The first Fantasy Premier League deadline of the new season is almost upon us so the time for tinkering with all those drafts is almost over.
Can you fit Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah into the same team without leaving yourself exposed with a weak substitutes’ bench? What if you want Trent Alexander-Arnold as well?
Is Bruno Fernandes too good to ignore at £8.5m? Should you have three Arsenal players from the start? And who are the best differential picks to try to give you that edge over your mini-league rivals?
Those are some of the key questions we’ve all been wrestling with and I’ve also been discussing them with Chris Sutton and Statman Dave in the latest episode of our Fantasy 606 podcast which is back on the BBC Sounds app for its fifth season.
All of us have gone for Haaland and as I write this, none of us have gone for either of the Liverpool men although I find myself wavering on the Salah front.
Salah is so tempting because he’s such a good captaincy option in gameweek two when Liverpool are at home to Bournemouth, and his stellar FPL history gives him a reassuring reliability that none of the cheaper Liverpool attacking options can match.
I can squeeze him in if I go for Brighton’s Joao Pedro as my second striker but it leaves me with a budget bench of George Baldock, Marvelous Nakamba and Divin Mubama and it potentially uses up all £100m of my budget when I would like to have £0.5m to spare for transfers in the first few gameweeks.
We all own Bukayo Saka who looks like a steal at £8.5m, and Dave and I have both paired him with Gabriel Martinelli for an Arsenal attacking double-up. Dave’s also got a Manchester United attacking duo with both Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford, hoping to profit from the first two home games against Wolves and Nottingham Forest.
Chris, who always likes to do something a little bit different, has gone for the Tottenham duo of Son Heung-min and Richarlison in his midfield in the expectation Harry Kane will make the move to Bayern Munich.
That may change come deadline time but Chris is convinced Spurs will score plenty of goals under their new boss Ange Postecoglou.
So what are the big calls for gameweek one?
Captaincy
The obvious answer here is Haaland as Manchester City start the defence of their title away to Burnley on Friday but I’m toying with the idea of giving the armband to Saka for Arsenal’s home game against Nottingham Forest.
Haaland’s record away from home in the Premier League isn’t quite as impressive as at Etihad Stadium and I do expect Arsenal to start the season with a bang. It’s always a risk going against Haaland but it would give you an early edge on the rest of the field if it comes off.
Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes are both captaincy options for Wolves’ visit to Old Trafford and Brighton will be strong favourites to beat Luton at home so if you have a healthy appetite for risk, then take your pick from options such as Kaoru Mitoma, Solly March or Joao Pedro.
Fixtures to target
You always have to consider a run of fixtures at the start of the season when picking your initial squad and I like the look of Arsenal, Brentford, Brighton and Manchester City in particular.
An Arsenal defender and two attackers looks like the way to go although Ben White has been overpriced at £5.5m.
Brentford’s new goalkeeper Mark Flekken could be one to consider at £4.5m if David Raya moves to Arsenal and Bryan Mbeumo (£6.5m) is understandably a popular pick but we need to hear from Thomas Frank whether he’s going to be fit for the opening game against Tottenham.
Choosing your other Manchester City assets after Haaland involves the usual game of Pep roulette – I like Phil Foden as the midfield pick although Jack Grealish looks a more certain starter, while Statman Dave has gone for John Stones in his backline who may be able to offer the most attacking threat if he continues to step into midfield as we saw last season.
Differentials
This is the one every manager wants to nail at the start of the season because a lot of FPL teams are going to be so similar but it’s so difficult to predict.
I’m just going to chuck a few names out there – Pascal Gross or March from Brighton, Yoane Wissa at Brentford, any of the Liverpool trio of Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota or Cody Gakpo, Kai Havertz in his new role at Arsenal and Statman Dave also mentioned Aston Villa’s Moussa Diaby in the podcast.
Gamble of the week
Saka as captain over Haaland.
Alistair Bruce-Ball presents the Fantasy 606 podcast alongside former Premier League winner Chris Sutton and Statman Dave. The latest episode previewing gameweek one is available on the BBC Sounds App. The code to join the Fantasy 606 league is ‘j03mnp’.