Welcome back to Fantasy Premier League and welcome back to FISO!
Looking at the top of the Premier League table at the end of last season, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was almost a replica of the season before that. As they have done in six of the last seven season, Manchester City finished on top, followed by Arsenal. The Gunners once again lost out to their skyblue Manchester rivals, though they did manage to limit the gap to the top to just 2 points, compared to the 5 points between the top the season prior. At this point in the pre-season last year, we asked ourselves whether or not Arsenal would be able to compete for the title until the very end once again? Now we are asking themselves, will this be the season in which the Gunners finally bring the Premier League title back to North London, for the first time since the legendary 2003-04 season?
Now, on to more serious business, because the Fantasy Premier League has undergone a significant facelift in the build-up to the 2024-25 campaign. We recommend FPL managers to explore the changes in detail, but we’ll already list them here below to give you a head start:
Banking 5 free transfers: This season, fantasy managers can save up to FIVE free transfers instead of the usual two. In other words, great news for the patient managers and the big planners. On top of that, however many free transfers you have saved up will NOT be reset to zero after activating either a Free Hit or a Wild Card.
Mystery Chip: Talking about Chips, we’ve got a new one this season! It’s called the Mystery Chip and fully in line with its name, it’s use is well… a mystery. FPL towers say that all will be revealed towards January 2025, so keep an eye out for that.
Updated points-scoring: Good news for goalkeepers with a penchant for goalscoring, because a goal by a goalie will be worth 10 points this season, up from 6 points last season. As far as the Bonus Points System (BPS) goes, a saved penalty is now worth 9 BPS (down from 15 BPS). Also, conceding a goal now results in -4 BPS for goalkeepers and defenders. For any player, a goal line clearance is now worth 3 BPS, a foul won 1 BPS and a shot on target 2 BPS.
New look: The design of the in-game FPL pitch has been improved as well, copying the format that is already being used in FPL Challenge.
The Premier League 2024-25 season is set to kick off on Friday, August 16th, at 20h00 (UK time), when Manchester United host Fulham at Old Trafford. The free to play FPL or pay to play games like FanTeam (which has a £200,000 prize fund) are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.
In the build-up to gameweek 1, we will be taking an in-depth look at each of the 20 teams competing in the Premier League this season, including a general team preview, a tactical preview and some FPL recommendations per side. In this third part of our Season Preview series, we’re taking a look at Brighton and a Chelsea side under the new leadership of Italian manager Enzo Maresca.
BRIGHTON – General preview for 2024/25
To say expectations were high at the AmEx Stadium at the start of the 2023-24 season was a bit of an understatement. Brighton had just clinched a sixth-spot finish in the Premier and a spot in the Europa League group phase as a result, and they did so with an exciting brand of football under manager Roberto De Zerbi. Considering their ninth place in the season prior, it looked like the only way was up in Brighton at that moment.
As a result, the actual 11th place at the end of last season was considered by some as somewhat of a disappointment, but let’s put that performance in the right perspective for a second. The previously mentioned 6th place in 2023-24 was the club’s highest finish in the club’s entire 123-year history, their 9th place in 2022-23 was their second-highest finish ever and last season’s 11th place was the third-best performance in Seagull history. In other words, while the expectations were understandable, Brighton have really been performing at an exceptional level these past few years. Add to that their undeniable eye for (international) talent and business savvy, and one might conclude that we are indeed talking about perhaps one of the best run clubs in English football at this moment. Was the sacking of De Zerbi at the very end of the season deserved? We leave that judgment up to you.
It should also be noted that Brighton sold two of their most important players last summer, in the persons of Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo, for a combined £133 million. A repetition of such a situation seems unlikely so far this summer, as veteran midfielder Pascal Gross is the only first-eleven candidate to leave the club for now. On the incoming side, the Seagulls have already registered around £76 million in new signings. The eye-catchers in that sense are 19-year-old right winger Yankuba Minteh (£33 million from Newcastle) and tireless central midfielder Mats Wieffer (£25.4 million from Feyenoord). Both players are expected to be integrated into the starting eleven as soon as possible.
Brighton: Tactical preview 2024/25
To replace the tactically gifted De Zerbi, Brighton came up with German manager Fabian Hurzeler, who at 31 years old will be the youngest manager in the Premier League come Gameweek 1. He caught the data-obsessed management at Brighton after clinching promotion to the German Bundesliga with Sankt Pauli last season. Perhaps not that much of a surprise when you know that Hurzeler more than once showed his Sankt Pauli side videos of De Zerbi’s Brighton in preparation for their matches in the Bundesliga 2.
