly (£4m) has been recategorised as a defender this season, a change that boosts his viability considerably.
A midfielder by trade, the 18-year-old has been reinvented as a left-back and potentially offers an affordable route into Arsenal's parsimonious defence.
Lewis-Skelly had a few disciplinary issues during his breakout season but the main headline is that he established himself as a starter in the biggest games.
It's almost certainly too bold to suggest Ethan Nwaneri (£3.5m) as a selection for Gameweek 1 but he should be monitored closely.
The teenager is a prodigious talent who is expected to go from strength to strength.
He chipped in with a very useful nine goals last season and it wouldn't be all that surprising if, like Lewis-Skelly, he earned a run of starts at some stage.
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Potential Flops
Both Ben White (£4m) and Jurrien Timber (£5m) have the potential to be top performers but the problem is that they may have to share right-back duties, limiting their individual minutes to a certain extent.
The Englishman has a good understanding with Saka and is therefore an asset going forward but the Dutchman is ultra solid in defence.
It may be that a clear pecking order emerges a few Gameweeks into the campaign but backing either from the very start feels like an unnecessary risk.
Lastly, it will be interesting to see how Kai Havertz (£4.5m) gets on this season.
The German forward scored 15 goals before a freak hamstring injury in training sidelined him for three months.
He returned more than his fair share of Dream Team points prior to that setback but what will his role be now Gyokeres has arrived at the Emirates?
If Havertz is now a second-stringer who will have to be content with substitute cameos and Carabao Cup starts, that will obviously damage his Dream Team appeal.
The same logic applies to Gabriel Jesus (£4m), who is still recovering from an ACL injury.