Here’s my gameweek 1 fantasy premier league round up for Sundays matches giving views from a fantasy premier league perspective on the lineups, the game itself and the “winners and losers” in terms of players from the game.
Crystal Palace o Spurs 1
Goal: Soldado pen Assist Lennon
An interesting line up from Holloway as bold as ever with 3 strikers in a 4-3-3 although Chamakh obviously wasn’t deemed match fit. There was no room for Campana who was on the bench or Grandin who wasn’t included.
Spurs went for 4-2-3-1 instead of 4-3-3 and Sandro wasn’t in the squad. However Capoue looked more than capable of deputising to return it to AVB’s 4-3-3.
The Spurs defence was excellent and Crystal Palace although light on premier league quality were pretty much kept in check with minimal threatening shots and no real opportunities when you thought Crystal Palace would score.
However in my mind Spurs were pretty disappointing going forward. Despite purchasing a number of midfielders they don’t really possess someone like Mata Cazorla or Hazard who can really open up teams with a bit of magic. While I’m an admirer of Siggy he’s a goal scoring midfielder and not a creator of chances. Spurs in my mind struggled to open Crystal Palace up and looked like they did in a number of home games last year when faced with a structured deep lying defence. It was Lennon going past the full back or nothing. On the counter its different but when the other side concede possession and sit there saying “come on, open us up” I can see them struggle. I was also a little bit disappointed in Soldado. However that was because I expected so much after seeing him play for Valencia. I didn’t think his movement was that great and apart from the penalty I could have seen him not scoring. However from a pure stat point of view he performed well easily having the best shooting stats and creating chances
The winners:
The Spurs defence: Was really excellent and will get the clean sheets their stats deserved this year in my mind. Dawson is good value in fantasy premier league and Rose in the other formats
Soldado: Despite what I said above, the stats were good and he can only improve. Having penalties with players like Lennon and Chadli who will be fouled consistently because of their pace is a good factor.
The losers:
Palace’s attack: Could really have done with getting Darren Bent. It will be interesting to see what Chamakh can add. I cant see Dobbie or Gayle getting many goals this year.
Interesting the bonus followed a similar pattern of yesterday if you saw my post today. Soldado the goal scorer getting 3 and 2 defenders getting bonuses via the clean sheet.
Chelsea 2 Hull 0
Goals: Lampard Oscar Assists: De Bruyne Torres
Chelsea were pretty much as expected in 4-2-3-1. Mata missed out fir fitness reasons and De Bruyne started. Torres was the surprise up front and I think maybe Mourinho held Lukaku back after seeing Villa and saw this as the easier game. Fantasy premier league managers would have been delighted to see cheapie £4.0m defender James Chester starting for hull. Up front he played 3 strikers in Graham, Aluko and Sagbo although they were involved in defending from the front. Surprisingly the 2 Spurs lads were on the bench for Hull. When they came on things improved but the game was over by then
The game couldn’t have been more of a contrast to the Spurs game. Chelsea started at a furious pace and opened Hull up at will. The interchange of passing and movement was frightening and with the score 2-0 after 25 minutes the score could have been anything. However, Chelsea decided that this was enough and conserving energy for the 2 games ahead was paramount. Hull also decided enough was enough and complied with the situation and the game drifted to a close
The winners:
Lampard: Missed the pen but was fantastic as usual. Great shooting stats and pens are always welcomed. Expensive though at £8.0m for someone whowill be rotated
Hazard: I don’t think winner is the right term given that he didn’t score or assist which was disappointing considering that big points haul against lower ranked teams is his speciality. However his shooting stats were excellent as were his creating chances and game involvement. Will get returns in the future
The Chelsea defence and Ivanovic: Hull didn’t get a look in and the clean sheet was always going to happen. Ivanovic was a real threat at set pieces to add to that
The losers:
Torres. Was pretty ordinary considering the opposition. Lukaku and Ba wouldn’t have been worried that’s for sure
Bonus points again followed the pattern. Oscar the goalscorer got 3 and then with the clean sheet 3 defenders got a bonus.
Thats it. looking forward to City tomorrow
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Here’s the link to my GW1 fixture ease schedule:
http://www.fantasyfootballgeek.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-fixture-ease-schedule-gw1/
