With the inaugral (and hopefully only ever) winter World Cup coming up in November, the Premier League season kicked off earlier than usual, meaning the shortest break we have seen between two campaigns. FPL life was back in full effect and I cannot lie I was not necesarily 100% ready mentally.
I had toyed with my team for weeks, but I just always had at the back of my mind that whatever decisions I made would be the wrong choices. Any regular readers will know that composing my team is always savagely interrupted by sorting out the annual 'Justice League'. Now in its fourth year, the entry fee went up to £20 making the purse £400 the highest that it as ever been. Over the last four weeks I had done at least five drafts as I continued to overthink. I looked at the signings teams made, listened and read on what different managers had to say and despite the whole point of this was to help me build my team, it actually just made me even more indecisive to be honest. There were too many people I wanted and you can only have 15.
Diogo Jota got injured in pre-season, so he came out of my team, I had his teammate Darwin Nunez in but then thought that he would start the season on the bench so I took him out too. Tottenham's new man Ivan Perisic I heard had fitness issues so I took him out just before the deadline after he was one of the first players I had picked weeks ago. Harry Kane cost the same amount (£11.5m) as Erling Haaland but I resisted the temptation to have him the Norwegian in. I did not know if he would start the first league game, though I know he is more than capable of finding the net off the bench, my decision not to have him was more as I saw Kane was owned by far less people. If need be a transition would be straightforward if I were to get it wrong with the similairty in price. I could have left a premium froward out of the mix completely, had someone like Ivan Toney (£7m) in and then I could have had Kevin De Bruyne in midfield. Again I went against this however as Mo Salah is always the first man that I pick so having De Bruyne or last seasons' joint-top scorer Heung-min Son would already see half of the budget gone. The deadline crept up on me, I was not best pleased with what I had but I had no choice time was up.
When the deadline was up the head-to-head league pitted me against last seasons' winner Muji, 'just my luck!'. Muji had five of the same men as me including Kane and Salah but whereas I had the Egyptian as my captain, he had England's captain as his. The campaign opened at Selhurst Park on Friday night as Crystal Palace were at home to Arsenal. Wilfired Zaha was the last addition to my team as he usually causes Arsenal problems. Arsenal where to take the lead however through a Gabriel Martinelli header who Muji had. It could have been worse for me as he missed a good chance beforehand driving wide when it was easier to hit the target. Zaha gave Ben White a hard time but anything he created his teammates could not get on the end of. The one time a teammate could get a shot at goal Eberechi Eze missed a brilliant chance as Zaha thread a needle with a slick pass, it was not to be my day as Arsenal won 2-0. A blank for Jesus who was onwed by 76.2% of players at kick off and obviously Muji had him, but he also had Aaron Ramsdale so the Eagles not scoring was very damaging, giving him a massive early advantage. Odsonne Eduoard was guilty of putting his first half header straight at Ramsdale.
Saturday began with runners-up Liverpool's trip to Fulham. Many had thought it would be a routine win for Jurgen Klopp's men but Alexsandar Mitrovic had other ideas. The Serbian started off his case well in beating the allegations of him flopping in the Premier League again with a brace. The first a header as he ragdolled Trent Alexander-Arnold, the second a penalty as Virgil van Dijk was too slow in getting his leg out of the way. Liverpool did reply to both Mitrovic's goals as it ended 2-2. The first equaliser came from new-man Darwin Nunez who produced a smart flick from Salah's pass after coming off the bench. Salah himself grabbed the second leveller as Nunez returned the favour with the assist. Fulham were the better team overall but the Reds did hit the woodwork twice through Luis Diaz and Jordan Henderson. A rare occasion where I started the season with only two Liverpool men as I paid the price for not keeping hold of Nunez as in defence Andy Robertson blanked.
