Here’s a FPL pre-season games article with a quick and hopefully easy to read summary of the key points of 9 pre-season games on Saturday 21 July. These involve Brighton, Palace, Everton, Fulham, Huddersfield, Leicester, Southampton, Watford and West Ham
FPL pre-season games – Saturday 21 July
Firstly here are links to the pre-season games and lineups article part 1 and part 2 as background.
Wimbledon 2 Brighton 1
No sign of the World Cup returners or Murray or Dunk. Duffy appears fit. Without Balogun back it’s hard to assess if he will start over Duffy and Dunk. The goal was an Oliver Norwood pen who I expect won’t start
Oxford 1 Palace 3
Goals from man of the match Zaha, Schlupp and Kaikai.
I haven’t seen a formation but it seems that Zaha could have been upfront with £5.0m fwd Sorloth. Where Benteke is I do not know. It was pretty much a first team lineup which is good news as £4.0m def Wan-Bissaka started. It seems £4.5m def Schlupp may have played LM which is worth keeping an eye on. Van Aanholt seemed very involved in the attack as well.
Lille 0 Everton 0
A 2nd string team in a game of no interest except that Siggy and Gueye are back from World Cup rest. No Pickford though obviously. Stekelenberg is fit enough to start
Lyon 4 Fulham 0
Pretty much a full strength team played with £6.5m mid wonderkid Sessegnon in midfield again. New signing Seri started as did Le Marchand. Kamara seems the placeholder striker until Mitrovic is signed
Betis 2 Huddersfield 0 and Bremen 1 Huddersfield 0
Nothing to be learnt here from two 45 minutes games with a mixture of first teams and 2nd stringers. No sign of WC returners Zanka or Mooy.
Leicester 4 Notts County 1
Goals: Morgan 26, Choudhury 28, Gray 52, Slimani 76
A huge amount of World Cup players to return makes Leicester a non event at this stage of pre-season. £5.5m mid Gray is the player who could benefit from Mahrez leaving and he was in the goals
Derby 3 Southampton 0
A disappointing result for Saints although their 3 absent World Cup players in Cedric, Yoshida and Bednarek were all defenders. New signings Elyounoussi and Armstrong started and Vestergaard got on in the 2nd half. Charlie Austin started ahead of Gabbiadini although no sign of competition Shane Long.
Dusseldorf 1 Watford 3
Success, Deeney, Sinclair
2 different teams in each half mean we are no closer to solving the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that is the bloated Watford squad.
Preston 2 West Ham 2
Arnautovic 2 goals
The £7.0m fwd played CF again although with Chicharito still on World Cup rest that still needs to be tested. £7.0m mid new signing Yarmalenko also played well. Popular £4.5m mid Masuaku played LB unfortunately.
A strong West Ham side. Fredericks started at RB. Diop started CB partnering Rice interestingly who played 90 minutes. No sign of Felipe Anderson for this one who will surely replace Snodgrass.
That’s it if you’ve seen the games or can offer more insight than above please do so in the comments area below.
Links to Geek Leagues
Telegraph fantasy football free to enter £100 prize
0417 PIN
Telegraph fantasy football £2 cash league
0050 PIN
