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            <p>Which teams are worth focusing on in FPL Gameweek 9 and which players could take advantage of their opponents’ weaknesses?</p>
<p>In this fixtures article - newly revamped for 2025/26 - resident expert Chris Tan takes a look at which teams you should be targeting based on the bookmakers’ odds before revealing his shortlist of transfer options.</p>
<p>Chris's verdict on the best Gameweek 9 captaincy options and punts will be available later this week in our <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-ultimate-guide-fpl-tips">Ultimate Guide</a>.</p>
<h3>🤖 Hub AI quick summary 🤖</h3>
<p>Simplicity and speed are among Fantasy Football Hub’s core values, so many of our articles this season will come with a quick ‘Hub AI’ summary for those who want the answer – fast.</p>
<p>Read the full article for the detailed picture - and listen to an audio summary too  👇</p>
<ul>
<li>🎯Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle among the teams to target for goals and clean sheets</li>
<li>👀Full-backs Reece James and Riccardo Calafiori are all-round options for attacking and defensive potential</li>
<li>🤔Midweek European fixtures could lead to fatigue for some teams, making it a potentially tricky week to call</li>
</ul>
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<h2>FPL Gameweek 9: Teams and fixtures to target</h2>
<p>Spread betting odds, where available, are taken from Hub partner site <a href="https://www.notonlyfpl.co.uk/">Not Only FPL</a>, which uses Spreadex.</p>
<p>These will change throughout the week, so check the site and our Ultimate Guide closer to the deadline for an up-to-date picture.</p>
<p>Here is the full fixture list for Gameweek 9:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>💮 Leeds v West Ham⚒️ </strong></li>
<li><strong>🔵 Chelsea v Sunderland🐈‍⬛</strong></li>
<li><strong>⚫ Newcastle v Fulham🏡</strong></li>
<li><strong>👹 Man Utd v Brighton🔵 </strong></li>
<li><strong>🐝 Brentford v Liverpool🔴 </strong></li>
<li><strong>🔫 Arsenal v Crystal Palace🦅 </strong></li>
<li><strong>🦁 Aston Villa v Manchester City🌆 </strong></li>
<li><strong>🍒 Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest🌳 </strong></li>
<li><strong>🐺 Wolves v Burnley🍷 </strong></li>
<li><strong>🍬 Everton v Spurs⚪ </strong></li>
</ul>
<h3>⚽ Target for goals: Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Chelsea:</strong> 2.21</li>
<li><strong>Liverpool:</strong> 2.15</li>
<li><strong>Arsenal:</strong> 2.09</li>
<li><strong>Newcastle:</strong> 1.90</li>
<li><strong>Manchester City:</strong> 1.84</li>
</ul>
<p>These are the teams who are projected to score the most goals.</p>
<p>Chelsea's opponents Sunderland aren’t behaving like a typical promoted side. They’re seventh in the league and have only conceded six goals.</p>
<p>Their home stadium is their fortress however and they can be got at away.</p>
<p>For all their faults, Liverpool still have an abundance of attacking talent and Brentford concede a lot of goals.</p>
<p>Crystal Palace - who travel to Arsenal - are not a team to target. Them and Bournemouth are arguably the two teams everyone dreads to play against and Arsenal aren’t exactly prolific.</p>
<p>It’s a tricky week. We have European games which will add to fatigue and there aren’t many obvious banker fixtures.</p>
<div id="attachment_74061" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-74061" class="size-full wp-image-74061" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/GettyImages-2229150044.jpg" alt="Joao Pedro. Picture by Getty Images" width="1024" height="690" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-74061" class="wp-caption-text">Joao Pedro. Picture by Getty Images</p>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>💪 Clean sheets: Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Arsenal:</strong> 46%</li>
<li><strong>Chelsea:</strong> 44%</li>
<li><strong>Newcastle:</strong> 40%</li>
</ul>
<p>Arsenal are the only team who consistently have clean sheet odds over 40%, which is why many will have doubled up on their defence.</p>
<p>Palace are a good team but they don’t have enough about them to hurt Arsenal too much.</p>
<p>Sunderland have a great defensive base but they don’t carry much attacking threat and Chelsea’s clean sheet odds reflect that.</p>
<p>Newcastle have adjusted this year to conserve energy after European games and I expect them to continue this pragmatic approach against Fulham, which strengthens their clean sheet potential.</p>
<div id="attachment_73164" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-73164" class="size-full wp-image-73164" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Saliba-Getty.jpg" alt="William Saliba. Picture by Getty Images" width="1024" height="683" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-73164" class="wp-caption-text">William Saliba. Picture by Getty Images</p>
</div>
<h2>FPL Gameweek 9: Players to target</h2>
<p>Here's my top five players to target with their opponents' weaknesses in mind:</p>
<h3>🥇<strong>Reece James (v Sunderland)</strong></h3>
<p><strong>Target: Zonal match-up </strong></p>
<p>From a team match-up perspective, this is an average fixture. Chelsea’s recent expected goals (xG) isn't great and Sunderland’s expected goals conceded (xGC) is strong.</p>
<p>But Sunderland concede the most shots from their left side (joint-second most in the league) and crosses (second most in the league), which indicates a massive weakness there.</p>
<p>That also benefits <strong>Pedro Neto</strong> but James has more upside - if he is rested in Europe - given the strong clean sheet potential as well. It should also be noted that his main rival for the right-back position picked up a red card in the previous match.</p>
<p>James earned 18 points against Nottingham Forest which demonstrates just how high his upside is. His injury record is terrible but he’s stayed fit so far.</p>
<p>His talent was never in doubt and this is an ideal fixture for him.</p>
<div id="attachment_75333" style="width: 850px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-75333" class="size-full wp-image-75333" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/James-GW1-8-2.jpeg" alt="Reece James's stats" width="840" height="690" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-75333" class="wp-caption-text">Reece James's stats</p>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>🥈<strong>Riccardo Calafiori (v Palace)</strong></h3>
<p><strong>Target: Zonal match-up </strong></p>
<p>Arsenal’s attacking stats are strong and their defensive stats are elite.</p>
<p>Palace are the form team with strong attacking stats, however Arsenal should be able to nullify their threat, especially as they’ve taken <strong>Eberechi Eze </strong>from them.</p>
<p>Palace’s main weakness is their right side and they also concede a high volume of shots in the box.</p>
<p>The latter should favour <strong>Viktor Gyokeres</strong> given he leads Arsenal for that metric, however his form has waned and he’s likely to struggle against a back three.</p>
<p>Calafiori meanwhile has the zonal match-up in his favour and averages the most shots in the box out of the Arsenal defenders.</p>
<p>Similar to the James selection, Calafiori has strong clean sheet potential and when you combine that with zonal weakness, there’s a lot of upside.</p>
<div id="attachment_75334" style="width: 850px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-75334" class="size-full wp-image-75334" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Riccardo-Calafiori.jpeg" alt="Riccardo Calafiori's stats" width="840" height="690" /></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-75334" class="wp-caption-text">Riccardo Calafiori's stats</p>
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