Isn’t it great to be back? After a long summer deliberating over our teams, FPL returned with a bang last week.

Anything you can do, I can do better.

Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) predictably added to the 562 points he’s amassed in the past two seasons with a goal and an assist at home to Norwich on Friday night. Not to be outdone, premium-assets Raheem Sterling (£12.1m) and Harry Kane (£11.0m) both surpassed his 12-point haul collecting 20 and 13 points respectively on Saturday.

It promises to be an exciting season if those three can hit the heights expected of them. And let’s not forget Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) who opened his account with a goal away to Newcastle. The Gabon international currently sits second in our Captain Poll for Gameweek 2, just over 17% of the 12,000+ managers who voted picked the Arsenal forward. 

Last week’s runaway-favourite Salah is once again the popular choice for the armband. However it’s a decision that has been complicated by Liverpool’s extra-time win in the UEFA Super Cup in midweek, with the Egyptian playing all 120 minutes.

In addition, as Joe highlighted on the Gameweek 2 Captaincy video, Salah only managed two shots against Norwich. To help you make up your mind, Captain Sensible himself, David, delves into the members’ stats before making his recommendation in the captaincy article. 

We have a deadline of Saturday 11:30 BST for Gameweek 2. Still time to ponder those potential transfers. However, for many who enjoyed a good start, banking a transfer seems the most sensible option. 

Luke made a compelling case for saving a transfer on the Scoutcast, principally because you gain flexibility for Gameweek 3. Although even if you didn’t get off to a great start – don’t panic! FPL Heisenberg offered words of comfort to those who feel disappointed with their Gameweek 1 scores:

“There is plenty of time left. Don’t focus on the number of points you have right now, look at your squad and see if you’re in good shape for the next few Gameweeks. If your squad is fine, save your transfer. If you have issues, then sort them. Whatever you do, just remember – do not panic!”

Similarly, for managers considering selling Bournemouth assets, TheFantasyFreak is not in favour of jumping ship just yet:

“The likes of Wilson, King and Fraser are proven FPL assets and I don’t think one poor game makes them into a bad pick overnight. Aston Villa conceded the highest number of goal attempts and shots inside the box last week so I think it might be slightly premature to bin off your Bournemouth attackers.”

But ultimately it’s your team. As the FPL General noted in his opinion piece: 

“Only you can know what is right for your squad. Don’t bank just because others are saying it’s the best play.”

Neale (aka Skonto Rigga) has been rounding up the latest team news – the headline is the emerging goalkeeper crisis at Liverpool. With first-choice shot-stopper Alisson set to be “out for a while” after suffering a calf injury against Norwich, his replacement Adrian then picked up an ankle knock in the celebrations following Liverpool’s UEFA Super Cup win. The Spaniard is now a doubt for the trip to Southampton. 

Before the news of Adrian’s injury, David was already questioning the wisdom of doubling-up on Liverpool defenders. Are they still a reliable source of clean sheets? 

However it’s Trent Alexander-Arnold’s attacking prowess that sees him selected in this weeks’ Scout Picks. Despite conceding, the right-back was top for key passes and big chances created at Anfield on Friday night.

One of the main talking points from last weekend was the omission from the Manchester City starting line-up of Bernardo Silva (£8.0m). Teammate Riyad Mahrez (£8.5m) was the beneficiary. Seizing his opportunity with both hands, the Algerian contributed three assists in City’s 5-0 win. 

With an ownership of just 3.7%, Mahrez is one of the three players highlighted by Ash (aka FPLHints) in this week’s differentials article. But will the City winger be a victim of Pep Roulette?

Bøwstring The Carp aimed to improve our understanding of Guardiola’s thinking with three insightful articles. In the first, he looked at Guardiola’s background and his influences as a manager. In the second article, he examined the ideas behind Manchester City’s attack. And in the final article he analysed how they defend out of possession. 

City’s local rivals United featured uppermost in FPLDave‘s thoughts as he reflected on Gameweek 1. Playing as a number 9 but listed in FPL as a midfielder, should we be getting excited about Martial?

Ahead of Gameweek 2, G-Whizz brought us his regular DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds – Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester City are predicted to do well. 

Greyhead is back with a brand new season of The Great and The Good, revealing a celebrity line-up to rival Strictly Come Dancing. Everyone’s favourite dad-dancer Mark Sutherns returns for the second series and is joined by newcomers including the sparkling Jules Breach and the aptly-named FFS Community Manager Geoff Dance. 

Geoff, who finished in the top 50 overall in 2016/17, added a touch of glamour to the Official FPL Podcast in midweek. To quote Len Goodman, watch out for this FPL guru “flying across the dancefloor like a rampant crab”.

Over the summer, Geoff also demonstrated his prowess in real football with a belter of a goal in the Fantasy Football Scout Charity Cup. The third iteration of the tournament, in which FFS users get-together to raise money for charity, has so far collected over £600 for the Stroke Association. Further donations are welcome.

