Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 1
Welcome back to the first of our regular season-long articles. The aim of this one every week is to present to you the teams that we feel have both the best and worst run of fixtures ahead of them so that you can plan your team, squad and transfers accordingly. Before we continue it is worth noting that since the FPL was relaunched a few weeks back we have had all manor of articles, almost daily, addressing many key issues ahead of the season so it is worth checking back over them all, although we make no apologies if it is overwhelming as the amount of info, stats, charts and advice may be enough to make the average fantasy manager burst at the seams…
It seems like only yesterday that we bid you all farewell and a happy fantasy free summer back in GW38 but alas it is upon us already and this Saturday sees the start of the circus again. Truth is we haven’t stopped all summer as many of you will know having taken part in the World Cup shenanigans and we all had some great fun along the way, so a massive thanks to all those who participated in that. For those that didn’t and decided to take a break, then all the more respect to you for your willpower in doing so, but also welcome back regardless and it’s great to see so many familiar faces now coming out of the summer woodwork ahead of the serious stuff again.
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Before we embark on the Fixtures GW1 article it is worth pointing you in the direction of two relevant articles that we have featured already. Both were massive hits both on here and on twitter and go hand in hand in with this one –
Mito21 produced a seriously good article that talked us through, at great length, the best rotation pairs for the season ahead…
Rotation Analysis Home and Away and Favourable fixtures
Calvin Clyne provided us with an interactive fixture tracker of epic proportions that was a massive hit on both here and social media alike. Take the time to save your own copy and use it as you wish as we expect from the reaction it got he may be copyrighting it as we speak!
Fixture Tracker – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15
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And so onto the teams and fixture themselves. Let’s begin with a very straightforward fixture tracker…
We have colour coded the fixtures in a simple fashion to allow you to judge your transfer and team selection plans accordingly:
[highlight_green]Green[/highlight_green] – We deem these to be winnable fixtures for the given team and should, in theory at least (!), harvest good fantasy points for you in the opening games. Aim to have a good nucleus of these players in your initial squad.
[highlight_yellow]Yellow[/highlight_yellow] – These are the fixtures that could go either way and do not stand out as being either particularly good or poor. If you have a player from a team in this category then do not be afraid to play them but take a considered view that it may not be an explosive week for them.
[highlight_red]Red[/highlight_red]- These are the teams that we consider to have a difficult fixture and as such may be best avoided from a fantasy perspective. Aim to minimise any players that have a run of reds in the opening games.
It’s always difficult to predict who will start well and who won’t in a new season but based on what we know – last season’s performance, summer signings, pre-season form and expectations here is our take on who to possibly jump on and who to give a wide berth to for the opening fixtures…
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FAVOURABLE
Chelsea Burnley (a), Leicester (h), Everton (a), Swansea (h), Man City (a),Aston Villa (h)
Any serious title contender that starts the campaign against two newly promoted teams has to be deemed to have a good chance of getting off the mark well and given Chelsea’s pedigree, allied to some fantastic summer business with the purchase’s of Costa, Fabregras and Luis Filipe we feel that some Chelsea investment will be near vital given their opening fixtures. They face a couple of toughies in GW’s 3 and 5 with trips to Everton and City but the other four are definitely winnable as they face Burnley, Leicester, Swansea and Villa. We suggest you be wary of their defence but only in so much as there are five players vying for four positions and Jose has the luxury that at least three of those can play in different positions across the back. The odd injury or two to John Terry in the next few days, whilst unfortunate, wouldn’t go amiss. In more ways than one.
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Manchester United Swansea (h),Sunderland (a),Burnley (a), QPR (h), Leicester (a),West Ham (h)
Manchester United couldn’t really have asked for a kinder opening schedule to the season. They begin with Swansea at home and then travel to Sunderland and that’s about as tough as it gets in the first six as they then face all three newly promoted sides back to back and end the sequence with a home game against West Ham. If LVG had hand picked this start to the campaign he couldn’t have done it any better himself. Whether clean-sheets are part of the equation we will have to wait and see but certainly the likes of Mata and Rooney should flourish here and maybe Ashley Young at a mere £5.5m and his new wing-back role may combine to be the early steal you need.
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Southampton Liverpool (a), WBA (h), West Ham (a), Newcastle (h), Swansea (a), QPR (a)
LVG isn’t the only new Dutch manager to be welcomed to the Premier League this season as fellow countryman Ronald Koeman has taken the reigns at Saints. He’s had to rebuild the squad from the summer wreckage and he seems to be doing a very tidy job of it with the acquisition of the likes of Tadic and Pelle. His new team begin with a very apt trip to Anfield to face the Southampton class of 2013 who have all swapped life of the glorious South coast for a slum on the River Mersey. Don’t worry about them though, they’ll all survive on that extra £50k a week. Whilst that looks difficult on paper don’t forget that Liverpool’s laser like attack is built on a bed of quick sand so don’t be afraid to throw in any Saints attacking players you may have picked up. After that their schedule is actually one of the best around. In fact they don’t actually run into a top side and a game that isn’t winnable all the way through until GW13. At which point they get Man City, Arsenal and Man Utd in a row but hey let’s worry about that later.
