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.
[divider_1px]
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
[divider_1px]
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…
[divider_1px]
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.
[divider_1px]
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.
[divider_1px]
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.
[divider_1px]
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.
[divider_1px]
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.
[divider_1px]
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.
[divider_1px]
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.
[divider_1px]
Do your best with this one.
Caveat: I’m obviously going uber cheap in DEF for two reasons:
– with this season’s BP system the DEF points will be far more compressed; and
– CFC DEF have far to much rotation risk, particularly early.
Begovich, (Gilks)
Ward, Chester, Bartley/Moore//Wisdom
Mata, Ramsey, Fabregas, Siggy (Faurlin)
Rooney, Costa, Sturridge
Still debating between Siggy/Sturridge and Coutinho/Lukaku,Dzecko
Do your best folks, here’s your chance!
Needs Bojan! 😉
I’d be more debating downgrading Sturridge to beef up your defence more than to upgrade Siggy, who is a fine choice I think for 6.0. I know you don’t want big defs but you at least want 5 starters right? Then you can get a nice rotation thingy going on. Bartley and Widsom COULD well play, but then again could well not, and no idea about Moore. If you get in Dzeko or Lukaku (the former would be my choice) then you could get in at least some 4.5s for the bench?
Cheers mate, think it will be much easier to operate on my MIDS and FWDS to bandwagon than the DEF.
Interesting on Siggy, I’m very worried about him playing wide in their last two games rather than in the hole. He’s nailed on though (unlike Bojan) so worth taking the risk.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if my first two transfers were:
Siggy to Sanchez/Hazard etc.
Costa to Bojan
Exactly, want to do zero-to-minimal tinkering on my defence for the first few GWs as I will be taking a few hits probably, so really want to get it as well set up now as possible. I want 4 starters and Duff (who I don’t care about as much as I wouldn’t be playing him until GW 5 anyway).
+1 Calvin that’s exactly the defensive principle I’m working with – originally I was going to wildcard gameweek 4 – but now I’ll just play it by ear as I seem to be in decent shape for the long term…
My thoughts exactly mate. To tinker with your MID/FWD though, you need value to minimize the hits. There is no such thing as a DEF bandwagon.
Eg: if Bojan fails, it will take you three transfers to fix.
No, but there are early CSs to be had that I don’t intend to miss out on. You can’t catch every bandwagon anyway, and some end up being bad choices, so I intend to just go for the ones that are within my reach. If Bojan fails then I can always downgrade Haz/Mata/Ramsey if one of them drops and then bring in Giroud or Dzeko for example, all for just one hit, which I acknowledge already that I’ll be taking a few of early on to build TV. So no big concern really.
Do you really want Giroud or Dzecko on early transfers when both are very doubtful to play regularly?
Particularly by downgrading season keepers?
Both are going to be right in the points, regardless of whether they get full games or not. Obviously full games are preferable though, Which is why I’ve initially gone with Rooney and Costa as the 2 main strikers. And tbh I very much doubt that all three will turn out to be season keepers. I rate them all highly, hence they are in my team, but fpl managers are a fickle bunch and will be offloading them quickly if they don’t perform for a couple of weeks. If one is about to lose value then I won’t think twice about offloading if there is another viable option to go for. We can always get them again later, hopefully at a cheaper price too.
And don’t forget, I am only able to have all three season keepers in the first place due to the extra budget from Bojan. So it’s a bit of a moot point.
I’m talking about Hazard, Mata, Ramsey being season keepers. As soon as you downgrade one of them, they are likely to hurt you big time!
I know, that’s who I was referring to by ‘all three’. And we’ve all been stung by a removed player scoring well the following GW, you just have to take it on the chin. Better that happening on the odd occasion and you preserving your TV early on than holding on do a player whose price is falling fast just in case he does well the next GW. You’d never make any transfers then!
Okay I have set up Head-to-Head league on premier league fantasy site, join in!
name:Head2Head
code:633312-309414
Ime all set to go, loving my final team now.
Hello guys. Well,this seems to be the team I have ATM. The only question raging inside is whether to go without Liverpool cover in attacks or not.
Some questions need some answers.
1) Is Sturridge compulsory from GW1 itself? Or Sterling will make do?
2) Is it a bad idea to go without ANY coverage of Liverpool up at front in spite of the two tough games (GW2 and GW3 I reckon)?
3) To Terry or Cahill,that is the question.
4) Who would be a better choice in the mid between Hazard and Mata barring any cash problems provided Rooney and Diego Costa is already in the team as the respective team’s coverage?
Team ATM-
DDG (Gilks)
Davies,Chambers,Terry,(Chester,Wisdom)
Eriksen,Mata,Ramsey,Sigurdson,(Marney)
Dzeko,Rooney,Costa
Planning to WC early with this squad.
