⚽ FPL Gameweek 2 Tips

👋 Hello 👋

After an eventful Gameweek 1, it’s time to start looking ahead to Gameweek 2.

Gameweek 2 deadline = 18:15 UK time, Friday 18 August.

 🔥 Gameweek 2 - Hot Topics 🔥

De Bruyne Injury

According to Pep Guardiola, Man City are going to lose Kevin De Bruyne (£10.4m) for “months”.

If you’re an owner then there’s lots of players you can move to given he’s the second most expensive midfielder in the game.

With Bournemouth (h) this week a move for Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) could be interesting - I’d only go for it if you can get to him in one to two moves (preferably one).

Outside of that the top option is probably still Bukayo Saka (£8.6m). He’s already off the mark with a fantastic goal against Nottingham Forest, and has Palace (a), Fulham (h), and Everton (a) to come in the next four Gameweeks.

If you want to free up cash then Bryan Mbeumo (£6.5m) is an excellent choice.

In terms of other Man City players, you would assume that the minutes of both Phil Foden (£7.5m) and Julián Álvarez (£6.5m) will go up off the back of this.

I don’t think either becomes essential straight away, but they’re worth monitoring. Bear in mind that Man City played in the Super Cup last night and have their next game on Saturday - not a huge amount of rest. Plus it’s a Newcastle team that just smashed Aston Villa 5-1, it won’t be easy for City.

The transfer window doesn’t shut until Gameweek 4 either. I wouldn’t put it past Man City signing another 1-2 players before it closes, and those players could easily compete for minutes with Foden and Álvarez.

Man United Attacking Woes

Hopefully you didn’t put yourself through watching Man United vs Wolves in Gameweek 1, if you did - I’m sorry you had to go through that.

It really was pretty bad.

That being said, FPL players don’t suddenly become bad overnight and for now I’d keep faith with both Marcus Rashford (£9.0m) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m).

Under Ange Postecoglou the Spurs team certainly look a bit more exciting, but as we saw against Brentford their defence is still penetrable. Man United also have Nottingham Forest (h) in Gameweek 3 so there’s no rush to remove these two for now.

James Maddison - Essential?

Essential? Probably not.

But….

James Maddison (£7.5m) did impress against Brentford returning two assists.

His involvement in that game is pretty much what we were expecting - involved in everything Spurs did going forward.

This season lots of players are accessible due to the pricing so I don’t think many will be classed as “set and forget”, but Maddison certainly looks like he’ll continue to tick over with points on a regular basis when fit and available.

One of those that you don’t necessarily want to hold through bad fixtures, but if you had to it wouldn’t be a huge concern.

Gabriel - What to do?

Maybe the biggest surprise of Gameweek 1 was Gabriel (£5.0m) being benched for Arsenal. According to Mikel Arteta it was a tactical decision and not injury related.

Since then there is some speculation that he might be sold, but I feel like people are putting 2 and 2 together and ending up at 5.

For FPL I think owners can hold tight and see what happens against Palace (a) in Gameweek 2. With the long term injury to Jurriën Timber (£4.9m) it may mean Gabriel sees the minutes we had expected him to get anyway.

Unless you moved early for Ben Chilwell (£5.6m), or have lots of money in the bank, that move probably can’t be completed with one transfer, so I’d just wait and reassess in Gameweek 3.

If you’re keen to move him on then Reece James (£5.5m) is an option if you have £0.5m spare.

There’s not too many other defenders I’d feel in a rush to get this week around his price.

📈 Transfer Activity 📉

Alexander Isak (£7.6m) was the first player to rise in price this season. He has 421,280 new FPL owners since Gameweek 1.

This isn’t a transfer I understand. The next three fixtures are Man City (a), Liverpool (h), Brighton (a). We know how good Newcastle were last season, and that’s likely to be the case again this year - but they still aren’t fixtures I’d want to be targeting.

