FPL went live last year on Tuesday 19th July. The first tweet that mentioned it going live is confirmed at 10.19am BST. I know it went alive just after 10.15am BST as I too happened to refresh the game at that time and managed to register early, hence grabbing a very low ID number which just affirmed my addicition.
TIP: If you manage to refresh the FPL URL at the correct date/time and see the game going live and wish to attain a low ID, fill in your details super fast and hit auto-pick so your team is quickly selected with your ID instantly registered. Also reactivate your league(s) quickly. The dream sequence would be having a personal ID of less than two integers and a league with less than two integers so that when you invite people to your league it will only contain two integers in total, thus being easy to remember - as well as aeshetically pleasing.
Conclusion:
I may be wrong and this blog post may become outdated in a few days' time, but I'm certain FPL will launch during the morning of Monday 10th July. At the very latest, if FPL Towers experience last minute bugs or have to do more testing it will probably then go live on Tuesday 11th July. My theory is that it was meant to go live on Monday 18th July last year, but they had to carry out last minute checks because a new development agency was involved in retweaking it. It's being launched earlier this year as there is no major football tournament taking place this summer and they're probaby more familarised with the code. So there you have it.
Well
they weren't gone for too long. After just one season away from the
Premier League, Newcastle United are back in the big time, after
finishing champions of the Championship in dramatic fashion, taking over
Brighton on the last day of the season.
Newcastle won their final home match
against Barnsley comfortably (3-0), whilst Brighton suffered a late
stunner from Aston Villa's Jack Grealish in the 89th minute levelling the game at 1-1, meaning they dropped
to 2nd place whilst Newcastle leapfrogged them to the Championship crown.
Newcastle
will need to make St. James' Park a fortress, as well as replicating
some of those solid away performances from last year, if they want to
survive and thrive in the Premier League next season.
Opening Fixtures
TOT (H), HUD (A), WHU (H), SWA (A), STO (H), BHA (A), LIV (H), SOU (A), CRY (H) BUR
Given
the infrastructure and pedigree of a team like Newcastle United, this is
a decent opening 10 fixtures for them, where they play both of the
other promoted teams interspersed with other winnable games against
Crystal Palace, Stoke and Burnley. They only welcome two of the big
boys in this time, with both of these games at St. James' Park, where a
crowd of over 50,000 passionate geordies will be waiting to provide that
'12th man' phenomenon.
Given
the start they have and the likely low prices of their assets, their
players are definitely ones to look at, that could provide FPL managers
with great value.
Players Worth Considering
Midfield - Matt Ritchie
Ritchie was one of the most influential players for Newcastle last year, scoring
12 goals and notching 7 assists in 40 appearances in the Championship, from the right hand side of midfield in Benitez' 4-4-1-1 system. He averaged
2.7 shots and 1.9 key passes per game as well as 1.8 crosses per game.
Of course, he won't be able to keep that rate up throughout the
entire Premier League campaign, but in a patch of games, like the
opening 10 where the fixtures are favourable, he might be able to
produce something similar to this.
Ritchie
is also Newcastle's penalty taker and had a 100% rate with them last
season in all competitions. Priced at £6.0m for Bournemouth in the
2015/16 season, I would expect him to come in at
£6.5m based on the fact that that was Bournemouth's first season
in the top flight, where as Newcastle are a team who have been and done
it in the Premier League and he's one their key players that also has
penalties.
Goalkeepers – Elliot/Darlow/Krul
With
Krul coming back from his loan spell in Holland, Newcastle have a real
dilemma on their hands with regard to keepers. Best to wait and see what
happens over the summer for this.
Defence – Lascelles/Clark/Yedlin
Newcastle kept
19 clean sheets last season with the majority of them coming with these two being paired as the centre backs. More than that, they both scored
3 goals and managed assists, Clark getting 2 and Lascelles
bagging 1. Given the fact they both scored a decent return of goals and a
few assists to go with it, they might both end up coming in at
£5.0m – for reference, Daniel Ayala managed a similar attacking
return in the Championship for Middlesborough and came in at £5.0m. That
price might just put us off going for either of the centre back
pairing.
Yedlin is perhaps the most interesting prospect in the Newcastle defence. He managed
a goal and 5 assists from just 27 appearances (6 of those as a sub).
