FPL Fixture Difficulty 2026/27: The Best and Worst GW1-6 Runs

Data current as of: 1 August 2026, the confirmed 2026/27 fixture list for Gameweeks 1 to 6. Coverage: FPL’s own fixture difficulty rating (FDR), 1 easiest to 5 hardest, for all 20 clubs.

The opening fixtures were the one input the GW1 captain framework could not give you in June, because they had not been confirmed. They are now. Ten fixtures a gameweek, six gameweeks, twenty clubs with a real run to plan around rather than a guess.

The full GW1-6 ranking

Four clubs share the easiest average run in the game at 2.83: Newcastle, Liverpool, Man Utd and Everton. At the other end, Bournemouth’s 3.67 is the hardest of any club, with Fulham next at 3.33.

Newcastle, Liverpool, Man Utd, Everton: the kind runs

None of these four fixture lists is soft throughout, they average out kind rather than start easy. The opening weekend is actually the hard part for two of them: Newcastle host Liverpool in the standout GW1 fixture (Sunday 23 August), and Everton’s Gameweek 1 at home to Crystal Palace rates as average, not favourable. The run gets easier from Gameweek 2 onward for all four.

Man Utd have the single best individual fixture of the four: away at newly-promoted Hull City in Gameweek 1, rated FDR 2, the easiest fixture on the board that weekend for any club chasing a captain option. B.Fernandes (MUN, £12.0m) is United’s penalty taker and the model’s second-highest projected scorer for the gameweek behind Haaland.

Liverpool’s run is the most balanced rather than the softest, four away days in six games, but their squad depth shows up in the projections regardless. Szoboszlai (LIV, £7.0m) takes Liverpool’s penalties and projects for 20.6 points across GW1-6, fractionally ahead of Haaland, at little over a third of the ownership.

Everton and Newcastle are the value picks of the group. Tarkowski (EVE, £6.0m) and Pickford (EVE, £5.5m) both sit inside the top 15 projected players for Gameweek 1 alone, at defender and goalkeeper prices well below the premium tier.

Bournemouth and Fulham: where to be cautious

Bournemouth open away at Man City (Gameweek 1, FDR 5, tied for the hardest fixture in the opening round alongside Coventry’s trip to Arsenal) and their run does not properly ease until Gameweek 6. Fulham’s run is nearly as tough, with three home fixtures rated FDR 4 inside the first six weeks. Both are fixture lists to build around carefully rather than load up on, especially defensively, where a hard run does the most damage to clean sheet returns.

Both runs invert after this. Fulham hold the joint-best Gameweek 6 to 10 fixtures at 2.40 and Bournemouth improve to 2.80, which is why the 22-day break after Gameweek 5 is the point to reassess rather than the opening six.

Using this without overreacting

FDR is a fixture proxy, not a guarantee. A kind average run still contains individually hard matches, Newcastle’s 2.83 average includes an FDR 4 home fixture against Liverpool in Gameweek 1 alone. Use the run to decide which squads to build toward, then check the individual match each week before you set a captain.

Man Utd’s FDR 2 trip to Hull is the clearest example of the proxy failing on a single match: they lost 2-0. See the Gameweek 3 preview for how the opening fixtures are actually playing out.

See how your own squad’s fixtures line up gameweek by gameweek in the fixture difficulty planner, or load your team to plan transfers around the run that actually affects you.