Five Gameweeks into the 2026/27 Fantasy Premier League season, a clear pattern has emerged among the game's most dependable performers: defenders, not attackers, are delivering the steadiest returns. James Tarkowski has been central to that trend, with the Everton centre-back sitting second in the overall points standings behind Brighton's Pascal Gross, built on a blend of attacking returns, clean sheets and defensive contribution points.
Why Defenders Are Outperforming Expectations
Tarkowski is one of only five players to have started at least four of the first five matches without recording a single blank - and all five are defenders. Alongside him sit Manchester City's Josko Gvardiol, Everton team-mate Jarrad Branthwaite, Leeds United's Tarik Muharemovic and Crystal Palace's Anan Khalaili. This is no coincidence. The introduction of defensive contribution points in recent seasons has widened the routes by which defenders can register returns, meaning they no longer rely solely on clean sheets or rare goal involvements to post a respectable score. Tarkowski's season illustrates this well: a goal, an assist, three clean sheets, six defensive contribution points and seven bonus points combine to make him one of the format's standout picks so far.
The Gvardiol Exception
Not every name on that list fits the same profile. Gvardiol, owned by roughly a quarter of Fantasy managers, has built his tally almost entirely through attacking output - one goal and three assists - without earning a single defensive contribution point. That makes him something of an outlier among this group, and it raises a fair question for managers: can his output be sustained through goal involvements alone, or does his long-term reliability depend on City's defensive structure holding firm? Players who lean on one scoring route rather than several tend to be more volatile across a 38-game season.
A Broader Picture: Centre-Backs Lead the Way
Widening the lens to include players who have blanked no more than once in four or five starts reveals 32 players meeting that threshold - and 24 of them are defenders. Within that defensive group, centre-backs heavily outnumber wide defenders: 17 compared with six, plus Brighton's Maxim De Cuyper, who has featured as a midfielder this season. That distinction matters for squad planning. The early form of Gvardiol and Khalaili might suggest wide defenders are matching centre-backs for reliability, but the wider data tells a different story - central defenders remain the more consistent defensive asset when defensive contribution points are factored in.
Where the Value Is Concentrated
Certain clubs stand out for supplying multiple dependable defensive options. Brighton, Everton, Leeds and Newcastle United each have three defenders among the 24 most consistent performers. Brighton's trio - De Cuyper, Luka Vuskovic and Lewis Dunk - highlights strength across their backline, while Everton's Vitalii Mykolenko offers a cheaper alternative to higher-profile team-mates Tarkowski and Branthwaite. At the budget end, Hull City's John Egan and Ryan Giles have both blanked no more than once, making them notable picks for managers balancing long-term reliability against squad value.
None of this guarantees future returns - form, fixtures and team selection can shift quickly across a season, and past consistency is not a promise of continued output. But for managers weighing long-term value over short-term hype, the early data points firmly toward defenders, and centre-backs in particular, as the format's most stable foundation this season.