Like nearly every FPL manager, I’ve been tinkering, chopping’n’ changing and second guessing my choices.
The result of all this has been a handful of changes. My first team reveal was solid and time will tell if it was right to tinker but, given some more thought and the latest news (transfers and final pre-season friendlies played), I felt some changes were needed.
Don’t forget, if you have any questions about the team selection, FPL in general or topics you want us to cover in future posts, you can contact me on @FPLwithStu on X.
So here’s my original team:
And my new team:
Goalkeepers
Carlos Miguel of Nottingham Forest is out and Henderson of Crystal Palace is in.
Valdimarsson of Brentford keeps his place as my bench option.
Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest both have good defences, not Arsenal/Man City elite but good. The reason for the change is I’m more concerned that Carlos Miguel might not get the nod ahead of Matz Sels. It’s not worth the risk so I’ve gone with a safer bet.
Image source: footballtransfers.com
Defenders
Joško Gvardiol and Barco retain their places. Gvardiol is a must have in my book – playing for a top side and in a very attacking role for a defender.
Trent, Mykolenko and Konsa come out. I’m sad not to include Trent in my team but his cost just limits too much elsewhere. It was compromise here or it was somewhere in attack or midfield…generally there’s more points further forward so Trent had to give way.
Konsa’s starting position for Villa isn’t assured so he wasn’t worth the risk and I think Robinson from Fulham offers more attacking threat than Mykolenko for the same price. Fulham have looked good pre-season, Robinson is nailed on at full-back and plays very attacking so just a solid £4.5m option.
I’ve also brought in Lewis Hall of Newcastle and Wes Faes of Leicester. Lewis Hall looks like he’s taken the left back spot from Dan Burn and Newcastle have a good fixture run at the start – I’m expecting them to be a dangerous side this year and with Pope back to fitness there should be plenty of cleansheets too. Faes is a £4m enabler – nothing fancy about it, he plays and he’s cheap and will sit on my bench most of the time.
Image source: nytimes
Midfielders
Szoboszlai, Eze and Bruno Fernandes are staying put. My opinion hasn’t changed on them.
Morgan Gibbs-White and Nkunku are out. They are still strong choices and like them both as footballers as well as FPL picks but they make way for Saka and Smith-Rowe. Saka is going to be Arsenal’s main man again this year, on penalties and rarely missing any minutes. He’s also looked sharp in the last pre-season games which puts aside my worries of a Euros hangover. He’s a genuine captain option most weeks too.
Smith-Rowe looks like he may have found a new lease of life in Fulham. A talented player who struggled to get into Arsenal’s team due to competition and some injury issues. Being a bigger fish in a smaller pond (no offense Fulham!) may suit him and 2 goals in his 2 pre-season games suggests a very important attacking role for a team that’s looking good.
Image source: fulhamfc
Forwards
Haaland and Isak remain – I still think both are essential but Muniz makes way for Solanke.
No two FPL seasons are the same and there have been periods in the last couple of years that there were few worthwhile striker options (excluding Haaland of course). This season, at least for now, is very different in that there are at least 4 that are difficult to go without – that’s Haaland, Watkins, Isak and Solanke…you can probably add João Pedro to that list too.
Image source: thecelticbhoys
Conclusion
My preferred formation for the first few weeks will be 3-4-3 to maximise the attacking and midfield players, especially since I’ve removed value from my defence in Trent. I feel better for having Saka in my team but it’s Liverpool, not Arsenal I now fear – Salah and Trent could be big misses for this team.
Let me know your thoughts? And send any questions to @FPLwithStu on X.
