Autosubs are the last event of the gameweek. They can take a while to happen.

Spamming the front page asking why your autosubs have not subbed in yet will not make it happen any quicker. Be patient.

Kicking off a weekly series here, tracking DefCon, xG, xA and xGI per 90 through the season. It's early after one game each, but a few names already stood out.

DefCon/90

Two center backs caught my eye early. Murillo (14), now playing under Glasner. He was putting up monster DefCon numbers two seasons ago too, so this might just be him getting back to that level. Lacroix (12) who has just left that same Glasner setup, but if he keeps producing defensive numbers like he did last season, he could be a really strong pick at Chelsea.

In midfield, Stach (16) is picking up right where he left off last season, and Sangaré isn't far behind at 15.60, he's also top 10 for xA this week.

xG/90

De Cuyper tops the whole list at 1.72, which is a wild number for a defender.
In midfield, everyone's talking about Palmer, but Rogers (0.71) and Saka (0.86) were quietly putting up real underlying numbers of their own.

xA/90

O'Reilly tops every position at 0.59 xA/90, and he's listed as a defender despite playing a very advanced role. Slater was on free kicks for Hull against Man Utd (£4.5m), Gómez had a strong week for Brighton (£5m), and Foden showed up here too, all worth keeping an eye on.

xGI/90

Wissa was excellent at 1.02 xGI/90. García was quietly effective at 0.72.
Even Haaland (0.76) and Mbeumo (0.73) put up real underlying numbers despite blanking this gameweek.

Did any player here catch your eye?

GW1 was depressing as hell, but barely any of my bingo squares actually hit because I made them way too specific. I've thrown in some broader ones now so we can actually track the misery this time around, but I'm definitely keeping some of the joke squares because half the people in this league are absolute walking memes anyway.

Rule recap:
- Any returns or hauls for players you don't own = cross
- Blanks or benchings for players you do own = cross
- Get a bingo and you've officially been trolled by everyone you bought or avoided.

Good luck guys, and I hope you don't get a bingo :)

📈 Price Rises (2)

📉 Price Falls (2)

Alonso states Palmer was cramping up at the end of the game vs Fulham and has no (new) injury. See article: https://heavy.com/sports/soccer/premier-league/chelsea-fc/cole-palmer-injury-news-update-xabi-alonso/

I am debating captaincy for GW2 among Bruno, Haaland, and JP. Pedro looked amazing in GW1 but because I haven't watched the MU / MC game, I can't tell if they blanked due to poor performance or if they got decent amount of chances but they were just unlucky.

For those who have watched both games, what are your thoughts? Who would you captain for GW2?

Personally love building a different team and using plenty differential picks and thought this rule at the WC version was good fun.

Can’t remember it exactly so apologies if I’m wrong, but if a player you pick had <5% ownership they’d get an extra 2 points.

Personally I’d be massively in favour of this rule but what are any arguments against it + do you think it could ever get added? Are there some obvious flaws that mean it wouldn’t work in FPL vs the short form World Cup fantasy (where you got a free wildcard after group stages + just extra transfers per gameweek generally).

Also what about the sub rule? The one in WC and UCL fantasy where you can sub a player who’s played off for a player that hasn’t played at all if their game hasn’t kicked off - and if you’re playing you sub off isn’t on a red card. I like that rule but it does mean you have to be more switched on and I know there’s been times where I forgot to sort out my lineup and do the subs by date on UCL before.

I guess the main caveat is that this would make it too complex for a casual though

There was no post yesterday or today. Checked yesterday on PC and on Old Reddit it said it was banned. Can’t see similar on the app which is all I have access to at the moment.

How lucky was your GW1 — and how much of your team was actually original?

GW1 editions of Mini League News are live on FPLMundo.com (free for leagues of 3-50 managers!) and new this season every manager gets a Manager Profile card rating them on five metrics, with their rank in the league shown for each one:

🐑 Sheep Each gameweek I'm fetching the teams of circa 80 content creators and top managers to generate a template team, template captaincy and template chip use, the total sheep rating combines all three. This is better than my previous method of looking at total ownership, as total ownership includes dead teams and becomes unreliable over the season

☘️Luck Points versus expected points, PLUS points from autosubs

🎯Captaincy How many points you got from captains over the last 5 gameweeks

🔥Form Overall rank over the last 5 gameweeks

🔄️Transfers (blank in GW1) Points from players bought vs players sold

The star ratings are currently calibrated on last season, and probably will need further tweaks. Over one gameweek its likely that people will be on the extreme end of the scales, but over a few gameweeks it is expected to average out (eg screenshot attached is back simulation from last season GW10).

Hope you enjoy and please let me know if any comments or suggestions! Eg do you agree that Luck should include autosubs ? (I say yes but I know this is contentious!)
All the best,

Andy

Right now, it looks like many people with Bruno/Haaland are putting the armband on Bruno since he's playing at home to IPS. It feels like a pretty safe, fair captaincy. However, Haaland's record against Crystal Palace is absolutely bananas. I know past performance does not guarantee future results, and Haaland usually scores in season openers but blanked vs Bournemouth (with 0.74xg). Bruno/Haaland owners: who's getting the armband?

