A lifelong Birmingham City fan, Tom relocated to Germany for five years after graduating from university, where his interest in the Bundesliga developed. He began writing about and betting on German football for FST in 2016. He's also an avid fantasy football player and closely follows the Premier League and European competitions.
Gameweek 1 of the Premier League is now behind us and many will be wanting to put in a few tweaks to the 15 man fantasy squad put together before the season began. Champions Leicester City were disappointing and somewhat unlucky in their defeat against newly promoted Hull City – perhaps lacking the flair of N’golo Kante in midfielder. Liverpool’s dominant attacking performance against Arsenal last weekend surely warrants some of their players a position in the starting eleven. Read more below to find out our recommendations for who to take and who to bench for the upcoming fixtures!
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Who to Buy
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Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool) or Liverpool Midfielders – Price: £8.1m
Liverpool were all over Arsenal in the last third on Sunday. Jurgen Klopp’s extremely offensive combination of Philippe Coutinho, Sadio Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum, Adam Lallana, and Roberto Firminho proved way too much for a much weakened Arsenal defense. Coutinho left with the lion’s share of the points in their 4-3 win thanks to two fantastic goals: one signature top corner free-kick from distance, and another tricky finish from a driven cross. With Liverpool up against newly-promoted Burnley next weekend, we’d expect any of these to be worth bringing into your lineup.
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Theo Walcott (Arsenal) – Price: £7.5m
Though Arsenal were demolished at the back by Liverpool, they weren’t without their own threats going forward. Theo Walcott “made-up” for his early penalty miss by scoring Arsenal’s opener and putting them 1-0 ahead. He is also still listed as a midfielder in the Fantasy Premier League, despite him playing a much more forward role in recent years. Not only will he pick up an extra point more for every goal scored than his striker listed counterparts, but he also comes with an extremely reasonable price tag for a forward from a top four side. Arsenal face champions Leicester City next week, who were less than impressive defensively in their opener, conceding two against Hull City.
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Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion) or West Bromwich Albion Defenders – Price: £4.5m
West Brom were one of two sides to not concede over the weekend, an unlikely duo alongside Swansea City. Ben Foster is mainly to credit with his four saves, clean sheet and three bonus points tallying up to a massive ten points. Though West Brom are hosting the dangerous Everton next weekend, Foster keeps proving his capability between the sticks and should likely pick up some points for saves even if he doesn’t hold the clean sheet. For £4.5m he is worth picking even if just as an advanced investment for the coming fixtures against Middlesborough and Bournemouth in gameweeks 3 and 4.
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Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea) or Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea) – Price: £6.0m
Conte’s Chelsea saw both full backs regularly making their way forwards. Branislav Ivanovic was unlucky not to score from open play as he made a rather un-signature run, turn, and left foot shot into the bottom corner which was barely saved by West Ham’s Adrian. Azpilicueta earnt his assist drawing a foul and penalty kick after pouncing on an error from West Ham’s Antonio. Though they are two of the highest priced defenders in the Premier League, Chelsea are facing Watford, Burnley, and Swansea in their next three and as such seem a sound enough investment when considering potential clean sheets too.
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Nathan Redmond (Southampton) – Price: £6.0m
Winger Nathan Redmond was constantly involved against Watford, making a tonne of signature runs in from the wing, finding himself involved in a lot of the action. Ultimately, he found himself on the end of a weak corner clearance that he calmly put away on the volley for his debut goal. Southampton face giants Manchester United next gameweek, however, which will no doubt be a tough game. Redmond represents another suggestion for investors of the future here, with Sunderland and Swansea being opponents in two of their next three.
Who to Bench
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Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City) or Leicester City Defenders
Leicester City really suffered at the back without Robert Huth last Saturday. Though Huth is expected to return for the next match, Leicester will be against their bogey team from last season, Arsenal. Arsenal were to blame for two of Leicester City’s three defeats in the 2015/2016 Premier League campaign, with 5-2 and 2-1 wins, and considering both sides made very few changes over the summer, we expect more of the same here.
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Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)
Following on from above, Leicester were dangerous going forward in their 2-1 defeat away to Hull City, but Jamie Vardy seemed to lack his usual flair and missed a few decent chances. Last season he was a steal at around £7.0m but after last week’s performance and with a difficult set of fixtures ahead (Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United within the next five) its raises thoughts to whether the money for his £10.0m price tag could be better distributed elsewhere; on £7.5m Ahmed Musa for example.
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Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Andre Ayew (West Ham) or Hugo Lloris (Tottenham)
All of the above picked up injuries in the opening games of the season, not an ideal start. Andre Ayew is the most crucial as he is out for approximately four months needing thigh surgery. Sadio Mane and Hugo Lloris are expected to be out for a couple of weeks so swap them out and use the money elsewhere for the meantime!
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Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney (Watford)
Watford’s Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney were some of the best investments for forwards in Fantasy Premier League last season – those who benefited the most were those that picked them up early. Twenty-nine of Watford’s fourty goals last season were scored by the duo, but their performances towards the end of last season drastically declined. Their £7.5m and £7.0m respective price tags would be much better off spent on a midfielder like Theo Walcott (see above) or Sunderland’s Jermaine Defoe. Watford fans won’t hope for much in the coming weeks with fixtures against Chelsea, Arsenal, West Ham, and Man United in their next four.
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Petr Cech (Arsenal) or Arsenal Defenders
If anybody was ambitious enough to select Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin or Nacho Monreal for the opener then let the lesson be learnt (we fancied Bellerin). Arsenal’s defense was a shambles in last weekend’s 4-3 defeat against Liverpool without Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny and it will definitely take some time to recover that confidence. Arsene Wenger has stated that he basically has no choice but to play Koscielny next weekend against champions Leicester, but we feel it’s better to avoid them during their cooling off period.
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