Premier League 2020/21: FPL Gameweek 8 Fantasy Forecast
Ahead of each Gameweek in the Premier League, The Hype Train's team, Robert Austin, Sam Austin and Phil Jones, duel for FPL and league supremacy in predicting Premier League scores, as well as going head to head in picking a Scout Picks squad for each round of games. With the 2020/21 Premier League season starting tomorrow, we provide our Gameweek Forecast predictions, speculating how we think the first round of games will be played out. Welcome to the Forecast. All aboard.
Premier League 2020/21: Gameweek 8 Fixtures
Friday's 4pm deadline kicks off with Brighton hosting Burnley on the south coast, before a spread out fixture list that ends with Man City taking on Liverpool, and Arsenal rounding out the Gameweek at The Emirates against Aston Villa.
Premier League 2020/21: FPL Gameweek ?? Forecast
Enjoy our FPL Forecast article, with each of our team forecasting how we think the Premier League will shape up this upcoming Gameweek. If you agree or want to challenge us on our point of view, get in touch with us on our main Twitter account, @RealHypeTrain.
Fixture Predictions: Gameweek 8
Brighton 2-1 Burnley
Southampton 1-0 Newcastle
Everton 3-1 Man United
Crystal Palace 0-0 Leeds
Chelsea 0-0 Sheffield United
West Ham 2-1 Fulham
West Brom 0-4 Spurs
Leicester 3-1 Wolves
Man City 0-2 Liverpool
Arsenal 1-1 Aston Villa
FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 8
Who are the teams to look out for and avoid?:
Liverpool (Watch): After losing Virgil van Dijk, the young duo of Nathaniel Phillips and Rhys Williams have stepped up to fill the void. Man City are all over the place at the moment, but with Jota in the form of his life, next to an in-form Salah and Mane, I can see Liverpool avenging their big loss at the Etihad last season the game after they won the league.
Leicester (Watch): The Foxes have been scoring lots of goals lately, and they are wining lots of games too. This is the first game in a tough run for Wolves, but I can see Leicester edging this fixture.
Arsenal (Avoid): The starting eleven for Arsenal in the league struggles to get goals, and Villa are in good form to start the season. I just got a hunch this will be a tough game to call.
Man United (Avoid): Yeah, I really don’t need to explain this one. Manchester United are in absolutely no form at all. Regardless of the competition, I don’t favour them to compete.
FPL Gameweek 8 – FPL Differential Picks:
BHA/BUR: Neal Maupay (BHA, FWD, £6.5mil, 5.0% ownership)
SOU/NEW: Jannik Vestergaard (SOU, DEF, £4.6mil, 5.9% ownership)
EVE/MUN: Robin Olsen (EVE, GK, £4.5mil, 0.1% ownership)
CRY/LEE: Patrick van Aanholt (CRY, DEF, £5.4mil, 0.4% ownership)
CHE/SHU: Hakim Ziyech (CHE, MID, £8.0mil, 7.8% ownership)
WHU/FUL: Sebastien Haller (WHU, FWD, £6.1mil, 0.3% ownership)
WBA/TOT: Toby Alderweireld (TOT, DEF, £5.4mil, 1.8% ownership)
LEI/WOL: Harvey Barnes (LEI, MID, £6.9mil, 4.3% ownership)
MCI/LIV: Diogo Jota (LIV, MID, £6.4mil, 7.0% ownership)
ARS/AVL: Kieran Tierney (ARS, DEF, £5.4mil, 5.4% ownership)
Differential Captain: Hakim Ziyech (Chelsea)
Chelsea have been awaiting a long list of injuries to clear up, and the longest one over the summer has been Ziyech who arrived from Ajax in the summer. In his full debut the winger grabbed a goal and an assist against Burnley, and Chelsea turn to a similar team in this weekends game…Sheffield United. A defensive unit that puts men behind the ball, a game which would benefit a player like Ziyech who can work in tight spaces. Ziyech will also be on a lot of set pieces, and as another part of the jigsaw fits into Lampard’s team, it could mean more goals for the Blues as he continues a strong start to life in a Chelsea shirt.
FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 8
Formation: 3-4-3
Starting 11
GK: Hugo Lloris (TOT)
DEF: Ben Chilwell (CHE)
DEF: Jannik Vestergaard (SOU)
DEF: Trent Alexander-Arnold (LIV)
MID: Hakim Ziyech (CHE)
MID: Diogo Jota (LIV)
MID: Mohamad Salah (LIV)
MID: Hueng-Min Son (TOT) - (VC)
FOR: Timo Werner (CHE)
FOR: Harry Kane (TOT) - (C)
FOR: Jamie Vardy (LEI)
Substitutes
GK: Alex McCarthy (SOU)
MID: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (ARS)
DEF: Kieran Tierney (ARS)
DEF: Gabriel (ARS)
Fixture Predictions: Gameweek 8
Brighton 1-0 Burnley
Southampton 2-0 Newcastle
Everton 3-1 Man United
Crystal Palace 1-2 Leeds
Chelsea 3-0 Sheffield United
West Ham 2-0 Fulham
West Brom 1-4 Spurs
Leicester 3-2 Wolves
Man City 3-1 Liverpool
Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa
FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 8
Formation: 3-4-3
Starting 11
GK: Edouard Mendy
DEF: Ben Chilwell
DEF: Tariq Lamptey
DEF: Hector Bellerin
MID: Heung Min Son (VC)
MID: Wilfred Zaha
MID: James Ward-Prowse
MID: Kevin De Bruyne
FOR: Timo Werner
FOR: Harry Kane (C)
FOR: Jamie Vardy
Substitutes
GK: Alex Mccarthy
MID: Mo Salah
DEF: Kyle Walker-Peters
DEF: Matt Doherty
Fixture Predictions: Gameweek 8
Brighton 1-1 Burnley
Southampton 2-1 Newcastle
Everton 1-1 Man United
Crystal Palace 2-1 Leeds
Chelsea 2-0 Sheffield United
West Ham 1-2 Fulham
West Brom 0-3 Spurs
Leicester 0-1 Wolves
Man City 1-2 Liverpool
Arsenal 3-1 Aston Villa
FPL Forecasting: Gameweek 8
Top FPL player targets this weekend:
I’m a Romain Saiss owner, a Tyrone Mings owner and a Tyrick Mitchell owner, so a new defender was on the shopping list. I’ve opted for Kurt Zouma to double down on Chelsea for the week. The Frenchman has scored a trio of goals and is the best defender in FPL
Moving forward, Man City have a good run of fixtures so it might be worth investing in a Ruben Dias or Ederson to set and forget.
Who are the teams to look out for and avoid?:
Fulham (Watch): A good win against West Brom for Fulham, combined with a West Ham side who many would fancy, can only equal one thing. A shock is on the cards, especially as Scott Parker’s side look half-decent going forward.
Liverpool (Watch): Man City keep spending money on defenders, but it is higher up the pitch that needs some attention. KDB is back in the squad and was at his influential best against Sheffield United, but aside from that City look a little soft going forward. Liverpool have plenty of in-form attacking options and should find themselves with the chances they need to put City to bed. Jota in particular is in a great purple patch and has taken on the burden of scoring the goals that Roberto Firmino has failed to do over the past year.
Wolves (Watch): I imagine a tight contest between Wolves and Leicester at the King Power and it might flip by a goal either way. Given that Leicester have had Europa League duty, putting Braga to the sword in a good performance, I’m going for a compact Wolves side to snatch a win.
Spurs (Watch): The obvious picks, both for captaincy, and in general. The only drawback is the early kick-off on Sunday, a notorious timeslot that can limit the number of goals – though, this season hasn’t exactly been normal.
