Can Rice, Caicedo, Gravenberch + Xhaka maintain their FPL form?

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In the defensive contribution awards (DefCon) of this first Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season, only two of the top 12 points scorers after Gameweek 10 were traditional forwards.

Out of these dozen, 18 of the top 25 players are players we could label as ‘defensive’, including Declan Rice (£6.8 million), Moises Caicedo (£6.0 million), Ryan Gravenberch (£5.6 million), Granite Xhaka (£5.1 million) and Joao Palhinha (£5.5 million). These are five of the nine leading quarterbacks.

The calculation is not based solely on DefCon points; they also received an offensive response.

Looking at data from our Members Area, let’s try to identify whether this trend is sustainable or an early season quirk.

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ADDED DEFCON

Introduced to increase appeal to more players and allow for more varied FPL squads, DefCon was a small factor in the performance of these five players, although Gravenberech surprisingly only reached the threshold once.

Throughout the Premier League, more DefCon points were awarded compared to Gameweeks 1 to 10 last season. However, this mostly benefits defenders. Instead of 153 awards in midfield, there are now only 125, something we saw two weeks ago.

	DEFCON POINTS	CLEANLINESS	BLOCK	PREVENTION	RECOVERY	overcome	DEFCON ACTION
2025/26	654	5,184	652	1,546	7,419	3,342	15,200
2024/25	618	4,000	744	1,704	8,048	3,624	14,982

This can be explained by the tactical trend of 2025/26, which is currently making crosses and launching the ball more often. This means less action in midfield and more clearances to the centre-backs – for example, Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.6m) performed much better for DefCon than last season.

So far, the leading midfielders in this area are Caicedo, Xhaka, Elliot Anderson (£5.3 million), Josh Cullen (£5.0 million) and Matt Wieffer (£4.9m), each of which earned him 10 points.

However, if you look at the top midfielders of 2024/25, the existence of DefCon will provide a big boost for Caicedo, Anderson, João Gomes (£5.3 million) and Idrissa Gueye (£5.4 million), although not enough to place them among the leaders:

So the start of a great defensive lineman has to be more than this.

POTENTIAL FOR HELP

Replaces the need for engine room action with more set pieces. Rice’s Arsenal made headlines for their 10 goals from such situations, but it wasn’t just the Gunners. After being a neglected area for so long, it feels like all teams have hired specialist coaches to capitalize on these moments of control.

Sure enough, although last season had more corners (1,126 v 977) and more set-piece attempts (759 v 751), these corners were executed better. It’s a matter of quality over quantity.

	2025/26	2024/25	2023/24
CORNER GOAL	49	34	29
FREE KICK GOAL	14	19	22
GOAL of the throw-in	10	5	2
SET-PIECE GOALS	73	58	53
NUMBER OF ANGLES	977	1,126	1,079
CORNER EFFORT	400	478	478
FREE KICK ATTEMPT	213	229	239
EFFORT TO MAKE	138	52	37
SET-PIECE EFFORT	751	759	754

Improved routines have resulted in 73 goals instead of 58, where throw-ins are starting to appear. Goals from these games have doubled, compared to the opening 10 Matchweeks of both campaigns. The 138 attempted throw-ins was a huge increase from 52, led by Brentford who attempted 22.

So, who takes these better set-pieces?

None of our five focus names actually made the cut: Antoine Semenyo (£8.1m) is the best midfielder for them.

However, Rice and Xhaka took corner kicks and free kicks. Each of the England international’s four FPL assists came from one, with both of his goals coming in open play.

Sunderland’s star signing this summer has provided assists with crosses and free-kicks, ranks first in big chances created (five) and is narrowly behind Rice’s 17 chances created (up in tenth).

	RICE	CAICEDO	GRAVENBERCH	XHAKA	STRAW
CHANCE MADE	17	5	7	16	2
GREAT OPPORTUNITY MADE	4	1	2	5	1
DEEP TOUCH LAST THIRD	108	77	90	74	36
CROSS	52	1	1	29	1
TOTAL ASSIST	4	1	2	3	1
LEGITIMATE	1.98	0.68	0.56	1.16	0.30

Of course, Rice may not be considered a defensive lineman right now Martin Zubimendi (£5.5 million) has arrived.

PURPOSE THREAT

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