Captains Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 1 – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
Welcome to the first captains article of the season!
The Premier League has finally returned, and while many of you have probably come pretty close to a settled squad by now, you also need to select a captain to help you start off your season with a good score. Well, that’s what we are here for. Whether that’s double points or treble will depend on whether you take advantage of the new ‘Triple Captain’ chip but more on that later. So without further ado, let’s get right to it and look at the best captaincy options for Game-week 1.
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[/one_half]Eden Hazard
Chelsea may have lost to Arsenal in the Community Shield, but expect Mourinho and his players to shrug off that result and start the season strongly. Chelsea play Swansea at home in their opening fixture, a match that ended 4-2 last season, while Chelsea won 5-0 in the away match. In other words, Chelsea enjoy playing against the Swans, and while Hazard scored none of the goals against them last season, he has been impressive in pre-season and should continue that form into the opening matches of the Premier League. As Costa struggles with his fitness and has been poor in pre-season, the responsibility for the offense falls on Hazard, and he can easily flourish under such a responsibility. He will probably be the most popular captain choice this game-week, and rightly so.
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[/one_half]Wayne Rooney
United begin the season with a home match against Tottenham, who have played Real Madrid in Munchen this evening and then will play either Milan or Bayern on Wednesday – three days before the season opens and having taken a squad consisting mainly of their preferred starters who you’d imagine will at least feel some fatigue. Typically, United win this matchup, and while United have bought well and strengthened their squad, Tottenham have been a bit more anonymous in the transfer market. The additions of Schweinsteiger, and Schneiderlin should boost United’s midfield platform and allow the likes of Mata and Depay to concentrate on creating more opportunities for Rooney. While he had his weakest FPL season last season, he looks to start the season in his natural striking position and should flourish in his preferred role.
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[/one_half]Raheem Sterling
City have not been overly impressive in pre-season, conceding 4 goals to both Real Madrid and Stuttgart. They face West Bromwich at The Hawthorns in the first match of the season, and while City have a tendency to struggle against this kind of team, they are much stronger on paper and should be able to get a comfortable win if they play up to their attacking potential. If there has been one light in City’s pre-season, it has been Raheem Sterling, who has scored 3 goals and gotten 4 assists. Pellegrini will certainly look to his dribbling and pace to create havoc in WBA’s defence, and Sterling could be employed either as an attacking midfielder or up top. Expect him to be among the points this game-week.
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[/one_half]Theo Walcott
While no-one can say for sure what Walcott’s role is in the Arsenal team, it is difficult to not see him starting as long as Sanchez is not available for contention. As with Sterling, Walcott’s pace and dribbling will cause problems for West Ham’s defence, hence Wenger could play him up top rather than on the wing. He started as a striker against Chelsea in the Community Shield, and while he was subbed off without any goals or assists, that was against arguably the best defence in the Premier League – this is against a West Ham team that struggles to repel the minnows of the Europa League’s early stages. Hence, Walcott could easily get an explosive score if he gets enough playing time this round.
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[/one_half]Graziano Pelle
As the 4th highest scoring striker last season, 8.0 might seem like a bargain. However, many will remember that he started the season strong, but then became more and more invisible as the season went on. He still managed 12 goals and 6 assists, and has been impressive in pre-season. Southampton play away to Newcastle, a team that may or may not improve under a new manager. Even if they do improve Southampton should still be the better team, and if Pelle can carry his pre-season form into the Premier League, he could start the season with an impressive performance against Newcastle. Obviously, Pelle should be seen as more of a punt compared to the rest of the players.
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Triple Captain Chip
Just a quick word on the new feature this season. It pretty much does what it says on the tin and trebles your points for your captain on whichever game-week you choose to deploy it. We shall touch on this as and when we feel the opportunity presents itself to use it effectively but this in all likelihood is one to save for when we encounter double game-weeks later on in the season.