Ógie noticed – and it won’t have escaped Greyhead’s attention either – that you are no longer able to see the team value or the amount of transfers made by other managers. An improvement that has largely been welcomed by FFS managers. 

For Scandinavians and hardcore fantasy managers who’ve been with us throughout the summer, Meltens previewed Gameweek 20 in Fantasy Allsvenskan and began a hot topic discussing plans for the week ahead. 

Meanwhile TallestJohn set the scene for Gameweek 17 in Eliteserien Fantasy. Keep reading for updates on the respective FFS mini-leagues.

Finally a technical note for FFS members who may have experienced problems, the solution for the time being is to whitelisting FFS with your adblocker. The heatmaps, for example, should work if you turn off the adblock.

To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page, and if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.

If you’re a member and are yet to get to grips with the custom statistics tables, you can view this movie for an explanation of how they work. Also, remember to tag them so that people can find the tables with ease.

COMMUNITY TOURNAMENTS

Mark Fisk is the early leader in our Fantasy Football Scout mini-league with 124 points after playing his Bench Boost. He is 283rd overall. This is Mark’s ninth season, his previous best finish is 34k. There are currently 41,065 managers participating in the Fantasy Football Scout mini-league, to join them enter code ooyz44 in your Leagues’ section on the FPL site. 

Jill Lees was quickest out of the blocks in our FFS Members mini-league with 112 points. Jill achieved her impressive points total without playing a chip, the only player to blank in her starting eleven was Ayoze Pérez (£6.5m). Jill is 4,402nd overall in only her second FPL season. The code to join the FFS Members League can be found on the Members page. 

In the seventh edition of TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score for Gameweek 1 was 66, this saw 219 managers fall at the first hurdle. 3,748 teams are through to Gameweek 2, when the threshold for elimination remains at 5%.

It is possible to enter the competition up until Gameweek 22 using the code bcvy39, however you must pass all the previous safety scores to qualify. Aside from bragging rights, the winner will receive a free Fantasy Football Scout Membership for the 2020/21 season.

The lead in the FFS Mods & Cons mini-league is shared by Ted Maw (aka Rotation’s Alter Ego) and Richard Beach (aka RedLightning), who both have 94 points. Ted starts the season as the reigning champion in the Mods and Cons after overtaking Mark Sutherns on a dramatic final day. Current joint-leader Richard is in his 11th season and has two previous top 4k finishes.

Joining the Mods and Cons league for the first time is John Pritchard (aka fclackless). John gains special entry after beating the Scout Picks by the biggest margin last season: 33 points (77 to 44) in Gameweek 10.

Sam Hopkins is the early pacesetter in RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league with 122 points after captaining Sterling. Sterling’s hat-trick helped Sam to 463rd place overall. This is his ninth FPL season, with a previous best finish of 8,999. Managers with a top 10k rank in their season history may join the league using the code m0tq9y.

In Chaballer’s Top 1,000 HoF League Phil Olorenshaw is off to a flying start after he Triple Captained Salah. His 105 points also included double-digit contributions from both Sterling and Kane. This is Phil’s eighth season playing FPL and he has four top 10k end-of-season ranks, his best being 234 overall in the 2014/15 season. 

The number-one ranked manager in 2014/15 was Simon March (aka Dufflinks). Simon is running an exclusive mini-league called the FPL Champions League (aka Top 1 Any Season), a mini-league so exclusive that entry is only granted to former FPL winners!

The leader after Gameweek 1 is 2016/17 champion Ben Crabtree. Everton-fan Ben, who famously doesn’t pick Liverpool players, enjoyed a good start as both Sterling and Kane outscored Salah in the opening Gameweek. 

A total of 5,983 managers entered the FFS Head-to-Head Leagues, which are being run by Mark Reynolds (aka MIR) with support from Geoff, Mat (aka matzi11a), and Chris Atkinson (aka RMT’s Professor). There will be 300 leagues spread across 8 divisions with promotion and relegation taking place at the end of the season. 

In the FFS Eliteserien mini-league the leader going into Gameweek 18 is Svein Johansen with 1,189 points. Svein deployed his Rich Uncle chip in Gameweek 17 to make the most of a Double Gameweek. The Rich Uncle chip is similar to the Free Hit chip but gives managers an unlimited budget for one Gameweek only. 

Luke Dyer is in second place 16 points behind Svien, with Thomas Wickstrøm in third. Svein is currently fourth overall just 17 points behind new overall leader Håvard Gustad. 

In neighbouring Sweden, Daniel Sebestyen held onto his lead in the FFS Allsvenskan mini-league with Simon Eriksson 33 points behind in second place, and Niklas Tysander a further 16 points back in third. All three managers captained 51.3%-owned Muamer Tankovic (9.5m kr) who rewarded their faith with a goal.

Daniel is now 18 points off the overall lead despite slipping one place to fourth. 

If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round-Ups, please email us a summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head-to-head competition at geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk