The premier league is back. This post should have come a couple days ago, but that doesn't matter. Premier league football is back. No more boring weekends where I just lay around wondering what I should be doing at that moment. I finally have a reason to put on the TV again.
Gameweek one didn't fail to deliver as all the games were full of excitement, we had one or two unexpected results as is becoming the norm in the premier league. It looks like there's no longer any small team in the league (except Manchester United XD). You could see the intensity in the games and it was clear they weren't friendlies anymore.
The gameweek started off on Friday with Crystal Palace vs Assnal. Assnal dominated the first half and palace dominated the second, but equal domination did not mean equal goals as assnal won the game 2-0. Goals from Gabriel Jesús Martinelli, and an own goal from Marc guehi off Bukayo Saka's shot.
Saturday started with a very interesting Fulham vs Liverpool game. Everyone, I included, expected Liverpool to blow Fulham away, but surprisingly Fulham matched Liverpool and even outplayed them for large parts of the game. Mitrovic gave Fulham a half time lead only for Nunez to come off the bench and score a brilliant equalizer. Mitrovic would then dribble Van Dijk, win and score a penalty. But then Salah came in clutch and saved the day (and my fpl) with a tap in off a Nunez mistake pass.
Tottenham Hotspur beat Southampton 4-1 thanks to a Harry Kane Dejan Kulusevski and heu ming son Ryan Sessegnon masterclass.
Newcastle comfortably beat Nottingham forest 2-0, Leeds came from behind to beat Wolves 2-1, and Bournemouth shocked Aston villa and beat them 2-0, showing them that the newly promoted sides are not joking around this season.
Chelsea (current champions of the world) clinched a 1-0 win against Everton at Goodison Park thanks to a Jorginho penalty. The main standout performer was Thiago Silva, but there were little bright sparks among the new signings, majorly Koulibaly, Sterling, and even Cucurella who only played in the closing moments of the game.
On Sunday Leicester bottled a 2-0 lead and drew 2-2 against Brentford, while unsurprisingly Brighton beat Manchester United 2-1 on Eric Ten Haag's first premier league game even though they were at old Trafford. Brighton raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to a Pascal Gross brace and were in control for much of the game, but towards the end Man U had a late charge and forced a MacAllister own goal.
The final game of the gameweek was West ham vs Manchester city and as expected Manchester city beat West Ham very comfortably. They Won 2-0, both goals coming from their latest oil big money signing Erling Haaland. He's a real talent, and it looks like he may bag lots of goals this season.
MY FPL TEAM
My fpl team for this gameweek was bang average. I got 59 points and the average score is 57.
The major reason I'm pissed with my first week is because if I'd stuck with my first draft, which I shared in this post I'd have gotten more points
The major thing I did was swap Jesus for Haaland, which then gave me more money which I spread around to a certain extent. In the end I regret my decision as Jesús wasn't able to find the net or drop an assist giving just 2 points, and Haaland scored twice bagging 13 pints. I also chose Mason Mount the ghost over kulusevski (cause of rotation), and saka, who both performed better.
In the end, I know not to be too hard on myself. It's fpl after all, there's always going to be regrets. And besides it's just the first gameweek, there's still a long way to go. At the moment I'm just going to make sure I keep within touching distance of the top team in the @hivefpl league, which at the moment is 88 points.
For this next gameweek I'm looking for a chance to bring haaland back in. I'm not prepared to take a - 4 points deduction, or use my wildcard yet, so I'm going to do it slowly. I sold mount for a cheaper midfielder (hoping this doesn't come back to bite me). The only problem now is Haaland's price has increased a little, so I may have to wait a little bit, but let's see what happens.
If you ever feel like discussing football, join us in the hivefpl discord. Thanks for reading.