The third round overall of domestic football of the new season takes place this weekend, with the French Ligue 1 playing their third games while the Premier League goes through its second set of fixtures. We also have two more leagues kicking off, with the German Bundesliga getting things underway on Friday evening and the Spanish La Liga beginning the following day.
Focusing our attentions on France first, then, and Friday evening brings Evian Thonon Gaillard welcoming Paris St-Germain to Parc des Sports. Evian have really struggled in their first couple of games, and rest bottom of the table with two defeats from their first two games, and a goal difference of -7. PSG, meanwhile, have four points from their first six, and sit third – but what we really want to know surely is how the players on the pitch have fared by way of fantasy points earned thus far, so let’s take a quick look.
It’s a bit disheartening for Evian fans unfortunately – their highest scorer in fantasy points is striker Gianni Bruno, who costs €2.00m – and he has earned 10. Defender Daniel Wass is the only other player at the club with a positive points tally on 5, while all the others are on 0 or worse – goalkeeper Jesper Hansen is on -70, so perhaps stay away from including him in your fantasy squad for now. Things look a bit brighter for the guests, however, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic on 30 points and Javier Pastore on 20 – but that’s about it. The points totals are considerably higher, but PSG surprisingly also only have two on positive tallies so far – it seems more likely that will change for the guests than the hosts in the short-term, though.
In the Premier League, arguably the biggest game of the weekend sees Everton playing hosts to Arsenal, while fellow title chasers Chelsea welcome newly promoted Leicester to Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon too. New Blues striker Diego Costa got his west London career off to a great start against Burnley on Monday night, and will be hoping he can build on that against another side experiencing their first season in this stint of top flight football. He grabbed 15 points from his competitive Blues debut, and while players may have earned more it’s certainly a solid beginning to life under Jose Mourinho.
Across the border in Germany, the Bundesliga kicks off on Friday evening when champions Bayern Munich host Wolfsburg, but on Saturday one of the tastier fixtures sees last year’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund do battle at home with Bayer Leverkusen, and with second and fourth placed finishes last season respectively this seems like a very early season top match. Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller will be looking to keep Stefan Kießling and co at bay, and fortunately for him Leverkusen were actually the lowest scorers out of the teams in the top five places last season, with 60 goals. That still averages approaching two goals per game, though, so there is much for Weidenfeller and his defenders to do.
With Spain still reeling from their poor showing at the World Cup, La Liga also kicks off and comes as a means of escape from a poor summer for Spanish fans across the world. Last year, three sides were able to win the title going into the final round of games, with Atletico Madrid ultimately triumphing over city rivals Real and Barcelona to win their 10th Spanish title. The two Madrid sides kick off their campaigns on Monday evening, while Barcelona get their season underway the day before when Elche arrive at the Camp Nou having narrowly avoided relegation in May. This is a game that Barcelona will be looking to win – and comfortably too – so expect Messi and co. to really turn things up on Saturday and send out an early warning shot to their rivals that they are in it to regain the title.
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