Here’s our FPL preseason catch up where we give some brief details on all the preseason games from Monday July 30 to Friday August 4.
FPL preseason catch up – the midweek games July 30 to 3 August
Here’s a link to our latest new player profiles part 1 and part 2 new player profiles article for any names you’re not familiar with
Arsenal 1 Chelsea 1
Quite a few players we’re looking at here. For Arsenal it’s the 4 into the front 3 plus Ramsey’s form and the hope of a £5.0m defender and which £5.0m GK is going to start.
For Chelsea there’s the hunt for a £5.5m defender. Giroud, Willian and Hazard on return could easily displace the current front 3 so nothing there for me.
Arsenal (4-3-3): Cech (c); Bellerin, Mustafi, Papastathopoulos, Kolasinac (Maitland-Niles 69); Elneny, Smith Rowe (Iwobi 62), Guendouzi; Mkhitaryan (Nelson 71), Aubameyang (Lacazette 71), Ozil.
Unused subs: Leno, Holding, Mavropanos, Chambers, Nketiah.
Goals: Lacazette 90+3
Chelsea (4-3-3): Caballero (Bulka 77); Azpilicueta (c) (Zappacosta 62), David Luiz (Christensen h/t), Rudiger (Ampadu 62), Alonso (Emerson 62); Fabregas (Drinkwater h/t), Jorginho (Loftus-Cheek 77), Barkley (Bakayoko 77); Pedro (Moses 62), Morata (Abraham 62), Hudson-Odoi (Piazon 84).
Unused subs: Green
Goals: Rudiger 5
So Kolasinac now has a long term injury but I expect midfielder £4.5m mid Maitland Niles to take his place if Monreal isn’t match fit. No hope of a £5.0m defender at the moment although it’s more and more looking like £5.0m GK Cech will start. Ramsey was injured in the warm up but it doesn’t seem serious. This time Lacazette was the one to miss out on the front 3 and that does his FPL chances no good even if he did score.
For Chelsea Luiz is looking like the £5.5m def option were looking for.
Arsenal have 1 more friendly and Chelsea have the Community Shield.
Bournemouth 3 Amiens 1
Bournemouth 0 Betis 2
I personally have little interest in Bournemouth due to a terrible defence and a rotation obsessed manager although a set of good fixtures has seen some FPL focus on Josh King so he’s the watchout for me. King played and scored in the first match which was 2 teams for 2 halves as in friendlies you can rotate even more and make the games even more meaningless than pre-season is anyway.
Bournemouth have 1 more friendly
Nice 0-1 Brighton
Brighton 2-1 FC Nantes
For Brighton we have no clarity on the defensive lineup apart from £4.5m GK Ryan but with an eye on if £4.0m Schelotto can make the lineup. Otherwise it’s the form of £7.0m Mid Gross and £6.5m fwd Murray (who had to go off injured but seemingly not serious) and maybe even new boy £7.0m mid Jahanbakhsh.
Here’s the lineup in the Nantes victory which looks a close to GW1 lineup except maybe Jahanbakhsh could replace Knockaert/March and ultimately Izquierdo could replace the other of those 2 when he returns from WC rest.
ALBION: Ryan; Bruno, Duffy, Dunk, Bernardo; Knockaert (Jahanbakhsh 71), Stephens, Propper (Bissouma 71), March; Gross, Murray (Hemed 16).
SUBS NOT USED: Button (GK), Bong, Balogun, Schelotto, White, Suttner, Kayal, Gyokeres.
Gross scored and maybe it still will be Duffy Dunk as CBs. Schelotto looks unlikely.
No more pre-season games
Burnley 1 Aberdeen 1
For Burnley £6.5m forward Chris Wood is on the watch list as are £6.0m mid Gudmundsson and £5.0m mid Lennon. The defence is all £5.0m so not of interest particularly and there’s 4 to pick from if you are.
Burnley: Lindegaard, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Ward (Taylor 90), Lennon (McNeil 86), Cork, Westwood (Hendrick 105), Gudmundsson, Vokes, Wood (Barnes HT). Substitutes: Legzdins, Bardsley, Long.
Dyche with his predictable lineups is an FPL managers dream. Wood scored but went off with what seems a non serious injury. Lennon and Gudmundsson both played 90 minutes and Gudmundsson in particular played well by all accounts
Boreham Wood 0 Palace 1
An irrelevant game with a 2nd string Palace team. The good news being that £4.0m cheapie def Wan Bissaka didn’t play and his understudy Joel Ward played the 90 minutes.
1 more game on Saturday for Palace
Fulham 0 Sampdoria 1
Here’s the lineup with ratings from a local paper
Fabri – 6 Marlon Fossey – 8 Denis Odoi – 7 Maxime Le Marchand – 7 Steven Sessegnon – 7 Kevin McDonald – 6 Ibrahima Cisse – 6 Tom Cairney – 6 Luca de la Torre – 6 Rui Fonte – Andre Schurrle – 7
£6.5m mid Ryan Sessegnon, £6.0m mid Schurrle and £6.5m fwd Mitrovic are on the watchlist but only Schurrle here and the lineup was hardly full strength.
1 more game on Saturday for Palace.
Bologna 1-2 Huddersfield Town
RB Leipzig 0-3 Huddersfield Town
So here defensively there are a load of £4.5m defenders if you’re interested and a slim chance that £4.0m Malone could start. In attack £5.0m mid Pritchard (potential CAM) and £6.0m Mounie are the only players of interest.
