FPL friendlies – pre-season matches Saturday 20 July part 1

Fantasy Premier League, Preseason

Here’s our first instalment on the FPL friendlies for Saturday 20 July.  We cover Bournemouth, Arsenal, Brighton, Burnley, Palace and Leicester.  We include the lineups, scorers and some brief comments on players of interest plus a link to a relevant article for further information

FPL friendlies – pre-season matches Saturday 20 July part 1

You can see more in our pre-season hub article which will be updated regularly.

Get additional content in the form of Podcasts, an interactive transfer and points prediction tool, 4 £50 prize leagues for the first 160 joiners and a Slack channel for discussion with members and contributors in our Patreon site.  The first $3 monthly payment gets you in the prize leagues and Slack channel for the season.

Bournemouth 1 Girona 2

Goal: Fraser

Cherries (first half): Travers; Smith, Mepham, Ake, Rico; Kilkenny, Ofoborh, Gosling, Dobre; Solanke; Wilson.

Cherries (second half): Boruc; Stacey, Ofoborh, Simpson, Kelly; Ibe, Surman, Butcher, Fraser; Brooks; Surridge.

FPL friendlies

Lineup wise it was one of those half time multiple changes jobs.  Eddie Howe is a natural tinkerer anyway but give him unlimited subs and it’s like a kid in a candy store.

From an FPL perspective there are 2 £4.0m defenders in Rico and Simpson.  Rico started in the first half next to Smith and Mepham which was a good sign.  Simpson was red carded which was definitely not.

Form wise difficult to take much from it although £7.5m Fraser scoring is obviously a plus.

Here’s the Bournemouth local paper report which is a bit factual rather than interpretative



Arsenal 3 Fiorentina 0

Goals Nketiah 2 Willock 1

Emiliano Martinez Calum Chambers Shkodran Mustafi Nacho Monreal (c) Carl Jenkinson James Olayinka Robbie Burton Sead Kolasinac Reiss Nelson Bukayo Saka Edward Nketiah

Subs Bernd Leno Sokratis Papastathopoulos Henrikh Mkhitaryan Alexandre Lacazette Mesut Özil Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Ainsley Maitland-Niles Joe Willock Matt Macey Granit Xhaka Gabriel Teodoro Martinelli Silva Tyreece John-Jules Zech Medley Dominic Thompson

fpl friendlies

Lineup wise the sub list was far closer to what you’d expect to see for a first team lineup.

In terms of what were looking for, both strikers were on the pitch at the same time. However the formation changed to 4-2-3-1 and £9.5m forward Lacazette played effectively as the number 10 impressively though with 2 assists.   £7.0m Mkhitaryan was in the more first team type lineup but Kolasinac was in the more second string starting 11.

The form of £4.5m Nketiah continues and it certainly was an impressive finishing display but with Lacazette and Aubameyang there it’s hard to see a place as a forward.  Emery in his press conference said alot of things on many subjects including Nketiah but he pretty much hedged his bets on everything.  If you’re thinking that the defence has improved judging by the result it certainly wasn’t the case.  Fiorentina had a bundle of chances.

Here’s the Arseblog report as well as a link to a youtube video 

Fulham 2 Brighton 1

Goal: Gross

ALBION: Ryan (Steele 46); Montoya (A.Davies 87), Duffy (Burn 61), Dunk, Bernardo (Suttner 75); Gross, Stephens (Dreyer 85), Propper (Kayal 61); Locadia (Trossard 46), Murray (Andone 61), March (Jahanbakhsh 61).

Subs not used: Keto (GK), O’Hora.

Lineup wise it looks like a possible starting 11.  I haven’t got a graphic lineup but it seemed like it was 4-2-3-1 with Gross behind Murray.

From Brighton were looking for a very cheap £5.0m forward in Andone who didn’t start although £5.5m Locadia did albeit seemingly as an AM.  Kayal as a more attacking £4.5m mid didn’t start.  Gross is a player who does interest me at £6.5m with Brighton’s good attacking fixtures and playing as a number 10 is helpful.  Button £4.0m GK was rested and Steele (not in FPL) shared GK duties.

Gross and Locadia appeared to be the games form players.  Here’s a link to the Brighton website match report and the live Argus report

Burnley v Crewe (0-1) and Port Vale (3-1)

Goals: Wood, Vydra, Brady

v Crewe

Burnley v: Pope; Lowton, Long, Dunne, Pieters; Gudmundsson, Benson, Westwood, McNeil; Rodriguez, Barnes. Substitutes: Legzdins, Cropper, Glennon, Younger, Harker.

v Port Vale 3-1

BURNLEY: Heaton (Hart 45), Bardsley, Gibson, Tarkowski, Koiki, Lennon, Hendrick, Cork, Brady, Vydra, Wood.

Some weird simultaneous 2 games that went on.  As a result the lineups were pretty mixed.

As far as Burnley are concerned we’re not looking for much other than Lowton and Taylor as £4.5m defs and  a definite hierarchy in the £4.5m GK stakes.  I guess Pope playing the 90 mins and the transfer rumours re Heaton mean that Pope had the advantage here.

Here’s 2 reports on the games v Crewe and v Port Vale

Bromley 1 Palace 0

Palace: Henry, D.Boateng (Russell 68), Inniss (Mensah 63), Hobbs, Trialist (Trialist 73), M. Boateng (Flanagan 45), McGregor (Olopade 63), Pierrick (Lokilo 45), Addy (Aveiro 45), Trialist (Trialist 63), Daly (Trialist 45).

Subs not used: Tupper, Street.

A lineup in which the quintuplets “trialist” were involved probably tells you all you need to know about this game.  Not 1 Palace player will in this game be in their GW1 lineup.

If you really have nothing to do here’s  a link to the match report



Leicester 2 Cheltenham 1

Goals: Vardy Albrighton

First half: Ward; Daley-Campbell, Morgan, Maguire, Elder (Fuchs, 43’); Amartey; Wright, Thomas, King, Muskwe; Iheanacho.

Second half: Ward; Justin, Evans, Soyuncu, Fuchs; Mendy; Ricardo, Tielemans, Ndukwu (Fitzhugh, 81’), Albrighton; Vardy.

Unused subs: Johansson, Pennant.

So the lineup issues with Leicester are that £6.5m Maddison and £5.5m Chilwell were in the U21 tournament and £6.5m Perez is now injured which makes it hard to compare form and formation for the midfield trio. Ndidi’s return from AFCON is as important to the defensive strength as Maguire is.  Maguire going would allow a £4.5m defender in Soyuncu or Morgan if Rodgers is telling the truth rather than putting up a negotiating position for a future purchase.  Whether there is even a £4.5m defence if both Maguire and Ndid don’t start GW1 is questionable.

Form wise Tielemans (who got an assist), Evans and Albrighton (goal) got the top marks according to the player rater.

Here’s also youtube  highlights

You can see more in our pre-season hub article which will be updated regularly.

Also see our Friday summary

Get additional content in the form of Podcasts, an interactive transfer and points prediction tool, 4 £50 prize leagues for the first 160 joiners and a Slack channel for discussion with members and contributors in our Patreon site.  The first $3 monthly payment gets you in the prize leagues and Slack channel for the season.

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