Welcome to AM’s Players To Watch for Gameweek 1 of the 2019/2020 Premier League season - it’s good to be back! As long-time readers of my columns will know, the advice in seasons’ gone by had revolved around games that would allow you to make unlimited transfers each gameweek, selecting an entirely new 11 players if you so wished. Unfortunately Yahoo Fantasy Premier League is a glorious but distant memory, as is Togga’s Perfect XI game which inspired my previous Rotoworld column.
Starting in August 2018 I made a point of mixing things up by generalising the player recommendations given each week. So now, whether you’re playing Official FPL, FPL/Fantrax Draft, Fantrax Salary Cap, Sky Sports, The Sun, The Telegraph or any number of other the fantasy games available to fans each season, I’ll now be offering my top picks for the week ahead, mixing “must-haves” with hunch picks and players flying under the radar. Hopefully this will offer something for everyone, whether you’re considering captain options, looking to make a transfer or picking up a free agent in draft.
First up, here are two FPL private leagues for you to join ...
Rotoworld_PL League Code = nkbjfr
AM FPL 2019/20 League Code = 2qi680
Now, I’ve been writing fantasy columns for over a decade and have always found Gameweek 1 the most difficult picks to post each season. With only pre-season to go on we can’t be certain of any team’s final starting XI, we have no true indication of the form or fitness of individual players and we have no way of knowing if new signings will adapt to the rigours of the Premier League. For that reason we’ll be playing it safe to begin with while waiting for the dust to settle, in most cases focusing on established stars up against newcomers.
Let’s start with a look at the Gameweek 1 fixtures...
Friday 9th August
Liverpool v Norwich
Saturday 10th August
West Ham v Manchester City
Bournemouth v Sheffield United
Burnley v Southampton
Crystal Palace v Everton
Watford v Brighton
Tottenham v Aston Villa
Sunday 11th August
Leicester v Wolves
Newcastle v Arsenal
Manchester United v Chelsea
The first thing to note is the new season kicks-off with a Friday night deadline which means your FPL team must be locked in by 7pm BST (British Summer Time) this Friday 9th August. The second thing to note is the fact we’re presented with arguably one of the most attractive fixture of the entire season, as Liverpool host newly-promoted Norwich at Anfield. Anything other than a comfortable home win would be a big surprise, and you wouldn’t rule out a clean sheet for Jurgen Klopp’s men. It’s also worth paying attention to defending champions Manchester City as they travel to West Ham, Tottenham at home to Aston Villa, Bournemouth hosting Sheffield United and Arsenal at Newcastle. Aside from that I’m looking forward to seeing who comes out on top of the clashes between Leicester v Wolves and Manchester United v Chelsea.
With that in mind, here are the players ....
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Ayoze Pérez (MF - Leicester v Wolves) - Things have been pretty miserable for Newcastle over the past few years but the one player consistently shining a light through the gloom was Ayoze Pérez. The Spaniard gave his all for the club over five seasons, finishing the last campaign as top scorer and no fan could begrudge his £30million summer move to resurgent Leicester City. As shown in pre-season Perez’s quick, intelligent play will complement the likes of Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Jamie Vardy and he should find himself in amongst the fantasy points as Brendan Rodgers sets up his side up to attack a Top Six finish in his first full season in charge at the King Power. Listed as a midfielder in FPL, the 25-year old should play up in support of Vardy and so looks a steal at just £6.5million. Perez will be keen to impress the new home fans as the Foxes host Wolves on Sunday and my bold prediction is for the new signing to grab himself a debut goal.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (DF - Liverpool v Norwich) - We were spoilt for choice when it came to Liverpool defensive fantasy options in 2018/19 with Andrew Robertson, Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold topping the scoring charts in the majority of game formats. This success has inevitably come at a cost to fantasy managers this season with all three players priced far higher. Can you find a way to fit in two of them? If so, which two? And if you can only fit one, who should it be? Personally I’ve flitted between fielding both full-backs but at this moment in time have settled on just Alexander-Arnold. Set piece duty was the tipping point and we can feel pretty confident of a strong showing from TAA and his team-mates to kick things off as Norwich visit Anfield on Friday evening.
