Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 2
Welcome to Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 2. And as quickly as that, it is all over. All the optimism pumped into you on these boards over the past few weeks has been shattered, all that boasting to your mates that they may as well just pay you the league winner’s money before the season starts has backfired, and all that time picking hidden ‘gems’ was wasted. Indeed, the only hidden gem we truly managed to find – Aaron Wan-Bissaka – was parked on our benches, sandwiched between reckless Enabler A and feckless Enabler B. I joke, of course. We are one week in. I will save you the patronising hare and tortoise, sprint and marathon rubbish in the hope that someone wildcards for the entertainment of the rest of the site.
Gameweek 1 will never go perfectly. I am presuming every single one of us said ‘I had him’ when someone we had three weeks ago rippled the back of the net or grabbed an assist. Some of us probably said it so many times that our mates made it a drinking rule at the pub! Unfortunately, this is fantasy football, and your squad cannot have 40 players in it (and even if it did I bet you would have ‘almost put him in’!)
Forget Gameweek 1; we have a week to pump up the optimism once more, to boast to our mates again, and to find another hidden gem or two. Luckily, I am not on Tips this week so I will just rattle off the teams that have nice, pretty green fixtures and save the hard work for a better man. Sit tight and don’t do anything knee-jerk. If you watched the games, the ‘eye test’ might justify a transfer, but following the crowds of people who get bored after six gameweeks when they have not won a copy of FIFA 19, a match ball, a rucksack and a mug yet is stupid. Furthermore, the prediction websites often get price change calculations wrong at this time of the year so do not let the ostensible hive of activity on those sites trouble you.
Favourable Fixtures
Manchester City – Huddersfield (H), Wolves (A), Newcastle (H)
No surprises here. Just like the site team’s justification for Mo Salah, Manchester City is Manchester City. They breezed past Arsenal 2-0 in their own backyard with even more quality left sitting on the bench. Not only that, but their next six fixtures are as good as you could ask for (I deliberately refrained from saying ‘as good as money can buy’) – the six promoted sides over the past two seasons, four of which will be played in front of a home crowd at the Etihad. Picking players immune to Pepotation – and, yes, that is the best portmanteau I could come up with – might be nigh on impossible, but going without their players over the coming weeks is surely playing with fire. During their 3-0 defeat at home to Chelsea, Huddersfield look much the same as they did last year; rubbish. Wagner’s men conceded 33 away from home, placing them 16th in that regard overall and, having failed to strengthen at the back over the summer (except making permanent signings out of two of their best, Terence Kongolo and Jonas Lössl), I doubt they will be able to put up much of a fight against a free-flowing City team who averaged a staggering 3.21 goals per home game last season.
Manchester City then come up against newcomer golden boys Wolves who looked a bit fazed by all the unwanted pressure that has been put on them against Everton on Saturday. City averaged 2.37 goals per away game last season, and Wolves did not offer enough against Everton to instill me with much confidence of a solid defensive showing against the Citizens.
To round it off Newcastle make their way to the Etihad the following gameweek. Unfortunately for Newcastle fans, House of Fraser is not a shiny new £90m striker but just another business for their owner to add to his mountain of things he cares about more than the football club itself. They conceded a poor 30 goals away from home last season and I doubt they will cause City many problems.
Did I mention that they then face Fulham (H), Cardiff (A), and Brighton (H)? One thing you can do to help you stave off using your Wildcard early doors is to triple up on last season’s champions. It probably won’t be enough in itself to stop you, but at least you won’t have had a total car crash before getting twitchy fingers on the Saturday of Gameweek 4.
As for City defenders – not that Mendy is even a defender – which may prove to be a more concrete way of getting regular starters from City into your side, they only conceded 27 goals in total in the last campaign and neither Huddersfield (0.63) nor Newcastle (0.95) managed to average even one goal per game away from home.
Everton – Southampton (H), Bournemouth (A), Huddersfield (H)
Defensively, Everton looked shaky against Wolves (perhaps understandably after Phil Jagielka’s first-half red card), although the late arrivals of Yerry Mina, Kurt Zouma and Lucas Digne should provide some degree of solidity. They conceded a steady if not impressive 22 at home last season, although Southampton’s measly 17 away goals last year coupled with Huddersfield’s 12 provides strong conditions for returns from Everton defenders. Bournemouth scored 26 at home last year, and will probably beat that tally this year if they start playing Josh King up front and giving him penalty duties (no points for guessing who forked out an extra £0.5m for Callum Wilson’s strike partner). Everton conceded a pretty terrible 36 away last season, which was only ‘bettered’ by West Ham, Leicester, and Stoke, so do not expect a clean sheet there, unless their acquisitions have a bigger (and quicker!) impact than expected.
