The English Premier League season is less than a week away, and if you haven’t drafted your fantasy football Premier League players yet, you better do it soon. With the season about to kickoff, plenty of fantasy managers are still scrambling around making last minute changes; so don’t worry.
This week we take a look at the five Premier League players you must have in your team, to kickoff the season. Whether its DraftKings, FanDuel, Fantasy Premier League or another fantasy provider, you will need the best Premier League players you can get. Grab a couple of these heavy hitters and you will be at the top of your league.
1. Alexis Sanchez – Arsenal
Alexis Sanchez finished the 2016-17 Fantasy Premier League season as its top scorer. Right now, the attacker is still an Arsenal player, which bodes well for fantasy managers. He should be better fantasy value at the Emirates than if he joins Manchester City. He now has a world-class striker in Alexandre Lacazette to set up, and with the Frenchman’s ability to draw defenders, it will give Sanchez more space to score goals. The Chilean still has everyone else around him, and Arsenal have made upgrades this season without losing anyone important. If he goes to City, I think he drops out of the top five. Yes, City will be awesomely high powered; but there will be too many cooks in the kitchen.
2. Romelu Lukaku – Manchester United
If the preseason is anything to go off of, Romelu Lukaku’s first season at Old Trafford will be full of goals. Lukaku scored 25 in 37 league matches a season ago. The players around him at United will be better than at Everton, and he should reward fantasy managers as one of the Premier League players of the season.
3. Sadio Mane – Liverpool
Liverpool’s attack was brilliant for much of last season. The squad tallied 78 goals and finished fourth. Sadio Mane led the way with 11 goals for the team, but missed large chunks of the season due to the Africa Cup of Nations and injury. If fit, Mane can once again be the team’s leading scorer. The addition of Mohamed Salah should do nothing but help Mane to excel as one of the Premier League players to select week after week.
4. Kevin De Bruyne – Manchester City
Okay, so I previously said Sanchez wouldn’t have the same fantasy impact at City as he would at Arsenal. That statement goes for Kevin De Bruyne, too. De Bruyne tallied 199 fantasy points a season ago and was one of the shining lights in City’s season. If Sanchez arrives, De Bruyne’s influence as the team’s playmaker will regress and so will his numbers. De Bruyne has the players around him already to be one of the best in fantasy this season, and with an improved defence, City players should be more attractive this season.
5. Harry Kane – Tottenham
Harry Kane finished 2016-17 as the Premier League’s golden boot winner. Kane’s 29 goals in 30 games helped the club reach second place in the competition and gave fantasy managers plenty of points. The big problem with selecting Kane tends to be his injury record as he does miss a few games during the year. Add in the fact that Tottenham have still not made a transfer signing and Kane’s numbers could regress greatly. He will still have Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, but will that be enough? The squad is quite thin and with Champions League matches again this term, I think Spurs will take a step backwards. Kane is still one of the top five Premier League players to get into your side to kickoff the season based on his previous points totals.