Gylfi Sigurdsson (MF - Everton @ Crystal Palace) - Gylfi Sigurdsson has been a fantasy favourite ever since that break-out season with Swansea back in 2012 and few players are able to match the Everton midfielder for consistency. Siggy contributed towards 21 goals for the Toffees last season (13 goals, six assists), creating an impressive 74 chances for team-mates and ended the season as the fifth highest scoring FPL midfielder behind Mo Salah, Raheem Sterling, Eden Hazard and Sadio Mané. The only slight negative is the fact he now shares set-piece duty with Lucas Digne, but the Icelander remains on penalties and his season begins with a trip to Selhurst Park to face a Crystal Palace side hampered by injuries and without their want-away talisman Wilfried Zaha. £8million for Sigurdsson feels like cracking value.
Joshua King (FW - Bournemouth v Sheffield United) - “Where’s Callum Wilson?” I hear you cry. Well, hear me out. In an ideal money-no-object world you would probably favour Wilson, but with so many star names to try and fit in to your starting XIs it is vital to trim down spending in other areas if at all possible. Josh King finished last season strongly and seems to have confirmed himself as Bournemouth’s designated penalty taker for the season ahead in a recent interview, which is big news given the introduction of VAR should see an increase in spot kicks awarded. This could help lift King’s fantasy returns up nearer to his strike-partner and the Norwegian is significantly cheaper in every fantasy format checked so far, with a tempting £1.5million saving to be had in FPL. The Cherries season begins with back-to-back matches against promoted sides, with Sheffield United followed by Aston Villa, which will likely lead to a high number of goal-scoring opportunities for both forwards. I’m backing the King to deliver and banking the spare cash.
Mohamed Salah (MF - Liverpool v Norwich) - It’s hardly rocket-science, but I’m including Mohamed Salah in this column just to reiterate that you must find a way to get the Liverpool star in to your fantasy team from the start of the season. I’ve lost count of the number of “rate my team” posts on Twitter that do not include Mo as people look to balance their squad, and it feels like a massive mistake. While Salah failed to quite hit the ridiculous heights reached in his first season last year he still ended the as the joint Premier League top scorer and top FPL points scorer once again. Much like Harry Kane (see below), the Egyptian will have benefited from a summer break and will be ready to push the Reds towards another title challenge. Find the money, sit back and watch the points roll in against any and all opposition, starting with the unfortunate Canaries.
Captain Choice: Harry Kane (FW - Tottenham v Aston Villa) - There’s no doubt 2018/19 was Harry Kane‘s toughest since he broke in to the Tottenham side five years ago. Clearly injured towards the end of last summer’s World Cup, England’s captain didn’t get the necessary rest and suffered from fatigue and further recurrences of those dreaded ankle injuries, forcing him to miss 11 Premier League matches. Despite these set-backs the striker’s returns were still impressive, bagging 17 goals and six assists in 27 league starts for Spurs, helping them to a first Champions League final. And now - after a summer off to recuperate - Kane says he feels fresher, stronger and fitter than ever, and he’ll be looking to make a fast start against newly-promoted Aston Villa in Saturday’s late kick-off. I fancy he’ll help himself to a couple of goals and so right now he’s taking the captain’s armband for my own FPL side over Salah. Please don’t let me down Harry!
Honourable Mentions: Nick Pope (vs Southampton), Andrew Robertson (vs Norwich), Oleksandr Zinchenko (@ West Ham), Ryan Fraser (v Sheff Utd), Raheem Sterling (@ West Ham), Callum Wilson (v Sheff Utd), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ( @ Newcastle)
That’s it for Gameweek 1’s Players to Watch. Check out the Rotoworld Features page to access a host of fantastic content to get you ready for the weekend. If you have any questions about a specific player or your own fantasy team then feel free to post them in the comments below or hit me on Twitter (@nikarg) and I will respond.
Thanks for reading - good luck to all managers this weekend and for the rest of the season!