Offensively, a brace from Richarlison was enough for Everton fans to decide that £40m was a bargain, which they proceeded to let every Liverpool fan on Twitter know about. They scored with relative ease at home last season (28) and the addition of Richarlison will likely see that total passed this time around. At the time of writing the severity of the Brazilian’s injury is unknown, although he seemed to be walking on it okay after the match and Marco Silva did not seem to make anything of it in his post-match interview. Bournemouth had one of the worst home defensive records last season, conceding 30.
Liverpool – Crystal Palace (A), Brighton (H), Leicester (A)
Two away games in their next three might make Liverpool seem a strange choice, but last season Crystal Palace conceded 27 at home, Leicester disappointingly let 22 past them, and Liverpool’s 39 goals away from home was second only to you know whom. Liverpool’s average of 2.37 goals per game at home last season should see them record a comfortable result against Brighton in Gameweek 3 despite strengthening in left and right-back through Bernardo and Martin Montoya, respectively.
It feels wrong, as with Manchester City (and I suppose Crystal Palace now!), to delineate Liverpool’s offence from its defence, but Crystal Palace were strong in front of goal at Selhurst Park (29) last season and Liverpool conceded 28 away, putting them on a par with the mid-table sides. They should have more joy at home to Brighton though, having only conceded ten at Anfield last year with some bolstering over summer, with the Seagulls scoring the joint lowest (10) away from home. It remains to be seen what sort of an impact marquee signing Alireza Jahanbakhsh will have on the club’s attacking returns having only come on as a substitute at the weekend, but he did come from the Netherlands…
Best of the rest
Arsenal and Chelsea would both have been included if it were not for playing each other this coming weekend. They both have a very favourable string of fixtures after their London derby, but like a terrible cliff-hanger in a soap opera, I will leave that for next week’s writer to enthuse you with.
Unfavourable Fixtures
Newcastle – Cardiff (A), Chelsea (H), Manchester City (A)
Newcastle’s next fixture against Cardiff seems relatively kind, although their away form has already been addressed above such that I would not be surprised to see the lads return from Wales disappointed. They then face a Chelsea side invigorated by trying to play ‘Sarri-ball’. I must admit, I did not really know what ‘Sarri-ball’ was. I watched the game, I still did not know what Sarri-ball was, although apparently they have not learned how to play it yet. I tried to find out what Sarri-ball is; ‘high intensity, passing football’, apparently. Ahh, right, sounds revolutionary that.
Whilst I do not think Sarri-ball is some newfangled style of football that will make Chelsea unplayable, I do think that Chelsea’s statistics from last season needs taking with a pinch of salt. Heck, maybe even as much salt as a portion of McDonald’s chips. Conte lost the dressing room before he had even managed to find it! They managed to keep hold of Hazard, which spells trouble for their opponents, although they failed to bring in a striker and have seemingly failed to inject their current striker with any confidence. At any rate, they still averaged 1.68 goals per away game and conceded just over one per game. I think it probably does suffice to say that Manchester City is Manchester City here, away from home of all places.
Brighton – Manchester United (H), Liverpool (A), Fulham (H)
The next two will not be easy for Chris Hughton’s men as they welcome Manchester United to the Amex before their most dedicated fans make their way up to Liverpool, unfortunately to play the ones that wear red, not blue. Liverpool has already been dealt with above, but Manchester United managed to concede just one goal per game on average away from home, so don’t expect your Brighton assets to be raking in attacking points, especially now that Mourinho has Toby Alderweireld Harry Maguire Diego Godin maybe, potentially, hopefully realised that the pairing of Jones and Smalling is not the answer. The visit of Fulham seems a long way away with these two fixtures before it, and even then Fulham appears to have a stronger side on paper than Brighton after a strong transfer window.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 2. This article was written by AT
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A stupid question that no one can answer probably, but here it comes anyway:
To those who watched Chelsea’s game, stick with azpi or change to Alonso?
Didn’t watch the whole game but I’d stick with Azpilicueta!! He’s nailed, we don’t know yet whether Alonso is under Sarri, so no need to take such a sideways risk imo!
Although Alonso was a striker at times, he earned the pen and all…
And 2 bonus…
Despite Alonso’s attacking threat there is only 3 points between them over the last 2 seasons and that’s actually in Azpi’s favour… hold the ft imo …you may need it next week and the move you mentioned is very sideways!
As above, Alonso is a better pick in the long run (potential wise) than Azpi but I don’t think we can be sure his place is nailed at the moment – I think it is but worth a wait and see.
Will be more progressive transfers you can make if you hold the transfer for next week.
I havent seen the full match, but we are only one round in this long season and as redKev said it’s a sideways transfer. Saving a transfer seems the way to go in this case.
Thanks guys!
