With just a day remaining until the start of the 2022/23 Premier League season, FPL managers are excited and nervous in anticipation of the start of another season of Premier League action.

They will, however, have to deal with a minor roadblock in the shape of the ongoing transfer window. Most of the big-money deals are done and over with, but with less than three weeks remaining till the European transfer window slams shut, FPL managers are anxiously waiting for any new development in the transfer market and are largely dependent on two clubs in Chelsea and Manchester United who have emerged as the bottlenecks ahead of Gameweek 1.

Gameweek 1 Deadline: Friday, 5 August at 6:30 pm (British Summer Time), and 11:00 pm (Indian Standard Time).

The Fixtures

Gameweek 1 of the 2022/23 Premier League season opens with a midnight kick-off on August 5 (12:30 am IST) when Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal will pay a visit to Patrick Vieira and his Crystal Palace side at Selhurst Park.

6th August

Fulham v Liverpool (5:00 pm)
Bournemouth v Aston Villa (7:30 pm)
Leeds United v Wolverhampton Wanderers (7:30 pm)
Newcastle United v Nottingham Forest (7:30 pm)
Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton (7:30 pm)
Everton v Chelsea (10:00 pm)

7th August

Leicester City v Brentford (6:30 pm)
Manchester United v Brighton & Hove Albion (6:30 pm)
West Ham United v Manchester City (9:00 pm)

*Timings are subject to the Indian Standard Time (IST).

Best FPL XI for Gameweek 1

Captain: Mohamed Salah
Vice-captain: Erling Haaland
Chips activated: None
Budget Remaining: £0.0m

Picking Mo Salah as your captain for Gameweek 1 is a no-brainer. The Egyptian has had a good pre-season, and with the new contract signed, he looks sharper than ever.

Salah is the obvious pick against a newly-promoted Fulham side. However, many people will still make the case for Harry Kane to be their captain for Gameweek 1. That said, both Heung-min Son and Erling Haaland are also candidates for the armband. Thus, there are at least 4-5 very good captaincy picks for Gameweek 1, and backing any one of those should in turn give you your desired results. However, with my experience and understanding of the pre-season fixtures, Salah is still the go-to guy.

Goalkeepers

The goalkeeper’s position has been a long-debated one in the FPL community ever since the prices dropped. While the likes of Alisson Becker, Ederson Moraes and Hugo Lloris have been decently priced at £5.5m, that price bracket means you’re missing out on at least one key or budget enabler position in the outfield.

Having looked at the different fixture run-ins and matched up each goalkeeper against one another, Aaron Ramsdale (£5m) comes off as the go-to keeper. Arsenal have the fixtures to rack in clean sheets and also the defensive reinforcement that left them wanting towards the final leg of last season.

As my backup GK, I have picked Danny Ward (£4m) from Leicester City. With Kasper Schmeichel’s departure, the No. 1 position at Leicester City is up for grabs, and the noises coming from the King Power Stadium suggest that they are willing to give a chance to their existing keepers. That means you have a starting keeper from a Top 10 club as your backup; it can’t get better than this.

Defenders

Among the Top 10 point-scorers in the game, there were 4 defenders on the list. Thus, you’d be foolish to think about breaking up that template and going against the grain. Big at the back is the way to go; you either brace it or learn it the hard way. However, picking the right profile of defenders is equally important.

My backline consists of Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m), Andy Robertson (£7m), João Cancelo (£7m), Ivan Periši? (£5.5m) and Neco Williams (£4m). As you can see, all five of my defenders are either fullbacks or wingbacks. While all four of Alexander-Arnold, Robertson, Cancelo and Periši? guarantee me clean sheets almost every other week, what they bring offensively is perhaps equally, if not more, important. Neco Williams, too, will offer decent cover and points potential in favourable fixtures and is a nailed starter for Steve Cooper’s Nottingham Forest.

I know what you’re thinking: is Periši? going to deliver on all this hype? The simple answer is: yes. Although his fitness has been an issue during the pre-season, he played the full 90 against AS Roma in Tottenham’s final pre-season fixture, giving me the confidence that he’ll at least get 60-70 minutes. Moreover, while Alexander-Arnold, Robertson and Cancelo are more likely to chip in with assists and the occasional goal, Periši? is a direct goal-threat. He’s a winger-turned-wingback by Antonio Conte and wrecked havoc in his one season under him at Inter Milan. Thus, this goal threat gives him the nod ahead of someone like a Kyle Walker from Manchester City or a Lucas Digne from Aston Villa or a Kieran Trippier from Newcastle United.

Midfielders

I believe this is where the game will be decided this season in my opinion. There are a select few goalkeepers, defenders or forwards that can make up the composition of your 15-man squad, but the variance at play in the midfielders section and quality of players to pick from mean that this will, at the end of the day, make or break your team.

My midfield consists of one premium player in Mo Salah (£13m), while the rest are all budget enablers. However, all four of them are exceptional and provide great value for money. The RoI on these assets is off the charts, given the potential on offer. Since my intention is to have a squad that can be easily morphed into a 4-4-2, 3-5-2 or a 5-3-2, all my midfielders are starters and not one of them is priced below £5m.

Beside Salah, I have Gabriel Martinelli (£6m), Leon Bailey (£5m) and Pedro Neto (£5.5m) as my starting four. Other than that, and this can be contentious, I have Marcus Rashford (£6.5m) as my fifth-choice midfielder and the first sub on the bench.

I feel Rashford at £6.5m is a must. Now, do I trust Manchester United to hit the ground running and blitz Brighton & Hove Albion out of the park? Absolutely not. I feel he’ll have a good season, and his price is almost certain to raise around £6.7-6.9m by Gameweek 4 if Manchester United start well. I’m happy to eat my humble pie if he scores a goal or two in Gameweek 1, though I’d still like to wait it out and see it for myself before jumping the gun on him, because, if it doesn’t work, it still allows me to jump on a similarly-priced or a better budget option for future Gameweeks.

Forwards

The forwards department has been under-performing for the last two seasons, and after looking at the pre-season and different templates, one thing is clear: there are only three forwards in demand – Gabriel Jesus (£8m), who has become the most-bought player in the history of the game with a 75.9% ownership, Harry Kane (£11.5m), who is the obvious No. 1 choice, and Erling Haaland (£11.5m), who everybody wants to get a hold of but are hesitant due to the xMins risk.

Now, my forwards are Erling Haaland, Gabriel Jesus and Luke Plange. I really don’t think there will be much to choose between Haaland and Kane in terms of points from Gameweeks 1-6. However, the reason why I have Haaland is the same reason why I have Periši?: both are rotation risks at least for the first 2-3 Gameweeks according to many FPL experts. Had Haaland not played the full 90′ against Liverpool in the Community Shield, I would have gone for the safer option in Harry Kane, but the fact that he has played a full game, with City having one of the best fixture run-ins, indicate that Pep will have to use Haaland right from the start if he wants the Norwegian fit and firing for the Champions League matches. Another reason why I prefer him over Kane is that Haaland is not going to the World Cup, so Pep can use him without worrying about any burnouts.

How are our other team members lining up?

Ali’s team (Devilsowntheater)

Captain: Harry Kane
Vice-captain: Gabriel Jesus
Chips Activated: None
Budget remaining: £0.5m

Anshuman’s team (Aesterfell)

Captain: Mohamed Salah
Vice-captain: Harry Kane
Chips Activated: None
Budget remaining: £0m

Shwetaabh’s team (DevilisintheDetails)

Captain: Harry Kane
Vice-captain: Jadon Sancho
Chips Activated: None
Budget remaining: £0m

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