With the pre-season schedule now over its time to take stock ahead of the new season and see what Fantasy managers can take from the friendlies that have been taking place over the past few weeks. This two part series will look at each team’s pre-season form and line ups and what this means for Fantasy managers as they look to apply the finishing touches to their Gameweek 1 squads.
Arsenal
Topping the table for most goals scored on average over the pre-season, Arsenal have had a good build-up to the new season considering the key players they’ve been without. They saw a mix of opposition, playing Lens, an MLS All-Star XI, Chivas, Viking FK and Manchester City.
The likes of Laurent Koscielny, Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud failed to feature at all and remain doubts for Gameweek 1, while Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez put in a good 64 and 78 minutes respectively in the final match that saw them beat Man City 3-2. While the Gunners are without key players, their squad depth is a boost ahead of the opening game with Liverpool. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Joel Campbell, Alex Iwobi and Chuba Akpom are all in terrific form, not to mention there’s the return of Santi Cazorla. All have goals in their locker and offer something different up front. Where Arsenal are suffering is at the back. With injuries to Per Mertesacker, Gabriel and the lack of match fitness for Koscielny, they face potential problems with the very real possibility that Arsene Wenger could be forced to field Calum Chambers and Rob Holding in central defence against Liverpool.
Bournemouth
Despite not playing with a settled back four throughout their six pre-season games, Bournemouth rank as sixth in terms of conceding the least number goals per game. Charlie Daniels and Simon Francis started twice together (with Steve Cook/ Brad Smith, Nathan Ake/ Daniels and Ake/ Francis doing likewise). So we can see Howe had a lot of pairing up, perhaps to get players accustomed to communicating and working with each other in small pairs rather than overloading them with instructions in a full strength back four.
What’s worrying is that Bournemouth’s defensive stats last year were positive but they just could not convert them to clean sheets, often conceding goals here and there during the few times they were exposed. Elsewhere, it was just the formality of getting fitness up for the likes of Callum Wilson, Benik Afobe and Max Gradel. Wilson looks particularly sharp after returning from a lengthy injury lay off that spoilt his fantastic start to the 2015/16 campaign. Worryingly for Josh King, he did not feature in any of the final three games, which is a surprise given his strong final half of Bournemouth’s previous campaign.
Burnley
The Clarets rank joint third with Tottenham for average goals scored per game over the preseason. Andre Gray is likely the first name that comes to mind when we think of Burnley recently, accounting for a staggering 81% of their preseason goals. While we don’t expect this rate of involvement in the Premier League, we can expect the striker to be heavily involved in a lot of their goals nonetheless.
At the back, Tom Heaton, Ben Mee, Michael Keane and Daniel Lafferty have played a lot together. Both Mee and Keane have scored, demonstrating their goal threat, with the former costing 0.5m less. Currently no one player is standing out as a good source of assists for Gray’s expected goals, suggesting that the responsibility could be shared across the team.
Chelsea
Chelsea’s preseason under new manager Antonio Conte has produced some mixed results, but their prowess in attack was certainly evident. Despite returning late, Eden Hazard remains their most in-form asset, closely followed Oscar who seems to present magnificent value. While renown for his defensive displays with Italy in the Euros, the Chelsea defence just doesn’t seemed to have clicked fully yet. With a knock to Branislav Ivanovic and an injury setback to Kurt Zouma during preseason, it seems Conte just doesn’t have the resources to play a back three that was so successful for him in the past, even if he wanted to.
Despite the addition of N’Golo Kante, Chelsea did not look convincing at the back in their last game but this may change in time when the team play more together. The starting eleven looks fairly predictable going into the weekend, with the only question mark surrounding the centre midfield duo and whether Conte will make changes to the starting team that beat Werder Bremen.
Crystal Palace
Alan Pardew’s side, along with Liverpool, is the only team to play nine preseason matches. So the side certainly shouldn’t be lacking match fitness. Palace rank fairly average for both goals scored and conceded throughout preseason, but have shown glimmers of potential in both attack and defence throughout their games.
Consistency seems to be the key here providing Pardew can find the right balance, otherwise we may see a regression similar to the latter half of last season. It seems likely that the club will sign another striker as Connor Wickham and Frazier Campbell are the only real options along with the young Freddie Ladapo, despite their decent form. With rumours of Yannick Bolas leaving for Everton, perhaps this will fund a move for Liverpool’s Christian Benteke? Depending on this transfer activity we can probably expect Andros Townsend and Wilfried Zaha to be the widemen, with Puncheon acting as either cover for the pair, or grabbing a central attacking midfield role. Pardew has experimented with a 3-5-2 in preseason but a back four of Joel Ward, Scott Dann, Damien Delaney and Pape Souaré is expected, with James Tomkins expected to miss the first game or two through injury. P
Pardew does have a decision to make about the number one goalkeeper, with Steve Mandanda likely to win out over Wayne Hennessy in the long term. It wouldn’t be surprising though to see the Welsh stopper keep a starting berth for the first game or two, while Mandanda continues to adjust to life at his new club.
