PRE-SEASON HUB 2020/21
Introduction
Gone are the days of Premier League teams jetting off to China, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia for their pre-season preparations – at least for this pre-season. Here’s hoping things in the world are again on the right side of normal this time next season and I for one will never again take the Premier League Asia Trophy for granted.
In this shortened period between the 2019-20 season ending and the 2020-21 season beginning (consider that Manchester United & Manchester City players will not even be through passport control with their families as they head on holiday whilst Everton, Liverpool and Tottenham commence a stretch of their legs with their first pre-season matches), I will again document the ins and outs and ups and downs of all 20 Premier League teams pre-season on this article as we hurtle towards the new season.
Below is a guide to the matches CONFIRMED so far – there will be more. For instance, as you’ll see, there are clubs who have not yet announced any matches. Seeing as all games will be behind closed doors anyway, I would expect the clubs to be transparent about their matches, not least to let their own supporters know what’s going on and I’ll be there to take advantage.
As is the norm – if you feel comfortable in doing so – please record any and all pre-season news here under the relevant team comment. I’ll round up each day with anything missed relating to line-ups, goals, assists, injuries, playing positions etc.
You’ll find a comment relating to each of the 20 teams below.
25th August
MK Dons 1-4 Arsenal
29th August
Arsenal 1-1 (5-4 pens) Liverpool (Community Shield)
5th September
Arsenal 2-3 Aston Villa
5th September
Arsenal 2-3 Aston Villa
29th August
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Chelsea
5th September
Brighton & Hove Albion 0-0 West Bromwich Albion
29th August
Burnley 1-2 Shrewsbury Town
Burnley 3-0 Tranmere Rovers
1st September
Burnley 0-0 Preston North End
5th September
Burnley 4-1 Heart of Midlothian
Burnley 4-2 Mansfield Town
29th August
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Chelsea
25th August
Crystal Palace 2-1 Oxford United
29th August
Crystal Palace 3-0 Charlton Athletic
1st September
Millwall 0-1 Crystal Palace
5th September
Crystal Palace 1-1 Brondby
22nd August
Blackpool 3-3 Everton
5th September
Everton 2-0 Preston North End
29th August
Fulham 2-2 MK Dons
1st September
Stoke City 3-0 Leeds United
5th September
Leeds United 3-1 Pacos de Ferreira
26th August
Leicester City 2-0 Birmingham City
29th August
Leicester City 0-0 Sheffield Wednesday
5th September
Leicester City 1-1 Blackburn Rovers
22nd August
Liverpool 3-0 Stuttgart
25th August
Red Bull Salzburg 2-2 Liverpool
29th August
Arsenal 1-1 (5-4 pens) Liverpool (Community Shield)
5th September
Liverpool 7-2 Blackpool
25th August
Newcastle United 3-0 Crewe Alexandra
29th August
Barnsley 1-2 Newcastle United
1st September
Middlesbrough 5-1 Newcastle United
5th September
Newcastle United 0-1 Stoke City
25th August
Dundee United 0-1 Sheffield United (abandoned at half time)
28th August
Heart of Midlothian 0-1 Sheffield United
1st September
Sheffield United 2-0 Derby County
4th September
Sheffield United 2-2 Preston North End
Southampton 7-1 Swansea City
22nd August
Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Ipswich Town
28th August
Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 Reading
29th August
Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Birmingham City
5th September
Watford 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
28th August
West Bromwich Albion 0-1 Nottingham Forest
5th September
Brighton & Hove Albion 0-0 West Bromwich Albion
25th August
Ipswich Town 1-4 West Ham United
Wycombe Wanderers 1-5 West Ham United
29th August
West Ham United 2-1 Brentford
5th September
West Ham United 3-5 Bournemouth
Thanks for reading FANTASY FOOTBALL PRE-SEASON HUB 2020/21
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Interested to know if there is anyone contemplating a 451? And if so what price range are they making that one? I’m thinking that if you are only going with 1 up top it has to be an 8.5 or up.
What puts me off a 451 is the 4.5 forward options. It’s 2 dead spots on the bench. Not particularly a problem in itself but if you decide to change the structure it’s at least 2 transfers to change it up. Nothing a 4 point hit won’t fix I suppose. Have you made a draft?
Yeah that’s what I’m thinking aswell I’m pretty sure I’ll be going with one 4.5 fwd but having two seems like it won’t work.
One draft that I’m 100% happy with but that will change I’m sure.
