Goalkeeper is the position FPL managers think about least — and the one where a careless pick quietly costs points for 38 gameweeks. With the Gameweek 1 deadline arriving Friday evening, we have pulled every 2026/27 keeper from the Statz FPL data and ranked the genuine options at each price, plus the traps at every tier. As with the rest of this series, the season stats are 2025/26 returns; the prices and ownership are live.
David Raya is the game's only £6.0m goalkeeper and the evidence is emphatic: 162 points and 19 clean sheets last season, the best keeper return in the game, behind an Arsenal defence that also produced the price list's only £8.0m defender. The crowd has noticed — at 33.8% ownership he is the most-owned goalkeeper in the game, and the only one in a third of drafts.
The question is whether the half-million premium over the £5.5m tier buys enough. Last season's answer was yes by 27 points over the next-best keeper; if Arsenal's defence repeats, he pays for himself.
Three names, three different profiles. Jordan Pickford is the iron man — 3,420 minutes, every one of Everton's, for 135 points — and Everton open with one of the kindest runs in the league (see our teams to target guide). Gianluigi Donnarumma matched those 135 points with 15 clean sheets and is now listed at Manchester City — though City also list £5.0m Gerónimo Rulli, so watch pre-season team news for the pecking order.
The caution flag is Alisson: 91 points in 2,340 minutes tells a rotation story, and Liverpool carry £5.0m Giorgi Mamardashvili on the books too. At the same price as two ever-presents, the minutes risk is the tiebreaker.
This is where the data gets loud. Brentford's Caoimhín Kelleher scored 143 points last season — more than anyone bar Raya — with 3,330 minutes and 10 clean sheets, and sits in just 5.8% of drafts. Sunderland's Robin Roefs (136 points, 93.1 ICT) and Crystal Palace's Dean Henderson (131 points, 11 clean sheets) tell similar stories at the same price. The crowd's £5.0m pick is instead Manchester United's Senne Lammens at 18.5% — a fine keeper with a kind opening run, but 34 points behind Kelleher on last season's evidence.
The same shelf hides the traps: Rulli, Arsenal's Illan Meslier and Kepa Arrizabalaga, and Leeds' James Trafford all cost £5.0m and project as backups or timeshares. The price tells you nothing at this tier — the minutes do.
If the budget maths demand a £4.0m keeper, the crowd has already found the serviceable one: Tottenham's Martin Dúbravka, 96 points last season and in 21.9% of squads — the classic set-and-forget enabler. The rest of the £4.0m–£4.5m shelf is largely promoted-team keepers and third choices with no Premier League minutes behind them: the same buying-a-price-not-a-record trade we flagged with cheap defenders.
Whichever tier you land on, check your keeper's opening fixtures against the fixture ticker and stress-test the full draft in the My Team planner before Friday's deadline. Clean sheets track fixtures more tightly than any other FPL asset — the keeper is where the schedule research pays best.
Who is the best goalkeeper in FPL 2026/27? On last season's returns, David Raya — 162 points and 19 clean sheets at £6.0m, the only keeper at that price and the most-owned in the game.
Who is the best cheap goalkeeper in FPL 2026/27? Caoimhín Kelleher at £5.0m — 143 points and 3,330 minutes for Brentford last season, in under 6% of drafts. Martin Dúbravka (£4.0m, 96 points) is the crowd's budget route.
Is Raya worth £6.0m in FPL? He outscored the next-best keeper by 27 points last season, so the £0.5m premium paid for itself — the case rests on Arsenal's defence repeating its 19 clean sheets.