fantasy premier league preseason catch up – Saturday 19/7 and Sunday 20/7 games

Preseason

Here’s our premier league preseason catch up from the weekend of 19/7 and 20/7.  We’ll cover the games, look at lineups and who’s in form.  We’ll also give our view of the potential GW1 lineups and were the battles are.  We also look for the bargains in each side.  This article covers Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Stoke, Swansea, Burnley, Sunderland and Spurs

 fantasy premier league preseason catch up – Saturday 19/7 and Sunday 20/7 games

Boreham Wood 0 Arsenal 2

Arsenal: Szczesny (Martinez 46′), Jenkinson (Gibbs 46′), Ajayi (Afobe 46′), Hayden (Rosicky 46′), Monreal (Miquel 46′), Ramsey (Olsson 46′), Coquelin (Pleguezuelo 46′), Zelalem (Diaby 46′), Willock (Akpom 46′), Toral (Bellerin 46′), Sanogo (Flamini 46′)

Goals: Olsson 68′ Afobe 86′

No World Cup players makes this a bit of a waste of time as far as gaining any GW1 information.  Add to that was a totally different side for half time.  The game was notable for Diaby playing after a long injury and the form of striker Akpom.  Sanogo had another of those spurning chances games.  In FPL terms the value is in the Ox at £6.5m if he can establish a regular place or Monreal at £5.0m.  Podolski is also value at £7.5m.  However all have gametime issues at the moment.  Sanchez as a striker is another watchout.

At the moment my view on the possible GW1 Arsenal line up is as follows:

Szczesny – Debuchy, Gibbs/Monreal, Koscielny, Mertesacker – Arteta, Ramsey –  Ozil, Sanchez, Cazorla/The Ox/Podolski – Giroud

Grossklein 0  Burnley 8

Burnely First half: Cisak, Trippier, Duff, Shackell, Dummigan, Jones, Taylor, Hewitt, Gilchrist, Barnes (Sordell 29), Ings.

Second half: Gilks, Trippier (Dummigan 61), Long, Anderson, Mee, Wallace, Taylor (Gilchrist 65), Arfield, Hewitt, Sordell, Jutkiewicz

Goals:  Marvin Sordell (2)  Lukas Jutkiewicz  (2) Barnes (2)  Arfield Gilchrist

Triipier, Barnes, Taylor, Sordell and Gilchrist played some part in both halfs.  By the way, what is the purpose in playing a team in the Austrain 5th division?  The form players were pretty obvious from the goal scoring.  There’s a load of bargains to look out for here in the Burnley side.  £4.0m Duff is a CB cheapie.  Arfield and Matt Taylor at £5.0m have cheapie goal scoring potential.  Sordell and Jutkiewicz have cheapie striker potential at £5.0m if Burnley play another striker beside Danny Ings.  Last year 2 strikers were played with Barnes (£4.5m) Ing’s partner.  There’s also Marney and Jones as potential cheapie midfield bench warmers for £4.5m

Here’s a stab at the GW1 team at this stage:  Heaton –  Trippier, Duff, Shackell, Mee – Arfield, Taylor/Jones, Kightly, Marney – Ings, Sordell/Jutkiewicz

 Wimbledon 2 Chelsea 3

Goals:  Terry 2 Salah

Chelsea: Schwarzer (Beeney), Zouma (Terry), Ake (Ivanovic), Christiansen (Chalobah), Bamford (Da Silva), Baker, Aina (Brown), Salah, Van Ginkel (Houghton), Swift (Romeu), Matic (Solanke).

Subs not used: Boga

No World Cup players for Chelsea and only Baker and Salah playing the whole game again makes it difficult to assess any line up issues.  Salah, Ivanovic and Terry probably made the difference in the 2nd half.  You’ll have to pay for quality for Chelsea.  Salah at £6.5m or Schurrle at £7.5m making the starting lineup would be the value.

Here’s how I see the GW1 lineup at the moment.  Courtois/Cech – Ivanovic/Azpilicueta, Cahill, Terry, Filipe Luis – Matic Fabregas – Hazard, Oscar/Schurrle/Willian/Salah – Costa

Preston 1 Liverpool 2

Liverpool: B Jones, Kelly, Flanagan (Coates), Skrtel (Stewart), Wisdom (Coady), Lucas (Peterson), Allen (L Jones) , Can, Coutinho (Rossiter), Lambert, Borini (Adojan).

Goals:  Suso, Peterson

Liverpool have a ton of World Cup players so this means little.  The first half team was as close as it could be to the first team with those playing.  Coutinho again was probably the standout.

So looking at a possible GW1 team given the current information.  A midfield diamond assuming Remy is signed would look like Mignolet – Johnson, Skrtel, Agger/Toure, Flanagan – Gerrard, Henderson, Lallana, Sterling – Remy,  Sturridge.   Markovic could compete with Remy in 4-3-3.  Hard to see Coutinho starting at the moment.

