This article is part of our Setting the Table series.
Each week when we set our fantasy lineups, we're aiming to score the dream team. And for most of us, that's all it is: a dream. With so many combinations of players, particularly with the ability to change formations, the odds of landing the perfect squad are harder than winning Powerball. And yet, there we are every Saturday convinced that we've done it: we've picked the perfect team to bring us Fantasy Premier League glory.Of course, the Premier League, and sports in general, don't work that way. Fluke performances happen, the best players have off days or the clear-cut top goalkeeper gets thrown out in the 52nd minute for a careless tackle that will force him to miss next week's game. For example.
There has been a ton of preseason talk about finding differential picks, players who will score points for your team and not many others. It's also a fundamental DFS strategy. It's the biggest argument against choosing Eden Hazard, though most people didn't take that advice, as he was 56.2 percent owned in the Premier League's official game.
And how did Hazard do in Gameweek 1? He scored two points, "earned" for playing more than 60 minutes. That's not exactly the return fantasy players were hoping for after plunking down £11.5m for the Chelsea midfielder.
Yaya Toure was the highest-scoring player in FPL thanks to his two-goal, clean-sheet effort against West Brom. As I mentioned on Twitter, Toure was massively underrated in preseason rankings and drafts. And don't get me wrong, I was absolutely one of them. Toure was our 12th ranked midfielder heading into the season (I had him 18th) and 20th overall (I inexplicably had him 34th). It's obvious to see now that last summer's World Cup and then the Africa Cup of Nations took a toll on his fantasy output last season, and I clearly let it get to me in my rankings. I realize it's just one game and that we shouldn't get too overwhelmed by a singular performance, but I am taking it as an opportunity to admit I was too low on Toure this season.
Here's the FPL Gameweek 1 Dream Team:
The 20 highest scoring players in FPL Gameweek 1 scored at least eight points, and only three were more than 10 percent owned: Vincent Kompany (14 points, 12.5 percent owned), Yohan Cabaye (10 points, 10.5 percent owned) and Philippe Coutinho (10 points, 15.6 percent). Coutinho owners understandably think they should get extra credit for this long-range, match-winning effort:
And while three players on the dream team were more than 10 percent owned, nine were under five percent owned and five were under two percent.
| Gameweek 1 Top FPL Scorers | |||||
| Player | Team | Position | % Selected | Price | Points |
| Yaya Touré | MCI | MID | 6.7 | £8.5 | 16 |
| Marc Albrighton | LEI | MID | 1.9 | £5.0 | 15 |
| Riyad Mahrez | LEI | MID | 5.7 | £5.5 | 15 |
| Vincent Kompany | MCI | DEF | 12.6 | £6.0 | 14 |
| Arouna Koné | EVE | FWD | 2.4 | £5.0 | 11 |
| Joe Gomez | LIV | DEF | 5.3 | £4.5 | 11 |
| Adrián | WHU | GKP | 5.3 | £5.0 | 11 |
| Yohan Cabaye | CRY | MID | 10.5 | £6.5 | 10 |
| Philippe Coutinho | LIV | MID | 15.6 | £8.0 | 10 |
| Andre Ayew | SWA | MID | 4.3 | £7.0 | 10 |
| Jordan Amavi | AVL | DEF | 1.3 | £5.0 | 9 |
| Damien Delaney | CRY | DEF | 1.9 | £4.5 | 9 |
| Ross Barkley | EVE | MID | 4.5 | £6.5 | 9 |
| Chris Smalling | MUN | DEF | 6.1 | £6.0 | 9 |
| Papiss Cissé | NEW | FWD | 2.4 | £6.5 | 9 |
| Cheikou Kouyaté | WHU | MID | 1.0 | £5.5 | 9 |
Gameweek 1 was really poor for the highest-owned players, with Nathaniel Clyne earning the most points of all players who were selected by at least 20 percent of fantasy managers. Unfortunately, he scored only seven points, which was more than double of all but one player in that ownership range. And the worst performer? Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois, who returned minus-2 points thanks to his 52nd-minute red card.
| Gameweek 1 Scores for Highest Owned Players | |||||
| Player | Team | Position | % Selected | Price | Points |
| Eden Hazard | CHE | MID | 56.20 | £11.5 | 2 |
| Christian Benteke | LIV | FWD | 42.10 | £8.5 | 2 |
| Wayne Rooney | MUN | FWD | 41.80 | £10.5 | 5 |
| Nathanial Clyne | LIV | DEF | 41.40 | £5.5 | 7 |
| Harry Kane | TOT | FWD | 37.30 | £9.5 | 2 |
| Petr Cech | ARS | GKP | 35.40 | £5.5 | 1 |
| Branislav Ivanovic | CHE | DEF | 32.70 | £7.0 | 1 |
| Phil Jagielka | EVE | DEF | 24.60 | £5.5 | 1 |
| Memphis Depay | MUN | MID | 24.50 | £8.5 | 3 |
| Jordan Henderson | LIV | MID | 22.80 | £7.0 | 3 |
| Jose Fonte | SOU | DEF | 22.40 | £5.5 | 0 |
| Thibaut Courtois | CHE | GKP | 21.70 | £5.5 | -2 |
| Raheem Sterling | MCI | MID | 21.40 | £9.0 | 3 |
| Santi Cazorla | ARS | MID | 20.10 | £8.5 | 2 |
Scoring rules in fantasy games will obviously result in different outcomes for the top performers. In Togga's Perfect XI game, which uses the standard Togga scoring, Toure (24 points) was tied with Jamie Vardy, Santi Cazorla and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for the fifth highest scoring players, trailing Marc Albrighton (46), Riyad Mahrez (41), Dusan Tadic (31) and Aleksandar Kolarov (26).
Here's the full Perfect XI from Gameweek 1:
I understand the fun in getting fantasy points for more than just goals, but I find it hard to accept that Albrighton was nearly twice as good as Toure in their respective matches. Then again, we know the rules going in, so we've got to adjust and attack.
I'm also still trying to figure out if the Leicester-Sunderland result taught us more about the Foxes or the Black Cats.
