⏰ There are four days until the Gameweek 1 deadline.

🛡️ Arsenal beat Man City 3-0 to win the Community Shield.

🤝 Coventry sign Taiwo Awoniyi from Nottingham Forest.

👀 Ipswich sign Julio Enciso (attacking mid) and Abdoul Ouattara (defensive mid) from Strasbourg [The Athletic].

🧤 Aston Villa reach an agreement to sign Parma goalkeeper Zion Suzuki [Ornstein].

⚽️ Igor Thiago, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Kevin Schade, João Pedro, Morgan Rogers, Brian Brobbey and Iliman Ndiaye are among those who notched attacking returns in their final preseason friendly.

Alright?

Despite the persistent and baseless claims of The Bangles, today is not just another manic Monday. It’s uniquely manic. The mania is at critical levels.

That’s because it’s the Monday before the season gets underway. To mark the occasion, we’re sending the first of five daily emails in the build-up to Gameweek 1.

On today’s agenda is a summary of the preseason football we’ve seen over the last month. Join us as we slalom through the red flags in search of something - anything - that we can learn.

CLUB is like the lovechild of FPL, Ultimate Team and Football Manager. Here’s our team ahead of this season:

Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room: Scouting good midfielders hasn’t been easy. But that’s the thing with CLUB - you don’t just “pick and click” players, you scout them. It’s a process.

We’re relaxed. Morgan Gibbs-White is on loan (yeah, there are loanees in CLUB) and we’ve got five days and £4m in the bank to find some upgrades.

There’s plenty of time for you to join CLUB, build a team and compete in our league. Just click the button below and use our catchy league code: Y73GTH6.

Full transparency: CLUB is completely free (we built our team for free), but you can watch ads to speed up certain processes. Your call - we don’t discriminate in the Lazy league.

Result: Arsenal 3-0 Man City

Goals: Calafiori, Havertz, Ødegaard | Assists: Tzolis (2), Lewis-Skelly

Arsenal XI - Raya, Calafiori, White, Gabriel, Mosquera, Ødegaard, Guimarães, Lewis-Skelly, Tzolis, Madueke, Havertz

Used subs: Eze, Gyökeres, Zubimendi, Saka, Hincapié, Rice

Man City XI - Donnarumma, Gvardiol, Dias, Khusanov, O’Reilly, Kovačić, Anderson, Foden, Doku, Semenyo, Haaland

Used subs: González, Cherki, Lewis, Guéhi, Marmoush, Grealish

The Community Shield is a more reliable precursor to Gameweek 1 in terms of line-ups than friendlies, and there were some choices worth noting.

Arsenal’s talking points:

1) Christos Tzolis (£6.5m MID) started and got two assists, meaning he has six assists and one goal from preseason. His main minutes rival, Gabriel Martinelli, wasn’t in the squad.

2) Riccardo Calafiori (£5.5m DEF) scored in the first 30 seconds. Also defended well, but was subbed off on ‘59 for Piero Hincapié.

3) Cristhian Mosquera (£5.5m DEF) was also robust and should be cemented for a Gameweek 1 start.

4) Declan Rice (£7.5m MID) didn’t start, but was subbed on at half-time for Bruno Guimarães (£7.0m MID). He didn’t have to do much.

5) Kai Havertz started over Viktor Gyökeres (both £7.5m forwards).

Man City’s talking points:

1) Elliot Anderson (£6.5m MID) started and was on some corners. He registered eight attacking contributions in 60 minutes, putting him on course for would-be DefCon points.

2) Phil Foden (£7.0m MID) - previously touted by Maresca as important this season - was given a start and 60 minutes.

3) Jérémy Doku (£7.5m MID) was subbed off at half-time with what looked like a calf injury. The severity remains unknown.

4) There’s still some uncertainty over their defence. After Nico O’Reilly (£6.5m DEF) was subbed off, Joško Gvardiol (£5.5m DEF) moved into left-back. Marc Guéhi (£6.0m DEF) didn’t start. Clearly, City have options at the back, and all are currently a minutes risk.

5) Erling Haaland (£500.0m FWD) started, but only played 53 minutes. He had seven touches in that time, which was still enough to force a good save from David Raya. After the game, Maresca revealed it was always his plan to sub off players who were heavily involved in the World Cup in the second half.

Whilst it’s hard to read too much into the game itself, Arsenal were dominant throughout, with Man City putting in a display that will be troublesome for anyone hoping for early signs of promise under Maresca.

Incidentally, only one player hit the DefCon threshold (it was, of all people, Ben White). That should tell you something about the intensity with which the game was played.

Still, Arsenal looked slick going forward and impressively sturdy at the back, which is all the more notable given William Saliba’s prolonged absence.

Tzolis looks like excellent value at £6.5m if he can pin down that starting berth - his ownership will likely rocket after Sunday’s display.

The common wisdom is that the last friendly before Gameweek 1 tends to most closely reflect how a team might actually line up.

Still, we’re going to assume you know enough about football to appreciate that these friendlies still ought to be approached with caution. Take everything in this email with a pinch of salt large enough to season a corpse.

Here are the scores and notes from those final friendlies:

Crystal Palace 0-3 Freiburg

Jean-Philippe Mateta was in the squad but didn’t start.

Chelsea 3-1 Real Sociedad

João Pedro scored a brace. Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer started together - the former opened the scoring. Reece James started in a holding midfield role and got an assist. New signings Maxence Lacroix and Marco Palestra also started.

M'gladbach 2-1 Aston Villa

Aston Villa played a second-string line-up given they only played the Super Cup on Wednesday. John McGinn scored the goal when he was subbed on.

Mainz 2-1 Bournemouth

Evanilson scored again. No huge surprises in their line-up here, but it’s worth noting that the manager only made one substitution - and it was to remove James Hill at half-time.

