The Best Differentials of 2025/26
Low-ownership players who outscored expectations. The picks nobody had.
A differential is, by definition, a bet against the crowd. Most of those bets lose. The small fraction that win are what separate top 1% finishers from top 10% finishers, which is why every season's differential leaderboard is worth a careful read even when most of the names on it won't repeat.
One methodology note before the rankings. The ownership figures shown reflect end-of-season ownership, which is the only historical ownership data available from the public FPL API. The under-10% cut-off is therefore a "they finished the season as differentials" filter, not a "they were differentials at the time" filter. Some names on this list were heavily owned mid-season and faded back below the threshold. Others were quietly under-rostered all year. Both count as players the market missed.
The top differential by raw points was M.Fernandes, who finished with 135 points at 0.6% ownership. The differential score column on the leaderboard combines both axes, rewarding players for being missed in addition to being good.
The differential XI
Top under-10%-owned scorers at each position, 3-4-3 shape. A theoretical squad of pure differentials. Never something to build, always something to mine for one or two slots when you're trying to climb a mini-league.
Top 20 differentials leaderboard
| # | Player | Pos | Club | Pts | Ended owned | Diff. Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garner | MID | Everton | 159 | 0.2% | 156 | B |
| 2 | Wilson | MID | Fulham | 168 | 1.2% | 148 | C |
| 3 | Matheus N. | DEF | Man City | 154 | 0.9% | 140 | B |
| 4 | J.Timber | DEF | Arsenal | 149 | 0.8% | 137 | C+ |
| 5 | Chalobah | DEF | Chelsea | 136 | 0.1% | 135 | D |
| 6 | Saliba | DEF | Arsenal | 137 | 0.2% | 134 | D |
| 7 | Gravenberch | MID | Liverpool | 144 | 0.9% | 131 | C |
| 8 | O.Dango | MID | Brentford | 136 | 0.4% | 131 | B |
| 9 | Watkins | FWD | Aston Villa | 167 | 2.2% | 130 | F |
| 10 | Mukiele | DEF | Sunderland | 151 | 1.5% | 128 | C |
| 11 | Zubimendi | MID | Arsenal | 133 | 0.5% | 126 | B |
| 12 | M.Fernandes | MID | West Ham | 135 | 0.7% | 126 | B |
| 13 | Ampadu | MID | Leeds | 134 | 0.7% | 125 | C+ |
| 14 | Anthony | MID | Burnley | 127 | 0.2% | 124 | B |
| 15 | Ekitiké | FWD | Liverpool | 125 | 0.1% | 124 | F |
| 16 | Keane | DEF | Everton | 131 | 0.6% | 123 | B |
| 17 | Senesi | DEF | Bournemouth | 175 | 3.0% | 123 | B |
| 18 | Alderete | DEF | Sunderland | 125 | 0.2% | 123 | D |
| 19 | Richards | DEF | Crystal Palace | 128 | 0.5% | 122 | C+ |
| 20 | Aaronson | MID | Leeds | 126 | 0.4% | 121 | C |
Differential score = points × (10 − end-of-season ownership) ÷ 10. Rewards both high scoring and low ownership.
Midfield carried the differentials list. Fifteen of the top twenty are midfielders. Zero forwards. Five defenders. Zero goalkeepers. That's the pattern most years, because the midfield bracket has the widest spread of plausible breakouts and the most fragmented ownership profile across positions.
Brentford produced five of the top twenty, which made them the quiet differential factory of the season. The kind of club-level cluster that's worth scanning early in 2026/27 when prices first land.
What it means for 2026/27
The names on this page won't be the differentials of 2026/27. That's the nature of the category. Once a differential's points are visible, the market closes the gap, and several of the players above will start next season much more heavily owned than they finished this one.
What's useful is the shape of the list. Which positions produced the most differentials. Which clubs had more than one. Which price bands the breakouts came from. Those patterns tend to repeat even when the specific names don't, and the midfield bracket has produced an outsized share of differentials every season we have data for. That's a structural feature of how FPL prices midfielders, not a one-season quirk.