Isak also came off on the 67th minute because in Callum Wilson (£8.0m), Eddie Howe has a ready made replacement. So with reduced minutes, bad fixtures, and Champions League starting up after Gameweek 5, I’d avoid for now.

Chilwell is another popular player this week - 408.470 new owners. I think he looked great in pre-season and continued that into the game against Liverpool in Gameweek 1.

Mauricio Pochettino said it was a back 4 and Chilwell was playing left wing, although to be honest it looked like a back 3 with wing-backs to me.

Either way Chilwell is going to be super attacking in a left back, left wing-back or left wing role - he’s a great transfer in, especially with Chelsea’s ridiculous upcoming fixture run.

With Tyrone Mings (£4.5m) facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines it’s no surprise he’s been removed by 388,083 FPL managers.

At £4.5m there’s a few other defenders you could look at. If you need someone to play most weeks in the short term I’d go for Rico Henry (£4.5m) who looked great against Spurs.

Someone like Destiny Udogie (£4.5m) has Man United (h) this week but great fixtures Gameweek 3-5, and also covers the bad fixtures for Pervis Estupiñán (£5.1m) pretty well. Alternatively I’d look at Sven Botman (£4.5m). He’s not great for the next 3 Gameweeks, but after that people are going to want Newcastle defenders and he should be nailed on.

👑 Captaincy 👑

For most people this week the decision will be between Erling Haaland (£14.0m) and Salah.

If you own Salah the choice is surely fairly straightforward? One of the reasons to own him from the start was because of this game against Bournemouth (h).

He may have only returned one assist against Chelsea (a) in Gameweek 1 but he also hit the bar and was a few centimeters away from scoring another that was ruled out for offside.

It’s scary going against Haaland’s ownership, I fully understand that - it’s part of the reason I didn’t even include Salah in my squad. But this is one of the best opportunities early on to go against the crowd. Looking at the fixtures between the two moving forward, the next opportunity might not be until Gameweek 9.

What’s the worst that can happen anyway?

I know there’s some worry about Haaland following the Super Cup game against Sevilla, both because of the lack of involvement and the lack of rest ahead of Saturday.

I’m not sure I’d be too concerned though. Man City always find a way, even without De Bruyne, and Haaland at home is almost a guarantee of some kind of points….usually anyway.

If you want to look for an alternate option then you can’t go far wrong with someone like Saka against Palace (a).

There’s also Ollie Watkins (£8.0m) against Everton (h). Everton were the second worst team last season for expected goals conceded. It begs the question, why did I choose Jordan Pickford (£4.5m) in my opening squad? We’ll come onto that in a minute…

But for Watkins it’s a great fixture and we saw in Gameweek 1 that Everton are still going to give up plenty of chances.

💪 My Team 💪

After 80 points in Gameweek 1 and an overall rank of 710,070 I’m pretty happy with how things started.

Pickford may end up being a decision I regret but I couldn’t turn down the rotation with Matt Turner (£4.0m) who I’m playing this week because of the fixture.

Because I don’t own Salah my captaincy will be on Haaland. I am a little worried about the damage Salah could do against Bournemouth, but I’m still hopeful that long term the squad I selected will do better - fingers crossed!

For most people it’s not worth using a transfer in Gameweek 2, although there is part of me tempted to do William Saliba (£5.1m) to James. It’s not that Saliba is a bad option, far from it in fact, I just love James. When he’s fit and available (which granted isn’t often), his potential in FPL is huge.

Ultimately I will probably just roll the transfer and give myself some more thinking time, but it’s seriously tempting.

Although most of my squad has away games this week, they pretty much all have good home games the week after so no panic there.

My A.I suggested transfers from Fantasy Football Hub is Gabriel Martinelli (£8.0m) to Maddison.

This is a move that I’m considering, but probably not this week. Martinelli has Palace (a) followed by Fulham (h) - as long as he’s still getting minutes in those games I want to keep him.

To check out your suggested transfers just click here (#ad affiliate link).

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