Winners and Losers from Fantasy Premier League Week 1

 Round one of the Premier League has brought all the twists and turns early! 

Some will be reveling in their squad selections, while others will have their hand hovering over their mouse in temptation to play their wildcard early.Faith and loyalty plays a big role in fantasy Premier League. I for one, have little patience when it comes to expensive players providing little return. 

 So how did your team perform? Did our Fantasy Premier League Playbook live up to your expectations?

Let’s break it down and have a look at the freaks and flops of Fantasy Premier League – Round 1: 

Goalkeepers: 

Winners:Round one brought some major upsets in the Premier League – Huddersfield Town and Burnley FC being the two standouts. Huddersfield’s Jonas Lössl leads way as the number one shot stopper with nine points. The Danish keeper on loan from FSV Mainz 05 made four saves in their 3-0 away upset over Crystal Palace.

• Lössl is a bargain right now, only costing £4.5. Considering Huddersfield play back to back home games against Newcastle and Southampton, he’s worth a buy!
• Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris and United’s de Gea are my next best two with seven points, and probably the safest keepers to have in your squad.
• Man United and Tottenham both earned clean sheets, and as title contenders, they will be hard to break down.

Losers: Leicester City almost caused a huge upset against the Gunners this weekend.

• I had Petr Cech in my team. Not only did he concede three goals, but he failed to make any saves against the Foxes. With only one point earned, he is definitely the loser this week.
• Who would have thought Burnley could pull off a 3-0 thumping of last years Champions Chelsea FC. I can’t imagine how many people would have selected Thibaut Courtois as their keeper. Whilst he did concede three goals, I wouldn’t write off the Belgian just yet.

 

Defenders:

If you can sign a defender that knows how to find the back of the net, you’re going to have a good time. Especially when you can buy them on the cheap.

Winners:

Our number one defender is a surprise package from West Brom.

• Ahmed El-Sayed Hegazi scored the only goal in The Baggies 1-0 victory over Bournemouth. Scoring a goal and winning with a clean-sheet has earned Hegazi 15 points.
• Our next best is Davies from Tottenham. The Welsh fullback did really well to push forward in their 2-0 win over Newcastle. Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino encourages his full backs to attack and overlap their wingers. That’s exactly what Davies did, combining with Erikson, Kane and Alli up front.

 Losers:

Arsenal and Chelsea have been the biggest disappointments after Round one. Last years strongest defender Gary Cahill has had a nightmare defensively, after being given a red card. Luckily, I transferred him just before deadline day to free up points for my front three.

• Cahill finished the round with -3 points, the worst in League right now.
• Our next big loser is Hector Bellerin of Arsenal. The speedster totaled over 100 points last season, including one goal and five assists. Conceding three goals is not what you want, especially for a popular fullback like Bellerin who only earned one point.

 

Midfielders:

Creative minds are key to having a solid midfield. Well I had an epic fail in that department, only having one midfielder who scored.

Winners:

• It’s no surprise to see Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen picking up where he left off. Many others like myself will be kicking themselves for not selected the Spurs star. Eriksen picked up both assists in Tottenham’s 2-0 victory over Newcastle. It shows just how important he is for Harry Kane and Dele Alli’s success up front. For just £9.5, Eriksen is worth his weight in gold, totaling 12 points already.
• Liverpool fans will also love to hear this. Their main man and new signing Mohamed Salah scored a goal and provided an assist against Watford. Not bad for your Premier League debut.
• Surprisingly our midfielder of the round is Manchester United star Anthony Martial. He may not be the highest point scorer this week, but he is definitely the most influential! The French forward, (who qualifies as a midfielder) only spent 10 minutes on the field for United against West Ham. He was deadly, burying a goal under Joe Hart and also assisting Paul Pogba for a long range goal.

Opta Stats: Martial is the first @ManUtd player to score and assist a @premierleague goal as a sub since Nani vs Liverpool in March 2008. Super! 

Losers:

• Our loser in this one is definitely Gunners midfielder Ozil. The German has been a fantasy favorite averaging 151.75 points in the last four seasons. Arsenal scored four goals this weekend, and Ozil failed to assist or score. A definite flop for someone worth £9.5.
• If you picked Coutinho or Sanchez, we recommend reading the news.

 

Forwards:

It was a huge weekend for forwards on debut! United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton were all winners this weekend.

Winners:

• LUKAKU! The man of the transfer window has performed and instantly transformed United over night. Their creativity last season came into question, however we believe it was their ruthlessness in front of goal that needed improvement.  Lukaku went full beast mode, scoring two goals and earning 13 points. Make that 26 if he was your captain.
• Morata was a shining light for Chelsea in their upset to Burnley. The Spanish striker scored and assisted for the Blues, earning himself 10 points.
• Lacazette also found the back of the net on debut, however only tallied six points.
• and finally…. the return of big Wayne Rooney! The Everton star scored the winner against Stoke, and could be a good asset to your fantasy team.

Losers:

I was the guy who had Harry Kane in my team. Not only did he not score in Tottenham’s victory over Newcastle, he hit the post from point blank range.

If you have last years golden boot winner in your team, the real question is whether you keep faith in Hurricane Kane, or swap him out now for Vardy or even Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero. Let’s remember Kane is worth £12.5, so you really want him to be performing consistently.

Whilst it’s easy to get ahead of ourselves after one round, it’s important to either keep faith in your players, whilst also paying attention to future fixtures. 

No point bringing in a striker who’s about to play three of the four big teams and away from home.

Stay tuned as we break down the winners and losers of the Premier League.