Gameweek 1 of the Fantasy Premier League has come and gone, and the final scores are now out. It was an incredible weekend of English football which was filled with every type of emotion.
From the first kick-off on Friday night when Arsenal travelled the short distance to Brentford Community Stadium, to the top-six battle between Spurs and Manchester City on Sunday, no game went without a goal or winner and loser – no team shared points on Premier League opening day.
Some fixtures went as planned while others shocked us to our core; what more could we ask for on the return to EPL action!
In this article, I will examine all of the fixtures that took place in GW1 and take a look at the top 5 in both the categories; best performers and the biggest disappointments of GW1.
Bruno Fernandes (MANCHESTER UNITED)
Mo Salah in 2020, Bruno Fernandes in 2021: the one thing in common about the two attackers is, both were doubted by many on being overpriced in the preseason but the pair have both scored a hat-trick in GW1 to prove that their price tags were fair. Salah last season and Bruno this week.
Bruno scored 3 goals from an xG of 0.6 but scored 3 times, which showed his clinical finishing making him the best performer of the first week. He scored a total of 20 points.
Mohamed Salah (LIVERPOOL)
Mr Consisten started this year off where he left off in 2020/21, scoring one and assisting 2 in Liverpools comfortable 3-0 victory over Norwich City.
Salah scored a total of 17 points in Gameweek1 being the second-highest point scorer this week. The Egyptian King accumulated an xGi of 1.11, which sets him up as one of the best players in GW1.
Paul Pogba (MANCHESTER UNITED)
Pogba has been regarded by many as a player who is amazing in real life but not a good FPL asset as most times he assists the assister – aka – having the pass before the assist most times.
But in one of the biggest surprises of Gameweek 1, Pogba accumulated a massive 4 assists in one game against Leeds coming up as the third-highest point scorer of the week with 16 points, rewarding the less than 10% of owners that trusted going with him from the start.
Saïd Benrahma (WEST HAM UNITED)
West Ham lost Jese Lingard who was one of the biggest influencers in their amazing 6th place finish. Benrahma slotted into the no. 10 role seamlessly against Newcastle with 1 goal and 1 assist, becoming a surprise package and an amazing differential for the 5% who decided to punt on him, with a 12 point haul.
Michail Antonio (WEST HAM UNITED)
Along with his teammate at West Ham, Antonio also had an amazing game against Newcastle although he missed a penalty he scored 1 goal and assisted 2 others (1 was an FPL assist), racking up the highest xGi (Expected Goal Involvement) in GW1 with 1.97 and also garnering 13 FPL points.
FPL’s Biggest Disappointments of GW1
Kai Havertz (CHELSEA)
Many expected Havertz to be one of the top scorers of GW1 facing a Crystal palace side touted for relegation. But Chelsea’s manager Thomas Tuchel decided to rotate him and Havertz got a massive 0 pointer in the first week of the season, proving the biggest disappointment of the first week of the season.
Jack Grealish (MANCHESTER CITY)
Man City’s new £100 million player Jack Grealish had an average game against Spurs, looking really good completing a lot of dribbles and drawing a lot of fouls but did not have a good game FPL wise as he hardly looked a good goal threat.
With Pep known to rotate his players, Grealish is one player who disappointed me and I would look to avoid him in the future.
Raphinha (LEEDS UNITED)
Raphinha had one of his worst games as a Leeds player against Man United in GW1. He had an xGi of 0.40 of which 0.30 was from a big chance that he missed surprisingly. Raphinha also picked up a yellow card in the dying moments of the game capping off a bad afternoon with only 1 FPL point.
Emiliano Martínez (ASTON VILLA)
The highest scoring keeper of last year and the highest owned goalkeeper in the game, Martinez, faced newly-promoted Watford in GW1 and a clean sheet looked highly probable. But Aston Villa were played off the park by Watford losing 3-2 to the newly-promoted team and Martinez only scored 2 points (1 extra point as he completed 3 saves).
Harvey Barnes (LEICESTER CITY)
The Leicester winger was one of the favorites last year in FPL before he suffered an injury that ruled him out for the rest of the season.
There was a decent amount of hype surrounding Barnes going into the Wolves games but after not scoring and being substituted after 70 minutes, there is a worry about his minutes. His game time is a worry going forward.