Pre-season #9

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Summary for the lazy

- Liverpool's Darwin Nunez (£9.0m) scores four against Leipzig- Arsenal pump Chelsea 4-0 in the prestigious Florida Cup- Erling Haaland (£11.5m) scores 12 minutes into City debut- Zinchenko (£5.0m) to Arsenal, Lingard (£6.0m) to Forest- Elsewhere, Spurs sign Spence (£4.5m), Mee (£4.5m) joins Brentford- Read on for the bargain bucket gems your friends probably don't know about yet.

Give it a swirl and bring it to your nose. This one's going to be tasty.

The big done deals

(There's a lot to discuss at the moment, so we'll just focus on the highlights. Here's a full list of done-deals if you're interested.)Jesse Lingard has moved to Nottingham Forest, killing a promising TikTok career before it really had the chance to get going.He picked up nine goals and five assists a few seasons ago. Is he tempting you at £6.0m? At the time of writing, 3.4% of managers have backed him for Gameweek 1 success.Here he is being characteristically understated about the announcement.

Right-back Djed Spence (£4.5m) has been signed by Spurs for around £20m. The club have now signed six players, prompting the inevitable...

Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.0m) moves from City to Arsenal for a reported £32m. He started in last night's 4-0 win over Chelsea, with the crowd chanting his name at full-time.A good debut for the Ukranian.

Pre-season updates

Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m) has now scored four goals in three pre-season starts, having opened the scoring in Arsenal's 4-0 win over Chelsea in last night's Florida Cup final.The Brazilian was actually subbed off with a "knock" on 56 minutes, but early reports suggest it was purely precautionary.Despite his exceptional form, Jesus isn't actually the most in-form of Arsenal's forwards. Here's a really handy tweet from Dan Critchlow to illustrate that fact.

Erling Haaland (£11.5m) scored just 12 minutes into his Man City debut against Bayern Munich. The tap-in was followed almost immediately by a game-halting lightning storm, adding fuel to the rumour that the forward is, in fact, a Norse God.The match was eventually won 1-0 by City, despite a disallowed goal from City's new number 9 that probably should've stood.

Liverpool's Darwin Nunez (£9.0m) scored four (yes, four) goals in a 5-0 thrashing of RB Leipzig, which has seen the forward's FPL ownership surge to 15%. He also took a penalty (the first of the four goals) with Mo Salah still on the pitch.But before you restructure your whole squad to bring him in, we'd urge caution. The Uruguayan is obviously one to keep an eye on, but Leipzig looked notably poor.As for the penalty, it looked like a classic case of "let's give him this to get him off the mark". Clearly it worked.

Oh, and Everton continue to lose football matches.Their latest defeat came against Minnesota United, who only started playing football around the same time that Michael Keane joined the Toffees (2017).It was 4-0 to the Americans.(in the last few hours, they've actually just beaten Blackpool 4-2. Dele Alli scored two goals.)

Some budget gems

Every mini-league has that manager who seems to know something that everyone else has missed.Now you're that manager. Prepare to be an incredibly smug bastard.

Let's start with Andreas Pereira, Fulham's £4.5m midfielder who could well be on corners.The last time Fulham played they were on the receiving end of a 5-1 mauling against Benfica. But the talking point for FPL managers wasn't the scoreline, it was the fact that the ex-United man assisted Fulham's only goal......from a corner......with their regular corner taker, Harry Wilson (£6.0m), still on the pitch.Stay calm everyone.

Need a £4.0m defender to sit on your bench? Of course you do.

Neco Williams

is your man.

The Nottingham Forest full-back is widely expected to get regular starts for his new club, which is about all you can ask from your bargain-bucket fodder.

But if that wasn't enough, the youngster managed one assist in seven minutes of Premier League action last season. If he can keep that up across 38 games, he's forecasted to notch 488 assists in the 22/23 campaign.Move aside, Trent.

Here are some other cut-price options that are on our radar:Leon Bailey (MID, £5.0m)Man United played out a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa yesterday. The first of Villa's goals came from Leon Bailey, who - to borrow Steven Gerrard's post-match words - was "sensational". He went on to say "if I had to pick a team for the real thing tomorrow, Leon Bailey would be in it."Brandon Williams (DEF, £4.0m)This one's a bit of a long-shot, but let us explain.According to @utdreport, if Marc Cucurella (£5.0m) goes to Man City, Graham Potter has said Brandon Williams would be the target to replace him. The £4.0m man could yet see plenty of game time this season.

Diogo Dalot (DEF, £4.5m)It's worth mentioning that Diogo Dalot seems to have the right-back spot nailed down at Man United for the time-being. He's played 150 minutes of pre-season football, and most fans reckon he'll start in the Premier League.Listen, he's no John Lundstram, but it's unusual to get a starting defender at Man United for under £5.0m. Don't say we didn't give you a heads up.

Looking ahead

Speaking of United's starting XI, look at this tweet from @utdreport.

Could Anthony Martial (£7.0m) be their starting forward in Gameweek 1?The Frenchman has three goals in his last four games, by the way.

Here's our latest draft, by the way. If you're struggling to put together a team, please feel free to copy it. Nobody will judge you for putting together this squad: it's solid.Don't hold us accountable for your performance, mind you.

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