Aston Villa (Avoid): From beating Liverpool 7-2 at home, to conceding 7 goals in 2 games, both in troubling losses. Villa are back.
Everton & Man United (Cautious): Saturday’s early kick-off might be a tale of two sides cancelling one another out. I’d love for DCL to prove me wrong, as members of my football team keep making me aware of, but he can’t score every week, can he?
Chelsea (Watch): The infamous eye-test has passed on Chelsea’s defence since Mendy’s arrival. A home tie against Sheffield United should mark a 4th consecutive clean sheet in the Premier League. I stress the word *should* until Rhian Brewster opens the scoring in the second minute.
Leeds (Avoid): Phil keeps telling me and Sam that Leeds have been competitive in every single fixture they’ve played this season, but I’m not buying the doctrine that this Leeds team is all that (yet). How can you go from winning 3-0 away at an Aston Villa side, to losing 4-1 at home to Leicester? What I’m not sold on most is that they’re heavy favourites for a trip to Crystal Palace. Roy Hodgson is a master tactician that knows how to get results against big teams when nobody expects it.
Gameweek 8 - FPL Captaincy Picks:
Essential: Harry Kane (TOT)
Alternative: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (ARS)
Differential: Che Adams (SOU)
Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son will likely be the main captain and vice-captain selections. Timo Werner and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are on the outside looking in, whilst Mo Salah’s form probably warrants some form of attention, even away at Man City. There’s truly not a lot else out there for contention, so please just keep your selections simple.
Other Gameweek Comments:
We are now on the eve of the second international break of the season, so it’s time to keep your transfers at hand. Covid is massively infectious on flighted transport, so it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see a lot of international players catch the bug… It’s just my personal opinion, but I’d scrap international friendlies or tournaments like the Nations League that required air transport. It’s just not worth the health hazards.
It might be time to scale back and have more localised tournaments between countries likes Wales/England/Scotland, in Scandinavia, central Europe and so on, if anything was going to be arranged. It’s what they’ve done in China and MLS in America, which are both continent sized countries, so it can work over here.
Regarding this Gameweek from an FPL perspective, I’m not predicting a high-scoring week due to Liverpool’s game at City, as well as Wolves trip to Leicester, and a barrage of defensively minded mid-table competing at home.
FPL Scout Picks: Gameweek 8
Formation: 3-4-3
Starting 11
GK: Edouard Mendy (CHE)
DEF: Kurt Zouma (CHE)
DEF: Hector Bellerin (ARS)
DEF: Trent Alexander-Arnold (LIV)
MID: Heung-Min Son (TOT)
MID: Mohamed Salah (LIV) – (VC)
MID: Wilfried Zaha (CRY)
MID: Diogo Jota (LIV)
FOR: Harry Kane (TOT) - (C)
FOR: Raul Jimenez (WOL)
FOR: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (EVE)
Substitutes
GK: Robert Sánchez (BHA)
MID: James Ward-Prowse (SOU)
DEF: Jannik Vestergaard (SOU)
DEF: Max Kilman (WOL)
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The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in Fantasy sports reporting, starting with Fantasy Premier League (FPL), before expanding to MLS Fantasy coverage in 2018.
We pride ourselves in providing beautiful graphics, statistics, in-depth analytical reporting and free weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb rankings tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review games, live sport, and professional wrestling.
In 2019, Hype Train Football Club was formed, becoming the first Fantasy Football website to take to the field. HTFC is a socially active team across social and web channels, providing regular match highlights, match reports, comprehensive player statistics and unique player profiles. We won both Goal of the Season Awards in the Berkshire and County FA regions, with Callum Parr-Jones winning the Berks & Bucks FA award, whilst Martin King won the PlaySport UK award.
The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog' in 2016 by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), and were again shortlisted as a finalist in 2019 in the 'Best Fantasy Football Blog' category.
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All aboard.