Borussia Monchengladbach 1 Stoke 1

Goal:  Crouch

Stoke (1st half): Butland, Wilkinson, Muniesa, Shawcross, Wilson,Ness, Nzonzi, Ireland, Shotton, Arnautovic, Diouf.

Stoke (2nd half): Sorensen, Bardsley, Pieters, Teixeira, Huth, Whelan, Sidwell, Adam, Walters, Crouch, Shea.

Stokes first preseason game saw the expected first half and 2nd half team.  Interestingly most of the notables were FB’s former and present.  £4.0M RB Wilkinson played well as did £4.0m defender Shotton in a more advanced role.  We’ll keep an eye on them going forward.  However it’s Cameron who’s the only realistic £4.5m defender who was absent after his USA World Cup representation along with Begovic.

Here’s how I see the GW1 lineup at this stage.  Begovic – Bardsley, Huth, Shawcross, Pieters –  NZonzi/Sidwell, Arnautovic, Adam, Odemwingie – Crouch Diouf

Darlington 1 Sunderland 5

Goals:  Fletcher 2, Giaccherini, Wickham, Gomez

Sunderland (4-1-4-1) Mannone (sub Pantilimon 46), Watmore (sub Mavrias 46), O’Shea (sub Diakite 46), Roberge (sub Brown 46), Jones (sub Ferguson 46), Cabral (sub Cattermole 46), Honeyman (sub Moberg Karlsson 46), Larsson (sub Giaccherini 46), Ba (sub N’Diaye 46), Clayton (sub Gomez 46), Fletcher (sub Wickham 46).

The first preseason game for Sunderland came against a team 5 divisions below them and it showed.  The customary new team at half time for the first game of preseason was also rolled out.  The formation was interesting with a lone striker.  Fittingly given the opposition the strikers were the stars.

The defenders are all £4.5m so nothing to look out for there. No LB though so Jones played there and someone called Watmore at RB.   The keeper battle will be Pantimillon v Mannone both are £4.5m.  That will be an interesting battle.  There’s little value in midfield.  Wickhams end of season form could have him as a cheapie striker in 3-5-2 although he’s pushing it at £6.0m

My view of the lineup at the moment asssuming 4-1-4-1 would be

Mannone/Pantimillon – Jones, Brown, O’Shea, ??? – Cattermole/Bridcutt – Johnson, Giaccherini, Larsson, Gomez – Wickham/Fletcher

Minnesota 2 Swansea 0

SWANS (first half): Gerhard Tremmel, Angel Rangel (capt), Chico Flores, Kyle Bartley, Stephen Kingsley, Jazz Richards, Adam King, Jonjo Shelvey, Nathan Dyer, Rory Donnelly, Bafetimbi Gomis.

SWANS (second half): Lukasz Fabianski, Dwight Tiendalli, Chico Flores, Kyle Bartley, Neil Taylor, Leon Britton, Jonjo Shelvey, Marvin Emnes, Wayne Routledge, Alex Bray, Bafetimbi Gomis (Josh Sheehan, 59).

Still loads of changes and No De Guzman (who may have returned to Villareal?), Vorm and Bony from the World Cup.  Overall a disappointing performance with no form really to note.

On the lookout for GW1, assuming Ben Davies leaves then Taylor at £4.5m becomes the value.  No real value in the midfield with probably Hernandez the most likely pick at £5.5m.  Upfront Bony is the class but at a hefty price with Gomis the new boy at £7.0m

Hard to work out at this stage if Monk will play 1 or 2 upfront but assuming it’s 1 then my view at the moment would be something like

Vorm/Fabianski – Rangel, Taylor, Williams, Chico – Britton/Canas/Ki – Hernandez, Routledge, Dyer – Bony

Seattle 3 Tottenham 3

Spurs (4-2-3-1): Friedel; Naughton (Fredericks, 46), Dawson (Kaboul, 46), Fryers, Rose (Veljkovic, 46); Carroll, Capoue (Mason, 63); Holtby (Falque, 68), Townsend (Lamela, 46), Lennon (Ceballos, 46); Kane (Soldado, 46).
Subs not used: McGee, Walker, Eriksen, Sigurdsson.
Scorers: Holtby, 10, Soldado (pen) 54, Falque (pen), 81.

Spurs first game and Paulino. LLoris, Vertonghen, Chadli, Dembele, Bentaleb and BAE all off after the World Cup.  Adebayor missing recovering from Malaria.

A game where the Spurs defence certainly didn’t cover themselves in glory.  The subs not used was interesting.  Siggy looks like he’ll be sold.  Walker coming back from injury.  The form star man from the end of last season for Spurs though is Eriksen who was rested.  Hard to even pick the defence let alone recognise any value.  The midfield is Eriksen or nothing.  Upfront Adebayor is your pick after the car crash that was Soldado who’s incredibly £8.0m

Bit too early with a new manager to pick a GW1 side so far.

Thats it, we’ll update it later in the week.
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premier league preseason

premier league preseason

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