Going by last season and the pre-season so far, we can expect Brighton to line up in a 3-4-3 formation, but with a bit more focus on defence compared to De Zerbi’s approach. Where the Italian’s plans were perhaps too attacking at times, Hurzeler has shown that he values defensive solidity as well. That doesn’t mean that his sides are in attack, but he first and foremost focuses on balance, defensive stability and the ability to control the game’s pace. His Sankt Pauli side generally dominated possession of the ball and put great emphasis on set-pieces as well. Or in Hurzeler’s own words, “Set-pieces are game-changers, they are match-winners. They are part of my identity”.
BRIGHTON – Potential FPL picks
As was the case in past seasons, Brighton’s FPL roster is quite large and we’re not sure to what extent Hurzeler likes rotating as much as De Zerbi did. One of the players who looks completely nailed-on in the starting eleven is Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m), who missed a large chunk of last season due to injury. He still managed 3 goals and 7 assists from 15 league starts though, and those numbers were perfectly in line with his expected returns. If you want to get a better idea of what he is capable of, you can also look back to the historical 2022-23 season, when the Japanese winger scored 7 goals and provided 9 assists in 24 league starts. That season, he was part of the transfer conversation amongst FPL managers practically every gameweek. We expect Hurzeler to consider Mitoma a key player and at just £6.5m, he could be a steal.
As mentioned earlier, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a bit more defensive Brighton side in comparison to past season under De Zerbi. That has brought Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m) onto our radar. The 21-year-old grew into one of the best players of the Netherlands team that reached the semi-finals at EURO 2024 and should be coming into the new Premier League season full of confidence. Where De Zerbi liked to rotate his goalies at times, we don’t expect this to be the case for Hurzeler and we don’t expect him to choose Jason Steele over Verbruggen, either. Do keep an eye on team news from the Seagulls camp, as the Dutchman might miss the season opener due to an injury, though he is not flagged in FPL at the moment of writing.
Hurzeler’s love and admiration for set-pieces has made us consider Lewis Dunk (£4.5m), who in past season already demonstrated his offensive/aerial threat. Last season, for example, the 1.92m Englishman scored 3 goals and also got an assist to his name. Apart from that, Dunk also combines a few other very appealing fantasy asset characteristics. He is, after all, Brighton’s captain and should play every game as long as he’s fit, and he has some direct free-kick responsibilities in his locker as well. Those might even grow in the coming season, as primary free-kick taker Pascal Gross has moved Borussia Dortmund. And finally, there is of course his price tag, which places him in the densely populated but very valuable budget defender category, even making him a candidate for a powerful rotating pair.
CHELSEA – General preview for 2024/25
The 2022-23 season was one to forget for Chelsea as the Blues finished 12th in the league, their lowest finish since the 1993-94 season, when the Premier League was not even two years old yet. And while last season was still far from what the club’s ambitious, money-splashing ownership would like to see, the squad did show glimpses of brilliance. An eventual 6th-place finish was enough to qualify for European football, though the Conference League is not exactly the tournament in which the Blues want to feature.
Getting back to Champions League status will be the main task for the upcoming season, but Mauricio Pocchetino won’t be part of that challenge. The Argentinian manager never really found his footing at Stamford Bridge, in great part due to chaotic club leadership, and was replaced by Italian manager Enzo Maresca basically as soon as the season ended. The former Leicester City and Parma manager has his work cut out for him though, with a bloated squad more reminiscent of a bunch of unorganised mercenaries than a Premier League side at times. Having said that, the roster does boast some serious quality as well. It will be up to the new man at the helm to build on Pocchetino’s attacking intentions while bringing some defensive solidity to the team and creating more harmony in a Chelsea’s billion-pound squad.
