A new season is upon us, meaning more stress and problems in FPL world. After the hectic schedule last season, this time around the fixtures are not going to be in such close proximity which should make it easier for FPL players as they should not be missing as many deadlines if they are truly really serious. That overall should make it more competitive, especially in head-to-head leagues. Ironically even if fantasy managers were to miss deadlines it could possibly not be as detrimental. With the likelihood there will be less injuries and postponements (if any), the need to chop and change may not be as imperative. Therefore missing a deadline may not be as big an issue, but time will confirm this, there are no guarantees anywhere.
My 3rd annual 'Justice League' was sorted out to my great pleasure earlier than last year. The group were asked again whether they wanted to drop the price of entry to £10 from the previous £15, keep it at £15 or raise it to £20. After an early burst of votes for £20; £15 was a unanimous winner. There was to be one change from last year as Stel from the media network I feature heavily on 'Shoot the Defence' joined the Justice League in place of my friend Dean.
In regards to the new season, we try to bring you new things, and the aforementioned Stel from the 'Shoot The Defence' media group and I now have the 'FPL War' Podcast. I may now be on every single week, but more often than not you will see me, sometimes I might not want to do a team reveal or I just may be too busy to squeeze it in. However if you are smart you will watch and it could give you some really useful tips. I myself got 2,333 points last time out and I never owned Bruno Fernandes once, you will be hard pushed to find anyone else who can boast that.
Assembling your avengers to begin the campaign is more nerve-racking than making changes during the season. I had my usual look through opening fixtures to select my players, as well as picking players I did not believe I could afford to start without. I did my team that I play around with, before doing my main team '#SheSaidBenMeeOver' that I enter into the Justice League. By the end of things I actually liked the look of the forward line in my backup team more than my main side. In main team three Liverpool men Mo Salah, Andrew Robertson and Diogo Jota were the first three in and Heung-min Son was the fourth man. I then chopped and changed so much over three weeks that I was spinning.
In goal I went with Emiliano Martinez and Robert Sanchez. I was late to the party last season with Martinez, so did not want to miss out this time around. Even when he does not get a clean sheet he still makes a good amount of saves. Ben Foster is my usual go-to-keeper when Watford are in the league and he is a mere £4m as Austrian keeper Daniel Bachmann seems to be their number one keeper now. I had originally had Ruben Dias in, but then I changed to his teammate Joao Cancelo as they both cost £6m and Cancelo is clearly a bigger goal contribution threat. I toyed with the idea of having Aaron Cresswell again but went with his teammate Vladimir Coufal just for the fact that he was half a million cheaper. Leeds' Raphinha and Patrick Bamford were chosen despite them having to play Manchester United first. Raphinha was brilliant last season, and despite wanting to have Callum Wilson or Michail Antonio up top, I have no real worries about Bamford's fitness compared to those two so despite being a tad reluctant I went with him up top over either of them. I also decided against another former mainstay in my team Danny Ings as he has now moved to Aston Villa to compete with Ollie Watkins.
After delivering double figure league goals last season; Tomas Soucek again started the campaign in my team. My first draft had Alain Saint-Maximin in up front as he is not down as a midfielder anymore. But as the Frenchman cost £6.5m I let go of him for Troy Deeney to create funds to bring in Trent Alexander-Arnold at the back as Robertson picked up an ankle injury in a friendly last week. Kostas Tsimikas was a huge possibility as he will deputise for Robertson at left back and at only £4m I was really tempted as that would have given me £3m in the bank to replenish my team, but I went with Alexander-Arnold in the end. Until I know an exact return date for Robertson the idea of still bringing Tsimikas in looms largely.
The first game of the season on Friday evening saw someone I decided to go with as they did so well in the Championship last campaign. After scoring 33 goals, which was the most ever in a single Championship season; Ivan Toney finally got his chance in the Premier League as Brentford faced Arsenal at the new Brentford Community Stadium. I had hoped Toney was cheaper than £6.5m but this was not going to deter me from picking him. I had called back in June when the fixture came out that the Bees would trump the Gunners and they did just that. Unfortunately despite a really good performance from Toney was not able to get on the scoresheet in the newly promoted sides 2-0 triumph. I had mentioned in the first two episodes of 'FPL War' that Ethan Pinnock, Kristofer Ajer or Rico Henry may be useful cheap assets, so trust me to have none of them as the Bees kept their first clean sheet of the season, 'sigh'. Pinnock actually got an assist too...Jesus wept.
