Best £4.0m-£4.5m goalkeepers for FPL 2025/26

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We take a look at the best budget Fantasy Premier League (FPL) goalkeepers as we continue our trawl through the price list.

Can a £4.5m option match Matz Sels’ (£5.0m) achievement from last season and finish as the second-highest scoring goalkeeper?

And who are the bench fodder back-ups in the £4.0m bracket?

Let’s take a look…

Club-by-club

Here, we detail the possible £4.5m starters, club-by club:

Club	Goalkeeper	What to watch out for
Bournemouth	Djordje Petrovic	Neto has returned to Bournemouth after a season-long loan spent as David Raya’s back-up at Arsenal. However, given Petrovic’s desire to be a regular starter, plus the hefty £25m outlay, you’d expect him to be Andoni Iraola’s number one.
Brentford	Caoimhin Kelleher
Brighton	Bart Verbruggen
Burnley	Max Weiss	2024/25 number one James Trafford has re-joined Manchester City. Burnley signed 21-year-old Max Weiss from Karlsruher earlier this summer but appear keen on complementing the youngster with a more experienced positional rival. Recent reports suggest Sam Johnstone could arrive soon.
Leeds	Lucas Perri	New £16m signing Lucas Perri was regarded as one of Ligue 1’s best goalkeepers last season and is expected to be first-choice at Elland Road. Karl Darlow and Illan Meslier will likely slip down the pecking order.
Sunderland	Anthony Patterson	Patterson has been absent from Sunderland’s pre-season so far due to injury and the club have made no secret of their desire to land a new goalkeeper this summer. Indeed, the Black Cats have reportedly reached an agreement with NEC Nijmegen to sign Robin Roefs.
West Ham	Alphonse Areola
Wolves	Jose Sa

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Best budget FPL goalkeepers

The choice of your goalkeeper will likely be influenced by when you plan or at least expect to Wildcard.

Gameweek 4 will be a popular window, as it follows an international break. The summer transfer window will have just closed, too.

Gameweek 7 is also attractive, as Fantasy managers can look to capitalise on Arsenal’s favourable fixture swing.

If this applies to you, there is no need to look too far ahead with the fixtures.

Below is our Season Ticker for the eight clubs featured in the above table, sorted by fixture difficulty in Gameweeks 1-6:

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Brentford’s Caoimhin Kelleher instantly jumps out. He’s currently the most-owned goalkeeper in FPL, sitting in 32.0% of embryonic squads.

The Bees had to wait until Gameweek 12 of the 2024/25 season to achieve their first clean sheet; however, from that point onwards, they managed to secure eight shut-outs in 27 matches.

Previous Brentford shot-stopper Mark Flekken had plenty of other routes to points. He racked up 156 saves in total, 30 more than the next-best goalkeeper.

That said, this was linked to Thomas Frank’s approach, which limited opponents to low-quality shooting opportunities, frequently from afar. He has since left, along with Christian Norgaard (£5.5m) and Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m), so there are lots of uncertainties regarding Brentford right now.

Brentford’s first six home fixtures are incredibly tough, too (AVL/CHE/MUN/MCI/LIV/NEW), but the £4.5 goalkeeper bracket doesn’t appear to be particularly strong this season, so Kelleher still looks like one of the best options on paper.

West Ham United’s Alphonse Areola is a viable alternative. The Hammers managed only three clean sheets in 18 matches under Graham Potter last season, but their fixtures in Gameweeks 1-6 – including Sunderland (a), Crystal Palace (h) and Everton (a) – are rated as the fourth-best from a defensive perspective on our Season Ticker.

For those looking longer-term, Djordje Petrovic, Jose Sa and Bart Verbruggen carry more appeal.

The loss of Kepa Arrizabalaga (£4.5m), Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez (£6.0m) will have many Fantasy managers concerned about Bournemouth’s clean sheet potential, but Petrovic excelled on loan at RC Strasbourg last season, where he kept 10 clean sheets in 31 league appearances en route to winning the club’s player of the season award.