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Stoke Aston Villa (h), Hull (a), Man City (a), Leicester (h), QPR (a), Newcastle (h)
We honestly never thought Stoke would feature in one of these but they are and for good reason. Not only have they had a decent pre-season they have managed to capture one of Barcelona’s, once upon a time, ‘bright young thing’s’ in Bojan. Let’s not forget that this is a player who ousted Thierry Henry in his prime from the line-up at one of the biggest clubs in the world at one point. He’s hit the ground running as well with three goals in pre-season and started tongues wagging with his price tag. He also rotates exceptionally well with Sigurdsson should you wish to give yourself an option of switching between 3-4-3 and 3-5-2. Bojan aside Stoke’s fixtures see them face Man City in GW3 which is actually their only encounter with a ‘Top 4’ side until GW13. If you can figure out which defenders are nailed on for them then you may have a nice cheap route into a traditionally miserly defence with great fixtures.
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UNFAVOURABLE
Aston Villa Stoke (a), Newcastle (h), Hull (h), Liverpool (a), Arsenal (h), Chelsea (a)
Villa have a new manager too in Roy Keane. Well ok, he’s not actually the manager yet, he’s ‘assisting’ the current manager Paul Lambert. Probably to the exit door. It all looks rosy now but trust us this is a story in the making and smacks of Roy Evans / Gerard Houllier all over. Fixtures wise, to be fair Villa’s first three games aren’t all that bad facing Stoke, Newcastle and Hull and it would be hard to pick a winner from all of those but it is GW’s 4 to 6 that worry us. Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea on the bounce points to zero points in that period and probably no clean sheets. Maybe grab a Villa defender for the first three if you must, but be prepared to transfer or bench them for that horrendous run ahead.
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Leicester Everton (h), Chelsea (a), Arsenal (h), Stoke (a), Man Utd (h), Crystal Palace (a)
New boys Leicester come up as the champions from the Championship and so whilst they certainly know how to win they may find the top division a completely different kettle of fish. Despite being champions they are in fact many bookies favourites to go straight back down and their opening schedule will do nothing to help them in that respect. Everton, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd in the first six will probably see them languishing at the foot of the table come the end of August we feel. Tread with caution here.
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Everton Leicester (a), Arsenal (h), Chelsea (h), WBA (a), Crystal Palace (h),Liverpool (a)
This is a right mixed bag for the Toffees and may explain tentative investment in them thus far. They begin with a newly promoted side in Leicester which on paper should be their’s for the taking but it’s away and these new teams can put up a fight especially in their first PL game and at home to boot. They follow that with two real toughies with Arsenal at home then a trip to Chelsea. It eases for two in theory with West Brom away and Palace at home before they run into Liverpool away. They got battered in that one last season. We suggest if you fancy an Everton player then maybe be prepared to rotate them given the schedule.
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Hi guys. Any changes you’d make to this lineup?
You definitely need Mulholland in there. Maybe downgrade Foster for Daly to free up the cash.
Thanks mate. Was worried about Daly’s gametime, but having Mulholland in there would give me some leeway. Good call.
Just a bit worried about my defence. Thoughts?
What is your strategy to get Sturridge and/or KUN when they become essential?
Ashes
I don’t really have one tbh! Any changes you’d make?
Not for a 352 system although Bojan is a massive risk.
If you look at history though, the points are in the FWD and MID lines. There is a great deal of promise there this year once WC preseason and fixture issues wear off post Rd 2. DEF will also struggle to maintain last year’s standard deviation in points with the new BP system ensuring no multiples.
What do you mean by ensuring no multiples?
No multiple BPs. Last year we often saw multiple 3,2 and 1 BPs when clean sheets were achieved, sometimes seeing 12+ BPs issued for one match because of the BPS system. This has been changed and now there will only be 6 BPs issued for each match.
The major losers will be the DEFs.
Evening all
Sensational article – plenty of great research and reason.
Hey guys, i see a hell of a lot of people are opting for Bojan (15.3%) and all i will say is approach with caution! From what i have read and from what my friend saw of him last season (Ajax fan) – ‘woeful is a understatement!’
Now i know certain players can fit in better and suite a certain clubs style of play more than others but this bandwagon for a player solely because he once played for Barca seems a bit shortsighted. Now i am aware that Bojan has had a decent pre-season. But. As well all know, pre-season should be taken with a few pinches of salt and a quick read from a section of this article commenting on his time at Ajax will tell you why;
‘His performance in a pre-season friendly against Werder Bremen must have had Ajax fans rubbing their hands with glee. Stationed wide on the right, Krkic was a constant menace against the decent German opposition. He worked hard, combined well with his new team-mates, produced flick after trick, made some intelligent runs, set up one goal and scored another. But it was not long however before that glee evaporated into thin air. According to OptaJohan, it took him 665 playing minutes to score his first goal for the club – he would only add three more to his season’s tally – and although he had three assist in his first six league games, he would record no more for the season.’ – ( Full article here – http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jun/02/bojan-krkic-barcelona-ajax-milan-roma-whatever-happened)
That’s right while on loan at Ajax he only only found the net 4 times out of 24 (7 as sub) appearances. Now compare that with Stoke’s other recent summer striker signing Mame Diouf – a name we are more familiar to here in the premier league and although 1m more than Bojan, the 6 ft 1in Senegal striker found the net an impressive 26 times out of 57 appearances for Hannover 96 and appears to be a much improved player from the one we remember at Manchester United and Blackburn a few years ago.
