<p><i>Experienced and successful fantasy manager <a href="https://twitter.com/paulmcanulty1">Paul McAnulty</a> scours the Telegraph Fantasy player list to bring us his best picks from the different price ranges for each position.</i></p>
<h2 class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Goalkeepers</b></h2>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Premiums (£4m+)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Top of the price list are compatriots <strong>Alisson (£4.4m)</strong> and <strong>Ederson (£4.4m)</strong>. Both missed a handful of games last season and I expect them to improve on their overall points tallies this time round.  <strong>Nick Pope’s</strong> price hike of £1.2m to £4.2m is very uncharacteristic of the Telegraph pricing team, yes the England international finished with the most clean sheets last season, but he was still outscored by Ederson who played behind an underperforming Manchester City backline. Similarly the remaining keepers in this bracket all look slightly overpriced to me.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Alisson (£4.4m)</b></p>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Mid-priced (£3.0m-3.9m)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">If <strong>Dean Henderson (£3.5m)</strong> can nail down a starting spot in goal for Manchester United he is bound to make a mockery of his price tag. Arsenal’s <strong>Martinez (£3.3m)</strong> initially caught my eye, but since game launch Arteta has hinted that <strong>Leno (£3.8m)</strong> will be his No.1.  Until Everton can prove they can stop conceding sloppy goals I wouldn’t recommend <strong>Pickford (£3.7m)</strong>. Prior to <strong>Ramsdale (£3.3m)</strong> being added to the game, I anticipated him to come in somewhere around £3.5m, so the £0.2m saving is an added bonus.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Ramsdale (£3.3m)</b></p>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Budget (&gt;£3.0m)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">If the indication from pre-season games is that <strong>Meslier (£2.1m)</strong> has now established himself at Leeds Utd’s number one, he looks like he would be great value across the season. The Frenchman came into favour at the end of the last campaign, keeping seven clean sheets in 10 league appearances, and I expect Leeds to defend better than their two fellow promoted teams.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Meslier (£2.1m)</b></p>
<h2 class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Defenders</b></h2>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Premiums (£4.5m+)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">When thinking of fantasy football defenders the first name that will come to most is <strong>Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.6m</strong>). The Liverpool full-back was the top scoring defender, and third overall, in the scoring charts last season, justifying his £1.1m prise rise.  His Liverpool team-mates <strong>Van Dijk (£5.4m)</strong> and <strong>Robertson (£5.1m)</strong> have remained largely static in price, adding this year’s prices to last year’s scores actually places the Scotsman marginally ahead of his opposite full-back in terms of P/£. <strong>Laporte (£5.0m)</strong> should feature more heavily for Man City this season after recovering for injury, but Pep’s roulette puts me off forking out the money for the cultured centre-half. <strong>Azpilicueta (£4.5m)</strong> and <strong>Walker (£4.6m)</strong> may both see their minutes reduced this season with the respective emergence of <strong>Reece</strong> <strong>James</strong> and <strong>Joao</strong> <strong>Cancelo</strong>.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Alexander-Arnold (£5.6m)</b></p>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Mid-priced (£3.2m-4.4m)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Manchester United did reasonably well defensively after project restart, registering five clean sheets in 10 games, but the majority of those games were against bottom-half teams and therefore <strong>Maguire (£4.1m)</strong> and first choice starting XI team-mates <strong>Shaw, Lindelof</strong> and <strong>Wan-Bissaka (all £4.0m)</strong> look overpriced.  Tottenham have signed attacking full-back <strong>Matt Doherty (£3.9m)</strong>, and applying his new price to last season’s score still provides a good P/£ of 46.9.  I think team-mate <strong>Willy Boly (£3.5m)</strong> is only priced as such because of missing games through injury last season, and with Wolves registering 13 clean sheets he looks to represent great value.  <strong>Evans (£3.4m)</strong> is suspended at the start of the season, and with the loss of <strong>Chilwell (£4.2m)</strong> to Chelsea, I’d be steering clear of Leicester defensive assets at the start of the season. The best value for me in this range is at the bottom and in Scotland international <strong>Keiran Tierney (£3.2m)</strong>. The ex-Celtic man found himself in advanced positions in the latter part of the season, registering a goal and a few assists, and with Arteta strengthening defensively in the summer Arsenal are expecting to add more clean sheets to their performances.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Tierney (£3.2m)</b></p>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Budget (&gt;£3.2m)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">There is a lot of players in the budget bracket that I would consider this season.  Why Pope and Tarkowski got substantial rises, and <strong>Ben Mee (£3.1m)</strong> didn’t, is surprising, but I assume it is similar to the aforementioned Boly scenario. <strong>Egan (£3.1m)</strong> and <strong>Basham (£2.8m)</strong> would still offer great value if they could repeat last season’s heroics for The Blades this season. Leeds have the opportunity to show the defensive solidarity that Sheffield Utd showed last season, with pairing <strong>Liam Cooper (£2.8m)</strong> and <strong>Luke Ayling (£3.1m)</strong> being priced reasonably. Mourinho seems to really like <strong>Eric Dier (£2.9m)</strong> at centre-half, and based on his re-classification as a defender looks a snip considering Jose’s defensive style. <strong>Jonny Otto’s</strong> serious injury has given the opportunity for <strong>Ruben Vinagre (£2.5m)</strong> to stake a claim for the Wolves left-back spot, where he is joined on that price point by enticing Brighton pair <strong>Ben White</strong>, who excelled on loan at Leeds last season, and <strong>Tariq Lamptey</strong> who broke into the Brighton starting XI after his permanent move from Chelsea.  The final player worth mentioning is Arsenal’s <strong>William Saliba (£2.3m)</strong>.  The Gunners paid Saint-Etienne £27m for the French wonderkid last summer before loaning straight back to his former club for the season.  He continued to impress, and is strongly being touted for a place in Arteta’s starting XI this season.<b></b></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Dier (£2.9m)</b></p>