As the head-to-head table of course needs time to synchronise, it was during that Friday fixture that I found out I was playing against Rian (Milito). This was savagely ironic as prior to the game we met up for an FPL brainstorm as went to the local William Hill and also to Lidl. Out of 19 other men I had to get him first up didn't I, the FPL gods are out already to make sure I do not get more points than last season, I can feel it. Saturday's first game saw Milito's team Manchester United play Leeds and that meant I was once again up against my arch-nemesis Bruno Fernandes. Where I live we refer to the likes of Fernandes as a 'pagan' or an 'opp', due to my disdain for United even when I play someone who does not own Fernandes if he does not score I celebrate. So trust him to bag a hat-trick, and as well as that Mason Greenwood who my opponent had also scored. Normally a man who gets a hat-trick stands alone, but a big shoutout to Paul Pogba as he got 4 assists, Leeds just do not learn they lost 6-2 at Old Trafford last season, so decided to go there again and play the exact same way! I had actually told Rian to pick Luke Ayling, he did but left him on the bench. If he had started him then this contest would have somehow punished me even further as Leeds' consolation was his pile-driver that was actually the equaliser before United turned it on. Bamford barely got into this game and Raphinha put what looked a straightforward chance wide very late on.
We are thankfully back to having multiple Saturday 3pm kick offs, as we slowly restore to normality, only one player I had featured in the games however. Rian had Kasper Schmeichel in goal, as Leicester entertained Wolves and he should have conceded in the first half. Adama Traore is built like a rugby player and when he was clean through on goal he finished like one as he shot wide. Schmeichel also denied Traore in the second half. I was to be the fool in this game for overthinking. I normally have Jamie Vardy in my team, but given his price (£10.5m) at the age he is now and the fact the Foxes acquired Patson Daka along with being in Europe, I believe his minutes will be managed so I decided against him. So of course Vardy opened the scoring after great work by Ricardo Pereira, sometimes you have to just keep things simple I guess. Daniel Amartey was only on Rian's bench otherwise that would have been further points for him on top of Schmeichel's clean sheet as Brendan Rodgers' men won 1-0. The only man I had playing in the 3pm games was Emi Martinez as Aston Villa travelled to Watford. It was another home win for a newly promoted side as the Hornets won 3-2. So no clean sheet for Martinez who may be forgiven for having a Copa America hangover. If he could have possibly done better on the first goal by Emmanuel Dennis then he had no chance whatsoever with the other two goals. Ismaila Sarr's shot took a horrible deflection on the second and the third was an outstanding finish off the post by Cucho. Ings scored a last minute penalty, so I could have literally gone with any of the other forwards I had in mind and they all would have contributed more than Toney and Bamford.
Saturday closed with Liverpool travelling to Carrow Road to face Norwich. Milito had gone with Tsimikas where I had Alexander-Arnold and we both had Salah and Jota. As well as that we had both picked Salah as captain. Liverpool went on to win 3-0. It was the perfect combination for the first goal as Salah assisted Jota, the Egyptian then supplied the second for substitute Roberto Firmino. Salah finally got his goal with a tidy volley. I finally registered some big points but it was looking ominous for me already, the day ended with Rian on a whooping 88 points and I only had 53.
I had obviously already resigned myself to my first defeat of the head-to-head season but I just hoped Sunday was a fruitful one. Newcastle were up against West Ham to start proceedings and the opening goal was scored by another man I neglected in Wilson. To make things worse it was assisted by the man I let go of late on Saint-Maximin. West Ham's leveller came from Cresswell who I of course left out for Coufal, this game was hurting my head and it was not even half-time. They had thought Soucek got the goal, but they saw on the replay he did not get a touch. Soucek also had a header cleared off the line. Antonio assisted the Hammers' equaliser in the second half, so another player I overlooked contributed and to compound things Rian had him in his side. Antonio then had a dubious penalty saved for Soucek to gobble up the rebound, so there were still 'fantasy' assist points for Antonio covering up the points lost for his miss. He was then to get his goal with an empathic finish as David Moyes' men won 4-2. So one game left and it was the biggest game as Tottenham hosted Manchester City. We both had Cancelo in this one and where I had Son he had Riyad Mahrez. Cancelo, Mahrez & Son all went went close as City started well but then Spurs looked dangerous on the counter attack. Ten minutes into the second half Son looked like he had dwelled on the ball but then produced a great finish to win the game for Nuno Espirito Santo's men. Son was not to get the maximum bonus however as that went to Hugo Lloris.
Despite both my midfielders scoring I was battered, trust me to be up against the highest scorer in the Justice League in gameweek 1. 105 points Milito ended with so I was crushed by 29 points, I could have played 8 of the others in the head-to-head league and still won but instead I was left in misery. 76 is usually a very good total but many seem to have done well this week across the varying traditional scoring leagues I am in, I need to have a really good gameweek 2 to say the least.
@DubulDee
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