The international break is finally over, and I won't have to watch Lithuania play for at least a couple more months. That's a victory already! However, let's focus on more important things now - the Premier League is back tomorrow with an exciting opener between the London Chelsea and Manchester United. I do have 5 players from those teams on my fantasy, so I guess the first match will determine my performance of the week. What do I expect? Hazard to score twice, Kepa to save a couple of penalty shots, and Pogba to score twice as well. What do I really expect? I don't think it will be a high scoring game, so if I had to guess I would go for 1:1 or 1:0 in Chelsea's favor.
Other matches this week are not that interesting, but we will still have a clash between two this year's surprises, the Wolves and Watford. In other stadiums, the London Arsenal will try to continue their 6 win streak by defeating the Leicester, while the Hammers will do their best to take advantage of the Tottenham's current situation. The City and Liverpool fans might sit comfortably this week as both teams play against bottom-table teams and should easily clinch 3 points.
My team
After a decent last week, I am back to the top 10 in the Scorum league, which is already a great result. I am only 40 points away from the first place, so all I need is Alderweireld to score a hat-trick. Why shouldn't he? Please, don't answer, it's a rhetorical question.
Let's get back to the business:
New guys
Milner got injured so I had to let him go and get Hojbjerg instead. I won't pretend that I know the guy, but he cost me 4.5 million, and he already scored twice this season. Of course, the Southampton suck and will probably have to fight hard to stay in the Premier League, but having a sub who plays and even scores sometimes is a great deal. I couldn't ignore it. Also, I couldn't find anyone I like for 5.7 million... I thought about Neves but did not want to stack my team with Wolves' players.
Wan-Bissaka's career on my team was short-lived. I was stupid to get him in the first place because the Crystal Palace play 4 out of their 5 upcoming matches against the top 6 teams. Nothing personal, Wan-Bissaka, it's just business. To replace Wan-Bissaka, I jumped on Doherty's hype. The guy only cost 4.7 million and plays as a midfielder in a top 10 team of the league.
On top of that, the Wolves have shown that they are pretty great at defending, so I couldn't ignore Doherty. That said, I hate to buy players who recently overperformed because those good runs don't last forever. So, FOMO'ing is only good when you know exactly what you are doing.
Goalkeepers
Both my goalkeepers play against Manchester teams. That is not great. Of course, I will stick with Kepa, but I am not convinced that he will be able to keep the clean sheet.
Defenders
Alexander-Arnold worries me a lot. It's not like he is a bad player, but he might lose his starting position to Lovren. In the game against the Man City, Klopp decided to push Gomez to the right and play Lovren and Van Dijk as centre-backs. The only positive thing for Alexander-Arnold is that Lovren did not look great. However, if I see Gomez-Lovren-Van Dijk-Robertson formation repeat for a couple more times, I might need to get rid of Alexander-Arnold. That would be a shame because he is a real deal for 5.1 million.
Alderweireld is going to score a hat-trick, mark my words. Even if he doesn't, I would love to believe that the Spurs are capable of defending their goal against the Hammers, the most unpredictable team in the league. To be honest, if I had any better options to play, I would leave Alderwereld on the bench. Sadly, neither Luiz nor Shaw look more reliable this week.
Midfielders
I won't lie, I wanted to give Hojbjerg a chance. I still do. However, my sanity tells me not to risk losing potential points when it's not needed.
Pogba wasn't my best purchase, but I still believe in him, especially after the Manchester United pulled a massive comeback against the Newcastle. Of course, Pogba won't be a favorite to collect a lot of points this week and Pogba's goal would make Kepa lose points, but this ugly situation is still the best I could get this week.
Hazard is unstoppable. I don't care if he plays against aliens, I'll still bet on him scoring at least once. Of course, his form won't last forever, but until then, Hazard is one of the most secure players on my team. The only thing is that I cannot captain him this week because I still have a little respect left for the MU.
Richarlison might become the centre-forward in the Everton because it looks like Tosun has lost Marco Silva's trust after a terrible start of the season. That is a great sign for everyone who owns Richarlison. The young Brazilian is slowly becoming the key player of the Everton, and it's only a matter of time until he becomes a regular in the Brazil national football team.
Schurle remains my dark horse. Very few managers own this guy, and I don't understand why - he is 1 million cheaper than Mitrovic but plays just as good. Of course, in the long run, Mitrovic will score more goals, but Schurle's goals are more valuable, and there are also other good and cheap forwards to replace Mitrovic, whereas I don't see any better midfielders for under 6 million to take Schurle's spot. That is why I think that Schurle is the best player to have on your fantasy team from Fulham.
Forwards
I was stupid enough to bench King last week when he scored 14 points. Not doing the same mistake again. I don't know what happened with the Bournemouth during the summer, but they are still on fire. It's always a smart choice to own forwards from attacking teams, and the Bournemouth is one of the most attacking teams in the league. Also, King only costs 6.3 million, making him one of the cheapest quality forwards in the league. Of course, he won't be scoring bracelets every week, but he brings a lot of value to my team.
Lacazette has won the competitive battle for the centre-forward position against Aubameyang. I am happy that I bought Lacazette a few weeks ago when people were still skeptical about the Arsenal. Oh, wait... they still are. Anyway, Lacazette is the best player of the Arsenal this season, hands down. It would be a crime to sell Lacazette now (I might need to sell him later to buy Firmino, though).
Aguero scores every time I want to sell him, so I think I'll just stick with him for a couple more rounds. It looks like Jesus is not in form at the moment, so we don't need to worry about Aguero not starting the game. The only thing I don't like is that the City will have to play 2 out of their 4 upcoming games against the top 6 teams. That said, selling Aguero (if I decide to do that) will be the hardest decision of the season.
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