<h2 class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Midfielders</b></h2>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Premiums (£5.5m+)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Liverpool duo <strong>Mohamed Salah (£6.8m)</strong> and <strong>Sadio Mane (£6.7m)</strong> are the most expensive midfielders in the game and scored relatively similar last season (190 and 187 points respectively). With Liverpool playing Gameweek 1, where Man City and Man United blank, I think interest will be high. City teammates <strong>De Bruyne (£6.5m)</strong> and <strong>Sterling (£6.4m)</strong> follow – both beat the 30 P/£ figure I look for last season.  In a strange coupling pattern Man Utd’s <strong>Bruno Fernandes (£6.2m)</strong> and <strong>Marcus Rashford (£6.1m)</strong> follow, the Portuguese star’s 103 points from 17 starts last season was hugely impressive has him stand out in my opinion. <strong>Son (£6.0m)</strong> and <strong>Mahrez (£5.5m)</strong> make up the price-bracket – the Spurs player looks overpriced to me, and the Algerian winger is someone I’d be more keen to get in around the time the FA Cup starts to use Pep’s roulette as an advantage.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: De Bruyne (£6.5m)</b></p>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Mid-priced (£4.0m-5.4m)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Some strange pricing of fantasy options in this range this year, but two value picks to me are Chelsea duo <strong>Christian Pulusic (£5.0m)</strong> and <strong>Hakim Ziyech (£4.3m)</strong>.  New recruit Ziyech registered 12 assists and 6 goals in 21 Eredivisie appearances last season – fantasy managers have had mixed fortunes from Dutch league imports in the past. I was hoping<strong> Michail Antonio (£4.7m)</strong> would be priced cheaper as was someone I was considering prior to the game launching, West Ham’s tough initial run means I can’t justify  the outlay. Surprisingly <strong>Richarlison (£5.2m)</strong> remains a midfielder, and in front of a new-look Everton midfield could continue on from last season’s respectable tally.  <strong>Willian (£4.9m)</strong>, <strong>Maddison (£4.9m)</strong> and <strong>Grealish (£4.6m)</strong> were others I had again considered pre-launch, but have been put off by their price-tags.  New Red Devil <strong>Donny Van De Beek (£4.0m)</strong> is a wait-and-see for me.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Ziyech</b> <b>(£4.3m)</b></p>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Budget (&gt;£4.0m)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Where I go to find the next Charlie Adam or Michu, but end up with an Adel Taarabt… <strong>Mason Greenwood</strong> at £3.6m is a great budget enabler, and only needs to better 108 points over the season to reach 30 P/£. Having turned my nose up at Antonio’s price above, his West ham teammates <strong>Jarrod Bowen (£3.5m)</strong> and <strong>Tomas Soucek (£3.0m)</strong> are friendlier on the budget. <strong>Allan Saint-Maximin (£3.5m)</strong> finished last season well, as did Southampton’s <strong>Stuart Armstrong (£3.2m)</strong>.  <strong>Phil Foden (£3.4m)</strong> was a surprise to me as I thought he’d be minimum £4.0m.  Similarly, for those wanting to take a low-priced gamble, Telegraph do not look to have de-risked by pricing Man City new-boy <strong>Ferran Torres</strong> at £2.8m, who shares his price with Brighton’s new signing <strong>Adam Lallana</strong>, who will offer great value if he remains injury free.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Greenwood (£3.6m)</b></p>
<h2 class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Strikers</b></h2>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Premiums (£6.0m+)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><strong>Aubameyang (£7.0m)</strong> is this year’s most expensive player, I think partially based on Arsenal winning the FA Cup and him bagging extra points en route.  I also think <strong>Vardy (£6.9m)</strong> is extremely over-priced – he’d need score 207 points for him to meet my target of 30 P/£.  <strong>Aguero (£6.8m)</strong> may be back in time for City’s delayed start to the season, but will continue to share minutes with <strong>Jesus (£6.0m)</strong>.  <strong>Kane (£6.7m)</strong> will score goals if he stays fit, but it’s <strong>Martial (£6.1m)</strong> that I think could be the best value in this bracket providing he can continue as he finished the season.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Martial (£6.1m)</b></p>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Mid-priced (£4.5-5.9m)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><strong>Raul Jiminez (£5.9m)</strong> and <strong>Danny Ings (£5.8m)</strong> both flourished last season, and if both retain penalties could reach similar heights ahead.  However it’s Chelsea’s German import <strong>Timo Werner (£5.6m)</strong> that immediately catches my eye.  If Fulham can provide service to <strong>Aleksandar Mitrovic (£4.5m)</strong> he could be this year’s mid-priced value option.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Werner</b> <b>(£5.6m)</b></p>
<h3 class="x_MsoNormal">Budget (&gt;£4.5m)</h3>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">I’m really struggling to find value in any of the striking price brackets this season, particularly the low end.  <strong>Jordan Ayew</strong> flew under the radar last season, and his decent overall score of 121 only saw him rise £0.2m.  Mikel Arteta seems to have belief in <strong>Eddie Nketiah (£3.7m)</strong>, and although <strong>Che Adams (£3.5m)</strong> didn’t have a dream debut Premiership season, but started showing glimpses towards the end why Southampton obtained his services last summer, and the Saints have a nice run of fixtures at the start of the season.</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Top pick: Adams (£3.5m)</b></p>
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