The opening weekend of the 2024/25 Premier League season produced a number of thrills and spills. The Fantasy Premier League (FPL) users have gone through a surge of emotions in the first game-week itself, with certain results bringing major results and also some prominent disappointments.
The game-week 1 has proven to be a great one for goal-scoring midfielders, but not so much for some ‘locked on’ FPL regulars. Here we give a review of the winners and losers of game-week one.
Winners
Mohamed Salah
Salah continued his trend of starting a Premier League campaign strongly. With a goal and assist to fire Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Ipswich Town, the Egyptian FPL king picked up 14 points. He’s already leading the pack in terms of most points picked up in FPL.
Despite his £12.5m price, Salah’s proving to be well worth the money for the 34.5m users who picked him – especially for those who captained him!
Bukayo Saka
The person fighting to match Salah’s goal feat this season is Arsenal man Bukayo Saka. The Englishman bewildered the Wolves backline with his energetic performance proved to be the difference-maker for his side.
He was a thorn for the Toffees backline and capitalized on their lapses perfectly. Welbeck scored and assisted to get a 12 points FPL return, ousting the higher-picked Joao Pedro (who gave two points) spectacularly and rewarding the 1.6% players to have faith in him.
Nick Pope
Newcastle United goalkeeper Nick Pope spectacularly silenced the FPL users who doubted his ability after coming off a lengthy injury setback. The Englishman was the star of the show for a 10-man Newcastle side to help them keep a clean sheet.
He made three saves, earned two bonus points to get a nine-point haul for his 6.9% teams. One to look for teams aiming to switch up their goalkeepers.
Losers
Ollie Watkins
Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins actually earned more points than any other forward in the 2023/24 FPL campaign. So it’s no surprise that 35% of users picked him from the get-go. They ended up being bitterly disappointed in game-week one.
Watkins had little influence in Villa’s win over West Ham United, being unable to get among any of the two goals. A two-point return for a £9m forward can be gutting for the managers who trusted him.
Cole Palmer
With a 36.6% pick rate, Palmer is the highest-picked midfielder in FPL right now. But he failed to cash in on the hype around him in Chelsea’s 2-0 loss to Manchester City on the opening weekend.
Palmer failed to create anything, nor did he come close to testing Ederson. He finished with a meager two point return, particularly sad for FPL users considering how much more Salah and Saka scored.
Eberechi Eze
Eberechi Eze had an eventful outing in Crystal Palace’s loss to Brentford on opening week. He actually scored a really clever free-kick that was ruled out. He even had an assist robbed as another goal from the Eagles was ruled out.
He couldn’t create or score any goals and his 2 point return is a major disappointment for the 33.4% managers who picked him. It’s particularly gutting when you count how the £7.5m Diogo Jota, only £0.5m higher than him, bagged eight points.
Jarrell Quansah & Valentin Barco
In the hunt for ‘cheap’ defenders, two FPL favorites that emerged before the first game-week were Brighton full-back Valentin Barco and Liverpool defender Jarrell Quansah. There was a lot of hype that they’d be extremely value for money and bag big points for their low price.
The £4m Barco, picked by over 23% managers, didn’t get a minute of football. The 6% of managers that trusted Quansah only got a one point return as he was hooked at half-time following a poor performance against Ipswich Town.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.