I have done but it’s not very flexible is the main problem I have with it. If I did I think Mitrovic is a bit low so someone like Werner would make more sense. If Brewster goes on loan I’d be more comfortable with it but I could do with that anyway
Those are exactly my thoughts like I’ve seen some drafts where people are just going with Mitrovic and it just feels too restrictive. It does allow for better mids and defs though.
@Matt I have looked into a 451 too. If Brewster gets a loan deal and plays regularly it could be a goer. Apart from that I am not sure. The only forward I am looking at getting below 8.5m is Mitrovic because of his fixtures and experience in the Prem.
I have one fear about having Mitro as the sole striker, which is his tendency to accumulate Yellow, Championship 9 yellow, season before 7 below, before that was 4 Yellow 2 Red. Okay if he is a second option. As you said, if Brewster is a starter somewhere it will work.
Cheers Horse. Yeah if Brewster gets the loan then I think I’ll go with the 451 but until then I’m not liking the sole striker.
I’ve got Mitrovic in my current draft and hope he does the business even just for the start.
Hi all. Looking for some friendly FPL conversation. (Twitter has far too much drama) come across this site/forum.
This is what I’ve settled on for now. 3.5 in the bank for Antonio to martial in GW2 with 1mil left over.
Welcome Dennis. Plenty of friendly conversations here.
I’m not sure on the triple West Ham. Their fixtures are pretty bad unless you are planning an early WC
After gw1 Antonio is due to become martial. A fixture punt for 1 gw whilst man utd blank. As for soucek and Johnson they will occupy my bench. Although the way soucek scores his goals they are random in nature so I don’t think his attacking returns are fixture dependent.
+1 Antonio for one week punt only
Welcome I’m not convinced by Willian personally but I like the plan. Do you think Martial and Greenwood is enough to cover for Bruno? That’s an interesting strategy
It is weird because I really like Martial but I really hate his new position in fpl. Before it was announced that United had a blank I put Rashford in my team who I like less than Martial, but love his new position.
Yeah that’s what puts me off Martial. For him to be a good option he’s going to have to score goals on a regular basis and we don’t have much of a sample he can do that which brings me back to Greenwood and Bruno
If martial gets the minutes and avoids injury I think he’s definitely capable of 20 goals playing CF. CF is his position now.
Yeah, I love his new position in real life, just hate it for fpl purposes because as a fpl mid he would probably score considerably more. I hate that they reclassed him, but it makes sense considering the position he took up.
Not really a fan of Willian either. I want pulisic. Again Willian is a placeholder until pulisic is fit. I might just roll with pulisic and let mitrovic and soucek play gws 1 and 2. But I don’t know how long pulisic is out so?
Might just miss the first couple if that. It’s possible he’s fit before. Could take a punt on Ziyech
I have Ziyech in my first draft.
Son is doable. Ziyech is an option but I’m not sure if want to go with both Werner and ziyech. Both being new to the prem.
I’m tempted by him I must admit. Just prefer Werner
@Dennisim, first welcome as far as your team goes while I agree that I wouldn’t want triple Hammers with them fixtures it looks like you have a plan in place to deal with that. Antonio is being sold and my guess is Johnson will on the bench and Soucek can be benched if needed, so it is triple Hammers but not as bad as it sounds when you look past GW1.
However if you look at your side for GW2, I don’t think you will love it with Saints, Hammers, CFC and Liverpool all facing less than ideal fixtures. But this is a marathon, so in the end you need some of these acquisitions to work out in the long run not just for a week.
As long as your double Liverpool defenders do well, you should be fine.
Yeah GW 2 doesn’t look good. But won’t that be the same for most teams?
Yeah, I guess the majority of fpl teams will have similar problems, I think the double Saints, double LFC defence vs CFC and the two Hammers does however make you slightly more vulnerable than most, as not many will be on the Saints and Hammers, but one bad GW of fixtures doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.
Please advice if u have any suggestions about my 1st draft team
@khaledhesham
Keepers – not my cup of tea, as always that doesn’t mean they won’t work out, but it does feel like it is unlikely. you are spending 9.5 for two players who are on teams that defensively are likely to struggle. Palace was terrible after they came back from the covid break and West Brom strikes as a team that might give up a lot of goals, they weren’t great in the Championship.
Defenders – hard to argue with TAA, so I won’t. But you do have three 5.0 guys and while that is not outrageous it does feel like you are overpaying a bit for guys you will likely just rotate in and out of your XI. Think 4.5 guys and even a 4.0 guy saves money which allows investment elsewhere but it probably saves the same purpose and about the same points.
