Spurs win at Wembley, only for a Kieran Trippier injury to ring the Fantasy alarm bells, while Crystal Palace conclude a solid summer with a draw.
Elsewhere, Watford’s uninspiring pre-season finishes with another goalless affair and an equally lacklustre West Brom lose in Spain.
Here’s the second instalment of notes from Saturday’s action.
Spurs 2 Juventus 0
Fantasy ups and downs were in abundance at Wembley as Spurs completed their pre-season with a fine win over European A-listers Juventus.
The ups were many: Harry Kane delighted his 35.3% Fantasy Premier League ownership base with a goal; Christian Eriksen (13.8%) also scored and Spurs won at their new home to begin the long campaign to convince us all that Wembley won’t be a graveyard for their ambitions.
But the downside was an injury to right-back Kieran Trippier that has the potential to throw the defensive plans of 19.4% of FPL managers – he’s the most popular Spurs backline asset in the game – into some disarray.
Speaking post-match, Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino didn’t offer many clues as to the extent of Trippier’s issue.
“Kieran twisted his ankle, and we need to wait until Monday to assess him…Until we assess him and do a scan, we need to wait. You never know. The feeling now is better than at half-time. But still we need to wait and we cannot saying anything today and wait until Monday.”
Kyle Walker-Peters replaced Trippier. If the ex-Burnley man’s injury rules him out for a spell, then Walker-Peters – yet to be added to the FPL game – could emerge as a bargain route. However, quotes post-match from the Spurs boss suggested that the 20-year-old would not be considered for starts as yet.
He’s [Walkers-Peters] very young. It’s true that to think and to give the big responsibility like Kieran; it’s too much today for him. He’s a player that needs to work with us and maybe start to play in different games, but we cannot think that, in the case of Kieran’s weeks away from the team, only he can replace him.
Instead, Pochettino is likely to field a back four at Newcastle United in Gameweek 1 and turn to Eric Dier at right-back.
A four-man defence was used against Juventus, with Kane a lone striker supported by Eriksen, Dele Alli and Moussa Sissoko.
Kane headed home from a Trippier cross to open the scoring. Eriksen’s second-half goal was set up by Alli.
Spurs’ first four matches of the campaign are a mix of the good – Newcastle away, Burnley at home – and the tricky – a visit from Chelsea and a trip to Everton.
In fact, the first 12 Gameweeks are a combination of sweet and potentially sour, but that hasn’t stopped FPL managers including plenty of Spurs players in their squads.
No fewer than six of them have double-digit ownership figures, with Jan Vertonghen (9.7%) close to being a seventh. Trippier’s potential loss could have an impact on that, of course, but worries over Wembley might just be beginning to subside.
Pochettino was certainly happy with their new home, and more besides.
“It was good to play at Wembley before the start of the season, good to believe in the way we play and recover the feeling in the way we play and for me, that’s most important, not the result. Okay, the result gives you more belief, but it was about the performance, not the result.”
With Dier poised to replace Trippier at right-back should he be sidelined, Sissoko could be retained in midfield against his former club.
However, Pochettino also indicated that Heung-Min Son has not been ruled out of contention for the Tyneside trip.
“He [Son] is working hard. It’s true that he’s still recovering from his problem. Then next week we need to assess him if he’s available to be selected for next week.”
Spurs XI: Lloris; Trippier (Walker-Peters 41), Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Dembele (Wimmer 90); Sissoko (Georgiou 65), Alli (Winks 65), Eriksen (Oakley-Boothe 90); Kane (Janssen 78).
Crystal Palace 1 Schalke 04 1
Palace boss Frank de Boer seems to have settled on a back three as his side again went with wing-backs and made it three straight matches without defeat.
Julian Speroni – a 4.0 option in FPL – started in goal behind a defence that once more included midfielder Luka Milivojevic as a centre-back.
That continues to blunt his Fantasy appeal, although he is the side’s dead ball specialist, but does mean Ruben Loftus-Cheek – a 4.5-priced 14.2%-owned budget enabler – continues to be handed a starting role in the Eagles midfield.
Andros Townsend now seems nailed-on as a wing-back, which doesn’t do his Fantasy prospects much good, but Patrick van Aanholt’s second consecutive start on the opposite flank certainly boosts his stock.