Stickning with azpi atm then, but only beacuse it dosen’t seems worth it to waste my FT…
Thanks guts!Think I’ll stick with azpi atm. Mostly beacuse it dosen’t seems worth it to use my FT on that…
IMO Alonso is the go to man in Chelsea defense. He had 3 shots in the game and hits the bar ones. more attacking and same price as Azpi
Afternoon all
Going to leave transfer this week and thinking between to options next week with free transfers…
A) Kun to Auba and Sanchez to KDB
Or
B) Firm to Auba and Sanchez to Mane
Safe vs potential?
Aguero, Auba + Mane vs Auba, Firminio + KDB could go either way.
Would slightly lean towards the latter with potential Aguero rotation but he could easily score 4 in one of his next 6 fixtures if he’s on the pitch for 60+ minutes.
Maybe just Sanchez to KDB?
Cheers Bean. Do you think KDB will play a little deeper this season now they have so much wealth in attack?
He started very deep last season, almost alongside Fernandinho, and it didn’t work so he seemed to push forward a lot more from around GW4.
Will be interesting to see this year where he fits in but I imagine he will be involved in his fair share of goals – hopefully, not too often as the assist of the assist.
I think I am going to hold Eriksen for this week to see KDB’s position against Huddersfield before I make that swap.
Agreed
I went with KDB from the off – didn’t exactly work gw1 😉 But it was a set and forget move to avoid a ‘planned’ transfer which I never quite understand.
Leaving the transfer is a good idea. Though experience has tought me that planning a transfer two weeks in advance is tricky with cards and injuries that lay around the corner.
Yeah this is just hypothetical
Arsenal are against Chelsea this week so leave it as it is for this week. next week you can pull the trigger.
Yeah that’s what I had in mind above
I ned a shep defender i am thinking of Trent Alexander-Arnold??
Says Man City. On social media….
Don’t think they would ever see the irony in that.
Hey guys what are members thoughts on Jota ????
Wolves were surprisingly awful in attack on Saturday – should have been expected with 0 premier league appearances in that team.
I’m going to keep hold for a week or so and see, but I regret not picking Richarlison already.
Every round will have at least one player you thought of having. I think of every single player at least 3 times a week to put in my team, and then regret not putting them in.
90 minutes and and assist, that seems a good return
The return was very welcome, considering his lack of actual input. Final touch and dribbling was a bit off but can be expected in trying to adjust to the pace of the prem.
Surely all the people who knew him can’t be that wrong about him. Just one game and many of those including Wolves fans were high on him. The fact that most of the Wolves fans I saw on twitter seemed to have him tells me that they felt he was their best bet for points. Many players looked useless in week 1, particularly all the high priced strikers, well the strikers in general. He is the one I am watching though, if I sense a drop from him or a rise from the player I may want, I might move.
Did Brighton fans not say the same about Knockaert last year? 😉
Or Huddersfield and Tom Ince?
Some players just struggle to make the step up, and in Wolves’ case, everybody is having to take a step-up this season. Having watched the whole game on Saturday, I think it will take 3/4 weeks before they settle in properly.
Difference is we knew Knockaert a little, I had never seen Jota play. Ince…who fell for that?
Earned a well deserved assist! Although he won’t be against Jags every week I feel he’s a good pick! If he scored a goal (and had 1+1, hence) everyone would be all over him now
I just had a look at the players being transferred out the most this Gameweek. Sane and KDB both in the top of players out. Have I missed some news? Surely with their upcoming fixtures there is no reason to get rid off them already
Every year about 500,000 play for most expensive team. At a guess that has a bit of an input. Not sure on sane, but kdb will be back in the starting 11 next weekend
That would make sense as neither of them are likely to increase in price
What was the name of the similar site that closed about 4/5 years ago?
It’s been bugging me since people starting talking about the people coming from FFF. I forgot which site I came from originally
Yeah I came from there, think a lot of site team came from there to and Mutley who drops in every now and again
O no! Now you have got me thinking where I was before I “transferred” to FFF.
Fantasy Football Cheat?
Ha ha you got there first! Thought it was that
Yes that rings a bell
Yeah, the writers from FFC started this site and packed many of the members with them, we were not able to get in touch with everyone and I assume some eventually found another home, but many did come this way or went to FFF.
I remember FFC fondly, some fun times on there and stirred a bit of trouble.
I seem to remember it carried on for a while minus the site team
Yeah…
A certain Colombian comes to mind 😉 :tongue: …
#trouble
What’s new Legend? Trouble loves you.
Now I feel old
i was on a site before this, might have been that one also, my memory isnt what it used to be haha
You were on FFC Wafflez!
Thanks Initt it seemed familiar that name
Wasn’t it Fantasy Football Cheat or something?
Yep that was our home, originally.
That rings a bell. As it happens, I had a bounce around the net looking for this place after a couple of years out (had tried cheat, scout and fix) before finding home.