Erling Haaland had the armband on 85.1% of the 999 highest-ranked Fantasy Premier League squads Bawler tracks for Gameweek 2 — by far the single biggest decision at the top of the game. He delivered: a brace in Manchester City's 4-1 win over Crystal Palace put City on six points from their opening two matches. His output counted for 198.2% of the whole sample's scoring that gameweek — a figure that counts a captain's points twice, so it reflects both how many managers had him in and how well he scored, not a straight share of the points scored on the pitch. Separately, 23.9% of the sample played their Triple Captain chip in Gameweek 2. The data doesn't record which player each chip went on, but with Haaland captained by such a wide margin and firing, he's the obvious candidate for most of it — an early point in the season to use a chip managers often save for City's kinder run of fixtures against promoted sides later in the year.
The clearest transfer signal of the week was Rayan Cherki. He was bought by 15.9% of the sample, the highest buy percentage of anyone, and the gap between his ownership in the elite sample (47.2%) and in the game as a whole (15.4%) is the widest in the entire bought list at 31.8 points. The form case is straightforward: two assists in City's comeback win over Bournemouth in the opening round were followed by two goals in the space of five minutes against Palace. At £7.6m and eligible as a midfielder, Cherki is on 22 points for the season — more than any other player in this dataset — and he took 4.1% of the sample's captaincy too, a small but real vote of confidence alongside Haaland.
Behind Cherki, the buying stayed close to City's attack and a handful of cheap picks from the promoted clubs. Joško Gvardiol was bought by 9.2% of the sample (a 24.2-point ownership gap), the clearest sign managers wanted exposure to a City defence that kept City winning 4-1. Maxim De Cuyper, Brighton's left-back, was bought by 9% after a 17-point season so far, built largely on a big Gameweek 1 — though he shares his position with Ferdi Kadioglu, so his starts aren't guaranteed even at £4.6m. Further down the price list, Konstantinos Tzolakis (Hull City, £4.5m, 20 points) and Bobby Thomas (Coventry City, £4m, 11 points) were each bought by 8.1% of the sample, cheap picks from this season's promoted sides rather than a big individual return. Yoane Wissa (7.3%) and Cody Gakpo (6.9%) rounded out the week's buying with smaller ownership gaps.
The selling told a different story. Bryan Mbeumo was the week's most-sold player, out by 8% of squads, after just 2 points from Manchester United's opening two matches despite keeping his starting shirt. Cole Palmer was sold by 7.6% even though 32.2% of the sample still own him; he was substituted late against Fulham with what Chelsea put down to cramp rather than a fresh injury, but his fitness record last season appears to be making some managers cautious regardless. Alexander Isak, sold by 7.3%, is harder to explain — he has started both of Liverpool's opening matches, yet was cut after 10 points and just 2.5% of the captaincy. Bart Verbruggen (sold by 6.4%, but still owned by 34.5%) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (sold by 6.3%, down to 1 point all season) were both let go for modest returns, while Iliman Ndiaye was sold by 6.1% of the sample despite still being the seventh most-owned player in the entire dataset at 35.2% — proof that being widely held and being freely available to sell are not opposites.
Beyond the individual moves, the top of the table stayed largely settled. The average manager in the sample made just 0.42 transfers, and only 3.9% took a points hit to make an extra move — this is a group mostly rolling with what worked in Gameweek 1, Cherki aside. Chip use went wider than Triple Captain alone: 11.3% played Wildcard, 4.8% used Bench Boost and 3.8% went to Free Hit. All of it added up to an average score of 58.7 for the sample against a game-wide average of 29 — more than double, with City's afternoon at Selhurst Park doing much of the work. None of this is a tip for what to do next. It is a record of what the best-ranked 999 managers had already done by the Gameweek 2 deadline, built on results that had already happened by the time most of the wider game made its move. A player being owned, bought or captained by the sharpest end of the game is a reason to look closer at them, not a guarantee of anything to come.