The Premier League got underway in scintillating style last weekend, especially for Chelsea. Football grounds were filled with both home and away supporters and a total of 34 goals were scored on the opening weekend, which meant plenty of fantasy points to go with all those goals. FPL premium picks Bruno Fernandes (£12.0 million) and Mohamed Salah (£12.5 million) scored a combined total of 37 points between them. Fernandes scored a hat-trick against Leeds United, while Salah scored one and assisted twice in Liverpool’s 3-0 victory away at newly promoted Norwich City. The game week average was 69 points—which is a solid start to the season if you have anything around that tally.
The Blues’ defence all scored well in FPL. Edouard Mendy (£6.0 million) kept a clean sheet along with Antonio Rudiger (£5.5 million), Andreas Christensen (£5.0 million) and Cesar Apzilicueta (£6.0 million). The two outstanding performers from Chelsea’s side were defenders Marcos Alonso (£5.6 million) and Trevoh Chalobah (£5.0 million), both scoring on the opening weekend. Alonso got a total of 15 points whereas Chalobah racked up 14 points after his performance at right centerback. If you had one of these two in your fantasy team, hats off to you!
Chelsea started flawlessly in the Premier League and many others began the FPL season in a similar fashion last weekend
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This past weekend also saw the start of The Pride of London’s Fantasy League. Below are the Top 10 teams in the league after week one:
- TOP BOY FC (112 points)
- ABC FC (105)
- Elias is here! (105)
- Pfizer Chiefs (103)
- 007 License Tuchel (102)
- dearmama (101)
- <insert clever name> (101)
- Abekwan 11 (99)
- Fuego united (98)
- UNBEATABLE FC (98)
TOP BOY FC has a seven-point advantage at the top of the league after the maiden week of the 2021/22 FPL season. Let’s take a look now at the top picks for game week two from a Chelsea point of view.
New Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku (£11.5 million) is the topic on everybody’s lips this week. The Belgian is looking extremely likely to make his second Chelsea debut on Sunday against Arsenal in a fierce London derby. Lukaku is expected to play up top with Mason Mount (£7.5 million) and Kai Havertz (£8.5 million) just behind him. With the amount of chances the Blues created on the opening weekend against Crystal Palace, Tuchel’s men could easily have had six or seven goals if Lukaku played, as well. Mateo Kovacic (£5.0 million) also racked up an assist against Palace.
The two standout fixtures in terms of where fantasy captain points could come aplenty is Man City at home against Norwich City and Liverpool at home against Burnley. Manchester United has a slightly more testing trip down to Southampton, but after a Fernandes hat-trick last weekend, no one would put it past United to get another handful this weekend. Salah will be the standout fantasy captain again this week at home against Burnley. There will be a full house at Anfield for the first time in a long while, so expect Liverpool to give those fans one heck of a show. With Man City, Riyad Mahrez (£9.0 million) looks set to start again having been subbed off in the Citizens’ opening defeat against Tottenham last weekend. The defending champions will be ready to get their season up and going this weekend. City assets such as Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0 million), Jack Grealish (£8.0 million) and Joao Cancelo (£6.0 million) are all very good FPL picks—it’s just a guess who gets the nod from PepGuardiola each week.
If you want to go with a slightly different captain, Lukaku is not a bad shout either. The Belgian will likely start against Arsenal and having seen what Brentford did to the Gunners on the opening weekend, the Blues could get a couple of goals from their new No. 9. A reminder that if you haven’t joined The Pride of London Fantasy League yet, do so now by using the following code (qg4j9a) or click on the link to auto-join.
How many FPL points did you rack up in week one? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!