Within 24 hours of Fantasy Premier League being re-launched for the start of the 2022-23 season, almost 800,000 had already selected their preliminary teams for Gameweek 1.
The game is growing in popularity with each passing campaign as reflected by the ever-expanding number of teams registered worldwide. In 2021-22 that figure surpassed the nine million mark and it seems feasible that there will be another hike again, making the task of finishing top of the overall standings – and winning an assortment of Premier League goodies – even more challenging.
FPL was restored on 5 July, exactly a month before Crystal Palace and Arsenal kick the 2022-23 season off at Selhurst Park, giving veteran bosses and wide-eyed newcomers alike ample time to fiddle with their teams. Feel free to rotate your side to your heart’s content until the first deadline of the season which falls on the day of that curtain-raising London derby.
As you will see when you log back in, FPL has been given a vibrant makeover during the summer, with a tropical-coloured theme that wouldn’t look out of place splashed across a pouch of Capri-Sun greeting managers on the app and website. And that’s not the only change that has been introduced…
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Here’s all you need to know about the new FPL season:
What changes have been made?
Two big changes will come into effect next season: managers can enable two-factor authentication to increase security of their accounts and they can make unlimited transfers from Saturday 12 November to Monday 26 December while the World Cup is being played in Qatar.
Over the past couple of seasons numerous FPL managers have reported that their teams have been “hacked” with mischievous troublemakers (or else dastardly mini-league rivals… ) making multiple transfers to rival squads to incur monstrous points hits. Although seeing a friend’s team decimated in such fashion can provide a source of entertainment, you wouldn’t want it to happen to your own team: adding an extra layer of security, therefore, can only be a positive step.
The second addition, meanwhile, will effectively give managers three Wildcards to use during the 2022-23 season: one before 12 November, one during the World Cup and another from Boxing Day until the end of the campaign. It hasn’t been described as such but think of it as a World Cup Wildcard. For the uninitiated, a Wildcard allows managers to make multiple transfers to their team for free.
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This is the second occasion in recent years that FPL have introduced another window for free transfers to be made having also done so in 2019-20 when the season was temporarily shut down due to Covid. Managers were able to make unlimited changes from the league’s suspension in March to the so-called Project Restart in June.
An important factor to bear in mind when making transfers during the World Cup or when using a Wildcard is that you will lose any value tied up in an individual player if you sell them, even if you decide to bring them back into your team. Players’ values fluctuate depending on how many managers buy or sell them in a single gameweek.
Otherwise, the chips are the same as before, despite rumours that FPL might make changes. That means that there are two (official) Wildcards to use along with a Bench Boost, Free Hit and Triple Captain chip.
When is the Gameweek 1 deadline?
The deadline for submitting your squads for Gameweek 1 is at 6.30pm on Friday 5 August ahead of Crystal Palace vs Arsenal which kicks off at 8pm.
As was the case last year, the deadline for submitting transfers is 90 minutes before the first Premier League match of the weekend gets underway.
Gameweek 1 fixtures
Friday 5 August
- Crystal Palace vs Arsenal (8pm)
Saturday 6 August
- Fulham vs Liverpool (12.30pm)
- Bournemouth vs Aston Villa (3pm)
- Leeds vs Wolves (3pm)
- Newcastle vs Nottingham Forest (3pm)
- Spurs vs Southampton (3pm)
- Everton vs Chelsea (5.30pm)
Sunday 7 August
- Leicester vs Brentford (2pm)
- Man Utd vs Brighton (2pm)
- West Ham vs Man City (4.30pm)
Which players have new positions?
Each year, FPL reclassifies a number of players who predominantly played in different positions to the ones assigned to them in the game.
FPL’s criteria for changing player positions has been questioned at times. Ahead of the 2020-21 season, for instance, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was controversially classified as a midfielder due to generally playing as a left winger the previous campaign. The former Arsenal captain was then re-classified as a forward for 2021-22.
Here are this season’s confirmed position changes:
- Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace) – forward to midfielder
- Sergi Canos (Brentford) – midfielder to defender
- Stuart Dallas (Leeds) – midfielder to defender
- Kai Havertz (Chelsea) – midfielder to forward
- Hwang Hee-Chan (Wolves) – forward to midfielder
- Joelinton (Newcastle) – forward to midfielder
- Diogo Jota (Liverpool) – midfielder to forward
- Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford) – midfielder to forward
- Rodrigo (Leeds) – forward to midfielder
- Allan Saint-Maximin (Newcastle) – forward to midfielder
The best players to target for Gameweek 1
It is early days of course, but the most selected player in FPL right now is *drumroll* Erling Haaland!
Manchester City’s long-term Sergio Aguero replacement is currently picked by 65 per cent of managers despite having never kicked a ball in the Premier League. Considering his exploits at former club Borussia Dortmund – 62 goals and 15 assists in only 67 Bundesliga appearances – it is unsurprising that the Norwegian is proving to be popular.
Expensively recruited strikers haven’t always lived up to expectations (see Lukaku, Romelu and Werner, Timo), but City’s promising run of fixtures early on may help Haaland hit the ground running. Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0m) and Phil Foden (£8.0m) are Premier League tested alternatives to consider from Guardiola’s squad. Going without any City attackers in the opening weeks would be a bold move…
There are no prizes for guessing who is second in the popularity stakes: Mo Salah held off late competition from Son Heung-min to top the FPL standings again last season, claiming 265 points in total. Salah also holds the record for the most points in a single campaign, managing 303 during his record-breaking debut season with Liverpool in 2017-18.
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The aforementioned Son is another player to target, although the South Korean has received a hefty price increase from £10m at the start of last season to £12m this. If fitting him into a team already containing Haaland and Salah is proving too difficult, you may want to consider his Spurs teammate Ivan Perisic (£5.5m) instead. Perisic has been listed as a defender after playing as a wing-back for previous club Inter.
A number of defenders stood out in 2021-22 and look good value again this year. Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) and Joao Cancelo (£7.0m) broke the 200-point barrier, while Andy Robertson (£7.0m) and Reece James (£6.0m) both proved to be explosive assets at different points. Keep an eye on Marc Cucurella (£5.0m) too: the Brighton left-back has been linked with a move to Manchester City and could be a steal if he switches clubs.
According to FPL’s Fixture Difficulty Rating chart, Arsenal have an encouraging start to the season which raises the appeal of Bukayo Saka (£8.0m) and their new striker Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m). Beware that the Gunners lost their opening three matches without scoring last season, though…
How to follow i‘s FPL tips
Over the past few years, i has ramped up its FPL coverage with transfer tips articles published before the season has started and continued throughout the season.
Before each gameweek deadline, there will be an article highlighting the XI best players to consider buying for your teams, within a set budget of £83m. Our writers will also endeavour to provide FPL managers with up-to-date team news and the best captaincy picks each week.
Over 4,000 people have signed up to receive our dedicated Fantasy Football newsletter which will drop into your inbox once a week throughout the 2022-23 season. And we also run a Fantasy Football Facebook page too where tips and tricks can be traded with like-minded enthusiasts.
You can sign up to our weekly tips newsletter here!
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