All in all it’s best not to get carried away just because a player once played for a big club, let’s face it if they were that good then they would still be there! On the upside to Bojan, he is a player with a point to prove not only to himself but to the whole of Europe and where better to do it that in the most watched league in the world.
Hear hear!
Finally some well researched reason.
Boselli, Graham, Anelka……………….Bojan.
Who was the last budget priced striker to perform in their first PL season?
For those looking at an alternative who will play and is proven, try Fletcher.
“Finally some well researched reason.” ??
“Finally”??
Really? How rude.
I think its as much to do with the price and the fixtures, and how well those fixtures rotate with the cheap midfield option of Siggy. Plus he’s all but guarenteed to play most games. I don’t think theres many on here that are pinning there hopes on him as a regular member of their first XI.
I agree that Fletcher could be great for Sunderland. Was looking great until he got injured.
15.4% – I rest my case. Nearly every RMT on here has him. I’m purely giving credibility to a well argued alternate view.
Have you also advocated this position with a well researched argument? If so I haven’t seen it so I apologise.
How can this be construed as “rude” per se?
Hi Ashes,
I’m not debating that he’s in a lot of squads. I’m just saying that i don’t think many are seeing him in their teams every/most weeks. He’s a cheap option to have in the squad, rotates well for the easier games, is cheap etc etc..
My tongue in cheek comment at the start was in response to the infered suggestion that there is not a lot of research that goes into the content / comments / views on this site. I’d say quite the opposite is true.
My comment was purely about Bojan, not any other article on here. This site has been a revelation since the break up with the previous owner and is improving all the time.
Bojan is clearly not nailed on to start with Diouf as the preferred striker in away fixtures and Crouch the more likely at home given his heading capability. Bojan was played wide right in their last PS game.
My point is that if you want someone to rotate with Siggy or any other cheap MID, you want to ensure he’s at least going to play! Simple as that.
31 minutes is a long time in fantasy football.
And I stand by both posts. They are independent of each other – one is about the fixture article, the other is about an individual player unrelated to fixtures.
Rather than spending time copying and pasting, how about entering into the debate?
I don’t see a debate. All I see is a series of fairly thinly veiled patronizing and antagonistic comments. You’re not interested in a debate, you’re interested in being passive-aggressive and getting into an argument on a website that you clearly don’t even care for.
Rather than spending your time contradicting yourself, as proven clearly in that image for all to see, how about going to another website?
Can’t speak for the 15% of course, but I think it’s a tad insulting to most of the guys on here that have him to just assume they have him because he once played for Barca (I know the other fella said that and not you). There are a whole bunch of factors involved.
Firstly, yes, he did once play for Barca, and not just played for them but took their world-renowned academy by storm. So he has great ability and potential, indisputable. He has clearly failed to live up to that, which no-one here is denying. But he has the potential to do so, unlike other strikers in his price range, who I think we have already pretty much seen the best of. And just because a player has not done very well at a particular club for a season or two does not at all mean they will continue to flop at their next one, for example Sturridge and Forlan off the top of my head.
Next there is Stoke’s kind set of opening fixtures – no-one who has him is saying that he will smash it, but we are hoping he gets the odd goal/assist, and he won’t get a better chance to do so than in the opening few fixtures.
His price is a huge factor as well; no-one who has him is equating him to Rooney or Dzeko. For me he is the best option below 7.0-7.5, where you start to get the likes of Riviere, Tadic and Remy. And that saved 1.5-2.0 is the difference between a Coloccini and a Cahill, or a Coutinho and a Hazard for example. So you can’t just look at it in terms of ‘Bojan isn’t the best third striker’, but have to bear in mind the other player/players he enabled too. If you prefer a different option around Bojan’s price then that’s obviously your prerogative, but no-one else below 6.0 is exactly hot stuff either.
And just the overall fact that it is almost a coup for Stoke to get him, albeit it in waning form. But Stoke are looking to be on the up, playing a more flowing type of football, and Bojan is in need of a fresh start and also wanting to prove himself to his many critics, so maybe, just maybe, it cold be a perfect marriage. For 5.5m I am willing to take that chance for a few GWs and see.
Great addition to the debate CC, perhaps another recent poster can learn something from you.
Yes, he may be a revelation, this is where risk management is critical.
If he is, it is easy to downgrade to him with one transfer costing nothing and boarding the bandwagon.
If he’s not, or is indeed on the Stoke bench, you will have to operate major surgery. Furthermore, with his high ownership, a couple of blanks or benchings will cause sales and price falls.
Hazard and Lukaku or Sterling and Costa?
Sterling and Costa
sterling and costa
Sterling and Costa. (At least for the start of the season. Both the other two are a close call to even be fit to start).
Thanks. Team almost sorted now
Show off! 😉