How Arsenal Won the Title With Fewer FPL Points Than Man City
Here's a stat that doesn't fit the script. Arsenal's squad scored 2,116 FPL points this season. Manchester City's scored 2,267 — 151 more. By the FPL data, City had the better team. By the league table, Arsenal lifted the trophy. The gap between those two facts is the most interesting story of the season — and it's hiding in plain sight in the underlying numbers.
The Answer
It comes down to one number: 19.
Arsenal kept 19 clean sheets this season — the most in the Premier League. Man City managed 15. Goals are FPL points. Clean sheets are league points. City won the FPL contest. Arsenal won the contest that decides who lifts the trophy.
The 11 Arsenal Players Who Won the Title
Every Arsenal player with 100+ FPL points this season, sorted by total. Look at the position column.
| Pos | Player | £ | Pts | G | A | CS | Bon | Own% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEF | Gabriel | 7.3 | 208 | 3 | 5 | 18 | 30 | 46.1% |
| MID | Rice | 7.2 | 184 | 4 | 9 | 18 | 23 | 24.2% |
| GK | Raya | 6.2 | 162 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 11 | 36.5% |
| MID | Saka | 10.0 | 157 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 18 | 13.0% |
| DEF | Timber | 6.0 | 149 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 9 | 15.4% |
| DEF | Saliba | 6.3 | 137 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 12 | 17.2% |
| MID | Zubimendi | 4.9 | 131 | 5 | 1 | 16 | 9 | 2.8% |
| FWD | Gyökeres | 9.1 | 127 | 14 | 1 | 12 | 16 | 17.9% |
| MID | Trossard | 6.6 | 119 | 6 | 6 | 11 | 11 | 2.0% |
| MID | Eze | 7.3 | 112 | 7 | 3 | 11 | 8 | 8.9% |
| DEF | Calafiori | 5.6 | 108 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 6 | 5.9% |
The shaded top 6 rows show the players who actually delivered the FPL output. 4 of the 6 are defenders or the goalkeeper.
Gabriel: The FPL Defender of the Season
Gabriel ended the season on 208 FPL points. That's a number you usually associate with a premium attacker who's had a vintage year — not a £7.3m centre-back. For context, that total puts him in the conversation for FPL player of the season outright, regardless of position.
The receipts:
- 18 clean sheets — tied with Rice for the most by an Arsenal outfielder
- 3 goals, 5 assists — rare attacking output for a centre-back, often via set-pieces
- 30 bonus points — consistent man-of-the-match-level performances
- 717 BPS — among the highest in the league for any defender
- +£1.3m price rise — he was £6.0m at the start of the season; the FPL crowd caught up
At 46.1% ownership by season's end, Gabriel was effectively the template defender. The managers who got him in early — or, even better, captained him in the right gameweeks — built enormous rank.
💡 What the underlying numbers say
Gabriel's xG of 2.94 plus xA of 1.75 explains the attacking returns, but the real story is the bonus points. Three points per gameweek from BPS, on average, is a hidden layer of FPL output that turns a good defender into a great one. Defenders who pile up tackles, clearances, and recoveries build a steady stream of points regardless of the goals column.
Raya: 19 Clean Sheets — The Number That Won the League
David Raya kept 19 clean sheets this season. That's the most by any goalkeeper in the Premier League. It's also the most reliable single metric you can point to for "who deserves the title" — because every clean sheet is a point Arsenal didn't need to outscore.
For comparison, Man City's number-one goalkeeper kept 15. That four-clean-sheet gap, at the team level, is exactly the kind of margin that separates first from second over 38 gameweeks.
At £6.2m, Raya was also one of the most efficient FPL goalkeeper investments of the season — 162 points, 36.5% ownership, and a +£0.7m price rise.
The Hidden Gems: Arsenal's FPL Differentials
Every title-winning team has them — players whose ownership stays stubbornly low all season even as the points pile up. Arsenal's 2025/26 squad had three genuinely outstanding differentials.
Zubimendi
131 pts
at 2.8% ownership, £4.9m
Five goals from a holding midfielder. The defining differential of the season — a £4.9m enabler that gave you a free upgrade somewhere else in your squad.
Trossard
119 pts
at 2.0% ownership, £6.6m
Six goals, six assists, eleven clean sheets. Rotation risk kept his ownership floor low — but the points kept coming whenever he started.
Eze
112 pts
at 8.9% ownership, £7.3m
Seven goals in fewer than 2,000 minutes. A high-ceiling differential who delivered every time he started. The kind of pick that wins mini-leagues.
For context: this is exactly the differential profile we wrote about in our guide to FPL differentials. Strong underlying numbers + a clear role + minutes reliability + a logical reason for the low ownership = a points machine the crowd hasn't caught up to yet.
The Arsenal vs Man City FPL Comparison
Let's lay the two squads side by side. The pattern in the numbers is the whole story of the season:
Arsenal — Title Winners
2,116
Total squad FPL points
19 clean sheets
65 goals scored
64 assists
Man City — Runners Up
2,267
Total squad FPL points
15 clean sheets
More attacking output
Fewer team points
The translation is simple: City had the bigger FPL names— the premium attackers who pile up points individually. Arsenal had the better distribution — points spread across the squad, anchored by a defensive unit that outperformed every other team in the league.
Football titles aren't won by total FPL points. They're won by results. And the metric that maps best onto results is clean sheets — the simple act of not conceding. Arsenal won the clean-sheet contest, and they won the league.
What This Means for 2026/27 FPL
If you're building your squad for next season, the Arsenal data carries three big lessons:
- Defenders on title-chasing teams are FPL gold. Gabriel's 208-point season wasn't a fluke — it was the natural result of a defender on a side that kept the most clean sheets in the league. The same profile will be available next season for whichever side comes out strongest defensively.
- A premium goalkeeper on a defensive juggernaut pays for itself. Raya's 162 points at £6.2m was elite value. The FPL community usually undervalues goalkeepers — the data shows you shouldn't.
- The lower the ownership, the bigger the rank impact. Zubimendi at 2.8% delivered 131 points. Trossard at 2.0% delivered 119. These weren't lucky picks — the underlying numbers signalled them, and the ownership simply lagged behind the data.
The Verdict
Saka and Gyökeres deserve their headlines. They were the named faces of a title win. But if you're reading match reports rather than FPL data, you're seeing only half of how Arsenal got here.
The other half — the half that the underlying numbers quietly reveal — is a defensive unit that finished as the most productive group of FPL defenders in the league, anchored by a goalkeeper who never let anything in, and supported by differential midfielders whose ownership never reflected what they were actually doing.
That's how you win a Premier League title. And that's how the smartest FPL managers built their best ranks of the season alongside it.
Spot next season's Gabriel before everyone else
The Assistant Manager tracks underlying numbers, fixture runs, and ownership lag every gameweek — exactly the signals that flagged players like Zubimendi when the crowd hadn't caught up yet. Free to start.