🚨 GW2 FPL Preview

📌 GW1 stats summary

📌 Watkins - keep or sell?

📌 What to do with Palmer

📌 Captaincy

📌 My team selection

GW1 STATS SUMMARY

Team xG

2.44 - Man City

2.33 - Spurs

2.22 - Liverpool

2.08 - Leeds

1.86 - Nottingham Forest

Leeds were really impressive against Everton on Monday.

The top 3 are probably as expected given their fixtures.

Shots conceded

22 - Arsenal

21 - Everton

19 - Bournemouth/Crystal Palace

16 - Aston Villa/Burnley

Despite keeping a clean sheet, Arsenal conceded the most shots.

Everton will likely feature in this list a lot this season.

Player xG

2.01 - Haaland

1.14 - Ekitike

0.95 - Wood

0.91 - Thiago

0.91 - Semenyo

No surprise that Haaland is top.

Most of Thiago’s xG came from the penalty.

Player xA

0.58 - Kudus

0.53 - Lewis

0.44 - Bernardo

0.44 - Gakpo

0.37 - Estevao

All of Lewis’ xA came from the chance he created for Haaland’s goal.

Estevao on this list despite coming on as a sub.

Shots

7 - Gordon

6 - Haaland, Eze

5 - Richarlison, Mbeumo

4 - Ekitike, Bowen, Palmer, Ballard, Stach, Cunha, Anthony, Strand Larsen

Ballard was being targeted at every set piece.

Strand Larsen with 4 shots in a tough fixture against City.

Shots on target

3 - Cunha, Richarlison

2 - 13 players

Richarlison with an impressive performance.

Cunha and Man United were better than expected.

WATKINS - KEEP OR SELL?

Aston Villa were very disappointing in their opening game of the season as they drew 0-0 with Newcastle.

Watkins himself only managed 1 shot in the whole game.

However, Newcastle did look well organised and gave up very little in the way of chances.

Of course, it didn’t help that Villa also went down to 10 men.

I wouldn’t be selling Watkins this week though.

Brentford looked very suspect at the back against Forest so Watkins could get some joy against their weak defence.

WHAT TO DO WITH PALMER

Chelsea also drew 0-0 in GW1 against Crystal Palace and Cole Palmer wasn’t at his best at all.

For large parts of the game he wasn’t too involved.

He did end the game having taken 4 shots, though none of them were particularly threatening.

I believe this is a similar case to Watkins so I would keep Palmer.

Chelsea play West Ham in GW2 who conceded 3 goals to Sunderland last weekend so it’s a perfect fixture for Palmer to regain some form.

CAPTAINCY

There are a few different captaincy options this week and it’ll all depend on which of the candidates you own.

Watkins and Palmer are both viable options for the armband but there are 3 standouts for this week.

ERLING HAALAND

Haaland opened his account for this season with a brace against Wolves in an impressive City display.

He plays an improved Spurs side under Frank but I would still expect City to score a couple of goals this week.

BUKAYO SAKA

Arsenal weren’t at their best in GW1 against United who were the better team for large parts of the game.

I would expect a more attack-minded approach from Arsenal at home against Wolves in GW2 which Saka will always be at the heart of.

MO SALAH

Salah also failed to impress on Friday evening though he did manage to grab a late goal against Bournemouth.

Liverpool are away at Newcastle in GW2 and I’d be surprised if Salah isn’t more involved despite the tough fixture.

CAPTAIN RANKINGS

🥇 Haaland

🥈 Salah

🥉 Saka

Whilst I expect improvement from Saka and Salah in GW2, it’s hard to ignore the way City and Haaland have started this season so I’m backing the Norwegian to continue his goal-scoring form.

MY TEAM SELECTION

This is how my team is currently set up.

I don’t plan on using any transfers this week.

I may start Porro over Esteve and my captain is currently 50/50 between Salah and Palmer.

GW2 WILDCARD DRAFT

If you have any specific questions on anything in this preview or anything related to your team then drop me a message on Instagram or X @BradMayorFPL.

Best of luck!

Brad