Considering their enormous current squad and their past expenditures (£540 million in 2022-23 and £392 million in 2023-24), we figured the focus this summer might be more on trimming the current squad and less on signing new names. The opposite is true though, with the Blues having already brought in several players so far this summer, for a total of about £95 million. Most of that money went to Leicester City (£30 million for Kieran Dewsbury-Hall), Villareal (£20 million for goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen) and Aston Villa (£19 million for Omari Kellyman from the Villa B team). On top of that, the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Lewis Hall and Kepa all returned from loan, just to name a few. In all fairness, the Blues also transferred out some players already, including veteran Thiago Silva (free transfer to Fluminense), Hakim Ziyech (free transfer to Galatasaray) and Lewis Hall, who moved to Newcastle for about £28 million. Eternal loan player Ian Maatsen was also sold, for £37.5 million, to Aston Villa, where he might just explode this season (see our Aston Villa Club Preview) and it looks like Connor Gallagher is off to Atletico Madrid.
Chelsea: Tactical preview 2024/25
Despite the fame of the Maresca name in European football, the reality is that Chelsea have taken a considerable risk by bringing in the Italian. He has, after all, just a single season as head coach of a first team at the highest level under his belt. Having said that, that one season was last season in service of Leicester, leading the Foxes to a first place in the Championship and therefore, to promotion to the Premier League. Outside of the highest level, Maresca also led Manchester City’s reserve team to the title in the Premier League 2 back in 2021, so it definitely looks like he’s doing something right as a manager.
As usual with new managers, it now remains to be seen if he can do that “something right” in the Premier League as well, at the helm of one of the league’s biggest, richest and (in past years) chaotic clubs. With his love for positional play and strategic discipline, he is an interesting addition to the league. Maresca, like many modern coaches, likes to set his team up in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formation, depending on the opposition. His sides try to play out from the back with short passes and lots of movement, particular by the wingbacks who either create width or join in midfield to create an overload. This could benefit Chelsea’s more defensive central midfielders as they will be pushed higher up the pitch. The defence is exposed at times, though Maresca likes to preserve a kind of 3-2 central set-up in defence even when his side is on the attack. As a result, the high press is important, because if that fails, his sides tend to concede space and therefore chances over the wings, especially on the counter.
CHELSEA – Potential FPL pick
There is no starting a list of potential FPL picks from the Chelsea roster without Cole Palmer (£10.5m), whose price tag was increased by a whopping £5.5 compared to last season. And deservedly so, because in a season full of instability and uncertainty at Stamford Bridge, the former Man City youngster remained ice cold, bagging an incredible 22 goals and 13 assists for a total of 244 FPL points. No player scored more points than he did and the guy started the season at £5.0m! Anyway, Palmer has been upgraded to premium fantasy asset status this season, but that doesn’t mean he should no longer be considered. On the contrary, we believe that he will be key under Maresca as well, especially after getting a goal and an assist at EURO 2024 despite getting just 144 minutes of action. Looking at Chelsea’s attractive start of the season in terms of fixtures (bar their season opener at home against Manchester City), we are not surprised that Palmer currently sits in more than 52% of all Gameweek 1 squads.
Their opening set of fixtures is attractive, but picking Chelsea assets besides Palmer is a bit of a risky business, especially in attack. The Blues roster is so huge that it’s hard to say who will eventually turn up in the starting eleven come Gameweek 1. That’s why it might be even wiser than normal to keep an eye on Chelsea’s pre-season and if you have been doing that so far, then Christopher Nkunku (£6.5m) has likely caught your eye. The attacking midfielder was brought in from Leipzig for about £52 million last summer but then missed most of the season due to a series of injuries. The Frenchman is now back to fitness though, and going on the pre-season so far, Maresca is going to play with him up front. That would make Nkunku a very cheap starting striker for a (normally) top-6 side who is also listed as a midfielder in the official fantasy game. He has so far scored 3 goals in three pre-season games, meaning he has gotten off to a flying start under the new manager.
In our tactical review about Chelsea, we mentioned the role of the inverted wing-back in Maresca’s preferred (attacking) system. This has brought Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£6.0m) to our attention, not because he will be playing out of position as a wing-back, but because he might very well be the central midfielder who will be pushed forward by this tactic. And that’s not just a hunch, but an inference based on the midfielder’s performances last season. He was an integral part of Maresca’s successful and eventually Championship-winning Leicester side, which was underlined by the fact that he had the most direct goal involvements of any player on the Foxes roster: 12 goals and 14 assists. Despite the abundance of midfield talent in the Blues squad at the moment, we feel that the £30 million spent on KDH is not just another multi-million-pound gamble by club chairman Todd Boehly. Maresca seems to have brought him with for a reason and that reason might just end up making a mockery of the player’s current £6.0m price tag.
For further thoughts and discussions on the new FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.