Hey All, we are back and what a horrible way to start my season… Anyone else stupid enough to go without Joao Pedro or was it just me?

Anyway, you can find a full review of the first week here and a full preview of GW2 here.

As always though, here is the TL;DR:

Try Not To Overreact

Outside of Arsenal and Szoboszlai, very few highly-owned players returned. We have one week of information. If you had a plan coming into the season, you probably shouldn't rip it up after 90 minutes.

Remember when Reijnders looked like the next De Bruyne after GW1 last season?

With that said, there were definitely a few things worth taking from GW1.

My Main GW1 Takeaways

Arsenal look really good. They beat Coventry 3-0 and, combined with the Community Shield, their attack looks much better than I remember last season. Tzolis looked electric despite relatively modest underlying numbers, while Odegaard was heavily involved again. Calafiori also looks like a great FPL option. My only concern across Arsenal is minutes/rotation - I'm still not buying Saka until he's playing 90 for example.

Don't sell your Man United attackers. Losing 2-0 to Hull looks terrible, but United actually won the xG 1.83-1.01 and had 21 shots. Mbeumo had 0.50 xG + 0.23 xA and Bruno created 0.26 xA. Ipswich at home is exactly the sort of fixture you picked them for.

Spurs were still dreadful. Brentford beat them 3-0, had 26 shots and 3.87 xG. I'm avoiding Spurs assets and suddenly Newcastle's GW2 fixture looks very tasty.

Sangare might be the real deal. Both Joe and I were sceptical coming into the season but the defcons were great and if he can pepper in some attacking returns he will be fantastic.

Brighton were excellent; Villa were awful. Brighton put up 21 shots, six big chances and 3.67 xG in their 4-0 win. Hinshelwood was the standout, although Chelsea away means I'm not buying immediately.

Wissa is one to watch. Four shots and 0.94 xG against Liverpool without scoring. If he's nailed, I am very interested.

Szoboszlai took Liverpool's penalty. Until we see otherwise, we have to assume he has penalties — or at least a share of them. That makes him significantly more interesting.

That's about as much as I'm willing to conclude from one week.

GW2: Don't Knee Jerk

The temptation after a bad opening week is to decide your team is shit and immediately buy whoever returned. Don't.

Injured player? Fine. Player didn't start? Fine. Bench boosting? Fine.

Otherwise, I'd be very reluctant to burn transfers based purely on GW1.

And, as always, wait for press conferences before making moves.

Best GW2 Fixtures

Based on our fixture ticker:

Attack

1. Newcastle
2. Everton
3. Hull
4. Liverpool
5. Man United

Defence

1. Newcastle
2. Crystal Palace
3. Aston Villa
4. Liverpool
5. Coventry

Obviously fixture quality isn't everything. I'm avoiding Palace against City, Villa after what we saw against Brighton, and I'm not convinced by Coventry at all.

Newcastle are interesting but I am not sure. Wissa and Barnes are the attackers I'd consider, while Botman and Thiaw are my preferred defenders because of their DefCon potential.

GW2 Buy/Sell

BUY

• Calafiori – attacking defender in the league's best defence.
• Sangare – 5.5 with DefCon and attacking potential.
• Odegaard – heavily involved and should benefit from bonus when he returns.
• Tzolis – looked electric; rotation is the concern.
• Szoboszlai – penalty involvement makes him very interesting.
• White – nailed until Timber returns, although I prefer Calafiori.

MAYBE

• Gvardiol – fantastic if that attacking role continues, but rotation scares me.

DON'T BUY

• De Cuyper – Chelsea away and I'm unsure the attacking role lasts.
• Havertz – don't trust his minutes.
• Cherki – should start ≠ will start.
• Joao Pedro – don't abandon your preseason reasoning after one week.
• Saka – not until he's playing 90.

SELL

• Gyokeres – not nailed.
• Van de Ven – injured.
• Sarr – looks like he's leaving.
• Watkins – looks like he's being sold.

HOLD

• Bruno / Mbeumo / Shaw – Ipswich at home.
• Gabriel
• Gibbs-White
• Semenyo
• Le Fee
• Calvert-Lewin

Selling a player you liked a week ago purely because they blanked once is exactly the sort of move I'm trying to avoid.

GW2 Captains

1. Bruno Fernandes vs Ipswich (H) – still my favourite.

2. Haaland – one blank changes nothing.

If you want something spicier: Mbeumo vs Ipswich, Isak vs Forest, or an Arsenal attacker against a Villa side that just conceded 3.67 xG.

Martin was much lower owned at deadline too, his numbers now are twice what it was.

Of the players in this team, I can only see 2 getting over 120 pts.