One week down and already some big names are looking like absolute must haves.
Gameweek 1 Review
Ah, the excitement and hope that everyone brings into Gameweek 1. It is almost too much to watch in some cases. But many of the top level names that folks invested in heavily paid off, which as we all know from bitter experience isn’t always the case with Fantasy Football.
Players with very high ownership like Cesc Fabregas (11 points), Raheem Sterling (13 points) and Aaron Ramsey (10 points) all made it into the Dream Team and many owners will have had one of those as their captain for the opening week. If you did, you are probably sitting pretty in your respective leagues.
In goal, Hull’s Allan McGregor was top man with 14 points, courtesy of a penalty save, while his Tiger team-mate James Chester was top scorer in the entire game, his 15 point haul coming via the glorious trifecta of a clean sheet, three bonus points and a goal.
And the top striker, despite decent efforts by stars like Wayne Rooney and Diego Costa was West Brom’s Saido Berahino, who scored twice to earn a tasty 13 points for his managers.
J-League
It is far, far too early to be bragging but here are the teams who sit proudly atop the J-League after the first set of games.
Tied at the top are David English’s AAA and Terry O’Rourke’s Sporting Kilbeggan. Both men scored a whopping 88 points in Week 1. Both teams had the Fab Four of Fabregas, Sterling, Ramsey and Costa propelling them to the top, with the addition of a few shrewd cheaper options too. Terry gets a special nod for having the foresight to include Chester. If you have the Lotto numbers Terry, don’t be a stranger.
As you might imagine at this earliest of stages, the top of the table is tighter than Alexis Sanchez’s jersey, with just eight points separating the top 20.
J-League Top 5:
- AAA – David English: 88 points
- Sporting Kilbeggan – Terry O’Rourke: 88 points
- Wiki Wanderers XI – Edwin Wixted: 87 points
- SnapTacklePop – Stephen Walsh: 87 points
- FC Copenbadly – John Clare: 86 points
Bringing Cesc-y back
The breakout star of Week 1 was a player we are all very familiar with, Cesc Fabregas. He looked sensational at Burnley on Monday night on his Chelsea Premier League debut and he easily made it into the Dream Team for Week 1.
That performance has already seen almost 180,000 managers bring the Spaniard into their squad for this week and we think we might be joining them.
For a start, at £9.1m, he is good value and that price looks set to rise every week you don’t get him in.
Secondly, a quick glance at Chelsea’s fixtures suggests that he has a few handy games (Leicester, Swansea, Villa) coming up as well as trickier ones against Everton, Manchester City and Arsenal. On balance, he should score well in most, if not all, those games.
Some of us may have held off on Fabregas initially for fear that he would play quite deep under Mourinho but he played a pretty advanced role at Turf Moor. Will that be the case in every game, especially against the bigger teams? Probably not but he oozes class and could be an assist machine against anyone.
He has all the hallmarks of a Fantasy player you should buy now or regret later. It is a bandwagon, but the rule with them is clamber aboard early.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Wayne Rooney (£10.5 million). Sure, Manchester United looked ropier than Big Al’s Rope Emporium down in the Rope District but Rooney played well and scored. Usually a streaky player, and with very benign fixtures coming up, it looks like the perfect time to bring in the England striker.
Mid-Range: Gylfi Sigurdsson (£6.2 million). A great first week and he is now the go-to option for cheapish midfielders. He always had an eye for goal and his work on set pieces should pay off too. With Burnley up next, he could be in line for another quality week.
Bargain Basement: Seb Larsson (£5.5 million). Always a handy Fantasy player, the Swede got off to a great start last week with nine points and facing a shaky Manchester United defence on Sunday, he could profit again.
Irish Pick: Shane Long (£6 million). Not the best debut but playing against one of his old teams this weekend (West Brom), we’re backing the Tipp man to nab a goal.
Captain’s Pick: Diego Costa (£10.5 million) Already off the mark for his new club, another promoted side face the Spaniard this weekend. Leicester could struggle to contain the powerful frontman and a feast of goals could be on the menu for his home debut.
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