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As we head into Gameweek 2 of the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season, there will be an incredible temptation to think your team is shit and just grab a player that did well last weekend – this is what FPL managers call a knee jerk.
I – James – feel that temptation too. My team was a sea of 1s and 2s last week and I finished with 46 points on a bench boost. Triple united blank, captain Haaland blank, no Arsenal and my boy Dango off after 66 mins. And of course, the one highly-owned guy I backed against in Joao Pedro delivered just to add insult to injury last night.
But, I came into this season with a plan for the first few weeks and, as much as I feel a fool for having Virgil over Calafiori (which was something I was genuinely debating), I am sticking to my plan.
As I said in my gameweek 1 review, it’s important not to overreact. Just remember, Reijnders looked like the next De Bruyne after gw1 last season…
Of course, like most rules, there are exceptions. And the exception here is if you have injured players – but wait for news from the press conferences – or players that didn’t play. I don’t mind making a move for those guys. If you are bench boosting you basically HAVE to fix that. But, if you aren’t bench boosting, do consider that you have a bench which you can use.
Gameweek 2 kicks off on Friday night with Palace at home to Man City at 8pm UK time. So, the game closes at 18:30 that night.
In case you missed it, my thesis is that defcon points were super easy to come by last year and I don’t think they will be the same this year. For what it’s worth, Joe disagrees and nobody else seems to be talking about this…
Gameweek 1 last year, 14 defenders and 9 midfielders got defcon points. This gameweek 1 (with one game left to play) it was
xG: 1.34-1.70
You wanted it and Joao Pedro delivered an attacking return in the first minute. It was outrageously bad defending but he took the chance well. Rogers and Palmer also got on the score sheet with the new front three looking very impressive, even if the Fulham defending was somewhat questionable.
Really, Chelsea need to look at Sanchez who was shockingly poor. He was at fault for at both goals. The first he just let through and the second he parried to Garcia. So, I still think their defence is probably best avoided. Palestra wasn’t even in the squad by the way.
Josh King (not that one) was the one bright light for Fulham. He looked very dangerous in the first half. However, their defending was pretty piss poor – I’d be worried about that.
Brighton play against Tromsoe again on Thursday. Just be aware of this in case you own some of their assets.
In the Carabao Cup we have:
Tues 25th August
Weds 26th August
Thurs 27th August
Man City signed Bouaddi for £85mn. He’s very young but could be a starting midfielder in a few weeks time. Let’s just wait and see.
It seems like Spurs have wrapped up a £150mn double move for Marmoush and Savinho.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, check out our awesome new fixture ticker that Joe has created. This year we have made it interactive – you can change how far in the future you want to look and look at absolute best fixtures or relative overall or for attack or defence.
For these previews, I am more inclined to use the absolute ticker because it shows the weaker teams better and that’s generally where we tend to use transfers – our premium players tend to stay a bit longer.
Newcastle top the ticker then. I’d be making moves for Wissa and Barnes in draft FPL because we have long-term evidence that they score goals and they played good minutes. I am less inclined to do that for Elanga because he is more of an assist merchant and Osula didn’t get near to 90 mins which worries me. In regular FPL, I want to see another week of football ideally but Spurs were so bad I can see why you would be inclined to go there.
Everton are next but I think you should only really be thinking about Ndiaye. His main benefit is pens because his underlying open play numbers tend to be poor. I know Dewsbury-Hall scored at the weekend but I just don’t think he is that good – he HUGELY overperformed last season. Sadly, I don’t like Barry because I don’t trust him to play 90 regularly.
At Hull, I am only looking at McBurnie and Slater. McBurnie is nailed to play 90 and cheap – that’s really rare for forwards. Slater is a super cheap midfielder that is on set pieces which makes him a great enabler but I don’t want to play him every week.
At Liverpool, I am still concerned that Gakpo will leave the club so I wouldn’t go there until the window closes. I need to see Wirtz play 90 this week to keep him in mind going forward. However, I still like Isak if you have the money up top.
Despite the shocking performance, I would keep any Man United attackers you have. Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes are still my favourite two there and I still think they are good for returns against Ipswich.
Newcastle top the ticker again here. I think the best picks are Thiaw and Botman because they are good for defcons. Hall has more upside but also is always an injury risk.
I wouldn’t go anywhere near Palace this week because of the City fixture.
And, I wouldn’t go anywhere near Villa because they were all over the place last weekend.