Anita however, is the preferred option at right back as perhaps the more solid of the two, but only notched
1 assist and no goals from his 27 appearances. If Anita picks up
an injury or Yedlin gets a look in from a drop in performance, he
definitely has the potential to get decent returns and will likely be
priced at
£4.5m.
Attack - A Word Of Caution
Dwight Gayle was their top goalscorer last season with
23 goals. So whats the issue? Well having looked into it, as I'm
sure the Newcastle fans will tell you, Gayle was used largely in
rotation with the likes of Diame, Mitrovic, Perez and Murphy, so only
actually scored those goals from 32 appearances,
where 6 of those were from the bench. There were many games where Perez
was paired with Mitrovic, or Diame was paired with Mitrovic, or Perez
with Murphy etc. Gayle sat on the bench for these and wasn't injured. Will
Benitez do the same in 17/18? It remains to be seen, but I thought
it was important to note it for any FPL managers eyeing Gayle up.
Summary
At this point,
Matt Ritchie seems the best prospect from an FPL perspective and the
only one I would advise considering from the off. There's too much
uncertainty around the rest to warrant a place in our teams from the
start. The likes of
Gayle and Yedlin, in particular, are certainly ones to keep an eye on as the season progresses however.
As
mentioned before, Newcastle have the infrastructure and pedigree to
re-solidify themselves in the Premier League and I expect them to do so.
Provided they make some decent signings and rid themselves
of any deadwood through the summer, I think they will survive and
finish in 13th-15th position.
Love the English Premier League? Well then, for this upcoming season, WFC will be running a ladder predictor competition for all to enter.
All you have to do is this:
·Produce your predicted 2017/18 Premier League ladder. The ladder must be in complete order with a points tally for each team. It must also contain your predicted highest and lowest goal difference, and which teams they will belong to (in the event of a draw).
In an ideal world your fantasy football back-line would always have reasonable fixtures every Gameweek, thus having a good chance of securing clean sheets. This can be achieved by identifying and adhering to simple rotation sequences with your team selections. That said, as a rule of thumb, you shouldn't rotate a premium defender/goalkeeper due to their prowess (unless they have bad form, in which case sell them). The fact is that there's more creative license to rotate with those valued at £5M or less in FPL without risking big points.
It should also be noted that a home game doesn't automatically equate to a reasonable fixture. For instance, a newly promoted team having to face the previous season's champions is a defensive headache. To add some complexity, away games shouldn't automatically mean bench duty for a defender. Some teams may perform better on the road, as shown here - Man City won more games away than at home last season. Another key point is that some teams may notably struggle to score goals. In which case, you may fancy your budget defender's clean sheet chances with an away fixture against them.
Let's be frank, you're not going to willingly start a Huddersfield defender at the Emirates or Etihad stadium and nor should you (unless they were on a goal or assist rush). There are disciplined ways of rotating budget defenders, such as in a 'three-way' system. However with all its benefits, that doesn't necessarily cater for long-term form based on actual results as fortunes fluctuate. What if you wanted something a bit more short-term, just before you activate the first wildcard? Help is at hand...
Click to view in full
A two-way defensive rotation system is a simple and well-used method of benching a defender/goalkeeper for a difficult fixture and conversely starting an alternative one with a reasonable fixture in FPL. I have identified four initial rotation sequences which are worth considering and implementing via this method. My suggestions may not be the best statistically, but they seem to be good enough for now before a ball is kicked, as follows:
Liverpool* and Swansea
Gameweek 1 - wat
Gameweek 2 - CRY
Gameweek 3 - cry
Gameweek 4 - NEW
Gameweek 5 - BUR
Gameweek 6 - WAT
Gameweek 7 - new
Gameweek 8 - HUD
caps locks indicate home games italics represent away games *Only rotate a cheap Liverpool defender **Only rotate a cheap Everton defender To learn more about 'reasonable' and 'difficult' fixtures until mid-October 2017, click here.
The 2017/18 English Premier League fixtures have been announced and the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) launch is now only a matter of weeks away. So, we at WFC have taken a deep look at each team's fixtures throughout the entirety of the season. For your benefit, we have created colour coded fixture tables, as well as month by month fixture summaries, containing key events and points to notes.
Please remember, the fixture difficulties used in this article are based purely on squad strength and historical records. However, these difficulties may change when taking the form of teams into account.
Nevertheless, we hope that you find the information we have compiled useful.
Fixture Tables (Click graphics below to view in full)
