A new season of Fantasy Premier League is here, and with the return of football comes our 2020-21 FPL GW1 Preview.
Before each game week we supply a bunch of statistics to help the keen Fantasy League Premier make a decision or two.
The most popular has been our Captain’s Table, which combines some key statistics to help make that crucial captain choice.
With no 2020-21 data to offer up yet, we’ll have a few things to consider before the season starts. And make sure you come back each week for more. And more relevant to what is happening at the time.
For now, enjoy the our 2020-21 FPL GW1 Preview.
For further reading on FPL for the season ahead, help yourself to the following….
PROMOTED SIDES / CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYER FPL STATS
2020-21 FPL GW1 PREVIEW – CAPTAIN’S TABLE
Here we assemble the finest stats we can think of to get the best picture of who should wear the armband for your team.
With no current data to use all of the stats relate to the 19/20 Premier League season, with a mix of total FPL points from last season and the post restart period. As well as cutting the FPL points per game and per $M. Plus there’s the player’s record against each club, and each player’s club fixture difficulty.
We’ll add to this in the coming weeks.
Of course the above doesn’t include the plethora of Manchester players due to their weekend off, so that in theory makes the captain decision easier right?
Well yes, you don’t have to factor in Pep’s midfield bingo or if Manchester Utd are still tired for another week.
We also haven’t included any new European recruits, which will will as the season rolls on, but some new Chelsea personnel look like a good option. Particularly given Chelsea’s record v Brighton.
For the record we’ll probably be putting the armband on Timo Werner.
The stats above have Aubameyang with a clear lead of Trent Alexander-Arnold. Both their teams are playing promoted sides – Arsenal have the easier fixture but away from home where they were terrible at times in 2019/20 – and Liverpool are home where they are almost invincible, but take on the champions of the Championship. Of course this didn’t stop Liverpool doing it easy in the first game last season v Norwich. In the first half anyway.
Whilst not playing a promoted side, Everton’s record at Spurs is woeful, and Son has been among the goals in pre season.
Salah and Mane are disadvantaged by the lack of games and goals v Leeds, so are probably closer to the top than they appear above.
Our Tip: Aubameyang, Son or Werner.
2020-21 FPL GW1 PREVIEW – FIXTURE DIFFICULTY
Here are two key visuals from our FPL Fixture Difficulty article earlier. This will be updated weekly with 2020-21 form.
For the Full Fixture Difficulty Ratings – follow this link.
The two Manchester games are still included above but of course don’t play this weekend.
Crystal Palace have the toughest first three game run according to us, which is a shame as they have a few good cheap players to look at. Perhaps that means waiting for just a bit.
Interestingly, two of the least in form teams from last season top the fixture difficulty for the first three games.
The promoted clubs don’t fare too badly – Leeds have to play Liverpool and Manchester City in the first four games, but the other teams get off a bit lighter. It will certainly test the Championship winners early, but not forgetting that Norwich beat Man City early last season before becoming invisible.
2020-21 FPL GW1 PREVIEW – STATS – RESTART FORM v PRE RESTART FORM
Want to know who was the best after the Premier League restarted compared to before? Of course you do. And here some key stats by player.
We have taken four key fields – Key Passes, Shots, xG, and Chances Created, worked out a per game result for before and after the restart and have the difference.
Stats have been determined per game to make it a fair comparison.
The visuals below have the top players from each stat from the entire season.
Golden Boot chasers are mostly the only players to shoot more than before the lockdown.. Vardy in particular was busier after the restart.
No surprise to see West Ham’s Antonio high up, as he enjoyed a very productive end of season, which many FPL players will be hoping flows in 2020-21. If West Hsam don’t implode that is.
The players in the lower half don’t surprise. Wolves attack flattened post restart, Pukki’s Norwich forgot how to play, and even Rashford was a touch dissapointing with a surging Man Utd late season.
KDB is the king of the Chance Created, and he even upped his game later in the season. His teammate Bernardo Silva tops the post restart change though, always the quiet achiever of that Man City side.
Willian shows up for his late season rise, which may sucker in many an FPL player to take him at Arsenal.
Ward-Prowse is a great value shout for the midfield, and his late season chances created gives weight to that potential selection.
Alexander-Arnold’s late season drop off could be a concern for his price. Perhaps leaving him out of FPL sides until you look at the fixture list.
KDB is king again, with similar names to the chances created above.
Tielemans is a little surprising given Leicester’s drop off late in the season.
2020-21 FPL GW1 PREVIEW – POINTS PER COST
An interesting, well we thought anyway, was to see with the new costs how they compared to last season’s points tally.
So we have taken the 19/20 FPL Points haul and divided by the current new FPL costs for each player and come up with a measure.
Going further we then took an average at each cost level, which for now is nice and neat in 0.5 bundle.
The final output is what you will see below, whether a player is over of under the average Points per Cost for their cost level.
We limited it to players with 20 FPL points or more last season.
2020-21 FPL GW1 PREVIEW – STATS – OWNERSHIP STATS
Finally to end this GW1 preview, here are some stats around ownership of FPL players, in case that kind of thing affects your decisions.
We have taken ownership stats from the official FPL website from last week to this week (9/9) just to determine who is hot and not.
New recruits who have been hired since our first sweep of ownership data aren’t included.
We have split them up as much as possible as they do get a bit crowded.
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