Getting your team selection correct in Draft Premier League is just as essential as your pre-season draft or your weekly waiver wire claims. And this is why we’re here to help with our weekly Start and Sit article! We're here to talk you through some of the big Fantasy EPL decisions you may need to make for the upcoming fixtures.
This article dovetails particularly well with the Fantrax Weekly Player Projections! Go check it out for more weekly player evaluations!
Gameweek 2 Start and Sit
Whether you’re an obsessed EPL fan like our Draft Society team, or a casual player new to the world of Fantasy EPL, you know to start your attacking players against relegation threatened sides. We’re not going to waste your time dealing with the obvious! The goal of this article is to delve into notable players across each Fantrax position and let you know if you should be starting or sitting those particular players.
For our Start and Sit candidates, we’re going to highlight one player in detail for each position, as well as suggesting another alternate. Let us get to it!
Defender Starts
Oleksandr Zinchenko vs. NOR
The Manchester City left back did not start Gameweek 1, but I expect he gets the nod from Pep this week after a particular poor performance from Benjamin Mendy at his position. Zinchenko generally scores well when he's part of the XI, and I expect the coming week at home to Norwich City to be no exception. City are heavy favorites in this one, with oddsmakers giving them a 61% of keeping a clean sheet. They're also expected to score over 3 goals, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Zinchenko getting involved in plenty of offense, even if not directly involved in an attacking return. Zinchenko is projected to score a very respectable 12 fantasy points this week, with plenty of room for upside.
Alternate Starts:
Joel Matip vs. BUR Marcos Alonso vs. ARS Adam Webster vs. WAT Ashley Youngs vs. NEW
Defender Sits
Keiran Tierney vs. CHE
Tierney had a fantastic Gameweek 1 with 6 chances created, the most of any player last weekend, leading to a score of 16.25 fantasy points (and 20.25 ghost points, removing the 2 goals Arsenal conceded to Brentford). So picking Tierney this week in the sit category is a pretty bold call. But where's the fun in picking Ben Mee? I expect Tierney to have a significantly worse game against a ball-dominant, offensively-talented, Lukaku-debuting Chelsea. Arsenal are only given a 20% chance of keeping a clean sheet and I simply can not see it happening. Debatably more importantly, Arsenal had 65% possession last week vs. Brentford but this week I expect them to have around 40%. Simply put, Tierney will likely not have the opportunity to create more than a couple chances. Our projections agree, estimating Tierney to score a lowly 4.3 points against Chelsea.
Alternate Sits:
Ben Mee vs. LIV Max Aarons vs MCI
Midfielder Starts
Lucas Moura vs. WOL
Lucas had a very impressive season opener against Manchester City to the tune of 15 fantasy points without an attacking return. I expect his sharp performances to continue this week against his manager's old side, Wolves. Moura's pace should prove useful against his likely opposing wing-back Marcal and I see him racking up the counting stats once again. 11.1 is Lucas's points projection.
Alternate Starts: Andros Townsend vs. LEE
Joe Willock vs. AVL Anwar El Ghazi vs. NEW
Midfielder Sits
Todd Cantwell vs. MCI
I expect Cantwell to be a shining star on an otherwise pretty dreary Norwich side this season. But this gameweek against City is not the time to roll him out in your lineup. City figure to have the ball in Norwich's half the vast majority of the match, so Cantwell's output will suffer. His projection is 4.6 fantasy points so I'd much rather take a punt on pretty much any other midfielder on the waiver wire with some attacking intent
Alternate Sits:
Emile Smith-Rowe vs. CHE Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg vs. WOL
Forward Starts
Sergio Canos vs. CRY
The Brentford wing back/winger started off hot last week scoring 22 fantasy points and netting once vs Arsenal. He's been touted in multiple of our articles as an under-owned asset that's worth signing up or even trading out on a high. However, I think Canos continues his nice run this week against a developing Palace side. We have Canos projected to score 12.5 fantasy points and 9.9 ghost points, leaving plenty of room for upside if he does get a goal or assist. It will be interesting to see if Brentford switch to a back 4 against Palace this week. If they do Canos will likely move to the wing, leading to a higher ceiling but lower floor for his fantasy output.
Alternate Starts:
Trincao vs. TOT Christian Benteke vs. BRF Leon Bailey vs. NEW (Edit: previous featured start, now likely not to start post Dean Smith's press conference)
Forward Sits
Chris Wood vs. LIV
High-owned forwards are always tricky to pick for the sit category, and this week is no exception. Wood has a fairly decent projection of 9.5 fantasy points (6.9 ghost points) so I wouldn't blame you if you chose to play him, but I'd lean towards sitting him this week because without an attacking return, his floor is simply too low. Liverpool are only expected to allow 0.33 goals to Burnley, and Wood only has a 20% chance of scoring so I could see him easily only getting 5 fantasy points this week.
Alternate Sits: Teemu Pukki vs. MCI
Adam Armstrong vs. MUN
ARS ST vs. CHE
Check out our Fantrax Weekly Player Projections page for more player evaluations for the upcoming week!
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