Pre-season #10

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Summary for the lazy

- Liverpool beat City 3-1 in the Community Shield. Darwin (£9.0m) scores, Haaland (£11.5m) misses a sitter.- Raul Jimenez (£7.0m) injured - likely return in late August/early September.- Cristiano Ronaldo (£10.5m) starts latest United friendly.- Raheem Sterling (£10.0m) scores first goal for Chelsea.- United's new defender, Lisandro Martinez (£4.5m), one of four new players added to the game.- Jesus (£8.0m) scores a hat-trick, taking his pre-season tally up to 7.- Read on for a Gameweek 1 draft that squeezes in Trent, Cancelo, Salah, Kane and Haaland and still looks decent.

Right, stretch off and shake down. Let's get into it.

Pre-season form report

(There's been loads of pre-season results in the last week. We'll cover the highlights, but here's a full list.)Gabriel Jesus has now scored seven goals in pre-season, after netting a hat-trick in a 6-0 thrashing of Sevilla. His form means he's now 69% owned (stop sniggering): the highest of any player in the game.Bukayo Saka (£8.0m) scored two, including a penalty, with in-form Eddie Nketiah (£7.0m) also scoring his sixth pre-season goal.This ridiculously useful Reddit post gives you a team-by-team breakdown of who has scored and assisted what in pre-season. Arsenal's is particularly impressive: the North London club haven't lost a game since 16th May.

The Community Shield was won 3-1 by Liverpool. If some Liverpool fans are to be believed, this means they'll almost certainly go on to win every trophy that the 22/23 season has to offer now. Including an improbable lifting of the World Cup.Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) scored a penalty (note: with Darwin on the pitch) and assisted Trent Alexander Arnold's (£7.5m) wonderful finish. Darwin notched a third for Klopp's men, whilst new signing Julian Alvarez (£6.5m) scored City's only goal.Their other, less-talked-about new signing - the unassuming Erling Haaland (£11.5m) - missed a comically easy opportunity to make it 3-2 in the final minutes of the game.We always knew he was rubbish.

Cristiano Ronaldo (£10.0m) bagged his first minutes of pre-season in a 1-1 draw with Rayo Vallecano. The Portuguese was subbed off after a goalless first half.Erik ten Hag stated earlier that the forward "needed match fitness" ahead of Gameweek 1, which is no surprise given he's spent 98% of pre-season focusing on his strop.The news has thrown doubt over whether Marcus Rashford (£6.5m) and Anthony Martial (£7.0m) are still viable FPL options.Because we're rather boring (and because boring always wins), we'd advise caution on United's attacking assets until we know more. You don't need them to have a good start to the season.

Spurs failed to have a shot on target in their final pre-season game of the season. They lost 1-0 to Roma.Here's Ivan Perisic's (£5.5m) very attacking heat map from the game, mind you. He registered more shots than Heung-min Son.

Elsewhere...Villa's Leon Bailey (£5.0m) scored again in a hard-fought 2-1 win over Rennes. The budget midfielder has scored three goals in pre-season and remains our top bargain midfield pick.Everton's new signing, Dwight McNeil (£5.5m), scored two goals on his debut from the bench in a 3-0 win over Dynamo Kiev.Raheem Sterling (£10.0m) scored in a 3-1 win over Udinese. Mason Mount (£8.0m) also found the net for the second time in pre-season.Chelsea's response was nothing if not proportionate:

Finally, Raul Jimenez (£7.0m) is injured, and looks to be out for at least the first few gameweeks.For FPL managers, this is less about the Mexican and more about Pedro Neto (£5.5m), whose fantasy output could be impacted by the loss.

From what we can gather, Daniel Podence (£5.5m) is the more likely to occupy that central position as a false-nine. Neto's stats aren't fantastic without their talismanic centre-forward either.@FPL_Blackwolf is a great follow for in-depth Wolves FPL analysis.

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The big three

Head-scratching over Harry Kane (5 pre-season goals) vs Erling Haaland (1 pre-season goal, possibly a Norse God)?Well, why not have them both?With Salah too. And Trent. And even Cancelo.Heck, we'll throw in a Chelsea defender, a £5.0m goalkeeper and an in-form Arsenal attacker whilst we're at it.

£100m on the nose. It's something the cool kids are calling, rather nauseatingly, a "threemium" team (as in, three premium attackers).Tempted?

Listen, these guys aren't going to win the golden boot anytime soon, but they'll probably play football in the 22/23 season. And they're cheap. And that's about all you can ask for, okay? Good. Andreas Pereira (MID, £4.5m): two assists in pre-season, on some corners, will probably play.Neco Williams (DEF, £4.0m): cheap, will probably play. Could pick up the odd assist now and again.Leon Bailey (MID, £5.0m): the most in-form of Villa's attackers. Gerrard loves him.Nathan Patterson (DEF, £4.0m): playing regularly in pre-season for Everton, gets forward frequently. Looks increasingly likely to play in Gameweek 1.Josh Dasilva (MID, £4.5m): key to Brentford's promotion-winning season but was injured for much of the 21/22 campaign. Now fit, he has a goal and 315 preseason minutes under his belt.We'll update this next week with any new finds.

Friend-of-the-newsletter Holly Shand has put together a handy reminder of when we can go mental and do loads of transfers this season.

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