The pre-season friendlies are coming thick and fast now, with just over a fortnight to go before Gameweek 1.
Seven Premier League teams were in action on Tuesday evening, including Bournemouth, Burnley, Everton, Luton Town and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
We’ve got all you need to know from a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) perspective below.
Sheffield United and Manchester United also contested warm-up matches but are splitting their squads across two games in the space of 24 hours, so we’ll cover both of their fixtures in the next round-up.
Ipswich Town 1-1 Luton Town
- Goals: Morris pen
- Assists: Ogbene
Carlton Morris (£5.5m) was on target from the spot as Luton Town drew at Colchester.
Morris was one of three Luton forwards to take a penalty in 2022/23 and the only one to score with his effort. He was, however, the only one of that trio – the others being Cauley Woodrow (£4.5m) and Elijah Adebayo (£5.0m) – on the field at the time of the spot-kick award against Ipswich Town.
Two of the Hatters’ summer signings, attacking midfielder Tahith Chong (£5.0m) and the versatile Chiedozie Ogbene (£5.0m), were their stand-out players.
Ogbene actually started out at right wing-back against Championship side Ipswich, later moving up top in the second half. Listed as a budget forward in FPL, he injected pace into a Luton attack that had struggled to fashion out many openings. It was jinking run that led to the penalty award, while he also created two ‘nearly moments’ for sub Woodrow late on.
Another new recruit, £4.0m FPL defender Mads Andersen, lined up at the back.
Don’t get too excited about either of the budget options between the posts: the Hatters are in the market for a new goalkeeper after loanee Ethan Horvath (£4.5m) returned to Nottingham Forest.
Marvelous Nakamba (£4.5m), one of the best bets for game-time among the bargain-bin midfielders, was among a cluster of players not involved. There have been no reports of any injury, however.
Luton Town XI: Shea (Macey 75), Ogbene (Taylor 86), Andersen, Lockyer (Campbell 61), Potts, Doughty, Berry (Watson 61), Clark (McAtee 86), Chong (Francis 61), Morris (Woodrow 75), Adebayo (Johnson 61).
SOUTHAMPTON 2-3 BOURNEMOUTH
- Goals: Ouattara, Christie, Brooks
- Assists: Christie, Anthony, Traore
Bournemouth’s frailty at set plays was something that dogged them in 2022/23 and despite the change of manager, it was evident again at Southampton on Tuesday.
Both of the Saints’ strikes stemmed from dead-ball situations; Liverpool and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.0m) will be licking their lips ahead of a Gameweek 2 meeting.
“I think it was a good game, even with the mistakes we had. Because we had also some mistakes, especially the two goals we conceded coming from set pieces.
“But overall I’m really happy because the players worked really hard.” – Andoni Iraola
Further forward, things were slightly better.
Ryan Christie (£5.0m) has stood out in pre-season and is playing an advanced number 10 role in Andoni Iraola’s 4-4-1-1, here registering a goal and an assist. It has, however, meant that Philip Billing (£5.5m) is now operating further back as a number eight.
Iraola’s love of aggressive pressing is starting to show in this Cherries side, while new signing Milos Kerkez (£4.5m) looks like he could chip in with attacking returns from left-back.
Dominic Solanke (£6.5m), who greatly underachieved on the xG front last season, was again wasteful up top; the striker has undoubted strengths but finishing at the highest level has been not his forte.
The Cherries look set to be without two of their regulars in Gameweek 1, meanwhile:
“Unfortunately, both got injured in Marbella.
“I think Marcus especially, will be out for the start of the season for the first games. We hope we can have Lloyd, but it will be tight, the schedule.
“But it’s something that normally in pre-season always happens. But it’s a shame now, because especially they are two very good guys, two very good players.” – Andoni Iraola on Marcus Tavernier and Lloyd Kelly
Bournemouth XI: Neto, Smith (Hill 77), Senesi, Mepham (Zabarnyi 67), Kerkez (Greenwood 77), Ouattara (Traorè 67), Cook (Rothwell 77), Billing (Brooks 67), Anthony (Kluivert 67), Christie (Kilkenny 77), Solanke (Moore 67).
Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Everton
Goals have been raining down in pre-season this summer – alas, not for Everton, who followed up a narrow win over Wigan Athletic with a goalless draw at Bolton Wanderers.
A sustained lack of goal threat has dogged Everton for a long time, now, with Neal Maupay (£5.0m) again proving to be an inadequate stand-in for ‘is he/isn’t he injured’ Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m). The latest on that front is that, shock horror, Calvert-Lewin faces a race against time to be fit for Gameweek 1.
