That was a crazy week 1. So crazy, that we have to be careful in how we handicap the coming weeks and pivot our thinking in a timely fashion when the water finds its level. 2 red cards for Chelsea left them reeling, even though they almost tied it late in the contest (if it weren’t for Morata blocking Alonso’s shot…). This will leave them thin going into a tough battle with Tottenham. Elsewhere we saw 10 clean sheets (not typical) and an overall wild first weekend.

Again, we have a 6 game slate on Saturday and a 2 gamer on Sunday. This season, our VIP Team Sheets will include the minor slates. That’s in addition to focus in our #soccer-talk slack channel. This is a good time to pause and tell you that if you are not part of the DFS Army, you are not maximizing your potential for DFS success. While I hold down the soccer aspect of things, the big draw this fall is, of course, NFL. In honor of the NFL returning, check out what we got going on.

Get Your First Month of VIP Membership Free

If you have been thinking of joining the DFS Army team but aren’t quite sure – this is your chance to get a month of free membership ($29 Value). Just sign up for a new account and make your initial deposit of $20 or more on any of the following sites. You must use the links below to qualify:

DRAFT

Draftkings

Fanduel

Fantasy Draft

Boom Fantasy

Each of these links includes the latest and best promotional offers from the sites listed. Most have a deposit match rake back offer and some number of free entries to various contests for new depositors. I’m not detailing them above because they change on occasion. Just know they are juiced up with the best current promotions. We also give all of our new members links to download two Daily Fantasy Football full length strategy books which you will have access to as well.

**Remember these must be NEW depositing accounts via the above links. Existing accounts are not eligible for the free month.

In order to qualify for the free month of DFS Army Membership (This applies to current DFS Army Members as well) you simply click through one of the links above and set up a new depositing account on that site. Then email us at [email protected] with the site you registered for and the username you chose. We will get back to you with a code for a free month of DFS Army VIP membership. It’s that simple.

DFS Army VIP Membership – Limited time offer

We are rolling out a pre-season special for the month of August. My first suggestion is to take advantage of one or more of the free month offers above. I’d rather you put some cash in your bankroll rather than giving it to us up front. If you already have existing DFS accounts or just don’t want to add any new ones – simply go to DFS Army VIP Membership Registration – and use promo code: PRESEASON to get 20% off your monthly membership. Remember that our VIP memberships include coverage for all sports and your 20% discount locks in for as long as you remain a member.

Register For DFS Army VIP Membership

On to Gameweek 2!

Saturday’s Key Matches

Liverpool v Crystal Palace

What we learned last week from these two teams is that Palace has a long way to go to improve their overall play and Liverpool still concede too many goals. The addition of Fosu-Mensah looks to be a great one but they are still weak overall. We will want to attack the opposite side of the field. That makes me want to look at Sadio Mane. Everyone is gaga over Salah with his assist and goal and firmino now taking pens, but Mane is still the energizer for this squad and there is less opposition in his way. Just make sure to check the lineup because Liverpool played midweek in champions league qualifiers, so we could see some rotation.

Crystal Palace lost Zaha for the foreseeable future, and, while it is a huge loss, they have enough to make a small amount of noise this week. I don’t think they have a shot of winning but I could see them scoring a goal. If they do score a goal it’s probably gonna be Christian Benteke on the end of a set piece. Palace has a lot of guys who can play a service ball but not a lot of goal scorers. They should be a little one-dimensional with Zaha on the shelf.

Bournemouth v Watford

Bournemouth is an exciting team to watch at the friendly confines of Vitality Stadium. Their style of play at home produces goals. It can yield them, at times, too. The books have this game at 2.5 goals and I am on the over. Ryan Fraser looks like a solid play for you DK players, as he should get a decent number of open play crosses and some corners. If Jermain Defoe is back, we could see a decent GPP performance out of him.

On the other side of the ball, I think Watford is going to come out in a 433. They got a draw last week and this is, by default, a more winnable game. This was their best formation last year. There is word that Andre Gray and Troy Deeney are in contention to start, so there is some value here but a lot is unknown at this time. We will revisit this in Slack.

Best of the Rest

Here are 3 plays that I like outside of the aforementioned matches.

Sam Vokes, FWD – Can you say sieve? Only 2 teams allowed more goals on the road from open play last year. We saw Vokes get hot at the end of last year and it looks like he is picking up where he left off.

Riyad Mahrez, MID – Brighton struggles with long shots and Mahrez is on display for his future team.

Maya Yoshida, DEF – Much improved since Van Dijk was suspended and then hurt. Southampton look to get a lot of possession and that mean attacking capable center backs can make runs into the box. He is pretty cheap on Fanduel.

These are just a few of the plays I like from the Saturday Slate. You can find the remainder of my picks in our slack chat and on our VIP Team Sheets, as well as picks from the Sunday slate.

Between the Sticks

Here are my top 3 choices for Goalkeeper this week.

Tom Heaton, BUR – Burnley turns in good defensive performances at home and they allowed 15.6 shots against.

Heurelho Gomes, WAT – He will see a lot of shots. Watford allows 15.6 a game on the road. That’s a lot of saves and saves are paramount.

Jack Butland, STK – Last week, Arsenal had 10 shots on goal.

Remember that no matter who you choose to roster, you want to evaluate their floor, especially for your core guys. On DK, you want guys who shoot and guys who cross, even better if they do both. On Fanduel, you have so many ways to build but the most stable players are ones who are involved in the middle of the pitch tackling and intercepting, as well as defenders who make clearances. Only shots on goal count for Fanduel, so we want guys who shoot but it is a rather variable stat game to game. Lastly, and this is paramount, be available an hour before lock! You don’t want to spend the money only to find your high price midfielder is on the bench.

Remember to join us in slack. Good luck!