A modest 4.0% of managers agree although that makes him the team’s most popular defensive pick.
Christian Benteke got his first goal of the summer against the Germans, with Wilfried Zaha providing the assist. The pair are owned by 10.0% and 22.9% respectively – testament to their genuine attacking threat in a side with a relatively favourable first five fixtures.
The one joker in the pack could be striker Jason Lokilo. The youngster also started against FC Metz over the summer – de Boer clearly sees something in the 18-year-old – although he is yet to be added into the FPL game.
De Boer had this to say on Lokilo in his post-match comments…
“I didn’t know him when I came in as he was an under-23 player but Mark Bright mentioned that he is one of the talented players in that group. We were a man or two short in training so we picked him to participate in them and he made a great impression of his qualities, and that’s why he deserved to play today.”
As for Speroni, we still feel that Wayne Hennessey will get the nod for the visit of Huddersfield Town in Gameweek 1, though this is far from certain.
Should the Palace veteran get the nod, he would join Newcastle United’s Rob Elliot as a second active 4.0 option to change the landscape of our keeper selection policy.
Crystal Palace XI: Speroni; Milivojevic, Dann, Reidewald (Tomkins 81); Townsend (Ward 70), Puncheon, Loftus-Cheek, Van Aanholt; Zaha, Lokilo (Lee 79), Benteke.
Watford 0 Real Sociedad 0
A second consecutive goalless stalemate drew the curtains on Watford’s rather drab summer.
Or, to put a more positive spin on it, that was the Hornets’ fourth clean sheet in six pre-season matches.
Either way, FPL interest in Watford assets remains appropriately underwhelming, with the side’s most popular player – the 8.0%-owned midfielder Etienne Capoue – only given a cameo role against Sociedad.
Boss Marco Silva, however, devoted some of his post-match comments to denying reports of a rift with the player.
“I don’t want to talk about what newspapers said. Normally I don’t have many problems with players in my career. The player worked hard. Today in his cameo he worked hard as well, and that’s what I want from my players.”
One of the few noteworthy aspects of yesterday’s match was new signing Nathaniel Chalobah featuring in the holding midfield role alongside Abdoulaye Doucoure, while Jerome Sinclair was preferred up front to Stefano Okaka as Troy Deeney continues to recover from injury.
Deeney is very unlikely to make the season opener with Liverpool, with Silva delivering his update on his fitness post-match…
“With Troy, he progressed well and we expect him to start to work with the team next week, with some precautions.”
Watford XI: Gomes; Janmaat (Femenia 70), Kaboul (Mariappa 79), Britos (Prodl 71), Holebas (Mason 79); Doucouré (Watson 72), Chalobah (Capoue 70); Amrabat, Cleverley (Hughes 71), Pereyra (Success 70); Sinclair (Okaka 46).
Deportivo La Coruna 2 West Brom 0
West Brom’s excellent set of opening fixtures has prompted many FPL managers to take the Baggies bait.
Bournemouth, Stoke City and West Ham at home and trips to Burnley and Brighton in the first five Gameweeks have rightly attracted attention.
But their summer form has been the wrong side of lacklustre, with five defeats and a draw in eight matches.
The latest setback arrived at the hands of Deportivo, with Jake Livermore receiving a straight red card.
Livermore had earlier taken on the armband after Jonny Evans was withdrawn late from the Baggies line-up. No explanation has been given for that decision, with the centre-back named in the original starting XI. Indeed, as of yet, there is absolutely no post-match reaction from the club in the local press, on social media or via their official site.
The pre-season is all about fitness rather than results, but a single clean sheet doesn’t bode well for a side that currently offers so little going forward.
Goalkeeper Ben Foster is, by some distance, the Baggies’ most popular FPL pick, with a 16.5% ownership base. In fact, no other West Brom player gets anywhere near double-digit ownership.
Their schedule remains inviting, their form anything but, and Fantasy apathy towards the rest of the side is entirely understandable.
West Brom XI: Foster (Myhill 46); Wilson, Dawson (O’Shea 46), Hegazi, Nyom (Roberts 67); Livermore, Yacob (Field 62), McClean, Rodriguez (Harper 46), Phillips (Leko 58); Rondon (Robson-Kanu 46).
Be sure to check out all the summer action in our Pre-Season Guide.
