The best Fantasy Football differential picks for gameweek 3

As we progress through the season, we’ll see lower owned players start to come to light that are a differential from the more popular picks.

Each week, I’ll take a look a few FPL players to consider who may make the difference for you if you choose to draft them in.

Marc Cucurella, Chelsea

• £5.0m
• Defender
• 9.2% owned

After a cameo in their first game of the season, Chelsea’s new signing was thrust into the starting eleven against Spurs and supplied an assist for fellow defender Kalidou Koulibaly from a corner.

Three things could drive interest in Cucurella:

The first is Chelsea’s fixtures: they don’t play another top six team until Gameweek 8 (Liverpool), and otherwise their fixture run is pretty clear. You can imagine a fair amount of clean sheets coming their way, and potentially more points for the Spaniard if he retains set piece duties.

The second is manager Thomas Tuchel’s comments after the game, where he said “I have a feeling [Cucurella] has a bit more of a feeling for the rhythm and for the intensity of matches than Ben [Chilwell] for the moment” before going on to suggest that the Englishman would be more used as an impact sub from now on. This suggests a possibility of a fairly secured place in the starting lineup for the near future.

The third thing is that he could be a viable alternative to Reece James (£6.0m). Of course, he can’t cover him entirely – James’ goal threat when playing RWB is unique. But if you wanted to try to at least get some of those points through potential clean sheets as well as assists, the former Brighton man could be a snip at just £5.0m.

Ilkay Gundogan, Man City

• £7.5m
• Midfielder
• 2.2% owned

The German has snuck under many a radar but popped up with a goal and a double digit return this week during his club’s demolition of Bournemouth.

What’s noticeable about Gundogan is his positioning: in City’s innovative attacking system when they’re in possession, he’s often the player furthest forward which means you see him often in really promising positions.

We’ve seen this before, notably in the 2020/21 season where he scored 13 goals overall and had a run of form which saw him return a few weeks in a row before getting injured while playing in that advanced role.

Added to that, he’s simply a class player – some of his first touches are otherworldly.

If you don’t have three Man City picks in your team, I think he’s definitely one to keep an eye on going forward as a potential addition to your squad.

Bryan Mbeumo, Brentford

• £6.0m
• Forward
• 2.7% owned

I’ve made the case for Mbeumo this week but I still think the Frenchman is deserving of another mention.

That’s principally because his fixture run is so good: Fulham away, Everton home, Crystal Palace away, Leeds home and Southampton away are his next five matchups.

With the Bees buzzing and their attacking flying – they’ve scored six goals so far in two games – having a piece of that might not be the worst idea and, at just £6.0m, Mbeumo is great value.

I’d keep an eye on his positioning though. If they play with a front three he’s often shunted to the wing, but that might not be as bad as it sounds. It’ll only be if he’s posted to wing back you’ll need to worry, but that only happened rarely last season and often was against the harder teams to face – none of which they face in the near future.