Alex Iwobi‘s (£5.5m) final-third decision-making also left a lot to be desired. It’s the age-old story with the Toffees, plenty of good build-up play – especially from Dwight McNeil (£5.5m) – but no-one to stick the ball in the net.
After playing ‘out of position’ on the wing and scoring in the weekend win at Wigan, Ashley Young (£4.5m) was shunted back to left-back against Wanderers. He still looked like a class act at the ripe old age of 38 but there’s obviously less appeal from a Fantasy perspective if he isn’t stationed further forward. The arrival of Arnaut Danjuma (£5.5m) adds to the competition on the flanks, too.
With several first-teamers either rested, injured or only just back in pre-season training, Sean Dyche’s XI was further weakened after half-time with the introduction of mostly academy products.
Everton XI: Virginia, Patterson (Warrington 46), Tarkowski (Godfrey 46), Keane (Astley 68), Young (Higgins 46), McNeil (Okoronkwo 46), Onana (Hunt 46), Gomes (Onyango 46), Iwobi (Mills 46), Maupay (Kouyate 46), Dobbin (Sherif 77).
Benfica 0-2 Burnley
- Goals: Dodgson, Ekdal
- Assists: Twine, Trialist
Ari Muric (£4.5m) responded to the signing of James Trafford (£4.5m) in fine fashion, producing a strong display in a 2-0 win over the Portuguese champions.
A superb double-save from two close-range efforts preceded a Schmeichel-esque spread after the break.
“We’ve seen him do it before. It’s something that he does, he’s extremely good at in those moments. You need this. We were able to score some goals as well but obviously, that double save makes a big difference.” – Vincent Kompany on Ari Muric
There isn’t much to be read into Muric’s selection or indeed any of Kompany’s line-up at this point, with minutes being spread. Barring attacking midfielder Scott Twine (£5.0m), anyone who was handed serious game-time in Saturday’s defeat to Genk failed to get more than a half of football here.
Ameen Al-Dakhil (£4.0m) started as the ‘inverted right-back’ in Kompany’s City-esque 3-2-5 build-up, with fellow budget defender Hjalmar Ekdal (£4.0m) lining up at centre-half.
It was Ekdal who rounded off the scoring when following up a parried effort from trialist Andros Townsend. Youngster Owen Dodgson, a placeholder of sorts at left-back, had broken the deadlock from distance.
Burnley XI: Muric, Al-Dakhil (Taylor 46), O’Shea, Ekdal, Dodgson (Roberts 61), Cork, Twine (Zaroury 61), Gudmundsson, Rodriguez (Davies 81), Trialist, Weghorst (Amdouni 46).
Porto 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
- Goal: Neto
- Assist: Nunes
Matt Doherty (£4.5m) made his second Wolves debut as a half-time substitute as Wolves followed Burnley in defeating a Portuguese giant.
A far cry from his gung-ho wing-back days, Doherty now has to adapt to life as an orthodox full-back in Julen Lopetegui’s 4-3-3/4-4-2 set-up.
Max Kilman (£4.5m) was solid at the back as Wolves did what they failed to do much of last season and keep a clean sheet on the road, while Matheus Cunha (£5.5m) has looked sharp over the summer and again caught the eye in his false-nine role.
Last summer’s ill-fated FPL budget bandwagon, Pedro Neto (£5.5m), got his first minutes of pre-season and proved to be the match-winner when tapping in Matheus Nunes‘ (£5.0m) cross.
Unlike this time a year ago, Wolves are some distance from most FPL managers’ plans. It’s not just the tricky opening run of eight games (five of which are against last season’s top seven) but the worrying noises coming from off the field.
“Unfortunately this [financial] situation was bad news for me, of course. In the summer we had plan A, and then we had to adapt after this new situation. We had to start thinking about cost-effective players but it’s true that, at the moment, we can’t develop this plan, too. We lost a lot of players this summer, so we want to sign a lot more players. We must balance this situation, we must balance the squad to be competitive in the Premier League.” – Julen Lopetegui
With Lopetegui at the helm, there is still hope.
Wolves XI: Sa, Semedo (Doherty 46), Dawson (Pond 77), Kilman (Toti 77), Bueno (Ait-Nouri 77), Lemina (J. Gomes 77), Hodge (Barnett 88), Nunes (Traore 77), Sarabia (Farmer 67), Neto (Fraser 67), Cunha (Silva 67).
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