GameDay Squad EPL Gameweek 2 preview

We’re back again to examine the round ahead after, hopefully, a successful round one for coaches. Let’s check the matchups and which players you should be considering for your teams.

West Ham v Chelsea: Coming off a 3-0 loss to newly promoted Sunderland, after having dominated the possession, West Ham will be keen to redeem themselves. Chelsea will also be looking to do the same having been held to a 0-0 draw to Crystal Palace. Chelsea are likely to be far too strong here and the scoreline could get ugly. The Chelsea attackers appear safe bets for the round with Palmer, Enzo and Joao Pedro good options. Although beware of rotation in this one, if Delap gets a start. Gittens and Pedro Neto could be two good differentials to go for. Chelsea are also likely to be solid in defence once again, making Sanchez and Cucurella viable options for the clean sheet.

Manchester City v Tottenham: A far more defensively sound Tottenham got off to a flyer under their new manager, as centre backs Romero and Van de Ven appear over their injury issues from last season. Tottenham’s style under Thomas Frank appears to be a lot more assured and less likely to leak goals. They come up against a revitalized City who were, arguably, the best attacking team in round one. This one is probably best to avoid for defenders, shy of Porro and Ait-Nouri who are potential goal contributors. As always Haaland is a must play. Beware of the Pep roulette.

Brentford v Aston Villa: Brentford were left shellshocked in the first half as Chris Wood put them to the sword, in what was eventually a 3-1 loss. This defensive fragility is likely to make Villa attackers Watkins and Rogers hard to exclude. Tielemans is another who’ll benefit from a more open game, as his creative talents were frozen out against a resilient Newcastle outfit. Watkins does play particularly well against Brentford with seven goal contributions in his past seven starts against them.

Burnley v Sunderland: A battle of the promoted teams could produce some sparks as Sunderland players are likely to once again score well. While Ballard is unlikely to be as good as he was in round one, he along with Hume and Reinildo could be decent options. At the other end of the field Adingra and Mayenda are likely sources of goals, while Edwards could be dangerous if he earns a start for Burnley.

Bournemouth v Wolves: Likely to be a make or break game in a lot of GDS coaches weeks. Off the back of a 4-0 loss to Manchester City, there’ll be some very popular Bournemouth options that’ll be favored to pull off a similar feat. The most obvious of these options is Semenyo who is coming off of a brace versus Liverpool. Other options are likely to be striker Evanilson, attacking midfielder Tavernier, fullback Truffert and goalkeeper Petrovic. In particular, Tavernier did some very impressive defensive work in his attacking role, which made for a good GDS score in a 4-2 loss.

Arsenal v Leeds: Despite a 1-0 win over Everton in the final game of round one, Leeds will come into this as heavy underdogs. Arsenal’s full attacking prowess wasn’t on display in their own 1-0 win, theirs over Manchester United, but their attacking weapons in Gyokeres and Saka should showcase that here. Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Raya will all have good chances of a clean sheet, and all are likely to play full games. It’s a good opportunity for Rice to impact both offensively and defensively in this one too.

Everton v Brighton: Despite losing 1-0 to a late questionable penalty, Everton did manage to keep their opponents at bay for the majority of the game, albeit against newly promoted Leeds. Leeds did manage a huge 21 shots in total, however Everton limited their chances to only three shots on target. It may be brave to select Everton players such as Tarkowski and Pickford against a better outfit after that barrage, but it could also be genius if they can hold out this time. Brighton attackers Rutter, Mitoma and Minteh could all be options that score in this one, while O’Riley appears to be on penalties and is playing (for now) in his favored central attacking midfield position, which he did quite well in at previous club Celtic.

Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest: Two defensive juggernauts who did quite well in round one. More impressively, Crystal Palace held out Chelsea in a 0-0 draw, while Nottingham Forest conceded a late penalty to wipe theirs in a 3-1 victory. This one is likely to be a low scoring affair, made even more likely for Crystal Palace with the imminent transfer of Eze, who has already been ruled out of playing. Defenders of both teams should be the priority with the best being Lacroix, Mitchell, Murillo, Munoz and Milenkovic, but let’s also chuck in both goalkeepers, Henderson and Sels, for good measure. The most likely attacker to impact this one is Chris Wood after his opening weekend double, however he comes up against stiffer opposition in this one.

Fulham v Manchester United: Despite being the only losing team of the two, Manchester United appeared to be the better of the two teams in round one. United managed a 1-0 loss to potential league winners Arsenal after a mistake (one could argue he was fouled) from their goalkeeper. They had, arguably, the better game with higher xG, possession, and total and on target shots. Fulham managed a late (I’m talking literal last minute) goal to force a draw in their game against Brighton. It’s hard to find suitable Fulham picks at the moment, especially with Robinson out, however, Leno could have a good scoring game in goal if United perform similarly to last week, but can’t put the ball into the back of the net. I’m guessing United will this week though, and it’ll be off the back of three key attacking players in Mbeumo, Cunha and Bruno Fernandes. Who is the right one to pick? One? Two? All three?

Newcastle v Liverpool: The final game of the round is likely to be the best of it. There’s plenty of drama in this one with Isak’s rumored transfer going on for months. Expect a fiery affair. If either goalkeeper manages a clean sheet in this one, you can expect a good GDS score, however I don’t think there will be one. Despite that I believe Van Dijk is still an essential pick this week as he’ll continue his dominance in the air from round one by racking up aerial duel wins against a likely undersized Newcastle forward line that’ll have Anthony Gordon as their striker. While there won’t be as many long ball counters from Newcastle, we can still expect Liverpool to pile on the pressure enough for there to be a decent supply of aerial duels. As always Salah is in that category of you probably have to pick him, but I don’t think I will be this week.

After considering all of the above, here’s my top 10 (top 5 for goalkeepers) for every position, in no particular order, for the round. Plus a few extra uniques.

Goalkeepers:

●     Raya

●     Pickford

●     Trafford

●     Sanchez

●     Sels

Uniques: Petrovic and Verbruggen

Defenders:

●     Ait-Nouri

●     Tarkowski

●     Van Dijk

●     Cucurella

●     Truffert

●     De Cuyper

●     Saliba

●     Milenkovic

●     Murillo

●     Gabriel

Uniques: Hume and Ballard

Midfielders:

●     O’Riley

●     Palmer

●     Enzo

●     Rice

●     Fernandes

●     Guimaraes

●     Mbeumo

●     Anderson

●     Tielemans

●     Odegaard

Uniques: Tavernier and Mitoma

Forwards:

●     Haaland

●     Rogers

●     Saka

●     Evanilson

●     Semenyo

●     Salah

●     Joao Pedro

●     Watkins

●     Cunha

●     Gyokeres

Uniques: Minteh and Gittens

…And that’s a wrap! Best of luck with round two.