Fantasy FPL Fixtures – the first 6 weeks
Welcome back! The good people at FPL towers teased us a little yesterday by releasing a player list and they did not disappoint by then launching the game we love in it’s entirety a few hours later. And so we have about a month to pick, re-pick, swear, curse and laugh at our at our teams until the deadline. Having seen many a gallant attempt at a feasible team yesterday we felt that the main thing missing, and the one thing that would be of the most immediate help to managers, was a quick fixtures overview for the first few weeks. As ever we are happy to oblige and so here is how the land lies for the initial 6 GW’s and our take on who has a favorable start and who may find life rough to begin with…
Let’s begin with the tracker itself…
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.
FAVOURABLE
Chelsea
Any established Premier League team that starts the campaign against two newly promoted teams has to be deemed to have a good chance of getting off the mark well but given Chelsea’s pedigree allied to some fantastic summer business with the purchases of Costa, Fabregras and Filipe we feel that 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.
Manchester United
David Moyes had a right moan about United’s opening fixtures last season. We don’t expect you will be hearing such nonsense from Van Gaal this time around though for two reasons – he’s too smart to give the players any excuses and quite frankly their start is glorious! 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 have all three newly promoted sides back to back and end the sequence with a home game against West Ham. If LVG had hand picked his start he couldn’t have done it any better himself.
UNFAVOURABLE
Aston Villa
To be fair Villa’s first three games aren’t all too 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 smacks of zero points in that period.
Leicester
New boys Leicester are actually the 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.
There’s plenty to ponder given the fixtures so be sure to post your teams and your comments below as ever as we build toward the first game.
Thanks for reading Fantasy FPL Fixtures – the first 6 weeks – This article was written by Inittowinit
Good afternoon from Canada all! Just put together my first draft…I’m thinking that once Costa comes in I’ll get him in for Dzeko and downgrade Terry in the back…anyway here goes:
De Gea (Mannone)
Terry – Shaw – Dummett – (Bruce) – (Cameron)
Fabregas – Hazard – Sanchez – El Ahmadi – (Wanyama)
Rooney – Lambert – Dzeko
Thoughts?! I’ll probably change it a million times but I’m mostly looking for help regarding inexpensive players that may produce or at least start to replace Wanyama, El Ahmadi, Bruce and Cameron
ChelseaFTW – I’d be very surprised if Lambert is a regular starter for Liverpool. I think your 4th mid could do with an upgrade so maybe downgrade one of the other mid’s? There’s a few good options in the 5.5m-7m range.
i wouldn’t keep both fabregas and hazard. the fourth mid-fielder needs to be upgraded.
and yes, lambert might not be a regular striker. even dzeko might not be.
Thanks for the help…I changes fabregas, wanyama, lambert and dzeko for giroud, remy, puncheon and arnautovic
Hello everyone! How are we? Good to be back and to see the old faces around. How is everyones team shaping up?
Howdy Alex. Good to see you matey. Finding the balance is proving difficult. It’s all too easy to end up weak at the back or offish in the midfield. There’s plenty of tinkering to be done! ha.
Nin, my friend, you have hit the nail on the head! Been having my first real play yesterday and today, damn its going to be hard!!! How are you mate?
Yep. And there’s plenty more players to be added too which might make it a bit easier, but could fry our minds completely! haha. I’m good thanks for asking. How are you? Enjoy the World Cup?
Im well thanks NIN, yer loved the WC, kept me well and truly entertained! did you?
horrendous
Hi Alex! Been a while mate.
Anyhow, will you please hurry up and finish your team – I want to see if we’re still in synch!!
Hey C and B, haha my team is looking very average pal, you don’t want to be copying that! How are you pal? All set for the season?
Hmmmm so ive created 2 teams.One with the 3-4-3 formation and one playing 4-4-2.Think i’m kinda preferring the 4-4-2 at the mo !!! Whats everybody elses thinking ??
Alright Brooky, who is in the teams?
Alright mate this is my 4-4-2 team that i just cobbled together.
Manonne(Pantillimon)
Debuchy,Cahill,Figueroa,Simpson (Fonte)
Nasri,Sanchez,Eriksen,Snodgrass( Albrighton)
Sturridge,Rooney (Naismith)
Albrighton and Naismith can be tweaked and Figuero can be swapped for any 4.5m hull defender but you get my drift.
sturridge to costa when he is entered. hopefully that gives you enough money to upgrade naismith. then 3-4-3.
at least that’s what i would do.
Not sure about Costa jaspirit.Would rather give him a few weeks to have a look at him.Remember Soldado ???
Spurs don’t have Chelsea’s midfield. The service Costa should get and his two opening fixtures make him too hard to say no to for me!
brookyboy even i am not sure about costa.
but you didnt have any other chelsea cover up front. that’s why suggested his name.
If i remember right Soldado had plenty of service but couldnt hit a barn door !! Yeah lack of chelsea atacking coverage is a worry but i think Hazard is over priced and not too sure who would start or where in the rest of the midfield though Fabregas would be very tempting.
Brooky, whats the 3-4-3 team? I like the bones of this team but still feel the defence is not brilliant for a 4-4-2.
Bare in mind Debuchy has just signed for Arsenal Nz and the other 3 would rotate.
3-4-3 for me.
Yes Nin eventually it would be when my team had gained a bit of value and i had a bit more transfer money to play with.But to start the season i’m considering 4-4-2.
Pesky midfielders, eh? Gobbling up the budget like crazy!
Ferdinand has signed for QPR. Anyone think he will take Onouaha’s or Dunne’s place in the starting eleven?
will definitely be a starter. will have to follow the pre season games closely to know more.
if he is priced low (like a 4.5), might as well take him.
I reckon he’ll be used sparingly. Iffy pick, for me.
Evening Lads, ok this is my first draft (of many) please tell me what you think so far
Krul (Mannone)
Flanagan, Cameron, Vlaar (Upson) (Dummett)
Sanchez, Fabregas, Mata, Eriksen (Shelvey)
RVP, Adebayor (Long)
Cheers all
Great front 6 very weak defence in my opinion Madhatter
Agreed. Shelvey > cheaper mid and bring in a good defender would be my shout.
Great attack, defence is a little weak!
Cheers. Who to downgrade though … hmmmmm
i would downgrade fabregas for now, till his playing position is exactly determined.
if he plays too deep, there might be other cheaper options (like barkley 2.0M cheaper)
Everton play Arsenal, Chelsea, Palace, Liverpool and United in their first seven games. Awful fixtures. I think Cesc is a great pick. Fantasy gold no matter where he plays. He’ll rack up plenty of points.
point taken.
Ade’s got Malaria!
Anyone bothering with the Ultimate game?
Nope! Did last season but it’s just a distraction now!
Hello Mutts, I’m not just because doing this is time consuming enough! This said I did enjoy playing it last season. Are you?
Not sure, i’ll throw a team in if a few others on here are going to.
can’t even if i want to. betting is illegal in india and it’s considered a form of betting.
so disallowed! :alert:
Not for me. FPL, MLS, UCL and three SkySports teams is more than enough for me!!