Everton
The Toffees are one of many teams going through great transitions, especially under the management of Ronald Koeman who had a fantastic season last year with Southampton.
Koeman’s starting team looks fairly predictable, though with a flurry of transfers expected within the next week or two, this could spark a change in formation and tactics. Swansea skipper Ashley Williams and Sunderland’s Lamine Kone look set to join as a result of the transfer of John Stones to Man City. This could see a 3-5-2 formation deployed, as it was in the 0-0 Wayne Rooney testimonial match against Manchester United over the summer. If this happens, the skills of Seamus Coleman and Leighton Baines may come back into our thinking. The stats show that Everton have a better defence than attack at the moment, which bodes well for their kind run of fixtures early on.
Worrying is the inconsistency showing already from the midfield trio of Kevin Mirallas, Ross Barkley and Gerard Deulofeu, who have gone from hot to cold very quickly. Hence, Koeman may look towards new expected new signing Yannick Bolasie to add competition and more options in attacking midfield.
The future of striker Romelu Lukaku is another question that determines how Everton will fare, let alone if he will make the opening game against Tottenham due to a cut sustained against Espanyol. For now, there are a lot of factors that determine how we approach Everton and only time will tell how to react.
Hull
Where to start? Despite the club’s long list of problems from management to injuries, the Tigers’ preseason hasn’t gone all that badly as we expected.
Beaten just once in their eight games, surprisingly they rank fourth in terms of goals conceded per game, tallying four clean sheets in their opening four games, with their goalscoring rank narrowly below average.
While only the brave will venture to the backline (save for the value pick of goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic), the midfield and attack may have some hidden gems. Robert Snodgrass, Ahmed Elmohamady and Shaun Maloney have been in good form, contributing to three goals apiece from their 13 goals scored, though gametime might be an issue for Maloney should more signings be made.
Up top, Abel Hernandez has been in superb form with four goals from his five appearances, after shaking off a knock recently. Likewise his strike partner Adama Diomande has netted three times and at 4.5m acts as a means for FPL managers to bring a 3-5-2 formation into their thinking.
Leicester
Despite the Champions ranking worst for goals conceded per game and the third worst for average goals scored, I think they are misrepresented from the stats. While their defence has looked bad, we must remember that they have faced Paris Saint Germain, Barcelona and Man United in their five preseason games. Forwards Jamie Vardy and Ahmed Musa certainly look good after joining up late with the squad and making an instant impact. However, Mahrez has started all five of their games and only scored once, against Celtic. Perhaps missing players in the attacking front did not help his cause.
With an away trip to Hull first, Leicester could come out of the blocks firing for an early season confidence-booster ahead of a Gameweek 2 clash with Arsenal. Despite playing top class teams, I do feel their defence needs time to get back into the swing of things, as both goals conceded to Man United in the Charity Shield were mainly down to poor positioning and basic errors, especially from skipper Wes Morgan who had been the backbone of the defence last year. Again, time will tell.
Liverpool
As mentioned, Liverpool have played a whole nine games in preseason and must certainly be at their peak fitness, especially considering their 4-0 annihilation of Barcelona last weekend.
Concerns surround defence go into the new season, with stopper Loris Karius, Mamdou Sakho and makeshift fullback James Milner being ruled out of Gameweek 1. Joel Matip has struggled to shake off a few knocks recently and as a result doesn’t look sharp. Even at that, a backline of Nathaniel Clyne, Dejan Lovren, Ragnar Klavan and Alberto Moreno is not far off what we would expect at the start of the season, with perhaps Sakho partnering Lovren when he returns from injury. Surprisingly Liverpool rank fifth for average goals conceded in preseason, despite their problems at the back.
Klopp has created a great team spirit that is evident through the confidence Liverpool have been playing with recently, and their pressing game has caused a lot of problems for their opponents. The midfield trio is a hard one to call considering Sadio Mané, Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino are all capable of big hauls on their day. Though the latter has been praised enormously by boss Jurgen Klopp lately and may start as a False 9 should Daniel Sturridge be kept out with ongoing injury concerns. Like Chelsea, Liverpool look an exciting prospect for the coming season and a surprise package to contend for the title with no European competition to distract them.
Man City
With a preseason campaign consisting of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal, this is the shortest preseason of all the clubs. Originally meant to play against Man United, the game was called off due to weather issues, but even so their local rivals managed to get five games even with the cancellation. Ranked joint last with West Brom for average goals scored, and the third worst in terms of goals conceded per game it seems Man City’s preparation has not gone well ahead of the new season.
Pep Guardiola has splashed the cash and given himself a plethora of attacking midfield options. But will little gametime for fitness, testing tactics and practising link-up between players, I can’t see how they will just magically click in Gameweek 1 against Sunderland.
One upside is that crowd favourite Sergio Aguero has scored two of their three preseason goals and looks the most likely to continue hitting the back of the net. Another consolation is the addition of John Stones, who has had a full preseason while at Everton and should slot straight into the backline in the absence of the injured Vincent Kompany. As far as midfield options and creative outlets go, the jury is definitely out for now until we see them play for the first month or so.
