Well, how was Week One for you?
The new English Premier League season kicked off last weekend in a blaze of publicity and non-stop live telly football and I, for one, am grateful for it.
Liverpool looked good going forward, not so good at the back; Arsenal were, well, Arsenal; Ibra scored on his debut for Manchester United; Sergio scored for City, as usual; and Hull won! Yes, who would have thought it? Certainly not me but they beat the champions with only nine fit first team players, according to the narrative. To be fair to them they kept the same eleven players on the pitch for the full ninety minutes.
What of Leicester and Vardy? He missed several chances that last season he would have gobbled up. Is it too early to think their bubble has burst?
Free to enter £25 prize game
This column will concentrate on the weekly game and, as such, there is a free to join £25 prize game sponsored by The Press & Journal this weekend. I will select my team and punters are welcome to challenge me for the £25 prize….with free entry.
This game is exclusive to P&J readers and the details to enter are as follows:
· Password: JOURNAL
Congratulations to last weekend’s winner Filip Kosutic for winning the Press & Journal’s top prize in their £25 free to enter game on Premier Punt, the fantasy football gaming website.
Personally, I had to settle for mid-table mediocrity but I aim to improve this week so get on to Premier Punt and take up the challenge of putting me in my place!
Visit the site at www.premierpunt.com or download the app from the Apple app store. It is also available for Android from the Premier Punt website.
Formation
I will be sticking to a 3-4-3 formation this week, again, but this time I will be picking better players. That would help! As usual, 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 formations are also available on Premier Punt.
Keeper
My keeper last week was Joe Hart….enough said about that choice. I won’t be picking Joe again until he has signed for Everton or whoever Guardiola is not in charge of. This week I’m taking Michel Vorm from Spurs. Vorm is replacing captain Hugo Lloris who is out for four weeks with a hamstring injury.
Defenders
I’m going all in with Spurs this week by selecting two defenders to go with their keeper. Kyle Walker is good going forward at home and provides a few assists while Toby Alderweireld is always dangerous at set pieces.
Spurs entertain Crystal Palace this weekend. Palace have been trying to sign a striker all week, mainly Christian Benteke from Liverpool. I’m hoping Palace don’t manage to sign him or any other goal scorer between now and the weekend.
Completing my defence this week is Winston Reid of West Ham United. He’s a top class defender and decent value at £6.5M on Premier Punt. I had no defensive clean sheets last week so even one would be an improvement this week.
Midfielders
Last week I had two goal scorers from midfield in Mahrez from Leicester and Capoue of Watford which was a decent return. My other two, however, were not so good with Payet on the bench and Lingard not in the squad due to injury. This can happen when picking a team on a Wednesday for a newspaper deadline.
Anyway I’m keeping Payet in my team as I’m sure he’ll start against Bournemouth in West Ham’s first game at whatever the name of their new stadium is this week. He will also be my vice-captain.
Along with Payet I’m taking Cazorla of Arsenal, Sigurdsson of Swansea and Snodgrass of Hull City.
Arsenal need a result away to Leicester and Cazorla is quality and makes them tick. I think they will perform well away from the Emirates as the pressure from disgruntled home supporters will not be so intense.
Swansea are at home to Hull City this week. They got off to a great start away to Burnley last week and, although Sigurdsson was on the bench, I’m sure he will start this weekend. He’s had another week’s rest following a successful Euro ‘16 with Iceland.
Robert Snodgrass was excellent for Hull against the champions last week and scored. I’m picking him to continue his good form after being out for fifteen months. He’s also cheap at £6.6M which helps when the Premier Punt budget is only £100M.
Strikers
Up front I’m sticking with Aguero. I also had Ibrahimovich last week and both were on target. I had them as my vice-captain and captain, respectively, to get those extra precious points for the tally. Unfortunately, I can’t retain Ibrahimovich as United play on Friday night. The Friday night games are not included in the weekly challenges on Premier Punt so as to give punters more time to get their teams in before the early Saturday kick offs.
Aguero is the most expensive forward on the Premier Punt list but, as he scores most weeks when fit, he provides good value. He will also have the captain’s armband for my team this week. City are away to Stoke who had a decent start last week, drawing away from home to Middlesbrough.
Playing alongside Aguero will be Jermaine Defoe of Sunderland and Andy Carroll of West Ham. I’m taking Carroll to score the first ever league goal of the new West Ham era at the London Stadium. And Defoe is always good for a goal and a decent price. He is at home for Sunderland against Middlesbrough in what will probably be a feisty local derby.
