Gameweek 1 started with two games with quite the same character between Man Utd-Leicester and Newcastle-Tottenham. Both matches ended in 2-1 wins for the so called “bigger team” but both Leicester and Newcastle played well and could well have had 1 point from their opening games. Fantasy wise Luke Shaw (5.0) scored his first goal in a Manchester United shirt and was the highest scoring player in the game with his 11 points. Also Jan Vertonghen (6.0) managed the same amount of point with his goal and 3 bps points. Harry Kane (12.5) started the game, played 90 min, took a yellow card and didn’t manage a single shot on goal. Quite disappointing for his 1.5 million owners.
In the Saturday afternoon games there were quite a few double digit scorers. Stand-outs were Crystal Palace defenders Wan-Bissaka (4.0) (12 points), Schlupp (4.5) (11 points) and Van Anholt (5.5) (11 points). Some of the over 500 000 fpl players (me included) that benched Wan-Bissaka may regret their decision. Watford won 2-0 over Brighton and the players to have from their team were Pereira (6.0) (16 points) with his two great goals and Holebas (4.5) (13 points) who assisted them both. My steem-pick King (6.5) ( 2 points) had a disappointing afternoon with only 1 goal attempt and instead I should have gone for his forward partner Wilson (6.0) (8 points) who managed 1 goal, 1 assist but also a missed penalty in Bournemouth’s 2-0 0 win over Cardiff.
In the match between Wolverhampton and Everton midfielders Richarlison (6.5) (14 points) and Neves (5.0) (12 points) stole the show. The 50 million summer-buy started his Everton career with two goals but it wasn’t enough to secure an away-win. Jagielka’s red car in the end of first half made it difficult for Everton and with 15 minutes left to play Jimenez (5.5) secured a 2-2 draw with his header. Richarlison was subbed off with 15 minutes remaining and is now an injury doubt for next gameweek.
Mohamed Salah (13.5) started the new season as he finished the last. It took only 18 minutes for the highest owned player (54 %) in FPL to score his first goal of the season. Liverpool cruised to an easy 4-0 win over West Ham and they looked really sharp. Mané (9.5) scored two goals and ended up with 16 points. Not only the result but also the way Liverpool dominated the game showed us fpl managers that it will be hard, if not stupid to ignore having Liverpool players in our teams.
Why the hell did i bench Mendy? No idea! I don’t really know if I think he was that good (sloppy passes and poor defending) but he was so attacking and got 2 assists, a clean sheet and 3 bonus points. Maybe I have to put him on the pitch next time.
Pep’s words after game about Mendy was hilarious: “Sometimes we want to kill him and sometimes you think wow what a player we have. He gives us energy. Mendy has a lot of things to improve and hopefully we can convince him to forget a little bit the social media and improve a few things.”
Otherwise it was a super-sunday game between two teams that weren’t at their best. Man City dominated the first half and Sterling (11.0) came straight back from the World Cup without a single minute of pre-season, looked lively, and scored the winning goal after just 14 minutes. Arsenal played better in the second half and had their chances to score but didn’t. Lacazette (9.5) came in from the bench and was a bright spark. In the end 2-0 was a fair result.
Gameweek 1 results:
MANCHESTER UNITED 2-1 LEICESTER CITY
Goals: Pogba (£8.0), Shaw (£5.0), Vardy (£9.0)
Assists: Sancheź (£10.5), Mata (£6.5), Pereira (£5.0)
NEWCASTLE 1-2 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Goals: Joselu (£5.0m), Jan Vertonghen (£6.0m), Dele Alli (£9.0m)
Assists: Matt Ritchie (£6.0m) | Davinson Sánchez (£6.0m), Serge Aurier (£6.0m)
FULHAM 0-2 CRYSTAL PALACE
Goals: Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.5m), Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m)
Assists: Patrick van Aanholt (£5.5m), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.0m)
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 0-3 CHELSEA
Goals: N’Golo Kante (£5.0m), Jorginho (£5.0m), Pedro (£6.5m)
Assists: Willian (£7.5m), Marcos Alonso (£6.5m), Eden Hazard (£10.5m)
BOURNEMOUTH 2-0 CARDIFF CITY
Goals: Ryan Fraser (£5.5m) | Callum Wilson (£6.0m)
Assists: Wilson, Simon Francis (£4.5m)
WATFORD 2-0 BRIGHTON ALBION
Goals: Pereyra (£6.0) x2
Assists: Holebas (£4.5) x2
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Everton
Goals: Ruben Neves (£5.0m), Raul Jimenez (£5.5m) | Richarlison (£6.5m) x2
Assists: Diogo Jota (£6.5m), Ruben Neves | Michael Keane (£5.0m), Cenk Tosun (£7.0m)
LIVERPOOL 4-0 WEST HAM UNITED
Goals: Mohamed Salah (£13.0m), Sadio Mane (£9.5m) x2, Daniel Sturridge (£6.0m)
Assists: Andrew Robertson (£6.0m), James Milner (£5.5m), Roberto Firmino (£9.5m)
SOUTHAMPTON 0-0 BURNLEY
Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City
Goals: Raheem Sterling (£11.0m), Bernardo Silva (£7.5m)
Assists: Benjamin Mendy (£6.0m) x2
This is how our leaderboard stands after gameweek 1:
