Fantasy Football Advice – Early Season Fixture Analysis

With no form to go off at the start of a new season (friendlies aside), fixtures take on an added level of importance. We’ve taken a look at some of the sides with the best and worst first six gameweeks ahead of the start of the campaign.

Fixtures have been split into attacking and defensive strength. Teams are in no particular order. This could help you pick your Premier League Fantasy Football starting team for the opening weeks of the season.

Of course, there is no guarantee that the teams who are expected to have easier fixtures will manage to rack up a lot of goals and clean sheets, but this might give you the edge in your mini-leagues or the FanTeam €1,000,000 cash league.

 

Strong Attacking Fixtures

Which teams look to have fixtures where their attacking players will rack up early FPL points this season?

 

Leicester – WBA (A), BUR (H), MCI (A), WHU (H), AVL (H), ARS (A)

We kick things off with Leicester who have one of the kindest opening schedules both in an attacking sense and defensively. West Ham and Aston Villa conceded the most goals of any sides to survive last season, whilst newly-promoted West Brom are arguably the weakest side to come up.

 

Manchester United – BLANK, CRY (H), BHA (A), TOT (H), NEW (A), CHE (H)

Despite starting with a blank Gameweek 1, Manchester United have a very strong set of opening fixtures. Crystal Palace, Brighton, and Newcastle were far from the worst defences in the league but each conceded 50+ goals last season. As far as top-six sides go, Tottenham and Chelsea were poor defensively, conceding 47 and 54 goals respectively.

 

Southampton – CRY (A), TOT (H), BUR (A), WBA (H), CHE (A), EVE (H)

The Saints round off our top attacking fixtures. Danny Ings and Che Adams come up against the 7^th, 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, and 13^th best defensive Premier League sides in terms of goals against last season. Throw in West Brom for a set of solid opening games to the campaign.

 

Weak Attacking Fixtures

These are players you probably want to avoid in the opening gameweeks of the 2020/21 FPL season. Matches against tough opposition is likely to mean their attacking players struggle to give points returns in some or all of these fixtures.

 

Leeds – LIV (A), FUL (H), SHU (A), MCI (H), WOL (H), AVL (A)

It’s a rough return to England’s top-flight for Leeds. Needless to say, Liverpool and Manchester City are extremely tough to break down. To make matters worse, Sheffield United and Wolves ranked 4^th and 5^th for goals conceded last season. Fulham and Aston Villa may be Leeds’ saving grace.

 

Manchester City – BLANK, WOL (A), LEI (H), LEE (A), ARS (H), WHU (A)

Placing Manchester City is a list of weak attacking fixtures comes with one very big caveat – they’re Manchester City. Nonetheless, a blank followed directly by games against the 5^th and 6^th best defences for goals against isn’t an ideal start.

 

West Brom – LEI (H), EVE (A), CHE (H), SOU (A), BUR (H), BHA (A)

Perhaps not as tough as fellow newly-promoted side Leeds, West Brom still have a difficult start to life in the Premier League. Their opening game is against Leicester, who kept the joint-third most clean sheets, two fewer than West Brom’s Gameweek 5 opponents, Burnley. Their other fixtures are more reasonable, facing 11^th, 12^th, 13^th, and 15^th for goals against last season.

 

West Ham – NEW (H), ARS (A), WOL (H), LEI (A), TOT (A), MCI (H)

The Hammers have easily the worst run of fixtures on paper, and in truth, they extend beyond Gameweek 6 with Liverpool just a week later. From an attacking perspective, Antonio and co. may struggle against five of last season’s top eight sides for goals against. At least there’s Newcastle.

Read More: How to navigate the blank gameweek 1 for Man City & Man United.

 

Strong Defensive Fixtures

Looking for defenders to add into your FPL team this season? You’ll want to get off to a good start with some clean sheets and these are the teams who look most likely to see their players pick up defensive points.

 

Chelsea – BHA (A), LIV (H), WBA (A), CRY(H), SOU (H), MUN (A)

No doubt Chelsea have a couple of tough games in Liverpool and Manchester United but others should make up for that. Brighton scored just 39 goals last season, whilst Crystal Palace’s 31 goals was the second-worst return in the division. West Brom were the joint-second highest Championship scorers, three behind Brentford.

 

Fulham – ARS (H), LEE (A), AVL (H), WOL (A), SHU (A), CRY (H)

Chelsea’s West London neighbours, Fulham, return to the Premier League with a reasonably strong opening schedule. Aston Villa scored just 41, Sheffield United 39, and Crystal Palace 31 times during the 2019/20 Premier League season. Promoted Leeds further boosts Fulham’s early fixtures.

 

Leicester – WBA (A), BUR (H), MCI (A), WHU (H), AVL (H), ARS (A)

As previously mentioned, Leicester’s fixtures are also strong in a defensive sense. The play three sides who rank between 10^th and 13^th for goals scored in the Premier League last season, as well as West Brom in the first five games. It certainly looks promising on paper.

 

Manchester United – BLANK, CRY (H), BHA (A), TOT (H), NEW (A), CHE (H)

Also making a second appearance is Manchester United. Their defensive prospects are rather strong despite facing a blank, Tottenham, and Chelsea in their first six. The other three games come against three of last season’s bottom-six PL scorers. Two of those bottom six went down.

 

Tottenham – EVE (H), SOU (A), NEW (H), MUN (A), WHU (H), BUR (A)

Spurs kick-off their season with a rather strong set of opening fixtures, particularly from a defensive standpoint. Tottenham face just one top-six side and three bottom-half sides for goals scored. Southampton and West Ham make up the rest of their first six games.

 

Wolves – SHU (A), MCI (H), WHU (A), FUL (H), LEE (A), NEW (H)

Rounding off a fairly lengthy list of strong defensive fixtures is Wolves. Two newly-promoted sides, two of last season’s bottom five Premier League scorers, and West Ham make for a mouth-watering set of fixtures. Wolves may well have the strongest defensive fixtures of the lot.

Read More: Cash league for Fantasy Football this season.

 

Weak Defensive Fixtures

Leeds look to be a side to avoid in the early weeks of the season. They are unlikely to score many defensive points in their opening five fixtures and both them and West Ham are two teams you should probably avoiding using in your defence.

 

Leeds  – LIV (A), FUL (H), SHU (A), MCI (H), WOL (H), AVL (A)

Things don’t look much rosier for Leeds from a defensive point of view. Manchester City and Liverpool were far and away the Premier League’s best scoring sides. Once again, there’s some respite from their other fixtures but Wolves shouldn’t be underestimated.

 

West Ham – NEW (H), ARS (A), WOL (H), LEI (A), TOT (A), MCI (H)

If anything, these fixtures look worse from a defensive standpoint. Manchester City scored over 100 Premier League goals last season, Leicester managed 67, Tottenham 61, Arsenal 56, and Wolves 51. At least there’s Newcastle.

 

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