And, I don’t think I would pay for the Liverpool defence. I have Virgil because of these fixtures but I am not feeling confident because of how weak they looked defending the counter. He’s the only real pick here because he has defcon and attacking potential. Jacquet and Araujo are not nailed. Kerkez and Frimpong are just too expensive for what you get.
I would avoid Coventry. I am happy to play them in bench boost 2 still but they were so poor against Arsenal that I do not trust them.
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In this section, I pretend that you are asking me ‘should I buy/sell this player?’ and offer my advice, normally on players I haven’t covered above in fixtures.
Of course, I already told you in the intro to try not to make moves, so I am assuming you are forced into these.
And, you should always wait as late as possible for injury news etc.
Calafiori – Yes. He is attacking and plays for the best defence in the league. Yes, I am concerned about Hincapie taking some of his minutes but until that happens I am happy to go there.
De Cuyper – No. I don’t think he will hold down this attacking spot and he plays away to Chelsea this week.
Sangare – Yes. Both Joe and I are usually very down on new players to the league because they often struggle more than people expect but this guy did exactly what people were anticipating – def cons and a bit of attacking threat for 5.5 is great.
Odegaard – Yes. I love Odegaard so that biases my opinion on him. But if he stays as this focal part of the Arsenal attack he will clean up on bonus points whenever he gets a return.
Kayode – No. It’s just too short-term a move. He has two great fixtures followed by three bad ones (assuming Villa have sorted themselves out by gameweek 6).
Tzolis – Yes. I am a little nervous that he starts to be rotated relatively soon because that’s how Arteta manages his team. And, I am a little nervous that Arsenal won’t be as attacking as you expect a top team to be. But, for 6.5, this guy looked electric in his first PL performance.
Havertz – No. I don’t trust that he is nailed yet.
Szoboszlai – Yes. Confirmed he is on pens (or at the least has pen share) and has all the routes to points.
Gvardiol – Maybe. If he plays as attacking as he did last game every week then he is great. But I am still worried that he will be rotated.
Cherki – No. He SHOULD start for City. But that doesn’t mean he will.
Joao Pedro – No. If you swerved him week 1 like me, then you did it for a reason. Wait until after he plays Arsenal.
Guehi – No. I don’t know if he is nailed and they just spent £85mn on a DM so we don’t know if he keeps his spot there or goes back into the backline.
White – Yes, until Timber is back he is nailed. Prefer Calafiori though.
Hinshelwood – No. Wait until after they play Chelsea.
Saka – No. Not until he plays 90 do I trust his fitness.
Konsa – No. Unless you’re forced to do this to make moves elsewhere because you have 4 Arsenal or you need to play your bench boost, try and hold him on your bench. In two weeks he might be a nailed on starting centre-back for the best team in the league at 4.5.
Gyokeres – Yes. He is not nailed.
Van de Ven – Yes. As much as I think they probably need him back instead of one of Senesi or van Hecke, he is injured.
Sarr – Yes. It looks like he is on his way out of the club.
Mbeumo/Fernandes/Shaw – No. Not when he is about to play a promoted team at home.
Watkins – Yes. Looks like he is going to be sold.
Rice – No. I don’t trust that he is fit so I wouldn’t buy him, but you already have him so probably worth keeping him.
Anderson – Yes if he is injured but wait for news.
Calvert-Lewin – No. If you are selling the only nailed on 6.0 forward after one blank then you really need to re-assess how you are playing this game.
Gabriel – No. He has a good fixture and you will need to take a hit at this point if you are making a move to try to release money.
Munoz – Maybe. I wouldn’t have started the season with him because of the transfer speculation but now you have him you may as well keep him for another couple of weeks.
Gibbs-White – No. Playing away to Liverpool this week is not ideal but we have already seen they can be got on the counter.
Semenyo – No. I am concerned about how wide he played and his lack of attacking output but he is fine to hold for another week.
Le Fee – No. Run him out against Fulham for one more week and then re-assess.
Here, we assess who the best captain options are for FPL Gameweek 2.
My opinion hasn’t really changed and I still think Fernandes is the best captain option at home to Ipswich. Haaland is always an option too.
If you want something more spicy (which generally we advise against) then I like Mbeumo at home to Ipswich or Isak at home to Forest or one of the Arsenal lads, purely based on how bad Villa looked last week.
We’ve covered the best fixtures, transfer tips and captains for FPL gameweek 2. If you are looking for a full readout of gameweek 1 then check out the review piece here.
If you are mad and have just scrolled down here for the conclusion then it is this: don’t make transfers unless you have to.
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