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
Guys, what do we think about Taarabt? Only 5.5, if he finds his form he could be a good pick no?
Tekno, it’s a massive “if” though isn’t it. If he’s in the mood there’s no doubt he’s good enough. Too inconsistent for me though. The additional bonus points for successful dribbles will help him though.
Agree chins, but he’s deffo on my watchlist. QPR didn’t impress the last time they were in the PL, but I’m curious to how they’ll perform now as ‘Arry has had some time to work with the team. Austin is on my watchlist as well.
Bench – Email recieved – Thanks!
Look out those in Banterbury Qualification D (..South, Reserves, under10s)…. I’m in! Recognise Jeet in there so far. Anyone else care to identify themselves?! Gonna be fun!
hi chins- I’m in Qualification League D, my team is Athletico Bosh! Good to know who else is competing for glory…
Sorry for your loss Pippin.
😉
I’m in too. Glad to see some names I recognise
Great stuff!
Ditched the clover eh Seren? Going to try It without any good luck this year?!
Well I need something to blame when it all goes wrong 😉
All right lads, rate my team please:
Begovic – Krul
Cahill – Shaw – Dunne – Mariappa – Upson
Hazard – Tadic – Puncheon – Arnautovic – Albrighton
Rooney – Sturridge – Bony
Costa in for Sturridge when he’s added.
QPR and Palace rotate nicely in the first GWs; so does Newcastle and Stoke.
Uncertainty concerning Tadic, Punch, and Arn, but they have good fixtures.
the mid-field looks a bit unstable except for hazard.
hopefully, if costa is cheaper than sturridge, then you can use that money for upgrading arnautovic maybe. i am also not too sure about tadic. eriksen is just 0.5 more expensive.
everything else looks good
Thanks jasprit.
Both Puncheon and Arna ended last season in great form, if they can replicate that they’ll be great picks (IF). Of the 3 I’d rather sell Tadic as he’s most expensive and untested in the PL. Eriksen is a good replacement.
Cheers Jasprit,
Just replied
Michu has joined Napoli on a season-long loan.
That’s a strange one! One bad season including a few injuries and they’re shipping him out. Oh well, one less option for me to muse over.
Monk might be trying to break up the Spanish mafia that they’ve got going on down at Swansea now then.
Thanks for this article guys. Can’t wait for the new season.