🚨 The stuff you should know.
⏰ The Gameweek 1 deadline is 3 hours after this email is sent, at 18:30 BST.
🎉 It’s deadline day. Celebrate by upgrading to LazyFPL Premium and get instant access to our leagues, expert GW1 teams, news WhatsApp group and more.
🤕 Pedro Porro (currently 22.5% owned and third-most popular defender) will miss Gameweek 1. So will Micky van de Ven.
🤝 Savinho (£6.5m MID) to join Spurs for £75m plus add-ons [BBC Sport].
✍️ Axel Disasi (£4.5m DEF) to join Crystal Palace on loan from Chelsea [Romano].
⚽️ Brighton drew 0-0 at Tromsø. We’ll talk about it in this email.
👉 Join our mini-league and get all our free preseason content here.
📧 This email will recap everything that’s happened in the last 21 hours, including press conferences, Brighton’s European game and anything else that might be relevant to your decision-making. It’s a one-off.
Alright?
We’ve never seen you this close to a gameweek deadline before - are you usually this sweaty?
At the time of clicking send, there are three hours until the FPL season gets underway. Some of you might be reading these words once the deadline has passed; too focused, perhaps, on sorting out your FPL team to check your inbox.
Don’t panic. This email doesn’t contain any information that isn’t already in the public domain. It’s merely a repository - or suppository, depending on your feelings towards us - of news and updates that might be useful.
It’s also a one-off. Ordinarily, we send our 24h briefings and leave you in peace. But Gameweek 1 is unique in that every bit of news might potentially matter - from Arsenal signing Ezri Konsa to the progress of Dominic Solanke’s recovery. It all means something to someone.
So, we’re just popping by with the latest news. Put the kettle on, and we’ll be out of your hair in no time.
Treat yourself to LazyFPL Premium.
There’s no better way to celebrate the start of the new Premier League season than by treating yourself to LazyFPL Premium.
Please imagine that the Fleetwood Mac song from the M&S advert is playing as you read through these features:
🤤 Instant access to a sumptuous £3k mini-league.
👀 All of our experts’ deliciously tempting Gameweek 1 team reveals.
📞 Need-to-know news, like early team leaks, injuries and line-ups, delivered straight to WhatsApp via our Broadcast channel. Truly opulent.
😍 A regular, velvety podcast, hosted by The Professor.
🧠 A feast of evergreen, melt-in-the-middle FPL resources, like our Lazy Academy.
⚽️ The most luxurious fixture tracker in the game.
All of it is designed to do one thing: Help you win your mini-leagues this season. Sign up today and make this season more fun than ever.
Because it’s not just any FPL subscription. It’s a LazyFPL Premium subscription.
The Press Conferences.
We’ll go through all the relevant stuff, team by team.
🔴 Arsenal
Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice are fit enough to feature against Coventry.
Bruno Guimarães is a doubt. “Let’s see how he is.”
Jurriën Timber is back in training, but not with the rest of the group yet.
🦹 Aston Villa
New signings Matteo Ruggeri, Zion Sukuzi and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are available, but Emery is still deciding on their involvement in Gameweek 1.
“Tomorrow we’re going to train. Tomorrow, I’m going to decide with the players we have. Maybe even we can change something today or tomorrow.” - Right, cheers, Unai.
🍒 Bournemouth
Ryan Christie will miss Gameweek 1 because he’s still serving a suspension that carried over from last season.
🔴 Brentford
Centre-back Sepp van den Berg is ruled out for Gameweek 1 with a groin issue. He’ll likely miss a few weeks, but it’s worth noting for Kristoffer Ajer owners that when he returns, it’ll likely mean Ajer isn’t a starting pick.
🕊️ Brighton
Brighton played on Thursday night against Tromsø in a Conference League playoff. They drew 0-0. Here’s how they lined up:
Pascal Groß played the whole game and apparently did very well. Ibrahim Osman (£5.0m) also impressed.
£5.0m midfielder Diego Gómez started and played 68.
Ferdi Kadıoğlu was subbed on ‘59.
Maxim de Cuyper, a popular £4.5m defender, was subbed on in the second half.
New striker signing Promise David wasn’t eligible for Thursday night, but could be in the squad for Gameweek 1.
🔵 Chelsea
Morgan Rogers and Reece James are expected to be fit and ready after their World Cup run.
No new injury concerns.
Alonso on Enzo Fernández: “He’s a Chelsea player. He’s a top, top player. We’re happy to have him, and he’s getting ready for Monday”.
⬆️ Coventry
Haji Wright could be out for three months.
🦅 Crystal Palace
Dean Henderson is the only doubt after picking up an injury in a friendly. He’ll be assessed today (or ‘Friday’, as it’s known for the rest of the week).
According to Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea’s Axel Disasi will join them on loan. He’s a £4.5m centre-back.
🍬 Everton
Christian Nørgaard (£5.0m MID) will miss Gameweek 1. You already know about James Garner’s injury.
⚪️ Fulham
Joachim Andersen will miss Gameweek 1 because he’s still serving his suspension sentence from the end of last season.
🐯 Hull
There are quite a lot of players you don’t own that are currently injured. Which is good news if you’ve gone big on Man United.
🔵 Ipswich
A few budget midfielders are out (Jack Taylor and Azor Matusiwa), but these guys aren’t owned by FPL managers.
⚪️ Leeds
New centre-back Nico Elvedi “is ready for the challenge” - which could mean anything.
🟥 Liverpool
Iraola says “We’ll definitely sign players, yes. I hope more than one.”
