The Premier League season kicked off with a full slate of games over the weekend. There were some notable results, including the defending champion Leicester City dropping a 2-1 loss to Hull City, Liverpool coming out on top in a 4-3 win over Arsenal. Meanwhile, Manchester United and Manchester City both took care of business as expected with opening wins over Bournemouth and Sunderland respectively. Here is a look at the top individual performances by position in EPL fantasy this past weekend.
GK: Ben Foster, West Brom
Foster delivered one of the two clean sheet victories in the opening week of the Premier League season with four saves to preserve a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. It was the perfect start for a West Brom side that is looking to improve on last year’s record. Foster’s score was just enough to edge out Swansea’s Lukasz Fabianski and Liverpool’s Simon Mignolet for the top EPL fantasy goalkeeper honors. West Brom was just one of six teams that earned the full three points this weekend, which means they’re in a very early tie for first place.
Honorable Mention: Lukasz Fabianski, Swansea; Simon Mignolet, Liverpool
D: Stephen Kingsley, Swansea
Fabianski’s three saves left him one stop short of matching Foster for the best EPL fantasy score of the weekend at the goalkeeper position, but Swansea did have one player earn top honors in their defender Kingsley. The 22-year-old was all over the pitch for Swansea in a 1-0 victory over Burnley and a big reason why they managed to hold on for the clean sheet to earn an important three points. Based on early tiebreakers, Swansea is in fifth-place in the standings due to tiebreakers, but also tied with the other five teams for first place.
Honorable Mention: Adam Smith, Bournemouth; Gareth McAuley, West Brom; Calum Chambers, Arsenal
M: Philippe Coutinho, Liverpool
Liverpool delivered with four goals in a 4-3 win over Arsenal in its opener and Coutinho was clearly their best player as he scored two goals. He finished with three shots on target in the win. The Reds will rely on Coutinho to step up and provide an even greater impact at the offensive end of the pitch this season and he is certainly off to a quality start after striking twice in their opener. The four goals scored by Liverpool were the high of the week as only four other teams even surpassed the one-goal mark. We’ll see if they can keep this up.
M: Adam Lallana, Liverpool
It should be no surprise that Liverpool is well represented on this list as the highest scoring team of the opening weekend. Lallana delivered the perfect compliment for the Reds’ 1-2 punch in the midfield. Lallana registered a goal and an assist in the 4-3 victory to barely edge out Manchester United’s Anthony Martial and Swansea’s Leroy Fer for the second-best EPL fantasy score of the weekend at the position.
Honorable Mention: Anthony Martial, Manchester United; Leroy Fer, Swansea; Ross Barkley, Everton
F: Sergio Aguero, Manchester City
Aguero produced the best fantasy score of the weekend up front thanks in big part to the penalty kick goal to open the scoring in Manchester City’s 2-1 win over Sunderland. Aguero finished the game with a total of six shots on target as City got off to the perfect start to its Premier League campaign.
F: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Manchester United
Ibrahimovic had the perfect debut for United, scoring a goal on one of his three shots in a 3-1 win over Bournemouth. Ibrahimovic will be relied on to provide a lethal scoring punch for United this season and he certainly got off on the right foot as one of the top Premier League performers at the forward position on the opening weekend. While Liverpool had the most tallies of the week, Manchester United was in second with three (Arsenal also scored three goals in their debut). Two other teams (Manchester City and Hull City) scored a pair of goals while everyone else only managed one marker.
Honorable Mention: Alvaro Negredo, Middlesbrough; Adame Diomande, Hull City; Jermain Defoe, Sunderland
