Here’s our updated fantasy premier league fixture ease article where we look at the best fixtures from GW1 over a number of gameweek periods. There’s also some attacking player suggestions with their basic stats and their first 6 fixtures.
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURE EASE – THE TEAMS WITH BEST FIXTURES FROM GW1
FIXTURE EASE SCHEDULE
Just to remind you if you don’t remember it from last season. The team ranked 1 has the best fixtures from an attacking view point over the next 3 weeks. There are then 2 extra columns for the first 6 weeks and then 10 weeks.
I’ve marked in green the teams that have the best fixtures over the first 6 weeks and these will be the teams that I will give attacking player suggestions to
Suggested player stats
The majority of friendlies are now over which is good for player suggestions. The current player suggestions are based purely on good fixtures for the first 6 gameweeks. Underneath the stats there’s commentary on each of the 6 teams and their first 6 fixtures
* Means these are stats from the Championship
Southampton
With Redmond and JWP late back from the Euro Under 21 competition and Boufal still a risk after a disastrous first season Tadic remains my Southampton midfielder of choice. It is through gritted teeth given how he promised so much but delivered so little last season. However, with set pieces and some reasonable underlying stats from last season he has potential to rebound.
£5.5m midfielder Ward Prowse should have a share of set pieces and remains one of the better cheap options as he should play in the 3 of 4-2-3-1
With Austin not starting on the weekend no Southampton striker is certain for me
First 6 fixtures
Swansea (H)
West Ham (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Watford (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Man Utd (H)
Man Utd
Lukaku with his high ownership, captain potential and great opening fixtures was one of the first players in my FPL team. He could even get penalties this season to add to his armoury. Very good if not outstanding returns and underlying stats last season. However, he should get more chances for United than Everton last season.
Mourinho has a plethora of attacking midfield options but slowly in preseason Mkhitaryan has begun to show the form that got him 11 goals and 20 assists for Dortmund and player of the season in 15/16. He’s covered in more detail in my 5 differentials article
Pogba was one of the mainstays or favourites of Mourinho last season depending on your interpretation. This season with Matic joining and likely to join Herrera in the double pivot Pogba could be moved further forward and improve his attacking returns. Ibrahimovic despite the goals last season didn’t have the greatest conversion rate of chances. Lukaku’s was far superior and could also help to increase Pogba’s assist output.
First 6 fixtures
West Ham (H)
Swansea (A)
Leicester (H)
Stoke (A)
Everton (H)
Southampton (A)
Newcastle
It’s always difficult to back players from sides promoted to the premier league. However Newcastle have 2 key players to their team who have at least tasted the premier league before if rather unsuccessfully. Both were very successful in the Championship and have great fixtures after GW1 on which to base a gamble upon.
Matt Ritchie is the key set piece man and creator in the team. Gayle is the finisher. Gayle should be fit but not guaranteed
First 6 fixtures
Spurs (H)
Huddersfield (A)
West Ham (H)
Swansea (A)
Stoke (H)
Brighton (A)
WBA
Matt Phillips was very much feast or famine last season and followed a 4 game 39 FPL point run with 8 games of nothing to finish the season. He does have some set piece responsibility but it’s a fixture gamble to look to repeat that positive part of the output.
Jay Rodriguez has joined WBA after a frustrating season with Southampton of injury and bench warmng. When on the pitch though he was outstanding returning at a better rate than Lukaku admittedly on far less minutes. At WBA he has the chance to cement a permanent position in the side starting with some excellent fixtures. Unfortunately he looks like he wont be leading the line but will play behind Rondon. However he may get the chance to play CF if Rondon continues to bluster unsuccessfully. That would have to involve a change of general policy of Pulis of a big physical presence upfront
First 6 fixtures
Bournemouth (H)
Burnley (A)
Stoke (H)
Brighton (A)
West Ham (H)
Arsenal (A)
Huddersfield
Huddersfield maybe everyone’s favourite to go down but Tom Ince has shown at Derby and in preseason that he can put the ball in the net along the way. His stats at Derby were very good and his underlying stats even more impressive. Good fixtures make him a reasonable gamble for your early season team. If you want to know more about Huddersfield here’s a link to supporter Matthew Browns Huddersfield analysis article
First 6 fixtures
Crystal Palace (A)
Newcastle (H)
Southampton (H)
West Ham (A)
Leicester (H)
Burnley (A)
Man City
If the premier league were the only competition that teams could enter into I’d probably put down 4 or 5 options here but unfortunately there are 4 and Man City want to win all of them. They also have a squad big enough to do so. So in some ways assessing the quality of the player becomes secondary to guessing how many premier league games Pep is likely to play them in. Unfortunately Pep thinks he’s far to clever for anyone to guess what he’s doing so that’s no easy task.
However what evidence there is suggests that player maker and set piece man De Bruyne is probably the player who will be prioritised for the premier league and the Champions League. The other player who seems to be a Pep favourite is Gabriel Jesus. His stats last season were nothing short of outstanding. The only question is position. On the right in 4-1-4-1 or even in the front right of 4-1-2-3 isn’t as ideal as being a CF and that’s the key question
It was a positive that Aguero started in the last preseason game but to me he doesn’t have the Pep favourite status that Jesus has and could lose out in a lone striker situation
First 6 fixtures
Brighton (A)
Everton (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Liverpool (H)
Watford (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
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