Union Berlin 2-4 Ipswich

Goals for Jack Clarke, Emersonn, Dara O’Shea (£4.0m defender) and Kasey McAteer.

Brentford 7-0 Frankfurt

Blimey. Who didn’t return here? Igor Thiago scored a brace and got an assist; Kevin Schade got two goals and two assists, Dango Ouattara scored, new signing Mamadou Sangaré scored and got an assist, and three of the four starting defenders picked up attacking returns (Michael Kayode (assist), Nathan Collins (assist), Keane Lewis-Potter (goal)).

£4.5m defender Kristoffer Ajer also started.

Brighton 1-0 Bologna

Jack Hinshelwood scored from a Mats Wieffer assist. Budget midfielder Diego Gómez limped off, which is concerning for Brighton fans and any FPL hipsters who liked the look of him. Maxim De Cuyper (a £4.5m defender) started in a front three. Georginio Rutter (£5.5m forward) also started.

Brighton have a Europa Conference League play-off on Thursday, which may give us more insight into their Gameweek 1 intentions.

Everton 1-1 Lille

Iliman Ndiaye took and scored another penalty for Everton.

Hull 0-0 Nice

Not much to say here. Our favourite £4.0m defender from Hull, John Egan, started.

Leeds 4-0 Augsburg

Goals for Anton Stach, Tarik Muharemović (an overhead kick, no biggy), James Justin and Lukas Nmecha. Dominic Calvert-Lewin bagged two assists. Another good pre-season display from Leeds.

Newcastle 1-2 Leverkusen

Malick Thiaw scored Newcastle’s goal. Nick Woltemade started in the 10, behind Yoanne Wissa.

Newcastle (yes, again) 1-1 Strasbourg

Newcastle’s second game in as many days featured what we assume is their “second team”. William Osula scored from a Jacob Murphy assist.

Sunderland 2-1 Rennes

Brian Brobbey and £4.5m defender Trai Hume scored for Sunderland. That’s two goals in a row for Hume.

Tottenham 3-0 Hoffenheim

A goal for Richarlison and two goals for Mikey Moore, a £5.0m midfielder. Marcos Senesi and Jan Paul van Hecke started, with Micky van de Ven not in the squad. Mathys Tel bagged two assists.

Man United 2-4 Milan

The big talking point here is that Bryan Mbeumo started on the bench and was subbed in for Matheus Cunha. The general consensus on Mbeumo is that he’s expected to start for Gameweek 1, and was rested precisely because he’s already put in a decent preseason shift.

Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty (his second penalty miss in successive games) but did get an assist. Harry Maguire and Patrick Dorgu scored. Luke Shaw played the whole game against Ruben Amorim’s new side, and Marcus Rashford returned to the Man United fold.

Fulham 1-0 Stuttgart

New forward Gonzalo García played 89 minutes. Timothy Castagne got the goal.

Nottingham Forest 2-0 Brest

Forest played a second-choice line-up, so not much to see here.

Liverpool 2-0 Como

Liverpool also played Como twice in the same day, though we’re only mentioning the 2-0 win because, firstly, it featured their best players and secondly, it actually had some goals. Cody Gakpo scored and assisted; new centre-back signing Jérémy Jacquet scored; and Jeremie Frimpong got the other assist. A good day for the Jeremys. Dominik Szoboszlai played quite deep.

The following data is skewed because of the quality and frequency of preseason friendlies, which varies significantly between teams.

Preseason goal tally:

And here’s the assist chart:

Some Lazy analysis.

Pedro has definitely increased his stock in preseason. His seven goals have come via two braces and a hat-trick, which is even more saliva-inducing for FPL managers. Many were already sold on him before his preseason performances, and he’s done nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.

Semenyo’s five assists are impressive, but indicative of a Maresca system that will likely see him play wider than he was under Guardiola. As has already been demonstrated, this could increase his assist potential but may limit his goal-scoring opportunities.

Tzolis is also very interesting. We’ve already discussed his prospects.

And before you get your hopes up, Villa’s £5.5m forward Madjo is expected to be out until September with an injury picked up against PSG.

So, what can we learn from all of this? Well, with all of the preseason caveats in place, here are our hot takes:

1) Leeds look good.

The only preseason friendly Leeds lost this summer was a 2-3 defeat to Wrexham, though they played a very different team to the one we’ll see in Gameweek 1.

Other than that, they’ve looked impressive, scoring four goals against Liverpool and Augsburg. They also kept three clean sheets in their five friendlies.

2) Concern for Newcastle.

Having lost Eddie Howe, Tonali, Gordon and Guimarães this summer, Newcastle are still somewhat of an unknown entity. The early signs don’t look promising, with three losses and a draw from five preseason games, including a 4-1 defeat to Bristol City and a 1-1 draw with the mighty Gateshead.

3) There’s still plenty of starting XI ambiguity.

Most managers made plenty of substitutions in their final friendlies, which is selfish, really, because their fantasy colleagues are hanging on to their every decision.

This is normal for Gameweek 1. It’s part of the jeopardy. Try to embrace it and, if you’re concerned about a player’s minutes, pick someone else.

4) World Cup involvement may not be an issue for long.

Players who went deep in the World Cup are starting to feature again. Haaland, O’Reilly, Guimarães and Anderson started in the Community Shield; Rice, Guéhi and Saka also featured, and we’ve seen appearances from players like Rogers, Cherki and Enzo Fernández over the weekend too.

What does your inbox look like on a Tuesday? Tomorrow we’ll find out, as we’ll be back with a rundown of the Premium midfielders.

Is Bruno Fernandes worth the money? Should we swerve Antoine Semenyo? It’s all in tomorrow’s episode of LazyFPL.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.