Bawler tracked the squads of the 397 best-ranked managers in Fantasy Premier League at the Gameweek 3 deadline. This is what they did with their transfers and armband last time out, not a forecast of what comes next. Their squads averaged 67.8 points in Gameweek 3, against 51 for the game as a whole - a 16.8-point gap that starts with one name.
89.7% of the sample gave the captaincy to Erling Haaland, easily the most one-sided armband of the season. He's now owned by 92.4% of the top managers against 71.2% of the game overall - a 21.2-point gap between what the elite do and what everyone else does. Manchester City were at home to newly promoted Coventry, a fixture flagged before the deadline as prime Triple Captain territory, and 43 managers (10.8%) played that exact chip in Gameweek 3. Haaland's slice of the week's scoring, counting a captain's points twice, reached 191.9% - close to double, on his own, what an average player contributed that week.
Alexander Isak was the only other real armband option, captained by just 6% of the sample away at Ipswich, a defence that had shipped five goals the previous week. His 94% share of the week's scoring on that small a captaincy share shows how much he delivered for the much larger number who owned him without the armband.
Isak was also the week's standout transfer. 59.7% of the sample bought him, taking his ownership among the elite to 86.9% against 23.2% across the wider game - a 63.7-point gap, the widest Bawler recorded this week for any player. His British-record move to Liverpool was disrupted by a serious leg injury that limited him to eight Premier League starts last season. Back fit, with a goal and an assist in pre-season and a kinder fixture in front of him, the top of the game moved on him well before the wider game did.
Manchester City supplied two more of the week's most-bought names. Rayan Cherki went in at 71.3% of the sample on the back of two goals and two assists from City's first two games, rated by several outlets as the week's best midfield buy on price, form and fixture together, though rotation risk under Pep Guardiola is the standing caveat. Phil Foden was bought by 53.9% despite only 11 points from the season so far - the sample backing him to find form rather than reacting to output already banked. Liverpool's Cody Gakpo, in at 66.8%, delivered a 50.6% share of the week's scoring from a captaincy share of just 1%, pointing to a big individual haul from a player only around half the sample even owned.
At the cheap end, Brighton's Maxim De Cuyper was bought by 59.9% of the sample. Nominally a defender, he's used further forward under Fabian Hürzeler and opened the season with a goal, an assist, a clean sheet and bonus points in one match. Top-sample ownership of him, 72.8%, sits 50.8 points clear of the wider game's 22%. Hull City's John Egan, at £4.1m, is owned by 36.5% of the sample off the back of Hull's promoted-season defensive contribution points - tackles, interceptions and clearances that now score directly - and back-to-back clean sheets. Brentford's new first-choice goalkeeper, Caoimhín Kelleher, was bought by 56.2%, a budget enabler for the pricier picks above him.
The clearest sell of the week ran the other way. Bruno Fernandes was moved on by 89.2% of the sample despite 27 points already banked this season. Manchester United had already played their two easiest fixtures, Hull and Ipswich, and face Manchester City away next - the sample sold early, ahead of the fixture turning.
Chelsea's front two went the same way ahead of a trip to Arsenal: João Pedro sold by 82.4% of the sample, Cole Palmer by 51.6%. João Pedro's numbers are the starkest divergence of the week in either direction - just 19.1% ownership among the top sample against 73.5% across the wider game, a 54.4-point gap the other way. Arsenal's Riccardo Calafiori was sold by 72.3% of the sample too, despite being one of the most-bought defenders in the game as a whole (49% owned) after a big Gameweek 2 haul - a reminder that this data shows what the best-placed managers did, not always why, and the top of the table doesn't always move with the rest of the game.
Chip use was heavy for a Gameweek 3. 296 managers, 74.6% of the sample, played their Free Hit - fixture sites had flagged this round, with City at home to Coventry and a kind Liverpool fixture, as the strongest one-week swing of the season so far. A further 7.3% used the Wildcard and 0.8% the Bench Boost. Average transfers made across the sample was just 0.28, and only 1% paid points for an extra move - most of the week's activity came through chips and free transfers, not paid hits.
None of this is a prediction. It's a record of what the best-performing managers in the game did at one deadline, in a week their squads outscored the game's average by 16.8 points - evidence worth weighing, not an instruction to follow.