Your Fantasy Football Club by Club Guide: Arsenal

The Barclays Women's Super League is back, and Barclays WSL and WSL2 Fantasy game is here. This is your chance to build a squad, outsmart your mates, and get your hands on the WSL Fantasy crown.

Here's the short version of how it works. You put together a squad within a budget, pick a starting eleven each week, players earn points for what they get up to on the pitch. Goals and assists are the obvious ones, but this game rewards so much more than that. Busy defenders and tireless wingers can rack up points through the little things, tackles, interceptions, key passes, dribbles and crosses, which means a player can have a quiet one in front of goal and still come away with a tidy score.

Value is everywhere in this game, not just in the big names. Clean sheets and set-piece takers matter, and finding the players who play every minute is just as important as spending big on a star striker.

Over the coming weeks, we will be giving you all the information to help assemble your squad. The series will feature overviews of each club, across BWSL and BWSL 2, highlighting the key players, their impact in games and why they could bring that winning formula to your fantasy team. To kick things off, though, let’s head to North London and look at one of the title challengers.

Arsenal

Last season: 2nd (BWSL) 

This season expectations: Title challengers 

The overview

Arsenal finished second in the league last season, but a runners-up spot doesn't tell the full story. They put in excellent performances week in, week out, and after coming up just short, will have high hopes of finally getting it over the line this year. 

Renée Slegers’ side finished the season with fifteen wins, one defeat, and a goal difference of +39. This is a team that turns up every week, which for a Fantasy manager is exactly what you want from your key players.

Arsenal have players capable of chipping in with goals across the pitch and manage to keep the goals out at the other end. Alessia Russo and Stina Blackstenius shared 23 league goals between them last year, plus the England striker contributed five assists, adding to her value as more than just a goalscorer.

Behind them sits a midfield that creates for fun, with Mariona Caldentey being the heartbeat of it all. The Spaniard would have averaged 6.3 fantasy points per 90 last season, making her one of the most reliable midfielders in the game. Olivia Smith and Caitlin Foord love to run at opponents and carry the ball forward, so you can count on them to add points through their dribbling abilities. 

Moreover, it’s been a busy summer for Slegers with plenty of new faces through the door, and a couple of high-profile exits in Katie McCabe and Beth Mead. 

Georgia Stanway arrives from Bayern Munich, where she contributed 7 goals and 8 assists to their title-winning campaign, bringing both goals and creativity to the BWSL.

Additionally, dynamic fullback Ona Batlle comes in from Barcelona and will most likely go straight into the starting 11. 

Selina Cerci, Lisa Baum and Géraldine Reuteler add further depth as the Gunners chase their first league title since 2019.

Set-piece takers

Corners: The departed McCabe and Mead actually took the lion's share last season. That leaves Mariona Caldentey and Chloe Kelly as the established in-house options, with Smilla Holmberg and Georgia Stanway potentially in the mix. It’s worth keeping an eye on early-season corners to see who claims them, because whoever does picks up assist potential.

Penalties: Alessia Russo, Caldentey and Stanway are the most likely takers. All three have strong penalty-taking pedigrees, not forgetting Chloe Kelly of course. 

Direct free kicks: Caldentey is the most likely to shoot from range.

Player costs

The big names come at a premium, as you'd expect. Alessia Russo (£11.5m) is the most expensive pick, with Mariona Caldentey and Olivia Smith (both £7.5m) not far behind.

The mid-price bracket is where Arsenal get interesting. Georgia Stanway and Emily Fox (£6.5m) give you all that chance-creation without the top-tier cost, and both will be first-team starters throughout the season.

At the value end, keep an eye on the defenders. Steph Catley (£5.5m) and Daphne van Domselaar (£5m) in goal are a solid route into gaining points through Arsenal's clean sheets.

The Barclays WSL and WSL2 Fantasy game scoring system means busy players score more points, and Arsenal have several. Caitlin Foord and Olivia Smith are relentless dribblers, while Caldentey and Stanway are chance creators who'll score well even in quiet weeks. Frida Maanum chips in with goals from midfield (worth 5 apiece), and if Arsenal's defence keeps its usual run of clean sheets, a well-priced defender or Daphne van Domselaar in goal could be one of the best-value picks in the game.