The Friday deadline is nearly upon us. The time for tweaking, refining, fiddling and tinkering is coming to an end. It’s time to settle on our Gameweek 1 squads.

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Before we do, let’s take a look at what some of the greatest Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers in the world are doing with their squads. The Consensus XI is an aggregated FPL squad, based on the most commonly owned players amongst the Elite XI: Team Reveal managers. As it represents the combined wisdom of the very best managers, there is an argument to say that this could be the best squad you can put out ahead of the 2023/24 season. Let’s take a look:

Goalkeeper

Between the sticks is Manchester United’s new acquisition, André Onana (£5.0m). Much has been made about the Cameroonian shot-stopper, known for his proclivity to play out from the back and his confidence with taking on opposition attackers.

The Manchester United goalkeeper also features in the Highest Owned Team Reveal

While he has no Premier League pedigree to make meaningful comparisons, it is felt his playing style and passing range will mean he will rack up bonus points under FPL’s BPS system. Another new signing makes the bench, Matt Turner (£4.0m) of Nottingham Forest. Could we have a playing budget keeper? Maybe, however, Dean Henderson (£4.5m) is rumoured to be wanted by the Tricky Trees.

Defenders

With so many strong options in midfield, the Consensus XI has adopted a 3-5-2 formation.

Ben Chilwell (£5.5m) replaces a previous favourite, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.0m). Chelsea have arguably the best opening run of fixtures from an attacking perspective; even Liverpool in Gameweek 1 is likely to be a place where Chilwell can return, with Liverpool’s defence looking very leaky in pre-season. The Chelsea defender spoke recently about his desire to get forward and, according to him, the new Chelsea boss shares that vision.

Chelsea sit top for attacking fixtures on the Fixture Planner.

When fixtures, form and good value merge, we should take heed. Pervis Estupiñán (£5.0m) ticks all these boxes. Brighton have amazing opening fixtures (second on the Fixture Planner image above) and the Brighton full back offers both clean sheet potential, and attacking returns, for a Brighton squad who like to commit men forward. It will be worth having a plan to shift him, however, as Brighton’s fixtures go on an awful run around Gameweek 4.

Gabriel (£5.0m) finishes off the back-three. Arsenal’s opening fixtures are as good as Brighton’s and in fact, their good run extends all the way to Gameweek 8 when they face Manchester City. Amongst those fixtures are teams who are vulnerable from set-pieces, something Gabriel will be looking to exploit. The Arsenal defender racked up an impressive xG (3.63) last season, making him the second-best defender in terms of goal threat.

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Midfielders

A Manchester United double up of Marcus Rashford (£9.0m) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m) features in the majority of the Elite XI teams. Under Erik ten Hag, the former had his career-best season for United, scoring 17 goals and bagging 7 assists. The latter, while only managing 17 goal involvements, performed incredibly well. According to the Opta Stats Sandbox, no player can top Bruno for xA (15.62) or Attempted Assists (119) and now that United have signed a promising striker, we could see an explosion in the Portuguese playmaker’s goal involvements.