Fantasy football is back and in full swing and the opening week provided plenty of entertaining watches and a few bandwagons to emerge already. Gameweek 1 was a rather enjoyable week with a couple of clean sheets, a captaincy haul and a hat-trick. Usually I’d snap your hand off for 80 points but that was only good enough for a gameweek rank of 1,000,000! You must keep in mind that you didn’t pick your side just for gameweek 1, so don’t get too stressed (yet).
A tough opening fixture didn’t stop Heaton giving it a good go, as he kept Spurs out for the majority of the game. 3 late goals meant just 2 points but there’s some promising signs coming from it. The Liverpool defensive double up hasn’t started off too well with Alexander-Arnold managing just an assist. A Pukki consolation goal wiped out the chance of a big haul but their defence looked shaky at times and the Alisson injury won’t help that. Robertson looked very dangerous, so his blank isn’t a worry. Lucas Digne and Zinchenko were the only players to keep a clean sheet. The French wingback looked dangerous throughout the game and I expect assists to come in the next few weeks.
Our budget midfielders had an average week with Perez only scoring a point for a CS in a 0-0, while Lucas Moura picked up an assist against Aston Villa but should’ve got more. The 2 stars of the week come in the form of our 2 premium players, Sterling and Salah. Salah started the week off strongly with a goal and an assist, while Sterling got going quickly this season with a hat-trick in the bag already! I can’t see these two moving out of side anytime soon.
The Bournemouth duo were also rather average with just a Wilson assist. King nearly won a pen, while Wilson had a big chance to score but had his effort saved and subsequently earned an assist. With Villa next week, they’re not going anywhere yet.
Transfers: None. There’s still so much more I want to know about certain assets, so I won’t be making a transfer this week. Martial was on my mind but Wolves away isn’t an easy game and an early price rise made the decision easy, so Lucas gets another week. He looks like a great value OOP player for a top 6 side, so if he looks promising on Monday night he could come in gameweek 3.
Heaton faces Bournemouth in his opening home game and I’m hoping for plenty of shots coming his way. Digne has a home game against a Watford side who were battered 4-0 at home to Brighton. Zinchenko has Spurs at the Etihad and I’m expecting it to be either a high scoring game or cagey 1-0’er. Alexander-Arnold and Robertson head to Southampton who also started the season with a heavy loss. Points from these 5 will be important this week.
Salah is a prime option for captaincy against Southamton this week after they shipped 3 goals to Burnley even with a midweek game. Sterling looks in fine form as he faces up against Spurs and looks like one of the few players Pep daren’t leave out. Moura comes up against him but I’m not getting my hopes up with City’s defence looking strong. Perez had a very quiet game last week but I’m hopeful of something against Chelsea who’s defence is anything but solid. Their defence looks shaky and I can see Rodgers enjoying hitting The Blues on the counter just like United did on Sunday.
King and Wilson face Aston Villa on the road who conceded the most shots and shots inside the box against Spurs last week. A double blank will most likely see one of the duo axed come gameweek 3. No pressure!
Captaincy: Initially I was on Salah but 120 minutes midweek in Istanbul has put doubts in my mind on whether he’ll play a full 90 minutes and be at full speed. Unlike Chelsea they play on Saturday but I do expect him to start and I expect him to do damage in 60 minutes. That being said Sterling takes the armband against Spurs. He could’ve easily had more than just a hat-trick last week and his form is hard to ignore.
Any changes between now and the deadline will be updated in the members WhatsApp group and Slack Channel. There’s still a lot of team news to come out that could affect the side. You can use code “FPLJUNIOR” for 20% off membership to access said groups and the £1,000 cash league. Join here.