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Thanks for reading Captain’s Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 1. This article was written by Tekno-Kun
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Don’t forget to vote in this week’s Captain Poll
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Thoughts on my team? Not sure if to downgrade a player so I can afford aguero after a few weeks. Also unsure on if to get some United defensive cover
Sorry i mean should i downgrade ivan for azpil in order to swap Rooney to aaguero a few weeks
JayRod, by all accounts, isn’t match fit yet so think about an alternative Soton player? You can worry about Aguero by saving two free transfers and making a call on early games/form of players. I’d avoid United backline until we see whether they’ve tightened up, though Blind as a CB doesn’t inspire me with confidence.
Did a little more tweaking. Strong first 11 but weakish bench. Thoughts?
Courtois
Azpilucueta / Mertesacker / Targett
Haz / Wally / Sterling / Mata
Rooney / Tekkers / Ighalo
Hennessey / O’Shea / Wanyama / Mariappa
Seeing a lot of mariappa, is he looking like starting the season? I like Mata as a differential and Ighalo. Just be ready to transfer Targett when Bert’s back, looks good to me.
Hey guys. I asked this yesterday but cant find the post if anyone answered.
Ruddy / Butland
Azpil / Cedric / Huth / Jenkins / Francis
Sterling / Haz / Mane / Carzola / Wanyama
Rooney / Deeney / Benteke
I’m not liking 3 from Southampton, but I feel Cedric and Mane are must haves. Any ideas about a replacement 4.5 for wanyama? Barry maybe? Is he a starter nowadays?
Any ideas would be great thanks
Assuming Wany will be on the bench every week so I don’t think it matters? Unless you’re trying to save a Soton slot in case Pelle or someone starts on fire…then look at maybe Westwood for Villa.
RMT… Lukaku is only for GW1 when I will bring in Sakho…
Looks good to go, I’m thinking similarly with Lukaku.
Thanks webstar87
Improvox, will you rotate Ki with Vardy or something else like this? If not, why don’t you downgrade Ki and use the money to upgrade elsewhere? 5.5 is too much to be benched each week at this stage of the season.
Thanks @Albertini
I was thinking of rotating Ki with Ritchie… with Vardy keeping his place for the first few weeks as LEI have fairly good fixtures.
But that is a good point about Ki… I could maybe switch down to Sinclair and then dip into my “savings” to upgrade from Azpi to Ivanovic….
What do you think?
No problem mate.
That’ s a nice upgrade! I would spend at least part of those “savings”, even more if you’re already planning to ditch Lukaku after just one GW and Sakho is 1.5 cheaper.
Cheers.
I wantto keep at least 1.5 in the bank so that when I downgrade to Sakho from Lukaku I have the 3m needed to upgrade Rooney to Aguero. So could do the Ki>Sinclair and Azpi>Ivanovic move now and still have the cash.
The ONLY downside that I can see is that for Week 2 I would have to play either Sinclair (Home to ManU) or Ritchie (Away at Liverpool)… or switch to a 4-3-3 and would need to play Mings (Away at Liverpool) or take a risk that Bertrand is still out and play Targett again (Home to Everton) his match-up isnt bad, but unsure to play beyond GW1…
decisions decisions…
It’s only 2.5 you’ll need to upgrade from Rooney to Aguero! There you have another 0.5
Lol even better!!!
GW2 and GW3…
Payet or Chadli?
Hummm… WHM fixtures are easier imo but Payet is new to the PL and this is always a shot in the dark. I’d feel safer with Chadli.
Hey lads,
I’ve nearly picked my team. Starting to think Hazard will be more important than Fab. Hard to say though as Fab assists a lot and Hazard should pop in nearly a goal a game.
Out of the two teams, which do you guys think works the best?
Why Jedinak and why Kolarov? Just curious.
And Ki (5.5) and O’Shea (is he nailed?).
I think the bottom one is more balanced but I can see room for some improvement there mate. 27M seems way too much for a defensive line, you can downgrade there to improve your midfield.
Well I think Jedinak will have a great season. He’s been playing great, won the asia cup for Australia as their captain so he didn’t play the entirety of the season. Is growing in the EPL although I might wait to see how he starts this season. He might need a few games to get going but has huge potential for a cheap option.