Mids – too many doubts about production there. We know Traore can be good, but he is inconsistent and if he was your one punt I be ok with it but with Cairney and Lallana also in there I think you are really taking a big chance. Salad and KdB are great players so won’t say anything on them.
Forwards – I like them, not sure if they will produce enough as a trio, but I don’t mind any of them.
Can u please tell me whom to get in and whom to sold
@khaledhesham, just follow the boards and the articles that will start to come out leading up to GW1, from there you will start coming up with a team. We also have a site team that will come out a couple of days before gameweek 1 that will have some reasoning on why we picked certain players for our team. Hoping to have out a Devil’s Advocate article out in the next week or so where Smash and I basically argue about everything.
You can always post your team on here as you improve it.
@Khaledhesham – I’ll be blunt here and say I don’t like this team. I have a few issues with that defence and midfield.
I wouldn’t have Basham until we see how solid Sheffield are defensively without Henderson, I dont trust Everton. Don’t know much about Leeds yet so won’t comment there.
Lallana could be a good pick but I don’t like the 6.5 price tag. I think there are better options at 5.5 than Cairney
Can u please tell me whom to get in and whom to sold
Well that’s all a matter of opinion mate. I’d downgrade the defenders and a goalkeeper which will give you more to spend in midfield.
Seeing lallana the first time in someone’s team. How much does he cost? I’m sure there are better value players out there. Brighton not particularly known for scoring goals, or are they?
This is my latest Week 1 Draft. Triple up on Spurs in the hope they make a flying start.
Christ triple Spurs. I don’t think their fixtures are that great
+1
:punish:
What is bad about them? They play United in the first six but other than that they are decent fixtures. I think the bigger question is do they score enough to justify having 3 Spurs in the side.
It’s the triple I don’t like. 2 is more than enough for me.
It’s not West Brom, Villa and Fulham at home
Who cares where they play, there is basically no home advantage for a while.
Southampton, Newcastle and West Ham are not good teams, all 3 are likely to stay near the bottom and Everton are about the worst defence of the middle of the road teams.
My point with that is Spurs ain’t good enough to justify a triple up
Yeah I agree, you know we could have resolved this an hour ago if you just said that to begin with. 😉
Where would be the fun in that
Speaking of which, when will you be ready to have a Devil’s Advocate?
I mean I’ll have some sort of draft. The Arsenal team for the community shield will be useful as there’s players I want to watch there. Also if Maitland-Niles arrives at Wolves that will affect the popular Vinagre
They do have good fixtures but mourinho teams dont go for the kill. There will not be many high scoring games for spurs. Dier/Davis and Kane/son is enough.
I am back to the drawing board.
You are all probably right, it is just that i saw the extended session of pre-season with Alli assisting, Son scoring and missing one or two, which if Kane were up top they may well have scored.
Carried away, I guess.
Note to self, never more than two.
Fine with Kane and Son if you fancy Spurs just not Alli as well
Anyone else fancy a Vardy TC in the opener against West Brom? Seems like someone has tried it before, and it could work here.
I fancy watching someone trying it. #IdareYou :hippo:
Considering the world might actually end before we see 2021 – I might be just mad enough to pull the trigger on something like that whilst everybody else is holding on for DGW’s that will never arrive.
via GIPHY
Same as what Mito said. But it would be such a massive differential.
I just assumed you would be Guy. :yes:
i haven’t 100% ruled it out yet lol
:biggun:
It’s the kind of move I tend to like but 2 things put me off this move. Leicesters form 2nd half of last season and personnel. Pereira’s still injured, chilwell sold, Evans suspended. They miss Pereira hugely.
The problem is you’re thinking logically. There’s no FPL thrill like that of a GW1 TC. Trust me…I’ve been there.
Hi all managers FPL please rate my team
Looks like Havertz to Chelsea is a done deal. Mount will probably lose his place.
That is a lot of attacking talent on that side. I am curious about how their mid and front line would look.
Are we thinking
Werner
Puli (when fit) – Kai – Ziyech
Kova – Kante
or does Mount slot in there somewhere. Perhaps in a 4-3-3 say
Puli – Timo – Z
Mount – Kai
Kante
This but Mount alongside Kante in home games and can play on flanks
Chelsea are looking great. I can see them scoring the 2nd most amount of goals behind man city this season