With two domestic leagues now underway, there is much to go over here – the Premier League debuted for the 2014-15 season, and with Ligue 1 in France having already kicked off last weekend we are getting closer to a time when football is taking place throughout the continent, and the season will soon be back in full flow. That said, let’s first look at the second round of games in France over the weekend, with the largest margin of victory coming from Rennes, as they defeated Evian Thonon Gaillard 6-2 at home, but the top fantasy football spot in Ligue 1 presently resides with Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.
The Nigerian has a fantastic 80 points from his first two games, and that stems from clean sheets in both outings – Lille won 1-0 at Caen on Friday night to build on their opening-day draw, and sees Enyeama move 10 fantasy points clear at the top of Euro Fantasy League’s Ligue 1 table. AS Saint-Étienne striker Mevlüt Erdinç moves into second place thanks to three goals and an assist from his own first two outings of the season, and then we see four defenders tying for third in the form of Sébastien Corchia, Franck Beria, Marko Basa and Simon Kjaer. Two things in common for those four men – they all play defence for Lille directly in front of Enyeama and they all have 60 points each, so while you can’t have all five names owing to the rule of a maximum of three players per club, any combination is likely to be serving our fantasy managers well if that is the route they have taken. Kjaer is the most expensive of these at €8.50m, with Enyeama at €7.50m but the rest cost between €3.50m-€4.50m so there are a few bargains right there!
Moving our attentions to the new Premier League season now, and we had some surprising results (at least in terms of individual fantasy points). Top of the English league individually is Spurs defender Eric Dier, who grabbed a goal and saw his side keep a clean sheet to earn an impressive 50 points, with Hull defender James Chester just behind him on 40. With asking prices of €5.50m and €3.00m respectively, that was a potential 90 points right there for an outlay of only €8.50m combined – meaning that, with hindsight, that was perhaps the defensive partnership to go with heading into last weekend’s fixtures.
Saido Berahino’s brace for West Brom against Sunderland gave him 40 points alongside four others, of which one is Tottenham stopper Hugo Lloris, who takes the spot as the top goalkeeper in the Premier League for our fantasy managers – good call to the 1% of managers who have included him in their squads.
Berahino is joined in the English top 20 by only Gylfi Sigurdsson of Swansea from the strikers in action this weekend, with the emphasis having largely been on goalkeepers and defenders so far. Even as far as midfielders go, only Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling and Man City’s David Silva made the top 20, with 30 and 25 points respectively – so it’s been very much a successful weekend for the defensively minded managers who have chosen the Premier League as the basis for their fantasy team.
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