In the 3pm games; Bournemouth got off to a great start in their return to the Premier League as they beat Aston Villa 2-0 at the Vitality Stadium. Enabler Jefferson Lerma put the Cherries ahead before Kiefer Moore finished the job. Bad news for me as I had Phillippe Coutinho who almost got an assist as Jacob Ramsey's deflected shot from his pass was turned away for a corner. My opponent had Leon Bailey who at £5m was someone I strongly considered too. Early on in my prepation for the season I had looked at tripling up on Wolves players, thank God I did not as they lost their first game away at Leeds, even though they took the lead. Hee-chan Hwang (now an FPL midfielder) who I had for part of last season assisted Daniel Podence. Leeds came back to win 2-1, as Rodrigo Moreno, another one of my old men scored as well as an own goal by Rayan Ait-Nouri. Luckily I put Ait-Nouri on my bench at the last minute or that would have been very costly. Muji and I both had Pedro Neto who could not deliver, Come in I mean a Cornetto would not have got me a measly two points but at least it would have cooled me down in the sun.
Newcastle triumphed 2-0 over newly-promoted Nottingham Forest at St James' Park. A stunning strike by Fabian Schar was followed up by a deft finish from Callum Wilson. Me and Muji both had Wilson, so no gain there head-to-head wise, but I was just happy that one of my team had done something, as bar vaptain Salah it had been terrible thus far. Clean sheet points for Kieran Trippier who at one stage was in my team, this was becoming silly now. Tottenham smashed Southampton 4-1. I took the aforementioned Perisic out of my team as said, but I replaced him with his teammate Matt Doherty who was only named on the bench to start. I tried to be too smart as Antonio Conte had talked Doherty up, but realistically I should have just gone for the man who started on Spurs' left instead of Perisic in Ryan Sessegnon. Sessegnon levelled things up with a header after James Ward-Prowse had put the Saints ahead. Harry Kane had an effort well saved by Gavin Bazunu in the Southampton goal as Tottenham scored 4 without one from Son and Kane, which literally does not happen. Dejan Kulusevski was to help himself to a goal and an assist however. He was in my side last season but I overlooked him as his price has ballooned to £8m after his instant impact, I should have just gone with him. The late Saturday game saw Chelsea win 1-0 away at Everton but neither of us had anyone featuring here. Saturday ended with Muji ahead 44-40.
Sunday saw Manchester United's new era under Erik ten Hag get off to a terrible start as they lost 2-1 at Old Trafford to Brighton. Neither of us had any players involved, but as a Liverpool fan you really did not think I could go without mentioning it did you? Pascal Gross showing United misconduct as he was at the double. But anyway back to the games that affected the head-to-head; Leicester and Brentford met in a game that had massive implications. I had both Leicester's keepers something I have never done before as I did not know who would start with Kasper Schmeichel leaving. I also had James Maddison, so needed the both of them to contribute to give me a chance as Muji had Joao Canecelo to play in the late match. As well as my Leicester men I also had Pontus Jansson. The Foxes took the lead through Timothy Castagne from a Maddison corner, 'great stuff', but I still needed more unless Danny Ward could keep a clean sheet. Brendan Rodgers' men doubled their lead through Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall but the Bees fought back to salvage a point. Toney pulled one back showing that I should have had more faith, before Josh Dasilva's good strike shared the spoils. So with no Ward clean sheet and just the Maddison assist, I only had a slender three-point lead. It all depended on the last game at the London Stadium, if West Ham could score and Cancelo not make a goal contribution I would not lose. It was however Pep Guardiola's men who took the lead through an Erling Haaland penalty as overthinking came to bite me in the ass once again in the opening week. I had faint hope as Cancelo got booked at the end of the first period losing Muji a point, but the Hammers could not grab a goal as City ran out 2-0 winners.
So I had lost my first game of the season by four points as Cancelo got two bonus points despite getting cautioned. It ended 51-47 and I must say I prefer to lose heavily then having late hope however small it is like I did here. A woeful and weak score to begin proceedings as my original drafts would have got me more points. I did not expect it to be so close with my score being so bad, I only got under 50 points a handful of times last season. To make things worse I play Muji's best mate Khurram (K) next, a man who has yet to finish outside of the top three since the Justice League began. Big shoutouts to Josh and Darren B. who got the highest score in the league this week as they both got 78.
@DubulDee
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