5 FPL Differentials for the Next 5 Gameweeks

Most FPL teams look alike, so the points that move your rank come from players your rivals don't own. I have a prediction model running, and I asked it for players owned by fewer than one manager in ten who should score well over the next five gameweeks, GW10 to GW14. I picked five, at different prices and from different clubs.

One rule: skip players who aren't in form, and check the model against my own eye test. A differential who keeps getting great chances and keeps blanking will drive you mad, so anyone doing that for weeks didn't make the cut. That rule cost me every forward, which I explain at the end.

The five picks

Player	Club	Pos	Price	Owned	Projected, GW10–14
Hill	Bournemouth	DEF	£5.5m	2%	20
Manzambi	Aston Villa	MID	£6.1m	7%	20
Vuskovic	Brighton	DEF	£5.2m	7%	19
Neto	Chelsea	MID	£6.6m	5%	18
Ayari	Brighton	MID	£5.4m	1%	16

For a sense of scale: Rogers is in 52% of teams, costs £8.1m, and I have him on 20. Groß is in 47% and I have him on 20. De Cuyper is in 45% and I have him on 22. Hill and Manzambi are in that ballpark, for a lot less money, and almost nobody has them.

1. Hill (Bournemouth, DEF)

The floor of the list. He's in 2% of teams and is one of the highest projections I have for any player under 10% owned.

He has no attacking numbers to speak of: no goals, no assists. What he has is a place in the team and a habit of doing the defender's dirty work.

• He never comes off. Every minute of Bournemouth's season so far, nine starts and nine full games.
• He does the dirty work. He's reached the DEFCON threshold in five of his nine games, including 22 defensive actions in Gameweek 8.
• The clean sheets are arriving. Bournemouth have kept three in a row with him, and he has 7, 11 and 6 points in those games.

The fixtures are the best on this list: Ipswich away, Forest, Fulham away, Brighton and then Hull at home. By my numbers, Hull is a 42% clean sheet chance, the best of any of their five games.

The catch: the first six weeks were 1, 4, 1, 2, 4 and 2. The recent run is the real Hill only if the clean sheets keep coming, because he has nothing else to fall back on. His teammate Truffert is in 3% of teams and has the same fixtures.

2. Manzambi (Aston Villa, MID)

The one who turns up in the big weeks. Since he broke into the Villa team five games ago, Manzambi has scored 13, 5, 11, 1 and 7: two goals, three assists and seven bonus points in five starts.

At £6.1m he is the same points as Rogers (£8.1m, 52% owned) on my projections.

The fixtures are fair rather than easy: Man Utd away first, then Sunderland, Ipswich away, Everton and Crystal Palace. Palace at home in GW14 is the softest of them.

The catch: he's only started five games, and he has come off before the end in all five (between the 65th and 85th minute). Fewer minutes means fewer chances to score, and a rotation call from the manager would hurt him quickly. He's also had one quiet week: a single point in Gameweek 8.

3. Vuskovic (Brighton, DEF)

The consistent one. The most points of anyone on this list: 58, from a £5.2m defender. Six clean sheets in nine games, and he has reached DEFCON in four of them.

He also has a goal and an assist, and each of them came with a double-figure score: 12 in Gameweek 3, 11 in Gameweek 7.

The fixtures: Brentford at home, then Hull away (a 38% clean sheet chance), Newcastle at home, Bournemouth away and Forest away.

The catch: he's the least of a differential here, at 7%, and GW13 at Bournemouth is the one hard game, at a 24% clean sheet chance. And if you already own a Brighton defender, a second one doubles up on the same clean sheet.

4. Neto (Chelsea, MID)

The bet on the fixtures. Chelsea's next five are all rated 3 or easier by my numbers: Sunderland away, Leeds, Forest away, Crystal Palace and Liverpool, with three of them at Stamford Bridge.

Neto has three goals and an assist in eight starts, and one great week: 15 points in Gameweek 7, with two goals, a clean sheet and three bonus points. He also plays almost the whole game: 86 and 87 minutes in his last two.

The catch: the good week is carrying a lot. He's scored three goals from 1.8 expected, so he's been a bit lucky, and he has 3 points in each of his last two games. I rate him fourth of the five for that reason. If Chelsea's attack keeps creating, he'll beat that.

5. Ayari (Brighton, MID)

The cheap one. The least owned of the five, at 1%, and the cheapest bar Vuskovic at £5.4m. He has 43 points, three goals and six clean sheets.

The last two Brighton weeks tell the story: 13 in Gameweek 7 (a goal, an assist and two bonus points) and 10 in Gameweek 9 (a goal and two bonus points). He's also fourth in line on corners and second on direct free kicks, according to FPL.

His fixtures are the same as Vuskovic's, so you can have the pair or choose one.

The catch: he's streaky. Between those two hauls he scored 2 points, and before them 3 and 3. My model rates him lowest of the five, at 16, and I'd treat him as a cheap upgrade on a bench midfielder rather than a captain pick.

Who I left out

• Gonzalo (Fulham): 2 points in each of his last four games.
• Thiago (Brentford): in form, with 9 points in Gameweek 9, but he's at 9% already and Brentford's next five are rated 4, 2, 4, 5 and 4.
• McBurnie (Hull): 8 and 12 in his last two, but Hull play Arsenal away, Brighton, Palace away, Forest and Bournemouth away: 5, 5, 5, 4, 5.
• Le Fée (Sunderland): 20 on paper, with an 8 last week, but Sunderland's next five are rated 4, 4, 4, 5 and 4.

How to use them

Differentials are for chasing, not protecting. Swap one or two in for a popular player you're not sold on. Don't build a whole team of them.

To see how any of them would fit your squad, try the FPL planner, or check every club's run in the fixture difficulty ratings and the clean sheet odds.

Projections are mine, computed 2 November 2026 for Gameweeks 10–14. Stats from the FPL API, including nine of the ten Gameweek 9 matches (Newcastle v Everton was played after I pulled them; none of the five plays for either club). The goal and clean sheet numbers come from bookmaker odds for the next two gameweeks and from my model beyond that, so they are less certain the further ahead you look. Prices and ownership move daily.