The new Premier League season is upon us and that means we need to put together our FPL teams.
Here are three essential players to include when picking your teams.
Mo Salah – £14.5m
This one might seem obvious given his impressive season last year but for some reason, he’s not in everyone’s team.
Last season he broke the FPL point scoring record by over 40 points. A record which he previously held from the 2017/18 season.
We all know how good Salah was last season but let’s put some numbers to it.
He scored 29 goals, the next highest was Isak with 23. He provided 18 assists, the next highest was Murphy with 13.
An underrated stat is that he started all 38 games which not many forwards manage in a season.
Finally, and most importantly, he scored 344 FPL points. The next highest was Mbeumo with 236.
Despite these impressive numbers, he is only in around 50% of teams currently.
One reason for this is that he has been given a price increase and is, unsurprisingly, the most expensive player in the game this year.
Another is his uncharacteristically disappointing performance in the Community Shield against Crystal Palace at the weekend.
No goals, no assists, no chances created, one missed penalty and just one shot.
Not quite the performance we’d expect from somebody that managed 47 goal involvements in 38 games last season.
However, if history is anything to go by then betting against the Egyptian in gameweek 1 is usually a very bad idea.
In the last 8 seasons, Salah’s gameweek 1 points are:
24/25: 14 points
23/24: 12 points
22/23: 12 points
21/22: 17 points
20/21: 20 points
19/20: 12 points
18/19: 8 points
17/18: 11 points
Liverpool’s new recruits in Wirtz and Ekitike will only boost Salah’s threat so going without him this season is not for the faint-hearted.
Ollie Watkins – £9.0m
Ollie Watkins has had an impressive pre-season, scoring 5 goals and providing 5 assists in Aston Villa’s friendlies.
The striker wasn’t able to participate in pre-season last year and he recently said in an interview that he believes he will be able to start this season much stronger due to having a full pre-season schedule this year.
Despite outsourcing Haaland in both of the last two seasons, Watkins is priced at only £9.0m, a whole £5.0m less than the Norwegian.
Admittedly, in one of those seasons Haaland spent some time injured but in the other, Watkins played fewer minutes and still managed to outscore the Man City striker.
With Rashford no longer at Aston Villa this season, Watkins’ minutes should be secure and they have a nice fixture schedule to start the season with Sunderland and Everton in their opening six.
Cole Palmer – £10.5m
Cole Palmer was a budget gem that was in everyone’s team in the season before last when he made the move from Man City to Chelsea.
Despite having a slightly disappointing end to last season, he still finished with 15 goals and 10 assists, making him 3rd overall for FPL points scored behind only Salah and Mbeumo.
His return to form started in Chelsea’s impressive Club World Cup win where Palmer scored 3 goals and provided 2 assists in 5 games.
Chelsea are another team that have favourable fixtures to start the season as they play Crystal Palace, West Ham and Fulham in the opening 3 weeks.
The new signings that have been made by Chelsea such as, Gittens, João Pedro and Delap will only improve Palmer’s chances of attacking returns so going without him in your FPL team could lead to you playing catch up when he inevitably starts the season well.