The initial Bournemouth fixtures present challenges, but there are at least a couple of matches that offer shut-out potential before the end of September, namely Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) and Leeds United (a).

After a tough start, Sa and Wolves face all three newly-promoted clubs in Gameweeks 5-9.

Gameweeks 10-17 is probably the best period for Verbruggen and Brighton. The Dutch goalkeeper has yet to feature in pre-season but was pictured at the Spain training camp.

Club	2024/25 goalkeeper	Saves per 90	Saves made from shots taken outside the area/total saves	Big chances conceded (team)	Mins per xGC (team)
Brentford	Flekken	4.29	52/156	80	65.5
West Ham	Areola	3.25	32/82	103	61.0
Bournemouth	Kepa	3.13	35/97	79	74.8
Wolves	Sa	2.45	22/71	92	63.1
Brighton	Verbruggen	2.53	15/91	91	67.7

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As for the newly-promoted options, Leeds United’s Lucas Perri is arguably the best bet, particularly given the current uncertainty surrounding Burnley and Sunderland’s starting goalkeepers.

Daniel Farke’s side impressed defensively last season, with a total of 25 clean sheets.

The Premier League is a completely different proposition, mind, and there are cheaper £4.0m routes into the Whites’ defence.

Assessing the £4.0m goalkeepers

Club	£4.0m goalkeepers
Arsenal	Karl Hein, Tommy Setford
Aston Villa	Joe Gauci, Filip Marschall
Bournemouth	Will Dennis, Callan McKenna, Alex Paulsen
Brentford	Ellery Balcombe, Matthew Cox, Julian Eyestone, Hakan Valdimarsson
Brighton	Tom McGill
Burnley	Etienne Green, Vaclav Hladky
Chelsea	Gabriel Slonina
Crystal Palace	Walter Benitez, Remi Matthews
Everton	Harry Tyrer
Fulham	Benjamin Lecomte
Leeds	Alex Cairns, Karl Darlow
Liverpool	Armin Pecsi, Freddie Woodman
Man City	Marcus Bettinelli
Man Utd	Tom Heaton, Dermot Mee
Newcastle	Martin Dubravka, Mark Gillespie, Odysseas Vlachodimos
Nott’m Forest	Carlos Miguel, Matt Turner
Sunderland	Simon Moore, Nna Noukeu
Tottenham	Brandon Austin, Antonin Kinsky
West Ham	Wes Foderingham, Krisztian Hegyi
Wolves	Dan Bentley, Tom King

There are a whopping 39 goalkeepers listed at £4.0m, as detailed above.

However, it’s unlikely any of them will be a Gameweek 1 starter without an injury or two to a team-mate.

The situation at Tottenham is worth monitoring in pre-season. Guglielmo Vicario (£5.0m) will likely continue as the club’s number one, but Antonin Kinsky’s ability on the ball could make him a decent fit for Frank’s approach. Some have even suggested Kinsky might get the nod in goal, though recent reports have linked him with a loan move to Lille.

Karl Darlow’s (£4.0m) stock has fallen following the arrival of Perri, but he could still provide backup with Illan Meslier (£4.5m) potentially on his way out of the club.

The back-up custodians of Crystal Palace (Walter Benitez), Fulham (Benjamin Lecomte) and Nottingham Forest (Carlos Miguel) are all listed at £4.0m.

Sam Johnstone is expected to leave Wolves, so Dan Bentley could potentially be added too.

For FPL managers looking to spend as little as possible on goalkeepers, these are the only £4.5m/£4.0m first-choice/reserve combinations at the time of writing:

Team	£4.5m first-choice goalkeeper	£4.0m reserve goalkeeper
Brentford	Kelleher	Valdimarsson
Leeds	Perri	Darlow
West Ham	Areola	Foderingham

We’ve omitted Burnley and Sunderland from the above list, as the arrival of new goalkeepers will likely push the £4.0m options down into third in the pecking order.