All bets may be off when Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX float in quick succession and Nasdaq’s new rules see them fast-tracked into the index but one thing you can generally rely on with trackers is the identity of their leading constituents. As we head into the final round of games in the 2025/26 Premier League season, however, that is very much not the case with our Mean Reversion Machine index.
With a Champions League final against the mighty PSG just a week away, will Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta risk playing Gabriel, Rice or even goalkeeper Raya now his team have the league title in the bag? Not a clue. And what are the chances of the perennially unpredictable Pep Guardiola playing all of Haaland, Guehi and Semenyo in his final game as the manager of Manchester City? Nope, me neither.
As things stand, your portfolio adviser’s best guesses as to who will definitely play on Sunday afternoon are Virgil for Liverpool, Bruno for Manchester United, Joao Pedro for Chelsea, Kroupi Junior for Bournemouth and maybe one of the three City boys. Given Dubravka has not turned out for Burnley for the last two matches as his team look ahead to life in the Championship, there is every chance we will be keeper-less this weekend too.
All we can reasonably do then is try to ensure we have a full squad of playing options, which – given the portfolio’s well-rehearsed lack of liquidity – has taken some ingenuity. Still, our resulting two transfers are well within the spirit of the Mean Reversion Machine project as well-owned, dirt-cheap Bournemouth defender Hill comes in for the injured Gudmundsson and the books are balanced by swapping Ampadu for Fulham’s King:
“All we can do now is cross our fingers, hope for the best and perhaps look to take our minds off the prospect of fielding a five-a-side team by focusing on last week’s performance.
Source: Fantasy Premier League
All we can do now is cross our fingers, hope for the best and perhaps look to take our minds off the prospect of fielding a five-a-side team by focusing on last week’s performance. And it was another good showing for the portfolio – our 1.3m weekly rank built on fine contributions, as you can see below, from Haaland, Bruno, Kroupi Junior, Gabriel, Raya and, best of the lot, a clean-sheet-free but two-goal 14-pointer from Virgil:
That brings us very neatly to our regular look at the most bought and sold assets of recent weeks as, on the back of three points in two games, the Liverpool captain had been one of the most heavily transferred-out players. It almost goes without saying that, in the wake of last weekend’s monster haul, he has been one of the most heavily transferred-in players ahead of Gameweek 38. I think we all know what happens next …
Most-bought of all this week has been Jarrod Bowen – and by a distance too – as FPL managers bank on the possibility of avoiding relegation as suitable motivation for the West Ham talisman when so many teams have so little left to play for. Omission from England’s World Cup squad may be an added spur too – which may also explain the appearance of Gibbs-White in our table ahead of an otherwise unappealing tie against Bournemouth.
The rest of the top buys largely fall into the category of ‘not quite on the beach’ while the big sells include last week’s most transferred-in asset, Arsenal’s hot-and-cold striker Gyokeres, after his underwhelming single-pointer at home to Burnley. Looking slightly longer-term, as you can see in the bottom-righthand table, those who moved for Haaland and, perhaps less expectedly, Calvert-Lewin ahead of Gameweek 35 will be feeling very pleased with themselves – those who went for Bowen, perhaps rather less so. Still, one week left to go …
Source: Fantasy Premier League