Here’s the 2nd game’s starting lineup which sort of looked like a first team but not quite:
Starting Line-Up (3-5-2):
Ben Hamer (Jonas Lössl, 45’); Terence Kongolo (Erik Durm, 74’), Christopher Schindler, Mathias Zanka (Jon Stanković, 74’); Chris Löwe (Ramadan Sobhi, 45’), Phlip Billing (Juninho Bacuna, 74’), Jonathan Hogg (Abdelhamid Sabiri, 74’), Aaron Mooy (Florent Hadergjonaj, 45), Tommy Smith (c) (Adama Diakhaby, 45’); Rajiv van La Parra (Alex Pritchard, 45’), Steve Mounié (Laurent Depoitre, 45’)
Mounie scored in both games which is encouraging. Malone looks hopeless as a £4.0m def option and Pritchard is now a doubt as a £5.0m option.
Leicester 1 Valencia 1
With Vardy and Maguire late back the interest probably only focuses on new boy £6.5m mid Maddison who was one to impress in the game. It’s interesting that £6.0m Iheanacho has been performing well. However the uncertainty is the return of Vardy and Okazaki at some stage.
1 more game on Saturday.
Man Utd 2 R Madrid 1
We know through lack of other options that at least in the short term £5.5m def Bailly and £5.0m Shaw will start GW1. Otherwise there’s just the form of £10.5m mid Sanchez to look out for. Interestingly Lukaku looks like he maybe back earlier than expected so a prolonged spell at striker seems off the table for Sanchez as does any serious long term gametime for Martial who in Mourinho’s eye’s at least went AWOL.
De Gea; Darmian, Bailly, Fosu-Mensah, Shaw; Herrera, Fred (Tuanzebe 68), McTominay (Mitchell 79); Mata (Garner 82), Alexis, A.Pereira.
Subs not used: Grant, J.Pereira, Williams, Hamilton, Gomes, Chong, Bohui, Greenwood.
Scorers: Alexis 18, Herrera 27.
Sanchez scored and was excellent as he has been through out pre-season.
1 more game on Sunday for United.
Braga 4 Newcastle 0
Not much of interest in the Newcastle side. £4.5m Yedlin is the favoured defender by me. £5.0m Kenedy is great value as a cheapie but that’s it as far as I’m concerned.
Below pretty much looks like a full strength team. The problem is the lack of Kenedy who’s been given leave for the birth of his child. There’s 1 more friendly on Saturday for him to have a chance to appear
Dubravka; Yedlin (Joselu, 70), Lascelles (Schar, 46), Clark, Dummett; Diame, Hayden (Ki, 62); Ritchie (Roberts, 80), Perez (Longstaff, 80), Atsu (Murphy, 62); Gayle. Subs not used: Darlow, Elliot, Manquillo, Sterry, Yarney, Fernandez, Armstrong.
1 more game for Newcastle.
Southampton 3 Celta Vigo 2
If £4.0m Def Bednarek and £6.0m forward Charlie Austin can get into the team are the 2 big watchouts as is the form and place in the team of new signing £6.5m mid Elyounoussi
Saints: McCarthy (Gunn 46), Bednarek (Stephens 61), Vestergaard, Hoedt, McQueen (Targett 46), Romeu (W-Prowse 77), Davis (Hojbjerg 46), Bertrand (Reed 81), Armstrong (Elyounoussi 61), Long (Austin 46), Gabbiadini (Gallagher 77).
Both started on the bench but both Austin and Elyounoussi scored and the last friendly on Saturday should be interesting. Although Bednarek started I can’t see any longevity even if he does start GW1. The back 3 I think will ultimately be Vestergaard, Hoedt and Yoshida.
1 more game on Saturday.
Milan 0 Spurs 1
With so many players off through post World Cup rest this game and Spurs themselves are a irrelevance. Here’s the lineup anyway:
Spurs: Vorm (c, Gazzaniga 46), Walker-Peters, Eyoma, Sanchez (Carter-Vickers 92), Georgiou (Davies 77), Amos, Skipp, Marsh (Aurier 77), Nkoudou, Lucas (Eriksen 63), Llorente (Son 63). Substitute (not used): Whiteman.
1 more game on Saturday.
West Ham 1-1 Mainz
West Ham 1-0 Angers
So trying to nail down which of the £4.5m Defs in Diop, Ogbonna and Balbuena will start is one priority as well as £7.0m fwd Arnautovic staying CF with Chicharito back and whether either £7.0m mids Anderson or Yarmalenko start. The situation is looking more confused with West Ham looking to sign striker Moussa Marega.
The 2nd game probably looked close to a GW1 team although with Chicharito back it was 4-4-2 for the first time
West Ham United: Fabianski, Fredericks, Balbuena (Diop 46), Ogbonna, Cresswell (Masuaku 57), Noble ©, Wilshere (Rice 63), Felipe Anderson (Martinez 57), Antonio (Snodgrass), Arnautovic (Cullen 84), Chicharito (Obiang 57)
Subs not used: Trott (GK), Adrian (GK), Zabaleta
Goal: Chicharito 23
The CB selection is all over the place and that’s it now for pre-season. At least £4.5m GK Fabianski started which hopefully he means he will start GW1. No Yarmelenko in either game so that maybe rules that out. 2 strikers is good news for Arnautovic although it’s hard to see 4-4-2 away to Liverpool in GW1 so it’s still somewhat unsolved. That’s made worse by the CMs being Noble and Wilshere which offers zero mobility to protect the defence which is even more of a concern when you’ll have FBs Cresswell and Fredericks marauding up the pitch.
No more games for West Ham
I’ll do the weekends friendlies on Monday/Tuesday hopefully
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