Fantasy Football Predictions and Tips for Game Week 1 2018/19 – Fly out the blocks with attack

The new Premier League season starts on Friday when Manchester United host Leicester City and we have locked in our first Premier League Fantasy Football line-up for the gameweek 1 fixtures. 

There are some doubts over a few players as to whether they’ll start their teams matches this weekend after returning late from the World Cup, and with transfers still to be completed we need to be careful not to have any players who are subject to bids. The team we have selected below is now locked in and we’re focusing on the attack of Firminho and Aguero to fire us up the Fantasy League tables early.

 

Fantasy Football Predictions – Goalkeepers

We have gone with Arsenal’s Leno for the first set of fixtures. He has a tough match first up against Manchester City but at £5.0m he could be a strong option for the season. He’ll play ahead of Petr Cech in the Arsenal goal. The Gunners play Chelsea in gameweek 3 before a favourable run of West Ham, Cardiff, Newcastle, Everton, Watford, Fulham and Leicester.

The substitute goalkeeper is Boruc at £4.0 who isn’t expected to play but we can transfer him for an alternative if needs be as there is £1.5m still in the bank.

 

Fantasy Football Predictions – Defenders

We’ve gone for a mixed bag of premium defenders and cheaper alternatives for the bench here. Kyle Walker and Jan Vertonghen are the two premium choices and Alexander-Arnold goes in at £5.0m. That will be the starting back 3 with bargain basement Fantasy Footy tip Wan-Bissaka in from Crystal Palace and Sol Babma from Leicester completing the five Fantasy Football defender tips for Gameweek 1 this season. Man City, Tottenham and Liverpool all have relatively easy starts to the season across the first nine gameweeks and Crystal Palace only have one ‘red’ fixture in that run too.

 

Fantasy Football Predictions – Midfield

This is where we’ve tried to select players who are both sure to start in gameweek 1, and also give us the option to transfer if needs be. Alexis Sanchez is the prime example of this – there is doubts whether Romelu Lukaku will be fit to start after only returning to training last weekend so Sanchez could be used as a striker against Leicester on Friday night. Given his £10.5m transfer fee he can be easily transferred out after a couple of weeks if he’s not getting into attacking positions for the likes of Kevin De Bruyne or Christian Eriksen.

See our Manchester United vs Leicester betting tips for the Friday Night Fixture.

Everton’s new signing Richarlison will start and he scored in pre-season. He’ll want to make a big impression and has chances to do so against Wolves, Southampton, Bournemouth, Huddersfield and West Ham in the first five Fantasy Footy gameweeks.

Guardiola heaped praise on Bernardo Silva after the Community Shield win over Chelsea so he should become a regular starter for Man City this season and he will get his fare share of assists and goals. A tough start away at Arsenal is compensated by six matches where Man City will be expected to win, and score plenty.

Arsenal look like they’ll be a different team this season and a front three of Mkhitaryan, Lacazette and Aubameyang is to be feared. We’ve selected Mkhitaryan in our Fantasy Football gameweek 1 tips because it is unknown whether Lacazette or Aubameyang will play as the central striker so Mkhi is surely a good thing as a midfielder who will play high and attacking on the right.

Fulham’s Tom Cairney completes the midfield at just £5.0m. He is exactly the type of budget midfielder you need to compensate for the more expensive players and he could chip in with a few goals and assists this season. Sari, Mitrovic and Schurrle are expected to get the goals and Cairney will be the creator in behind. A home game against Crystal Palace kicks off Fulham’s season so Cairney gets into our starting line-up ahead of Everton’s Cenk Tosun.

 

Fantasy Football Predictions – Attackers

We are hardly reinventing the wheel with our attacking front two in this starting line-up for gameweek 1, but Sergio Aguero has to be in the side following his two goals against Chelsea in the Community Shield, and Firmino still comes in at a nice price despite the guarantee of goals and assists he gives. If Jesus starts getting into the team ahead of Aguero we have the options of Lukaku or Aubameyang at the same price, or Kane for just £1.5m more.

Everton forward Cenk Tosun looks like the ideal selection for a third striker, especially given the good run of opening fixtures Everton have. He is fairly priced at £7.0m and a supply line of Richarlison, Sigurdsson and Walcott with potential new signing Bernard involved as well, Tosun will certainly be expected to bag his fair share of goals this season.

 

Fantasy Football Tips – Starting Line-up for Gameweek 1

The line-up for gameeweek 1 is locked in as a 3-5-2 formation. The only change we may make before Manchester United vs Leicester kicks-off is the change of Tosun in for Cairney to make it a 3-4-3. Everton have a tricky opening match at home to Wolves where Tosun might struggle for chances whereas Fulham start at home to Crystal Palace and they’ll expect to win that.

 

Fantasy Football Captain for Gameweek 1

Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino is going to be the Thatsagoal FC captain for Gameweek 1 at home to West Ham. Liverpool will be expected to fly out the blocks and the striker will be fully fit after only playing a bit-part in Brazil;s World Cup campaign. The front three of Salah, Firmino and Mane were back starrting togther in pre-season and we’re expecting at least a goal from Firmino in gameweek 1.

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