The Dugout Discussion – Saturday – Early Kick Offs

The Gameweek begins with a storming encounter. The Tyne-Wear derby has a reputation for goals, gaffs and red cards – ingredients that almost guarantee a dramatic opening to our Fantasy Football weekend. For once, there’s also a fixture running alongside it, as West Ham take on Swansea at Upton Park in what promises to be a tense affair for very different reasons.

From a player perspective, our investment in today’s early kick-offs is somewhat with limited. Some will undoubtedly be pinning colours to Adam Johnson’s mast, while Vito Mannone will also have his fair share of backers. As for West Ham and Swansea, again there’s unlikely to be too much on show to rouse the interest of Fantasy managers, aside from those Wilfred Bony owners, still licking wounds from Tuesday’s blank.

In the main, today’s openers are for the neutral, enabling us to sit back and enjoy 90 minutes before the five three o’clock kick-offs come knocking.

As always, you can look to our Twitter feed for news of today’s lineups, while our Dugout Discussion chatroom is now open to welcome your real-time reactions.