The last two of Saturday’s fixtures are analysed from a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) perspective.
Brighton and Hove Albion v Luton Town and Sheffield United and Crystal Palace are the matches in question.
Any numbers and graphics you see in this article are taken from our Premium Members Area, where you can access Opta player and team data from every single Premier League fixture.
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- READ MORE: FPL notes: Arteta on why Gabriel was benched
HATTERS HAMMERED, BLADES BOMBARDED
Brighton and Palace racked up a combined total of 51 shots and averaged around 70% of possession in their opening-day wins.
It was a chastening start to life in the Premier League for Luton Town and Sheffield United, the bookies’ early relegation favourites for 2023/24.
The quality of opposition should therefore be a big fat asterisk next to the praise we’re about to lavish on Messrs Pedro, Estupinan and Eze.
So it’s with the ‘Championship tax’ caveat ringing in your eyes, let’s get carried away with the Gameweek 1 praise.
PEDRO>PASCAL
After twice stepping up from the spot in pre-season, Joao Pedro (£5.5m) consolidated his position as Brighton’s first-choice penalty taker against Luton.
The budget FPL forward, and not Pascal Gross (£6.5m), converted from 12 yards after the Brazilian himself had been fouled in the Hatters’ box.
Penalty aside, Pedro impressed.
Deployed as a number 10 and dropping deep at times, Pedro nevertheless racked up more penalty box touches (11) than anyone else on show at the Amex. Only one player, Dominic Solanke (£6.5m), has had more in Gameweek 1 so far.
“I think because they played with five on the back so it was difficult for us to play between them. But in the second half De Zerbi told me to drop a little bit and it make my game more easy. I helped the team and scored.” – Joao Pedro
There should have been other attacking returns before his penalty. A fourth-minute sitter of his own went begging, as did a great chance he carved out for Danny Welbeck (£6.0m).
That clinical streak in front of goal is something that’s perhaps lacking in his game. Combative without the ball and exciting on it, everything else is in place.
His best goals return in a single season is 11 but even that came in the English second tier. Only three goals arrived in his last Premier League campaign with Watford, although over half of his 28 appearances did come as a substitute.
| Season | Division | Shot-to-goal conversion rate |
| 2022/23 | Championship | 13.3% |
| 2021/22 | Premier League | 6.4% |
| 2020/21 | Championship | 13.2% |
The good thing is that Brighton create such an absurd volume of chances that even profligate finishers will find the net eventually. Take Solly March (£6.5m), a renowned squanderer whose goal conversion rate was a poor 9.5% in 2022/23. But with 74 efforts on goal from the winger, even he finished on seven goals.
Plenty of encouragement for the budget Pedro, then, but with much stiffer tests to come – especially from Gameweek 4 onwards.
PERVIS BONUS
Someone who has already proved himself against top-class opposition is Pervis Estupinan (£5.0m).
He left it late for an attacking return on Saturday, teeing up substitute Evan Ferguson (£6.0m) for Brighton’s fourth goal, but it was a richly deserved assist.
Estupinan created six chances in all, a tally beaten by only one other player – let alone a defender – in Gameweek 1. The attack-minded Ecuador international had three shots of his own, too.
Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m) and March had combined for Brighton’s opener, with substitute Simon Adingra (£5.0m) – one of the threats to the two wingers’ game-time – adding another.
Last year’s budget gems have had the gauntlet thrown down to them by their manager for 2023/24.
“I think he has to fix his target to score 15 goals. If Mitoma and Solly March score ten goals per player, I think our target is closer.” – Roberto De Zerbi on Solly March
EZE DOES IT ALL APART FROM SCORE
Pedro and Estupinan were rewarded for their strong underlying numbers – but Eberechi Eze (£6.5m) wasn’t.
The Palace midfielder was involved in a whopping 15 of Palace’s 24 chances, having eight shots of his own and setting up a further seven chances. A prominent role at set plays contributed to those totals.
EBERECHI EZE IN GAMEWEEK 1
| Total (rank v other FPL players in GW1) | |
| Shots | 8 (1st) |
| Shots in the box | 5 (2nd) |
| Chances created | 7 (1st) |
| Successful crosses | 5 (1st=) |
| Final-third touches | 48 (5th) |
| Non-pen expected goal involvement (NPxGI) | 0.92 (9th) |
Eze is the third most-sold midfielder of Gameweek 2 but that seems like knee-jerkery of the highest order following Saturday’s blank, looking at those underlying numbers. A tricky fixture against Arsenal does come next, granted, but Wolves, Forest and Fulham have all got to go to Selhurst Park before the second international break.
The lack of a clinical centre-forward is obviously a downside to any creative Palace asset, with no-one reliable to turn those key passes into assists. Even Odsonne Edouard (£5.5m) couldn’t miss a tap-in from Jordan Ayew‘s (£5.5m) excellent cross, however, one of six shots that the budget FPL forward had.
The signing of combative midfielder Jefferson Lerma (£5.0m) will be a boost to Palace’s clean-sheet prospects based on Saturday’s evidence – we’ll see how much he can suffocate Arsenal’s attackers next Monday after this gimme of a shut-out at Bramall Lane.
“He was outstanding – outstanding. He is an outstanding player, really good. He was everywhere – all over the field. Defensively he was excellent, and he also had a really good game going forwards. He must have been really happy with his debut and his day’s work.” – Roy Hodgson on Jefferson Lerma
POSITIVES TO TAKE
We’ll be looking closely at all of the bargain-bin starters of Gameweek 1 in a separate article, many of whom play for Luton and Sheffield United.
But Will Osula (£4.5m) was a bright spark up front for the Blades, going close twice, while George Baldock (£4.0m) had a strong showing at right wing-back.
Luton’s Carlton Morris (£5.5m) looks like a real handful, too, scoring from the spot, while defender Ryan Giles (£4.5m) took all seven of the corners that the Hatters won.
“Yeah it is [a sign of how far off the squad is without any signings]. It’s obvious but it’s not the story. The story is that’s what we have got at the minute. We have signed a couple more players. Vinie [Souza] came on, Gus [Hamer] is in the building. It’s a reflection of where we are that we need to start getting bodies in and we will do.” – Paul Heckingbottom
“We made a couple of clear errors in the build-up to the third goal and we got punished, and at this level you do get punished. It shows the ruthless nature of the league, as just before at 2-0 down, we made some aggressive changes, we got back into the game.
“But I want to say that there’s some positives there. There were some really good moments in the first half. We carried out a gameplan very well, we were compact, resilient and retained a real threat on the counter attack.
“We had some good moments from set-pieces that I would like us to be more clinical in, so overall, yes some good stuff, but we’ve got to learn and we’ve got to learn quickly in certain areas.” – Rob Edwards