1) well I don’t think either are compulsory
2) it could be a bad idea, but many are, waiting until GW4 should be fine
3) to Cahill is the safest option in my opinion
4) Mata to start with as Hazard could be fatigued, but long term, probably Haz
I like your side. Who will you transfer Chambers to? Buzzing for this new season!
Well I was thinking on WC ing early if Sturridge and Alexis hits the ground running. But if they do not then I can wait on that. Chambers has to go at some point but against Palace I just have to get him in as the CS potential is so high (hope I have not jinxed it).
Was also thinking to go Sigurdson to Mutch as I rate that lad and with good fixtures he can get the goals and the assists for QPR.
Chambers to say Ward after getting Mata out to Sterling after Pool faces off the tough game weeks.
Regarding Cahill and Terry,I still think that Terry’s goal scoring threats are way above Cahill may be second to Ivanovic I reckon. And without his international duties would he not feature regularly in the squad? Anyway,that’s anyone’s guess I reckon.
Just can’t wait for the season to begin. Now we have got a decent team+depth and have become title contenders again (1st trophy-check),just keeping my fingers crossed for Arsenal to get the league home. James,are you a gooner btw?
P.S. Also hoping that Cazorla has a great season.
Hey monty. Good insight there. Cant disagree with what u said. Glad to be back? Not heard from u for ages
Chopper,nice to see you mate. Hope the team’s shaping up nice and strong. And I do hope everything’s fine at your end.
Yes mate. Playing it safe this season!
I like the look of Mutch too, and Chambers does tempt me, but I shall avoid… definitely grabbing Sturridge ASAP if he gets off to a flier.
Yep I’m a Gooner! I just love the way we play.
Very good team with great balance.
Davies is not nailed on though and Terry is a rotation risk.
Cheers mate !! Do you see Rose feature more over Davies?
Mourinho already said that he does not see Ivan as a CB player. So you reckon Zouma threatens his position? Plus Pikey’s Jose’s favorite,ain’t he? Now what do you reckon mate?
Are you a spurs fan? Im trying to get a decision on either soldado or adebayor?
Spurs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !!!! ????????????????
I think Davies is 75% over Rose and therefore is not nailed on.
Who can trust Mourinho? Azpili, Terry, Ivan, Cahill, Luis – with CL there will be rotation. I personally think Azpili is most nailed given his versatility.
Soldado and Ade are 50/50. I was personally very bullish on the former given Poch’s appointment but can’t pick him first up. Either way, I think Spurs scoring will explode early which is why I’ve gone for three heavy hitters up front to only cost one transfer when it becomes obvious who plays.
Try transferring Bojan to either without using three transfers or dumping a season keeping premium MID.
Cheers for that. Monty taking advice from Spurs eh????
I’d say it is a mistake to go without Liverpool coverage. They have the potential to score big just like last season even without Suarez.
I’d also pick Cahill.
And I’d also pick Mata. I expect big points from him this season playing in his most favourable role.
I reckon you mean Mata over Hazard at least for the start…yes,I agree with that.
Regarding Liverpool, I reckon Henderson can be a good idea at least for the 1st GW in place of Sigurdson,don’t you reckon? Swansea has Utd and then the fixtures loosen up. Pool has Southampton 1st GW and right after that two tough games. So a direct swap from Henderson to Siggy from GW2 and onwards. Worth the gamble?
Plus Rodgers said I reckon that he wants 10+goals from Henderson this season at least. So he would feature,no doubt. Well of course not better than Sterling or Sturridge but can be worth a shot.
Hey all – few quick questions?
1- Anyone looked at Austin or Nugent as options to Bojan, as it seems both are their clubs’ nailed-on strikers?
2- If Felipe Luis is left out, what’s Chelsea’s starting back line? And who sits if he does start?
3- Currently have Davies (Hull) at 5.0 but is Chester, Davies (TOT), Dawson, Ward, anyone else, a better shout? Rest of Def is DDG, Krul / FLuis, Debuchy, Hoovield & Duff
Cheers!
Both are better options than Bojan considering he may not start, also consider Whickam and Fletcher:
Ivan, Terry, Cahill, Azpili:
Consider Chester and Ward as better options.
I’ve toyed with Austin but I’ve dropped to Agbonlahor in the hope that he might come up with something in the first 3 games, good value and guaranteed game time with Benteke being injured, I’m sure he’s been starting as the central striker in a couple of the preseason games.
If Luis doesn’t play it’s bound to be Azpi – Cahill – Terry – Ivan, if he plays I think it will be Azpi who sits GW 1 but eventually all will have a little rotation as Ivan can play at CB with Azpi and Luis at RB and LB.
Unsure on the last one mate.
Much appreciated fellas.
Hadn’t thought about Agbon.
Ashes – your feelings on Bojan are well documented
Moral of the story is spring for Cahill who may be the most secured?
I honestly can’t decide between a Hull or Spurs defender early on. Can’t see much between them.