And on Cody Gakpo: “Cody is performing really well... he has been one of our best players in the friendlies.”
Alexander Isak is “in a very good place”.
🩵 Man City
Jeremy Doku, who got injured in the Community Shield, is ruled out of Gameweek 1. He’s the only absentee and could be out for “several weeks”.
👹 Man United
Benjamin Šeško is back in training, but it’s unclear if he’s available for Gameweek 1. Unlikely given he’s had no preseason, but his eventual return might have an impact on how Bryan Mbeumo is used.
⚫ Newcastle
If you own a Newcastle player (and let’s face it, you don’t), they’re probably fine. A few concerns, but not for FPL managers.
🌳 Nottingham Forest
Popular budget midfielder Ryan Yates has a “small physical problem”. Don’t we all.
🐈⬛ Sunderland
Le Bris confirmed that everyone apart from Simon Adingra is fit, including Nordi Mukiele, Omar Alderete and new signing Thomas Meunier, who had been doubts at one point or another.
🐓 Spurs
Pedro Porro is “not on the list” for tomorrow. Neither is Micky van de Ven. Pape Matar Sarr is also ruled out.
Dominic Solanke, Matheus Fernandes, Destiny Udogie and James Maddison are on the list. It’s like De Zerbi has become Santa Claus.
For clarity’s sake: Porro, Van de Ven and Sarr are ruled out.
Maddison, Solanke, Fernandes and Udogie are with the squad.Savinho will join Spurs from Man City for £75m, according to multiple reliable outlets. He’s a £6.5m midfielder, but only made seven appearances last season.
Mohammed Kudus is close to a return.
Our (second) favourite fantasy game.
Imagine a fantasy game with no deadlines, transfers, or weekly admin. A blissful oasis where you lock in your picks and watch their performances all season.
Welcome to 21Goals.
Pick four Premier League players to score 21 combined goals between them over the season. The catch? If they go over, you're bust.
Here's how to get started:
1) Pick your four players (avoid Erling Haaland).
2) Join our mini-league (closest to 21 wins a PL shirt and a LazyFPL Premium subscription).
3) Challenge your mates (and decide the forfeit for whoever goes bust first).
The button below takes you to a page with a big green button that says 'JOIN LEAGUE'. It's pretty self-explanatory.
Entries close this evening.
The Lazy community’s thoughts.
The other day we ran a poll asking for your strategy going into Gameweek 1. Here are the results (from over 800 responses, btw):
Which GW1 strategy are you going for?
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Balanced & safe ⚖️
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Using Chips early 🍟
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ No Haaland 🤖
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No Bruno 🔴
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ None of the above 🧠
…And here are some of our favourite responses:
“I want more info before committing to a chip. Probable Bench Boost after the Wildcard during the international break. Maybe Haaland Triple Captain in Gameweek 3 depending on how he starts. Deliberating a £4.5 mid to sit on the bench. Any suggestions on who will get most minutes?”
Sorry Debbie, but if you’re after a £4.5m midfielder who’ll play, you’re up shit creek. There’s a rumour that George Hemmings at Aston Villa will play. He must be good because, for some inexplicable reason, FPL has included his full name in the menu.
“Taking the Sean Dyche approach but flipping it to have all the premium mids, enabled by no Haaland. 3/5/2. I will either win my mini leagues or crash out in February.”
Doesn’t sound very Sean Dyche to us, mate.
“Bruno is wank.”
Cheers, Adam.
“The team you can get without Haaland is absolutely filthy.”
We warned you, Jo. It’s a slippery slope.
“Unfortunately, unfettered tribalism and a bit of office politics mean I won't allow any Liverpool, City or Arsenal players in my squad. Ever. Last year my team's name was Bottom 17, but Liverpool's slide to fifth forced me to change it.”
See, things might be hard, but at least you’re not Mike. Unless you are Mike, in which case, sorry Mike.
“Picked players who should get 90 minutes, and trying to cover as many bases as possible. No early chips planned unless it all goes Pete Tong.”
It will go Pete Tong, Steve. It always does.
“Having got bored with all teams looking the same after a few weeks, I've gone for only Brazilians. (Their nationality, not their choice of style for their Man Bush).”
Cheers for the clarification there. We would’ve definitely assumed the latter otherwise.
Fixture Tracker
Ugh, well this is undignified. In yesterday’s 24h briefing, we mixed up the fixture tables, with the attacking table labelled “Defensive” and vice versa. Thankfully, it’s easy to edit a newsletter after you’ve sent it to hundreds of thousands of people. Oh wait…
Nobody really noticed, but we did. So here’s the fixed version. Sorry about that.
The Lazy Podcast.
You know what the world needs? Another FPL podcast. Obligingly, we’ve just launched ours.
Episode 1 tackles the dilemma of going without either Haaland or Bruno. If you’re still deliberating that decision - or just want to hear what The Professor sounds like - listen to two very overqualified managers lay out the pros and cons in 27 minutes of free, advertless chatter.
Give it a listen, give us a follow. Or is it like, comment, subscribe? We don’t really know.
We’ll leave you with this.
This post in our LazyFPL Premium WhatsApp Broadcast group came from Ross, one of our pundits and a hall-of-fame manager:
So look, if it all goes badly this weekend, don’t fear. There’s always the other 37 gameweeks.
Thus concludes our three-hour briefing. Please go back to fretting over your team.
Have an excellent Gameweek 1, even if the scoring-FPL-points-part doesn’t play ball. We’ll see you next week.
Stay lazy,
The LazyFPL Team.