The opening weekend of an FPL season is where template squads meet reality. Erling Haaland, in seven out of ten teams, did not score. Three players owned by barely anyone did.
Here are the three whose weekend actually changes something, with what they cost and how many managers already have them. Ownership and prices are from the Statz FPL data at the time of writing.
Stach scored the only goal at the City Ground, winning Leeds the round's sole away victory against a Forest side the model made 44.8% favourites.
We flagged him before the season started: in our FPL coverage he was the deep cut, a top-12 projected player in the entire game at £6.0m with ownership that rounded to nobody. That case has not weakened. A midfielder at that price who takes set pieces and arrives in the box is the definition of an FPL differential, and 1.2% ownership means his goals move your rank rather than keeping you level.
Two goals in a 4-0 win, in a Brighton side missing Baleba, Mitoma and Ferguson. That last part is the important part: Hinshelwood's route into the team came from an injury list, and the question every FPL manager now has to answer is what happens when those three are fit.
At £6.0m and under 1% ownership he is the sort of pick that wins you a gameweek. Whether he holds the shirt into September is a different question, and the predicted line-ups will answer it before the deadline rather than after.
The one that matters most, because of the price. A £4.5m defender who scored and kept a clean sheet in the same afternoon is exactly the profile our budget enablers guide was written about: the cheap slot that quietly funds a premium elsewhere while contributing points of its own.
Defensive contribution points have changed what a £4.5m defender can be worth, and De Cuyper is the weekend's advertisement for it.
One gameweek is one gameweek. Two of these three owe their minutes at least partly to somebody else's injury, and a single haul is not a projection.
The way to judge them is the same as it was in July: look at the expected minutes first and the points second. The Statz Season Rankings model both across all 38 gameweeks, and the Team Planner will tell you what any of them is projected to add to your specific squad rather than to a hypothetical one.